The Musical Legacy of Karlhein Stockhausen
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06_907-140_BkRevs_pp246-287 11/8/17 11:10 AM Page 281 Book Reviews 281 to the composer’s conception of the piece, intended final chapter (“Conclusion: since it is a “diachronic narrative” of Nativity Between Surrealism and Scripture”), which events (ibid.). Conversely, Messiaen’s Vingt is unfortunate because it would have been regards centers on the birth of the eternal highly welcome, given this book’s fascinat- God in time. His “regards” are synchronic in ing viewpoints. nature—a jubilant, “‘timeless’ succession of In spite of the high quality of its insights, stills” (ibid.)—rather than a linear unfold- this book contains unfortunate content and ing of Nativity events. To grasp the compo- copy-editing errors. For example, in his dis- sitional aesthetics of Vingt regards more cussion of Harawi (p. 182), Burton reverses thoroughly, Burton turns to the Catholic the medieval color symbolism that writer Columba Marmion, whose view of Messiaen associated with violet in a 1967 the Nativity is truly more Catholic than that conversation with Claude Samuel (Conver - of Toesca. But Burton notes how much sa tions with Olivier Messiaen, trans. Felix Messiaen added to Marmion’s reading of Aprahamian [London: Stainer and Bell, the Nativity in the latter’s Le Christ dans ses 1976], 20) by stating that reddish violet mystères, while retaining his essential visual (purple) suggests the “Truth of Love” and “gazes” (p. 95). Respecting Trois petites litur- bluish violet (hyacinth) the “Love of gies, Burton probes the depths of the inven- Truth.” Although Burton repeats an error tive collage citation technique characteriz- in the source he cites (Audrey Ekdahl ing its texts, as Messiaen juxtaposes Davidson, Olivier Messiaen and the Tristan different images and phrases from the Myth [Westport, CR: Greenwood, 2001], Bible—interspersed with his own images— 25), this state of affairs reflects the Burton’s to generate a metaphorical rainbow of tendency to depend too much on secondary Scriptural associations (p. 119). Finally, sources. But given the book’s genesis, as Burton suggests how difficult it was for well as its difficult path to publication— Messiaen in the explicitly non-Catholic Burton died in 2008; Roger Nichols edited Chant des déportés “to express the sentiments the book—most of these errors can, and of the collective Moi of the deported” should, be excused; in my opinion, the (p. 125). book’s overall excellent content, expressed Before focusing on the Tristan Trilogy in a highly engaged writing style, overrides and its celebration of secular passion in such concerns. All things considered, this chapter 5, Burton returns to the occupa- book is a superb contribution to the litera- tion years in chapter 4 to look at Visions de ture on Messiaen and a must-read for all l’amen and Ernest Hello’s influence on its parties interested in his music. conception (“Messiaen and Ernest Hello: Vincent P. Benitez Abyss, Alleluia, and Amen [Visions de The Pennsylvania State University l’Amen],” pp. 127–50). What follows is a de- tailed discussion of Hello’s theology and how it helped to shape Messiaen’s work for The Musical Legacy of Karlheinz two pianos, which is not often pursued in Stock hausen: Looking Back and Messiaen scholarship. Chapter 5 (“Agape Forward. Edited by M. J. Grant and and Eros [II]: Messiaen’s ‘Tristan’s Trilogy’ Imke Misch. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, [Harawi, Turangalîla-Symphonie, Cinq 2016. [162 p. ISBN 9783955930684 rechants],” pp. 151–232) is the tome’s (paperback). i22.] longest and weightiest chapter. By 1945, Messiaen (who was by then France’s pre- The recent crop of scholarship on mier Catholic composer) began to write Karlheinz Stockhausen is turning out to be the song cycle known as Harawi, which be- exceptionally abundant. Along with Jerome came the first installment of his “Tristan Kohl’s long-awaited book on the early wind Trilogy” (the other two pieces being the quintet Zeitmasse (Karlheinz Stockhausen: Zeit- Turangalîla-Symphonie and Cinq rechants). masse [Abingdon, U.K.: Routledge, 2017]), Burton dissects the cultural history of the Thomas Ulrich recently published a sizable trilogy, deciphering how Messiaen walked a study of the seven Licht operas (Stockhausens fine line between Agape and Eros in these Zyklus Licht: ein Opernführer [Cologne: compositions, ultimately seeing no contra- Böhlau Verlag, 2017]). Adding to this diction between them in his Catholicism. bounty is this new volume of essays. Its edi- Burton planned but never wrote the book’s tors, Imke Misch and M. J. Grant, have 06_907-140_BkRevs_pp246-287 11/8/17 11:10 AM Page 282 282 Notes, December 2017 themselves published a considerable and ultimately his music has not stood the amount of research on Stockhausen, and test of time as well as that of Stockhausen. Misch has extensive experience working for Even more than these two goals, what