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Positive or Negative 2 Author(s): Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 139, No. 1860 (Feb., 1998), pp. 4-15 Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1004287 Accessed: 02/06/2009 22:45

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http://www.jstor.org Positive or negative 2 IAN PACE concludes his introduction, begun last month, to the music of

1. From UBSEQUENT to completing Accanto, whose form of socialism has been found Stalinist by many.4 Lachenmann's very medium implies a wholescale confronta- Or alternatively the work could be considered as a note programme tion with the 'tradition', Lachenmann wrote musical analogue of Caudwell's 'dying culture'? for 'A portrait of Lachenmann' Salut fur Caudwell (1977) for two guitars, a A comparison of this work with Mauricio Kagel's concertin the medium which contrariwise suggests folk and popu- Tactil, for the similar instrumentation of two guitars Huddersfield lar musics. In Lachenmann's words, 'The typical aura and , demonstrates how Lachenmann, despite translated Festival, which attaches to the guitar as folk and art instru- his engagement with non-'classical' media, is very by Niall Hoskin. ment encompasses the primitive as well as the high- much a composer arising from the Austro-German 2. ibid. ly sensitive, intimate and collective - it also includes symphonic tradition. Kagel's greater innate empathy 3. ibid. motives which may be exactly described in historic, with popular forms enables him to isolate and geographic and sociological terms.'l Whilst compos- estrange gestures with high irony, whereas Lachen- 4. See, for example, ing the at first untitled piece, Lachenmann found mann creates para-symphonic structures around TerryEagleton: Criticism and that 'I constantly had the feeling that this music was them. Such a difference in musical background and ideology (Verso, "accompanying" something - if not a text, then indi- 'outsider' status is similarly one factor which distin- 1976) and Marxism vidual words or thoughts.'2 He thus introduced frag- guishes Lachenmann's work from a composer of si- and criticism literary mented phonemes for the players to speak, from milar ideological persuasions as Mathias Spahlinger, (Routledge, 1976) Christopher Caudwell's Illusion and reality, as well not to mention the more neo-absurdist minded Hans- 5. Richard Toop: as at one point a counterpointed quotation from Joachim Hespos. 'Breaking taboos', 'Das trunkene Lied' from Nietzsche's Zarathustra ('O But popular genres were to continue to inform note for programme Mensch! Gib one of the few occasions Lachenmann's most obvi- CD MO 782019. acht!'), very compositional lexicon, when Lachenmann has referred to an explicitly poli- ously in his next work, Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied 6. From tical text and as such distinguished from the super- (1979--80), for amplified and orches- Lachenmann's structural concerns of Accanto. tra. This work is structured in five continuous sec- programme note for soon after the of the the within each of which there are several subsec- the work, supplied Very opening work, play- tions, by Breitkopf ers become almost strait-jacketed into an insistent tions alluding to popular dance forms, such as a & Hartel. beat (ex.1), which by its particular nature creates an waltz, a march, a siciliano, a tarantella and a polka. 7. ibid. at least popularistic, if not militaristic, aura. This These provide a 'backbone' to the work, facilitating lasts for the first seven minutes, after which the the shaping, containing and clarifying of essentially 8. From 'Vier music dies down to almost nothing. The beat begins abstruse musical arguments. The dance models are Grundbestimmungen des Musikhorens again but now seems to arise from within rather than usually reduced to a few characteristics, or arche- (1979-80), in being imposed from without. Wondrous exchanges typal qualities, such as rhythms or gestural contours, Neuland: Ansdtze between the players are then possible (ex.2). or general formal properties. In the first section, it is Musik der zur Lachenmann crevices in the texture which that one would be able to recognise the par- ed. opens up unlikely Gegenwart I, make them ticular forms utilised without Herbert Henck extend beyond such a length as would prior knowledge, in a the theatrics of the (: Musik- comprehensible as aberrations, and consequentially though live performance verlag Herbert re-contextualises what has preceded. As in so many conductor beating a waltz (ex.3) provides an impor- Henck, 1980), p.68, of his pieces, the formal thinking, as radical as the tant component. Nonetheless, the sources 'feed' the translated and sonic Lachenmann is in no sense a formal- final work; it would sound different were these in Elke (though very quoted is what makes the music so much more than seeds not in Their function is similar to the Hockings: 'Helmut ist), place. Lachenmann's con- a catalogue of unusual effects or an assemblage of chaconnes or passacaglias that serve to shape cept of rejection', in 'sound-worlds'. episodes in Berg's Wozzeck: they are a means to an Tempono.193 (July The overall progress of the work is from the pro- end, rather than an end in themselves. 1995). This article militaristic beat of In the 'Siciliano' of the second contains much nounced, through passages grea- longer part section, further discussion ter 'individualism' towards fragmentation, dessica- a dotted rhythm is foregrounded (ex.4), the same as of the subject of tion and alienation. So Lachenmann's tribute to that which features in the first movement of Beet- Lachenmann Caudwell, who 'demanded an art which realistically hoven's Seventh Symphony, from which a type of and tonality. confronts reality and its multi-layered contradic- ostinato is developed in the piano, playing the top tions'3 would seem to reflect a position of ambiva- two notes of the instrument with damped strings. lence towards this figure whose crude and didactic This resembles the last part, 'Schattentanze' of his set

