Well at some stage my childhood love of Looney Tunes had to emerge, and come up for discussion so here we are…
The Rabbit of Seville
“[Music] takes leave of the earth, as much in order to drop us into a black hole as to open us up to a cosmo” (Deleuze and Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus, 348 )
D & G’s argument is music has the capacity to rupture all the codes, which trap us, thus opening our prehension beyond the code. However, it is also one of the most heavily signified, categorized and bounded mediums. I don’t think there is a possibility for free music, and I’m going to use an anecdote below to discuss why.
the fabulous episode above, is a parody of The Barber of Selville, a 19th century opera by Gioachino Rossini. Now I’m sure someone has already written on parody in Looney Tunes, so I won’t concern myself with that today. My question is what happens if our only encounter with this music is through the form of parody. The first time I heard the Rossini’s score was during this episode. Thus whenever I hear the those few notes being plucked, the image of Bugs bunny massaging Elmer Fudd’s head is immediately invoked. I would suggest the only truly free music, would be what we compose ourselves, and encounter as individuals.
We rarely ever encounter anything before it has been mediated, or transposed/appropriated by someone else. Is there a possibility anymore for Deleuze’s idea of cosmos reaching music?
Also how did Bugs Bunny escape the censors! Cross-dressing, murder, and beastiality! It’s pretty insane.
Anyway at the very least enjoy the clip.