set the composer’s foundation in Kürten, Goeyvaerts and Stockhausen “light years” Germany. Their volume, entitled The Musi - apart from their other young European col- cal Legacy of Karlheinz Stockhausen: Looking leagues was their religious fervor (p. 32). Back and Forward, is an uneven but welcome While Stockhausen never abandoned his contribution to the harvest. belief that music could convey a profound A compilation of papers read in 2011 at theological message, the correspondence the Stockhausen Concerts and Courses Kürten seems to indicate that Goeyvaerts was the workshop, the book brings together a ros- more ardent believer of the pair. It would ter of mostly European scholars. The pa- be fascinating to tell the story of the origins pers range considerably in length, depth, of European serialism by fully exploring its and ambition, as did the presentations at theological foundations, but such a history the conference. It is probably for good rea- would almost surely fracture the neat his- son that a considerable amount of time torical narrative that has become all too elapsed between the conference and the customary in textbooks. publication: the papers presented in 2011 An essay by Gustavo Oliveira Alfaix Assis varied across the board, and while certain evaluates the concept of the Einschub in studies underwent major improvements, Stockhausen’s music. This practice intro- others were omitted completely in the pub- duces a spontaneous, unforeseen element lication. Many of the essays are quite short into the music; it is something outside of and present merely tentative beginnings of the original form-plan. Stockhausen used larger research projects. It is worth noting the Einschub to add an element of organi- that if these projects were to be followed cism to the work, in such a way that the mu- through more comprehensively, many sical composition would resemble aspects would surely bear even greater fruit. of a biological system. But Assis undercuts Nevertheless, the volume brings together his claim that Stockhausen’s Einschübe some excellent research. Among the most function “much as ‘chaos’ does in nature” important papers is the first contribution, in the very next text he quotes, in which by Mark Delaere. An expert on the exten- Stockhausen explains that the insertion— sive correspondence between Stockhausen while unplanned—is nevertheless a kind of and Karel Goeyvaerts, which consists of musical event “that had been missing” and about 175 letters written between 1951 and therefore was a “necessary addition to an 1958, Delaere shows how the two young organism” (p. 83). Hermann Conen’s ex- composers shared an enthusiasm for new cellent analysis of the Einschübe in Stock - music and a deep devotion to Catholicism. hausen’s In Freundschaft (Hermann Conen, Among the three principal themes running Formel-Komposition: Zu Karlheinz Stockhausens through the correspondence are “the con- Musik der siebziger Jahre [Mainz: Schott, cept of static music, the quest for absolute 1991], 251–56) shows that while these “ca- purity, and theological justification” denzas” often depart significantly from the (p. 23). Electronics could, in theory, pro- surrounding material, they sometimes con- vide the composers with the means to tain musical paraphrases of the musical produce static music, a kind of sound that context, leading one to conclude that they would be “congruent with the stasis of ab- are not entirely part of a chaotic system. To solute Being” (p. 24). The compositional better describe the Einschub, Assis might quest for “absolute purity” justified the have taken a cue from Leopoldo Siano’s es- use of the sine tone, a strangely disembod- say (“Between Music and Visual Art in the ied sound without any overtones. Unlike 1960s: Mary Bauer meister and Karlheinz Goeyvaerts, Stockhausen soon abandoned Stockhausen”), where we briefly read about use of the sine tone, turning instead to the the notion of alchemy in Stockhausen use of more complex sounds and the fa- (p. 99). Perhaps the Einschub functions mous “insertion,” or Einschub (the focus of partly as a means to dissolve or liquidate another essay in the collection). Goey- formal structures that have governed a vaert’s avoidance of tones other than the composition, until the piece re-forms (or sine wave left him with far fewer options, “coagulates”) back into its more fixed form. 06_907-140_BkRevs_pp246-287 11/8/17 11:10 AM Page 283 Book Reviews 283 Another direction Assis explores in his Stockhausen’s own theoretical writings of attempt to clarify the Einschub is its similar- the 1950s and 1960s influenced Carl ities to surrealist art, but he does not make Dahlhaus’s telling of history in several im- clear how something musical that is “con- portant ways. Rejecting Thomas Kuhn’s sidered to be outside the context” can, like theory of scientific history as an influence surrealist objects, bring “the whole closer to on Dahlhaus, Zagorski instead locates the actual desired result” (p. 84).