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Home , Louis Andriessen, Luca Francesconi, Writing to Vermeer

THE SPACES OF THE IN 'S AND LUCA FRANCESCONI'S QUARTETT

Fabio Monni Freelance based in Malmö, Sweden

Abstract: This paper aims to look inside the operatic works of two living , discovers the strategies behind the use of electroacoustic music into a drama and answer a few questions related to the space that electroacoustic music occupies in a codified instrumental/vocal music language.

Keywords: , Electronics, Space, Louis Andriessen, Luca Francesconi.

Introduction The present paper is not intended to be a systematic study over different uses of the electroacoustic music in lyric , rather it consists in a series of considerations, reflexions from a composer's perspective. These considerations will eventually be personal and subjective. Nevertheless, I will bring music examples to clarify and support the following statements. The paper will start from a generic description of the phenomenon space, it will continue with an overview of the two chosen operas, comment the observed peculiarities and arrive to final conclusions.

A prologue about space Any kind of activity takes place in a specific space. A physical space is where we interact with other people and where we emotionally connect with each other. For musicians space is where we perform and listen to music. It is an inanimate element. Yet it can actively influence us, our mood, the way we think and the way we create. It is able to influence the way we compose music and play it. As Georges Perec listed in his book Espèces d'espaces (1974) space is something that we tend to take for granted, we don't often stop to reflect on its importance. There are many spaces, one for every single activity of our lives. Whatever we decide to use the space for (a room, a field or any other space) this will be devoted to some sort of activity, it will contain some object, it will have some function:

I have several times tried to think of an apartment in which there would be a useless room, absolutely and intentionally useless. […] it would serve for nothing, relate to nothing. For all my efforts, I found it impossible to follow this idea through to the end. Language itself, seemingly, proved unsuited to describing this nothing, this void, as if we could only speak what is full, useful and functional.1

Any activity occurring in a specific place transforms that space into a place dedicated for that particular activity.

Space and music Space is an important matter in music. It has been a main preoccupation for many composers which experimented with different placement of the instruments, as well as explored the sonic characteristics, the acoustic potential of both spaces specifically built for music and pre-existing ones designed for other activities. The technique of cori spezzati refined in Venice during Adrian Willaert's time (XVI century) is a good example of how an already existing building was used in a fine and creative musical way. This stereophonic treatment of the space had as a result the establishment of a composition/performance practice that arrived, after different transformations, to today. From the refinement of this practice and passing through Richard Wagner's reinvention of the setting and the Opera performance in Bayreuth, the space has been treated as something alive, modified, adapted, reinvented following the changes of the aesthetics, the size of the ensembles and the different publics. This interest in space led composers to explore it horizontally – Gruppen (1957) by K. Stockhausen, vertically – Cronaca del luogo (1999) by L. Berio, in depth Voci (1984) L. Berio, surrounding the audience – Persephassa (1969) by I. Xenakis, moving through the space – Fresco (2007) by L. Francesconi, only to mention a few works close to our present time. In addition to physical spaces composers have also related their works to virtual spaces. In Stanze composed by in 2003, the imaginary space lies inside the concept of the composition itself.

Another space often visited by composers is the one of memory. If we define memory as an act of recollection of something previously experienced, and therefore known, the use of past music

1 PEREC, Georges – Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Penguin Classics 1998, Pg.33 inside a newly written composition can be described as an act of memory. This concept can be extended also to the use of sounds that are not produced by a musical instrument or described as music, but are nevertheless part of our listening experience (ex. an ambulance siren). Among these are also sounds from movies, city soundscapes, home noises etc. that are highly characteristics and easily recognizable, even when isolated from their context. Both Quartett and Writing to Vermeer contain many quotes from other compositions and use sounds from recognizable sound-sources.

The space of the electronics The concept of space in the classical music language shows a complexity that is matched, in different ways and bringing new problematics, by the electroacoustic music. The new technologies brought fresh life to the interest over the space of the performance, giving to composers a concrete possibility to explore any kind of not traditional space. The electronics opens windows over different times and places than the one of the performance itself. Its ability to reproduce realistic soundscapes as well as computer generated sounds, to playback instrumental performance and to filter them in real time brings new complexity to the concept of space. The electroacoustic medium is a musical instrument that can easily introduce extramusical elements into the codified language of a classic composition. In opinion the coexistence of these two different languages raised new questions:

