Intra-active soundings : becoming-woman, becoming-minor

The three chapters in encounter Deleuzian thought in three distinct ways. Part II Lochhead directs Deleuze's philosophical thought about Francis Bacon toward a critical approach to music, focusing on music's sounding as the production of sensation. Macarthur addresses issues of a feminist approach to compositional identity from the Deleuzian perspectives of becoming and becoming-woman. Much as Deleuze re-read earlier philosophers, Stevenson rereads the writings of a mid-twentieth-century composer's thinking about music, mining them for their Deleuzian implications. All three chapters address the music of composers who assume a minoritarian position in the larger field of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Western classical music: Lochhead and Macarthur address the music of living women; and Stevenson addresses the musical thinking of a man positioned as a technician. This confluence of Deleuzian thought in the context of minoritarian music, thought and creators raises questions about the ethical implications and potentials not only of Deleuze's philosophy but also of the new thought it has produced. This chapter engages the idea of becoming-woman as a central" and sometimes problematic" concept of Deleuzian thought while also addressing the becomings of women" the composers and the two authors. It also extends these observations to the concept of becoming-minoritarian in light of an ethics of thinking about music. In order to address these various matters, we have staged this chapter in terms of our personal scholarly narratives. Each of us recounts our paths to writing about composers who are women and about our Deleuzean encounters. Through these two narratives we hope to demonstrate how Deleuzian philosophy itself produces diverse modes of thought which through their intra-actions proliferate into new thought. First, Macarthur relates her path toward the chapter, 'Meeting the Composer Halfway: Which Anne Boyd?'. Lochhead then relates hers toward the chapter 'Chaotic Mappings: On the Ground With Music', and finally we consider the minoritarian implications of Stevenson's 'Schaeffer's Sound Effects'.