ABSTRACT
This chapter purposes the model is useful insomuch as it can connect the reflective position of Michael Finnissy’s latest period to the musics of his pasts – not least his own compositions. The melodic material is derived from Polish folk music sources, which relates to both Finnissy’s growing up with Polish family friends as well as the attacks directed at Eastern European and specifically Polish people and businesses in the aftermath of the referendum. For all of his mining of musical traditions, it is rather difficult to emplot Finnissy himself within a broad tradition of some sort of art music. From such a perspective, Finnissy’s work is largely in harmony with Cage, insofar that its political content is determined through structural mediation in its creation. Nevertheless, Finnissy utilises means beyond the structuring of the musical text to articulate his political agendas.