[A] sound which has too evident an affinity with the noises of everyday life […], any sound of this kind, with its anecdotal connotations […] becomes completely isolated from its context; it could never be integrated […] Any allusive element breaks up the dialectic of form and morphology and its unyielding incompatibility makes the relating of partial to global structures a problematic task”.2

In other words when we listen to an instrument we tend to concentrate on the musical elements (ex. pitch, dynamic, phrasing etc.), while a sampled everyday-sound may instead drive our attention to the source. This is what Pierre Schaeffer called causal listening:

“listening to a sound in order to gather information about its cause (or source)”.3

When the source is not a musical instrument, it is less easy to bypass the source of the sound and concentrate on its purely sonic characteristics. Somehow, the use of sound sources different than an

2 WISHART, Trevor – On Sonic Art, Harwood Academic Publishers 1985, Pg.129 3 CHION, Michel – L'audio-vision. Son et image au cinéma, Paris, Edition Nathan 1990, Pg.25 classical music instrument, makes the process of abstraction problematic. The absence of the connotations and relationships of the sample with the physical activity that produced it are described as reduced listening:

Pierre Schaeffer gave the name reduced listening to the listening mode that focuses on the traits of the sound itself, independent of its cause and of its meaning.4

To finish there is another category of listening mode which is important to mention: the Semantic listening.

I call semantic listening that which refers to a code or a language to interpret a message: spoken language, of course, as well as Morse and other such codes.5

About Louis Andriessen and Luca Francesconi Despite the twelve years that separate the two productions, with inevitable differences in sound manipulation techniques and electronic instruments, both Andriessen's Writing to Vermeer (1999) and Francesconi's Quartett (2011) exemplify two possible uses of the electronics into a dramatic work. Despite the qualitative differences of the sound samples and the entirely opposite use of them into the opera, both composers gave a strong dramaturgical function to the tape and framed it into specific moments.

Writing to Vermeer (1999) by Louis Andriessen Opera in six scenes for 3 women, 2 children, women's chorus and orchestra. Electronic music inserts by . by .

The opera has a specific place and time in which the events are set: 's household in Delft, May 1672.

Synopsis Vermeer has left his household of women and children in Delft to spend fourteen days in The Hague. The women write to him, six letters from his wife, Catherine Bolnes, six letters from his mother-in-law, Maria Thins, and six letters from his model, Saskia de Vries. They write of domestic

4 Idem Pg.29 5 Idem Pg.28 arrangements, the activities of Vermeer’s children, marriage plans, domestic accidents, but most of all they write to Vermeer to tell him to hurry back home. They miss him, they miss his company, they miss his presence and his affection [...].6

Scheme of the electroacoustic parts of Writing to Vermeer according to the CD published by Nonesuch Records (USA) in 2006.

Scene/Tracks INSERT Timing SAMPLE TYPE

SCENE 1 I 07' 51'' → 08' 20' BELLS SCENE 2 II 05' 58'' → 06' 30'' EXPLOSIONS SCENE 3 ------III 03' 40'' → 04' 10'' OBJECTS UNDER WATER IV 06' 52'' → 07' 42'' LIQUID / WITH ORCHESTRAL CHORDS SCENE 4 V 11' 30'' → 12' 35'' GUN SHOTS, PEOPLE SCREMING, RUNNING STEPS VI 13' 50'' → 16' 25'' SOUNDSCAPE / FROM A BOAT WITH CALM YOUNG VOICES AND LAUGHS

VII 05' 32'' → 06' 15'' METAL SOUNDS / AS SWORD FIGHT SCENE 5 VIII 10' 25'' → 11' 10'' ADHESIVE TAPE, LIQUID AND ORCHESTRAL SOUNDS IX 05' 45'' → 06' 59'' ORCHESTRA CHORDS, QUOTE J. B. LULLY, WATER SCENE 6 X 17' 20'' → to END ORCHESTRA SOUNDS, WATER FLOOD, CHOIR, FINAL EXPLOSION

The listening of the opera reveals that all the various samples are mostly worked, filtered and reassembled, yet the original sound-sources remain well recognizable. Their relation with the drama appears to be direct. They contextualize the events by using characteristic sounds related to the drama. The electroacoustic inserts are often describing and picturing the events and the situations in a cinematic way. They sonically illustrate the dramatic moments by portraying the sounds evoked in the drama. These sounds are often closely related to the situation in a clear and understandable way. The first insert, mentioned as RELIGION in the CD booklet, uses the sound of church bells. This insert starts immediately after two of the characters sing the words despite her religion making the connection between text and music quite clear. While the first three inserts portray each one a single sound material, a sonic event lasting approximately thirty seconds each, the following inserts describe a situation or a series of events which require a longer timing. The insert V illustrates a war situation in a city: we hear the sound of running steps on a stony street, the screams of people in the background, together with shots of old pistols. It is almost a