4 THE MUSICAL TIMES / FEBRUARY 1998 3 k ._1 V-- of short piano pieces, Ein Kinderspiel (1980), written P , 3 t ... e . 3 1. - | - l _ ^ 1 1 around the same and which comes closest to [' 1 :1i 1 ,-L,~ - -: I I t time, ^, _ the music of Lachenmann's near-contemporary Ni- ^ ^ {,, I I ,^ I l colaus A. Huber, in its restriction of particular para- meters such as pitch, so that others, such as reso- ' 32 1 i 1 2-1 - 3)l. nance, become more apparent Within the dance sections, however, Lachenmann continues to our as when he play upon expectations, - - I- 1= =L inserts 3/16s into the 4/4s of the t I- 'Capri- *{;?I -i - r e .lt unexpected nI- n 1ufn kCA ' I - - P-3 6 3 cio'. In the 'Gigue', the xylophone writing is allowed U :_I___-?-- - 2 - T-AZ.---l-p i K' to move towards the verge of banality, but is imme- ----?. 11v diately drawn back. Remarkable new instrumental colours are created, for example the combination of piccolo and high piano, and there are occasional Ex.1: Salutfur Caudwell moments vaguely reminiscent of composers such as Berlioz or Bartok. But more controversially, the music makes exten- L ' n im ^7ft^^^7(t!SMprrr';. sive oblique allusion to the German national an- as an untouchable them. This was widely regarded '' area amongst composers of the left because of its IFitIItI .t .. ._ appalling associations with Nazism, as Stockhausen was criticised for his use of it found when he heavily W G v-L___r Wb1776nl,AM in . Stockhausen had taken a rather naive view of this anthem like emb- as, any other, merely Ex.2: Salutfur Caudwell lematic of a people, but Lachenmann was much more acutely aware of its connotations. Consequently his use of it is in no sense affirmative: whilst it subtlely linearity, as well as a more conventional type of cli- informs parts of the work (as also does the 'Pastoral max. Passages featuring fierce crescendos on single symphony' from Bach's Christmas ), its only pitches, or toccata-like repeated notes in the trum- recognisable appearance is near the end, in a dis- pet, are presented in a manner which suggests a torted, grotesque form (ex.5), developing into the greater affinity with more mainstream wri- 'Galop', which is displaced by a lullaby, the last of ting (though it would be hard to deny that today three 'Arias' (and the only one in which there is any Lachenmann stands at the centre of the European semblance of a melody (in high strings) - the others mainstream). However, it has become Lachenmann's reflect more upon the conditions within which an most performed work, though its instrumentation, aria can arise). Richard Toop has commented that for a relatively standard 'new music ensemble', is from the use of the lullaby at the end 'one might well most probably the main reason for this. infer the infantile character of most 'nationalist' aspi- Beyond the iconic use of tonal materials in rations. But it's no happy ending.'5 Accanto and the Tanzsuite, Lachenmann entered into This 'critical' approach of Lachenmann, in which a re-engagement with tonality itself. He had said in he brings his own imagination into an interaction 1979: with popular forms and then uses this medium to It does not matterhow much one wants to free one- articulate a serious musical statement, also deeply self from It catches on The informs the ensemble work Mouvement (-vor der tonality. always up you. problemis not: How do I escape from the tonal suc- (1983-84), a 'music of dead movements, Erstarrung) tion?, also not: with which tricks do I adjustmyself the last convulsions and its practically pseudo-activ- to it?: rather,the task is to understandthose tonal - motored - ity: rubble out of empty dotted triplet, determinationsof the material together with the rhythms which already show that inner paralysis continuallychanging whole.8 which precedes the outer paralysis',6which uses out- lines of the popular folk-song 'O du lieber Augustin'. Lachenmann considered tonality, or more precisely This piece is similar in structure to the Tanzsuite, 'the 'philharmonic' world - the official classical mu- using 'staged phases ... from "arco-machine" to the sic circles, the stars, the festivals, the cult of ancient "fluttered organ point", "trembling fields" and "- music', to be the object circumscribing new music, and-go throbbing frenzy"...',7 but somehow has less but had come to realise that the 'tabula rasa' or 'year driving force or compositional daring. The shape of zero' ideal of the post-war serialists was a fantasy. the work is less 'problematic', notwithstanding the Music could not ignore its own history, whose traces conception, the phases and the whole work are of would return to haunt it. After the short-lived exper- manageable lengths, and there is a greater sense of iments of the 1930s, one would find 'French sonic

THE MUSICAL TIMES /FEBRUARY 1998 5 V,- sl?"t

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Ex.3: Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied,p.l Ex 4: Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied,p. 16

9. FromMartin hedonism in Le marteau sans maitre, Nono's Italian What I have envisioned - namely, finding not new Kaltenecker: bel-canto',9 and in Stockhausen's , 'a succes- sounds but a new and differentway of hearing, a programmenote to of which in itself as sion of chords approaching the tonality' of B way hearing recognising some- CD Accord202082, different also all the translatedStefan major'.10On a more scientific level, one need only thing perceives implications once - has to function with familiar Rice. two different for a to be estab- again really play pitches hierarchy sounds as well... It is a to the lished in a listener's mind. perhaps sophism say 10. ibid. point now is to deny denial. But that did an So one could let these elements in play passively indirectrole. To phrase it positively it is essentially 11. ibid. the back them 'like exotic co- through door, ignoring about the same thing, about rediscoveringa sound 12. Lachenmann, lours, or as slightly brutal extensions of dissonance, that one alreadyknows.12 quoted in 'Seeking domesticated',1 or actively address and re-evaluate refugeby means of them in music. As mentioned in 1 of this article, Lachenmann is thus the notion of attack:on Helmut part extending Lachenmann had Lachenmann's experimented with de-familiarisa- rejection to include rejecting his own assumptions: tion of tonal as as Ausklangand fragments early the piano work critique extends to self-critique. This work came Tableau',programme Wiegenmusik (1963), but in the monumental thirty- soon after the attack upon Lachenmann and other note for CD col minute piano concerto Ausklang (1984-85) it was to Germans by , who described legno WWE 1CD become one of his central concerns. In Accanto he their work in terms as translated less-than-complimentary 31862, had delivered a of the role that a musica others had characterised Lachen- StevenLindberg. critique particular negativa; work had come to assume; in Ausklang he was to put mann as 'a preacher raising his admonitory index 13. ibid. a whole genre on a pedestal. It was necessary to pull finger in the wilderness of gagged scraping sounds', the whole rug away from underneath the familiar, to and his work as a type of 'musical military hospi- make a listener become aware of and question the tal'.13 The attempts at synthesis in Ausklang and sub- conditions that make possible what is taken for sequent works would seem to be in part a reaction to granted: such remarks and to the charge which he fervently

6 THE MUSICAL TIMES / FEBRUARY 1998 denied of the world of I. l.-L; 'exploiting' marginalised -q3- IP. ., f instrumental phenomena 'like a tourist'.14Through- I \3_ I1. b S ?*' 7 ,'t7 5. T' - - T i, out one encounters tonal chords ? { Ausklang, placed ', & 5 ' ' - -. < '1,i3 . V 5' -; v -. p1 A - surprisingly in otherwise relatively dissonant con- 2, W t t - 1s ' A W s texts (ex.6), tonal (and whole-tone) harmonies S-D g. . .- overlaid with other or sounds the SKl pitches (ex.7), ' . T"_""_'~~r . .4"-- r, .7..". o'r Cowell-like use of silently depressed chords, upon ' -S which glissandos are played (though here on the keys rather than the strings), or the filtering out of K, At T jW. (59fr - tonal chords from more dissonant harmonies (ex.8). A.1 '- Much of Ausklang is equally motivated by -.,?; . .X0 :I ^~ * k Lachenmann's fascination with resonance I long J' * -- - f. tt7Ii { ' y t11,>l S. t;FS, r Sf _ t A w Al't S ? 7 (another feature in common with and -.~ S ,r , r ?] {- ~ Wiegenmusik), 3?. f' mediation between resonance and motion. One of %9 CSI the fundamental conceits of the work is the idea of , , ?U,f *L->5-C} r r 1:-_ I ) the as an expanded sounding-board for the piano, picking up and extending the 'aftersound', to - " - take one translation of the work's of a Jff' J , n : I 17r s 7 . title, piano :;- A, ' I 5 -- - I IT, note, as in the high woodwind in ex.9. Higher pitches in the piano lose their pitched quality rapidly, so their orchestral extension is often corre- spondingly derived from unpitched use of instru- ments. Elsewhere the orchestra serves to 'beef . . up' 1 ', r_ '- |SF5b 4 the sound of the sometimes dou- , piano, selectively C. 7^ s. s r 7 , -. , . .. . bling sections of the piano's line (ex.10). Peter Nik- I pianist is required to scrape the strings, and parallel the movements of a classical concerto (the then Lachenmann, himself aware as a pianist of the exact boundaries between sections are debatable, practicalities of such techniques, when one bears in certain passages enact a transitional role between mind that the bars inside a piano are in different 'movements'): the first, relatively active, contains places for different instruments, specifies only the much exchanges between material types; the second general area within the strings where such activity is is a 'slow movement' in which mostly pointillist to take place. piano writing takes place against a growing 'noise' Within the orchestra is placed a second piano, a continuum in the orchestra, immensely theatrical in doppelganger who sometimes echoes, sometimes live performance through the sheer volume of elab- pre-empts, the soloist's material, while at other orate activity, with much use of tonless tremolos in points his part comes into conflict, a threat to the the wind (ex.11); and a highly vivacious and virtu- assumed superiority of the romantic soloist figure. osic final, with rapid figurations in the piano What is conspicuously absent is the type of compet- (ex.12), later glissandos in all instruments (the point itive exchanges between piano and orchestra that are where these become predominant could be argued to such a common feature of the concerto tradition. be the beginning of a fourth movement, a 'grand Another field of reference is provided by the fre- finale' following a scherzando), and the closest the quent use of repeated notes, which were intended as piece comes to 'mighty' orchestral writing (ex.13). a homage to the American pianist Charlemagne This section also includes a slot for the pianist to Palestine. improvise or otherwise insert a cadenza, for which But it would be difficult to sustain a fifty-minute Massimiliano Damerini, who gave the first perfor- work by the aforementioned devices alone. The mance, exercises the option of remaining silent.

THE MUSICAL TIMES /FEBRUARY 1998 7 elO

- 71 -

Ex.6: Ausklang, p.71 Ex.7:Ausklang, p.19

Many types of keyboard figuration with a clear his- be believed - I would go as far as to suggest that tory are brought to play, sometimes kept at a certain there is no living composer whose skill at handling sceptical distance, but at others allowed to follow the orchestral medium exceeds that of Lachenmann. their implicit trajectories in ways which exceed the The subsequent trio for clarinet, cello and piano, basic conception of the work. The final section is Allegro sostenuto (1986-88), which shares many dissolved into a coda, and to end, Lachenmann con- similar concerns, creates a fusion of the formal me- sidered the definitive series of tonic chords that con- thods of Ausklang and the Tanzsuite with further clude many symphonic/concerto works (particularly structural innovation. The large-scale design is again those of Beethoven!). Thus he presents three first- of a continuous three-movement work with a coda, inversion E major chords in the piano, but each tem- which in its totality resembles an asymmetrical arch pered by a quite different harmony (ex.14). The res- with a large crevice at the top. Within this block onance of E major is allowed to be the last sound structure, however, there are 14 clearly delineated heard, if not its beginning. but mostly continuous sections, including a 'quasi Ausklang is a monumental work, one of Lachen- alla walzer' section and a 'Hymne'. The nucleus of mann's finest achievements. Even more than in ear- the work is provided by the various Allegro sections, lier works, the orchestration really has to be heard to though the first proper Allegro does not occur until

8 THE MUSICAL TIMES / FEBRUARY 1998 Ex.8: Ausklang, p.34 Ex.9:Ausklang, p.152 the seventh section; earlier on in the work the music asked by the Ardittis to write a second string quar- is allowed to grind to a complete halt, with a long tet, in response to which he wrote Reigen seliger silence. The crevice is provided by the 'Hymne' (the Geister (1989), whose title was intended to evoke 'slow movement') which interrupts the Allegro, in Gluck's 'Dance of the blessed spirits'. Where Gran which long sustained notes are pushed almost to torso involved harsh sounds disintegrating into breaking point, from which the Allegro must nothingness, this quartet begins with almost fifteen 'recover'. The 'climax' of the work also pushes the minutes on the verge of inaudibility, with only a few music 'off the edge', as the instruments, after a rapid louder interjections. So if the first quartet was a and invigorating build-up, overstep their boundaries work of dissolution, the second is one of awakening. into a wild appassionato array of extended tech- Yet while the writing is veiled and hushed, the intri- niques (ex.15). cacy and definition of Lachenmann's writing pre- The 'after-glow' of this climax, a very quiet and vents the music from becoming unduly precious or visionary passage of unpitched or semi-pitched pul- rarefied (ex.16). A 'structural melody', which is sations in the clarinet and cello alone, creates a type printed in the score (so as not to mask its existence) of mysticism which provides a crucial link with underlies the music without ever being fully present. Lachenmann's most recent music. Lachenmann was Thus the work is created upon a foundation, but the

THE MUSICAL TIMES /FEBRUARY 1998 9 Ex.10: Ausklang,p.6 Ex.11: Ausklang, p.59

foundation itself is removed. Whether or not this ments are held like guitars, they sound more like represents a contradiction of Lachenmann's earlier percussion (ex.17). As well as introducing an ele- ideals of 'concretising' a music's production is open ment of chance into the final result, this in concert to much debate, though it can be plausibly argued gives the impression of the players embarking upon that these ideals became questioned as early as a wilful destruction of what they have achieved. The Accanto. music then dissolves back into the near-silence from As in Gran torso, the position of the viola is some- which it emerged. what different to that of the other players, as it is the In earlier works, Lachenmann had only very one instrument which does not initially use scor- occasionally used irrational rhythms more complex datura. However, towards the end of the work, at the than the triplet; for the most part rhythms and dura- point when the quartet have begun to play clearly tions were quantifiable in terms of multiples of one pronounced rhythms and sonorities, Lachenmann or two fundamental metrical units, as with the later calls upon each player to perform a 'Wilde Scor- Donatoni. With Reigen seliger Geister, perhaps as a datur', a drastic re-tuning downwards where the reflection upon the Arditti's experience of highly only specification is that the fifth-intervals between complicated rhythms as found in Ferneyhough's the strings must no longer remain; while the instru- quartets, there are a greater range of irrationals.

10 THE MUSICAL TIMES / FEBRUARY 1998 4'.o. oCea

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Ex.12: Ausklang, p.136 Ex.13: Ausklang, p.78

However, as most who have heard Lachenmann's inar'.16 The text from Leonardo is divided up and 16. Lachenmann: music will concur, he can be as 'complex' as any, overlaid between two speakers (though in many per- progranme note to CD Accord even if it does not always look so on the page - there formances and on the both have recording parts 204852, - are different of an ultra-intricate been taken Lachenmann the many ways creating by himself), giving lated by John and detailed surface. impression of simultaneous thoughts. The first sec- Tyler Tuttle. Prior to the , Das Mddchenmit den Schwefel- tion presents ravaging, terrifying imagery of natural holzern (1990-97), Lachenmann completed one fur- phenomena, such as 'Stromboli and Mongbello, ther work. '... Zwei Gefihle...', Musik mit Leonardo when the sulphurous flames that they enclose force (1992) for speakers and ensemble, which taken a and burst the tall mountain, spewing stones and step further the new 'poetic' dimension experienced earth into the air', for which Lachenmann's relatively in the second quartet. The work was mostly written continuous instrumental writing shows less of a in 's house in Sardinia, and is a reflection resistance to the visually or sonically connotative; upon the introspective final works of the late com- evocation of the erupting volcanos is provided by poser, a Mediterranean sound landscape at an inhos- glissandos in the strings and talk of the flames is pitable height - a 'pastoral' written while pondering accompanied by gilt-edged sonorites. But the second over what links me to the composer of Hay que cam- section of the text contrasts this obvious tempestu-

THE MUSICAL TIMES /FEBRUARY 1998 11 iE -/844-

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Ex.14:Ausklang, p.184 (piano only)

Ex.15:Allegro sostenuto, p.25

17. ibid. ousness with the greater violence experienced by a not dissimilar to that between the two of Wanderer encountering darkness and silence, and Ausklang. It is a work which is not content merely to how objects impinge upon, and 'damage' conscious- present awe, but also attempts to confront it and ness, a 'situation of anxious research "in a feeling of understand it (ex.18). The idea that the not-yet- ignorance in which the groping blindman recognizes known and the problematic are much more poten- himself'.17 Having constructed the naturalistic and tially cataclysmic than the mimetic is entirely con- romantic, Lachenmann offers a devastating critique comitant with the principles of this progressive and (of the limits of neo-romanticism and neo-impres- rational thinker. sionism) by juxtaposing it with the 'other': the So much of what is now accepted as great music ensemble texture is much more discontinuous; dis- has involved a rejection ('transcendence'?) of pre- junct fragments seem to attempt (unsuccessfully) to vailing aesthetic norms, Lachenmann could easily cohere into a whole, as opposed to the splintering have taken the 'positivist' approach that infests totality that preceded. Members of the ensemble give much British music and criticism, using only the out words and phonemes, perhaps the 'inner voices' known or 'factual'. But he has consistently refused to of the Wanderer, and later they vocally echo or sus- do this, or to rest upon his laurels, even within the tain the main speaker's phonemes, in a relationship course of a single piece. Lachenmann's rejection is

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Ex. 17: Reigen seliger Geister

THE MUSICAL TIMES /FEBRUARY 1998 13 tique of the pre-existent. Lachenmann's un-concer- tos and un-symphonies serve to extend and rejuve- nate traditional forms, to expand and enrich lis- tener's perceptions and understanding, rather than t,..U to lull them into passive submission. This is as true %.PKf. of Lachenmann as it was of Beethoven. l,. Many of Lachenmann's major works are now avai- R{' lable on CD; however, their theatrical nature make it incumbent upon one to experience them live when- ever possible. Hopefully a time will come in Britain when a Lachenmann performance is no longer a rar- ity, and the stature of the greatest German composer since Stockhausen is finally acknowledged.

Helmut Lachenmann: list of works Funf Variationenuber ein Themavon Franz Schubert (1956) piano Rondo(1957) two Souvenir(1959) 41 instruments Funf Strophen(1961) nine instruments Echo andante (1962) piano Wiegenmusik(1963) piano IntroversionI (1963) six instruments IntroversionII (1963) six instruments Szenario (1965) Streichtrio(1965) Triofluido (1966) clarinet, viola, percussion InterieurI (1966) one percussionist ConsolationI (1967) 12 voices, four percussion ConsolationII (1968) 16 voices Les consolations (1967-68/1977-78) 16 voices, orchestra Notturno (MusikfurJulia) (1966-68) cello, small orchestra temA (1968) flute, voice, cello Air (1968-69/94) percussion, large orchestra Pression(1969) cello Dal niente (InterieurIII) (1970) clarinet Ex.18: '... Zwei Musikmit Leonardo Gefuhle...', Guero (1970/88) piano Kontrakadenz (1970-71) tape, large orchestra Klangschatten- mein Saitenspiel(1972) three 18. From emphatically not some form of musical nihilism, nor Konzertflugel,48 strings Heinz-Klaus his music a footnote to an abstract conception, to Fassade (1973) tape, large orchestra Metzger: Helmut am Rand name only a few of the short-sighted myths that have Schwangkungen (1974-75) brass, strings, Lachenmann: electric thundersheets grown up around his work. For all his self-aware- guitars, pianos, 'Fragen-Antworten', Gran torso (1971-76/88) in in a manner which string quartet Musikkonzepte ness, Lachenmann, perhaps Accanto (1975-76) clarinet, orchestra 61/62, p.130, down-plays his own intellect, emphasises: Caudwell two translatedand Salutfuir (1977) guitars Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied in I am a (1979-80) string quartet, quoted musicianand do not see myself as a prophet. orchestra ThomasKabisch: I to remainwide awake at all but the act try times, Ein (1980) 'Dialecticalcompos- of is too in a cer- Kinderspiel piano composing intensely self-centred, Harmonica(1981-83), tuba, large orchestra ing - Dialectical lis- tain sense also too and at the same time instinctive, Mouvement(-vor der Erstarrung)(1983-84) 18 players tening',programme too to be able to about'historical note to CD col fragile worry oblig- Ausklang (1984-85) piano, orchestra ations'.18 legno AU 31813. Dritte StimmezuJS Bachs zweistimmigerInvention works. d-moll BWV 775 (1985) three players And music is absolutely what Lachenmann is about. Toccatina(1986) violin His conceptual thinking is above all a means to the Staub (1985-87) orchestra sostenuto end of producing better music. Music that operates Allegro (1986-88) clarinet, cello, piano Tableau(1988-89) orchestra on music's terms, far from that whose appeal (to Music II. Streichquartett'Reigen seliger Geister'(1989) examples New Music buffs) results mainly from the discovery are ? '... Zwei Gefuuhle...',Musik mit Leonardo(1992) two Breitkopf of of sound or structure. & Hartel and novelty speakers, 19 players I reproduced by for one find it difficult to conceive of a defini- Das Madchenmit den Schwefelholzern(1990--97) kind permission. tion of creativity that is not predicated upon a cri- music theatre

14 THE MUSICAL TIMES / FEBRUARY 1998 Selected discography Streichtrio;Trio fluido; temAensemble recherche (Auvidis Montaigne MO 782023) L!i!DILI L4 Gran torso;Salutfur CaudwellBerne String Quartet,Wilhelm Bruck, Theodor Ross (gts) (col legno AU 31804) Funf Variationenuber ein Themavon Franz Schubert; (SELECTION) Echo andante;Wiegenmusik; Guero; Ein Kinderspiel Roland Keller (pno) (col legno AU 31813) Wiegenmusik;Guero; Ein Kinderspiel;Pression; Dal niente;Interieur I; ToccatinaHelmut Lachenmann Musik als existentielle (pno), Uwe Mockel (cl), Melise (vln), Lucas Erfahrung Mellinger Interviews, Work Commentaries Fels (vlc) (Auvidis MO 782075) Essays, Montaigne 480 pages, music examples, hard cover Accanto;Consolation I; KontrakadenzEduard ISBN3-7651-0247-4 ?37.70 Brunner (cl), Runfunk-Sinfonieorchester Saarbrucken/HansZender (Accanto),Schola Cantorum Stuttgart/ClytusGottwald (ConsolationI), Radio- SinfonieorchesterStuttgart/ Accanto PB (Kontrakadenz)(LP WER 60122) 5109 ?27.70 Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied;Reigen seliger Geister Air PB 5110 ?18.45 Arditti Deutsches Quartet, Symphonie-Orchester Ausklang PB 5168 ?56.15 Berlin/OlafHenzold (Auvidis Montaigne MO 782019) Harmonica PB 5117 ?27.70 Ausklang;Tableau Massimiliano Damerini (pno), Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester(WDR)/Peter Kontrakadenz BG 876 ?27.70 Eotvos (Aushlang),Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Mouvement PB 5152 ?27.70 Saarbrucken/HansZender (Tableau)(col WWE legno Notturno PB 5405 f20.75 31862) Allegrosostenuto; Pression; Dal niente;Interieur I Staub PB 5177 ?26.15 EduardBrunner (cl), Massimiliano Damerini (pno), Tableau PB 5416 ?18.45 Beer Johannes (perc), Walter Grimmer (vlc) (col legno Tanzsuite mit WWE 31863) Deutschlandlied PB 5114 ?32.30 Allegrosostenuto; Pression; Dal niente;Wiegenmusik Alan Damiens (cl), