Music of Dada : A Lesson in Intermediality for Our Times

100 years after the Dada soirées rocked the art world, the author investigates the role that music played in the movement. Dada is generally thought of as noisy and unmusical, but The Music of Dada shows that music was at the core of Dada theory and practice. Music (by Schoenberg, Satie and many others) performed on the piano played a central role in the soirées, from the beginnings in Zurich, in 1916, to the end in Paris and Holland, seven years later. The Music of Dada provides a historical analysis of music at Dada events, and asks why accounts of Dada have so consistently ignored music’s vital presence. The answer to that question turns out to explain how music has related to the other arts ever since the days of Dada. The music of Dada is the key to understanding intermediality in our time.

Peter Dayan is Professor of Word and Music Studies at the University of Edinburgh, and Obel Visiting Professor at the University of Aalborg. His publications include Art as Music, Music as Poetry, Poetry as Art, from Whistler to Stravinsky (2011) and Music Writing Literature, from Sand via Debussy to Derrida (2006).