6 GREENAWAY, Peter – Writing to Vermeer CD booklet, USA, Nonesuch Records 2006 sonic painting and it represents a concrete and realistic situation rather than an abstraction of it. The contextualization of the insert relies on our common memory, on what we know from movies' soundtracks. It functions thanks to previous sonic experiences at the cinema (war scenes, pistol shots, screaming of people etc.) rather than to actual real life experiences. This insert is also peculiar for not being described in the singing, it refers to something happening elsewhere. However, it is easy to relate (specially for Dutch people) the date of the staged events (1672) to the knowledge of historical events, such as the French invasion during the same year. The insert VI is the only one that could be described as a soundscape. While in the other inserts the samples are always filtered and sound as composed, here we hear a plain outdoor recording. The lack of characterization, its natural sound and an apparent absence of a compositional thinking, don't drive the attention away from the live performance. This choice allows Andriessen to superimpose the drama on the electronics and use the latter as a background. It is the only time in the opera where both live performance and tape coexist. The length of this insert differs from the others and riches the two minutes. In the IX insert there is a quote by J. B. Lully. It is the Marche pour la cérémonie des Turcs from Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670). The piece may represent France culture and be related with the French invasion mentioned above. It is very interesting the fact that the piece was written only two years before the French invaded the , so it is contemporary to the real events. The historical contextualization (with its typical instrumental baroque sound) is extremely detailed and it leaves no space for ambiguity.

Quartett (2011) By Luca Francesconi

The opera has a single act, thirteen scenes, and lasts a total of an hour and twenty minutes. Only two characters on stage, a small orchestra in the orchestra pit, a large orchestra and choir off-stage, and electronics (Studio Ircam, Serge Lemouton: live and pre-recorded sounds). 7

"[…] There is a chamber orchestra, agile and quick, that produces an initial perceptive short circuit [...] Then there is an intermediate space, which is the space of dreams, in which the sound begins to become softer. Finally, there is the additional space of 'out there', which is actually beyond the theatre: a large orchestra and a large choir that are elsewhere and that are reproduced in the theatre by technological means thereby creating a different time and space". 8

The second quote is a declaration by Luca Francesconi and it gives a good idea of the importance of the concept of space in Quartett. The space or rather the distances between the different

7 Wikipedia – Luca Francesconi, Permanent link: https://goo.gl/KkVlfX 8 Ibidem instrumental organics, the choir and the speakers from the scene (and consequently) from the public, are implemented into the structure of the composition itself. For the first production at the scene was designed by Alex Olle of and it concentrated the action in a huge box suspended several metres above the stage. It was a place of nowhere, detached from the ground and virtually separated from the surrounding space. It also gave no possibility to the actors to hide from the public's sight. There is also another space in Quartett. It is the space of the roles. The two actors are required to play four roles. From the sixth scene the singers switch their parts and also play the two remaining roles without correspondence of the gender. This choice requires an extra effort (not only for the singers) to understand where we are in terms of the dramatic action.

Both the libretto and the recording of the opera are still unpublished. The following information come from an un-official recording of the performances at La Scala in , the orchestra was conducted by Susanna Mälkki. This material together with a copy of the libretto was used by the composer during a series of seminars at Malmö academy of music during the scholastic year 2013-2014. The seminars were dedicated to the new Malmö production of the opera in the spring 2014.

In the libretto there are seven moments that are called Dream. This sections are given to the electronics and represent the intermediate space that Francesconi described above.

SCENE DREAM Timing Character

Scene 2 DREAM 1 13' 50'' → 14' 50'' Merteuil Scene 4 DREAM 2 25' 30'' → 27' 30'' Valmont / Chorus Scene 5 DREAM 3 32' 28'' → 33' 50'' Merteuil Scene 8 DREAM 4 44' 50'' → 46' 00'' Merteuil (as Valmont) Scene 10 DREAM 5 52' 00'' → 53' 00'' Valmont DREAM 6 58' 00'' → 60' 00'' Merteuil (as Volanges) DREAM 7 61' 20'' → 63' 00'' LIVE Valmont

The first six dreams are based on studio recordings of the singers and follow the libretto. Only for the seventh dream the electronics was not used; on the libretto there is an hand written notation that says Live. If the electroacoustic insert in Andriessen's opera where comments of the actual situation, or connected with the drama in a direct and cinematic way, Francesconi uses the dreams to create a distance from the public (the middle space described by the composer). This distance differs from the one of the live vocal performance. The prerecorded voices of the singers are slightly filtered, processed and then played back through the speakers that are placed around the audience. The filters applied on the samples change the singers' voices (these must be the same of the singers on stage) so that they appear different, bigger as coming from another space. During the electroacoustic parts the sung text remains intelligible. This choice makes the semantic level (and semantic listening) the most important element to focus the attention on. While the tape is played back the singers remain still and perfectly visible to the public. The impression is that their voices are created without the participation of the body. There is a connection with the technique of voice over, used in many movies, which can also be understood as the inner voice of the characters. It is also possible to listen to the amplified voices as they were belonging to an entity that doesn't require a body to produce sounds. Another possible interpretation could be that the voices belong to someone that controls and overlooks the desires of the two characters. The interpretations of the dreams are multiple and increase the possible readings of the libretto. Such a use of the electronics gives a sense of alienation, a sort of detachment from the singers' bodies and from the space of the performance. This sense of detachment was developed and amplified at the Linbury Studio Theatre in London [...] where „the audience were in touching distance of the two singers on a set that was plunged right in the middle of the auditorium.”9

Conclusions After comparing the two operas, Writing to Vermeer seems to be close to movie language and avoiding a sense of ambiguity, while Quartett appears to be a machine of meanings and possible interpretations, closer to the tradition of the lyric opera. The libretto for Writing to Vermeer was written by a film director and this choice may have led Andriessen to a visual and cinematic approach for the commission of the electroacoustic inserts. His music contextualizes the period, the situations. It portrays materials and objects used by the protagonists or related to the them. The focus seems to be driven towards the sound samples and the electronics itself. The inserts create windows over a different sound world, a world less abstract than the instrumental one but rather concrete. Somehow the inserts give to the electronic instrument a visibility which is carefully avoided in Francesconi's work, where the electronics is differently integrated into the drama and tend to disappear in it. Luca Francesconi has an indirect approach to the use of electroacoustic parts. The dreams are always based on the libretto and they all use the voice of the singers. In Quartett the electronics are used with a strong dramaturgical purpose, they control the relation distance/space rather than being a comment of the drama itself. It seems that any direct link between meaning and sonic portrayal of

9 SERVICE, Tom – , thursday 19th June 2014, link: https://goo.gl/xWsy6P it are hidden or missing. In writing to Vermeer the tape inserts are often outside the drama itself. They pause the action, the drama is interrupted and it waits the end of the insert to start again, often from where it stopped. With the exception of the insert based on a soundscape, there are no scene changes or other scenic differences from the beginning and the end of the tape sections. The electroacoustic parts in Luca Francesconi's opera are often set (the exception is Dream five) before a change of the scene or a change of the space, indicated as OUT and IN in the libretto. They move the action away from the stage. Consequently, the dramatic structure requires a change of the distance from the public at their end. In the two operas the composers have used the electronics antithetically. The differences range from the relationship with the story to the space that the tape occupies in the dramatic structure, from the sound-sources to the visibility of the electronic medium. The approach of Andriessen seems to be direct, clear and straight to the point. Francesconi opted for a more complex, ambiguous and multilayered approach. Writing to Vermeer and Quartett are also well representative of each composers' style and summarize how the two authors communicate to the public. While Andriessen's music seems to speak with an heterogenous public, Francesconi's work requires a more subtile and prepared ears to be fully appreciated.

The described works offer two of the many possible solutions adopted by composers who worked with drama and confronted themselves with the opera genre. These solutions do not represent a rule or a formula to be applied in any situation. They rather propose a series of creative and functional answers to the many problematics that the opera, and a specific libretto, can bring with it.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: PEREC, Georges – Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Penguin Classics, 1998 WISHART, Trevor – On Sonic Art, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1985 CHION Michel – L'audio-vision. Son et image au cinéma, Paris, Edition Nathan 1990 Writing to Vermeer, CD booklet, USA, Nonesuch Records 2006

WEBOGRAPHY: Wikipedia – FRANCESCONI, Luca Permanent link https://goo.gl/KkVlfX (accessed 15.12.2016) SERVICE, Tom – The Guardian, thursday 19th June 2014 https://goo.gl/xWsy6P (accessed 09.01.2017)