Musik & Ästhetik, 1998, Jg. 2, Ausgabe 8

Beyond the principle of identity. Morton Feldman´s »Neither«

When it comes to putting Morton Feldman´s Neither into words the »Beckett Opera« is often mentioned. However just as little as Samuel Beckett´s underlying poem is a libretto does Feldman´s composition correspond to the conventions of the musical theater: a piece without action without drama and without the vocal artistry usually found in opera yet at the same time a highly sophisticated creation in which a limited inventory of tones is broken down into a spectrum of nuances in sound. What establishes the connection between text and music what unifies the writer with the composer therefore is more likely the attitude towards artistic practice: it is not creating narrative or expressive contents that is decisive for Beckett and Feldman but rather working with their own material. More precisely it is the patient plumbing of the depths the turning of the building blocks of form this way and that which is aimed at differentiation and in its insistence has something of a ritual about it. With this »micrological« analysis of the material the artist appears no longer as the creator of sensory figures but as the organizer and observer of the form process. So the result is no longer a »meaningful form« (Sinngestalt) but an »open work of art« as Umberto Eco described it: a non-hierarchical structure that does not reach perfection until it enters the consciousness of the recipient and that strictly speaking has just as many realizations as receptions.

Beethoven´s »Große Fuge«. Multiperspectivity in his late works

The Große Fuge is like none other of Beethoven´s works and like none other of his late works in that this singlemovement string quartet with its latent four-movement idea ties together the four central compositional aspects of his musical thinking: sonata development (Durchführung) variation and fugue. These four components are implemented in Op.133 in continuously new perspectives and constellations in a uniquely integral form of the strictest shaping of the monothematic material one which was kept to a minimum. This complex process has been reconstructed in detailed analyses the formal ambivalences and strategies necessary for its creation clarified and their meaning for a semantic interpretation of the composition worked out. At the same time the Große Fuge has been related to four other of Beethoven´s late works: to the fugues in the piano sonatas Op. 101 106 and 110 as well as the slow movement of the string quartet Op.127 all of which reveal these four aspects in more individual manners and thus are capable of elucidating the compositional context of the Große Fuge.

Pop versus art. The music in Michelangelo Antonioni´s »Blow up«

Herbie Hancock composed the music to Michelangelo Antonioni´s film Blow up (1966). Antonioni employed the music not as an additive commentary but rather in connection with the other elements of his cinematic language as an equal dramatic means of expression. The examination of the music opens the direct access to the main themes of the film. Such examination shows first of all that Blow up is in no way an homage to pop culture as is generally assumed. On the contrary: Antonioni questions in the most critical manner the lifestyle and aesthetic of the pop art movement and opposes them with his own conception of art.

Challenging the limits and changing contexts. On the theory of John Cage´s experimental musical theater

In John Cage´s experimental musical theater the theatrical dimensions of music are no longer envisaged (as is the case in composition for opera) in an imaginative metaphorical scenario and translated by means of an intersemiotic transformation into a system of theatrical symbols. The aesthetic act of playing is divided in that the immediate act of the sound/action (as an instrumental action) emancipates itself from its purpose: as an independent non-mimetic theatrical action and as an autonomous »body text« (Körpertext) of a performer. Therefore it is no longer possible to mentally visualize or imagine Cage´s musical theater by reading the score. The radical discrepancy between composition (the written text) and performance distances itself from the tradition of a reproductive musical performance practice in that the independent status of the instrumental musical act is removed and the musical act is defined as a theatrical act and as the constitution of autonomous »body texts« (Körpertexte). This process of removal which affects a change of context and results in theater is the decisive factor that has made it possible for limit-challenging concepts of scenic music instrumental theater and experimental musical theater to develop since the late 1950s and above all since the 1960s. This change of context modified not only the musical theater but also the face of new music especially its compositional structures. It also influenced the choice of the material and the methods of notation.

Sonic Death? (. . . on the contrary). – Analytical comments on three compositions by Wolfram Schurig

On the basis of three pieces Wolfram Schurig´s relatively recent compositional works are examined: CRWTH for viola (1993) Mauerwerk a sextet for brass instruments (1994) and hot powdery snow / chamba noiz / wet covas / – n – / sonic death for string quartet (1994-95). In the piece for viola the performance technique itself is made the subject of the polyphonization: with the help of complex graphic notation which includes tabulature notation for the production of microtonal nuances the sound production becomes the driving force of the musical form in which the musical gestures find themselves in a permanent process of detachment and »merging« (Ineinander). Mauerwerk does without the division of sound production and concentrates on a unified tonal image and a form with clear subdivisions. The string quartet on the other hand takes up again the shaping of form through polyphonized processes in order to radicalize them: segments with »scordatierten « harmonics and with graphic notation are played off against one another. In all three pieces it is shown how »Poesie« (Schumann) and constructive intelligence can create a personally stylistic unity.

Vers une musicologie analytique. Music theory and musicology in Italy

Music theory and musical analysis led a shadowy existence in Italy for a long time. Since the 1980s Italian music theory has developed with great intensity as can be seen from the numerous music theoretical publications congresses and journals. Nevertheless the existence of the subject on an institutional basis is still not secured: for a long time conservatories and universities balked at theoretical reflection. The responsibility for this lies on the one hand with the idealistic tradition Italy has in its orientation on literary criticism and histiography and on the other hand with the organization and history of the Italian system of musical education which this author examines critically. He explains that it is just this lack of tradition of Italian music analysis that offers the opportunity to realize a reconciliation between »technicistic« (technizistischer) systematics and the hermeneutics which is separated from objects. Furthermore the paves the way for a movement towards a musicologie analytique that will end up neither in the sectarian isolation of Music Theory nor in the blind alley of historical musicology that disregarded inherently problematic contents.

Lachenmann´s »Allegro sostenuto«. A comparative interpretive analysis

Helmut Lachenmann´s chamber music composition Allegro sostenuto for clarinet/bass clarinet violoncello and piano (1988-89) is now available on three CD recordings. In this interpretive analysis these recordings are examined in detail and compared with one another on the basis of the analyzed score and with explanations about the non-conventional performance technique which characterizes Lachenmann´s styles. The individual achievements of the performer in each of the recordings is discussed as well as the overall sound not least of all because the aesthetic conception of the work calls for a superordinate »super instrument.« Methodically the analysis starts with very detailed observations of sound phenomena which in Lachenmann´s music and its concentration on their micro-»aesthetics« has lasting consequences on larger formal contexts so that even the smallest technical imprecisions in performance can trigger off far-reaching consequences. Comments on the sound engineering and acoustics constitute the conclusion of the analysis.