Musik & Ästhetik, 2001, Jg. 5, Ausgabe 19

One piece one form one principle. Three studies on Du Fay

The first study analyzes Du Fay's motet Supremum est which he composed for the peace settlement between the German King and the Pope in 1433. The Study is analyzed with regard to the relationship between word and tone with regard to the very traditional binding nature of the form and with regard to the possibilities the musician has of including his stance toward the theme in his compositions. The second study is an attempt at an »aesthetic of the rondeau« as an essentially conservative miniature form of surprising vitality - a cleverly thought-out system of music-textual superimposition which allows the greatest possible freedom of form within a small framework and demands that freedom be noticed. The third study examines the background and explanatory competences of the altogether overvalued but nevertheless important term »varietas« - still the first markedly aesthetic term in the relevant discussion of the 15th century. Compositional questions are considered as well as those concerning a »motet consciousness « meaning an approach toward the compositional object which remains conscious of the ingredient of the commentating tropical classifying character of its own activity thus of its transitory character in relation to a »more firm« central object (cantus »firmus«). This approach finds its most immediate mode of expression in the moments alluding to the varietas form.

»A pure song of hope.« On the utopian element in Luigi Nono´s music

Luigi Nono ranks among the most prominent artists of political composition in the 20th century. In his works of the 1960s and 1970s in particular Nono´s political stance – his critical view of contemporary history his prosecution of oppression and his hope for a more humane future – became clearly and overtly evident. In his late work one frequently had difficulties to find the language that had become so typical of the determinedly political musician which had previously appeared to be so unambiguous. All too quickly one began to talk of Nono´s ›turn‹ to the private sphere to thoughts that sufficed themselves in music and in the mythical. The present text examines the musical poetry of Luigi Nono across all his creative phases using examples from utopian moments in his works as illustration. It becomes clear that these moments represent a constant element in the artistic work of the composer one which as a brace and continuum of his aesthetics can explain the changes and developments of Nono´s music. The dramaturgy of reality and concrete utopias of oppression and hope of imprisonment and the yearning for freedom as are characteristic of Nono´s works is the central theme that together with his historical thinking runs through Nono´s music and his entire creative work. The search itself the search for transformed societal conditions the search for the opportunities of musical sound and the plumbing of the depths all experience a totally new and exceedingly close connection.

»Music bankers.« On Richard Wagner´s notion of »Jewishness in Music«

This article attempts to make plausible the connection between Wagner´s essay on Jewishness with his writings and his personal situation around 1869 when this text was re-published. At this time Wagner´s anti-capitalistically motivated anti-Semitism was as became apparent in 1850 more strongly concentrated on the sphere of circulation: the artistic analogy to the economic dimension can be found in the realm of musical reproduction. Seen from this perspective Wagner´s influential work On conducting (1869) shows a recognizably anti- Semitic subtext throughout. Wagner´s situation around 1869 is comparable to that of 1850 to the extent that the author – »driven away« from Munich and into Switzerland – believed himself to be cut off from all practical possibilities of influencing the practical reception of his works. Therefore he criticized the performers coming from the Mendelssohn school by indiscriminately labeling them as »Music bankers.« He felt them to be the most influential grouping in German musical life. And he saw in them an allegedly Jewish plot of the musicians against the interpretive style which would be needed as a basis for performing his own music dramas yet would have no chance of creating an aesthetic school of interpretation. Thus Wagner´s anti-Semitism which began to develop as early as 1850 upon the basis of the early works of the young Karl Marx received a second genetic boost through the connection with the rather existential and problematic nature of the aesthetics of interpretation.

Art and institution today. Or: Are institutions skirting artists?

In October 2000 a symposium was organized in Stuttgart by the Akademie Schloß Solitude a center for scholarship recipients from all fields of art on the occasion of its tenth birthday. Co-organizer was the Stuttgart Institute for Foreign Affairs (ifa). The theme of the symposium was »Are institutions skirting artists? On the appropriateness of artistic practice and institutional practice today«. Curators and artists were invited to take part in order to critically investigate the relationship between contemporary art production and its institutions. This essay summarizes the results complements them with similar discussions from the print media and from other artistic localities (Lüneburg Karlsruhe etc.). The result of these discussions is that art institutions are functional provided that they allow themselves to be undermined by art and artists.

Representation and structure in a »Music with pictures«. Reflections on Helmut Lachenmann´s music theater

The central part of this essay is the analysis of two scenes from Lachenmann´s music theater piece Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern (The Little Match Girl). They are analyzed in light of the question of to what extent Lachenmann´s music reacts to a scenic context. Since the composer determines this solely by his text selection the analysis concentrates on the description of the interaction between the metaphorical content of these texts and particular mimetic characteristics of the music. The attempt to present the conveyance of both levels leads to a fundamental problem regarding the notion of metaphor and makes clear that Lachenmann accesses the semantic aspect through structural means. Thus as in his instrumental music an integration of the structural and aural moments of the material is achieved. The human voice proves to be of critical importance in this interaction. Its compositional re-construction as a reflection of the subject can be the starting point for further thoughts which touch upon the expansion of Lachenmann´s ›Hörbühne‹ (sound stage) into a real stage space.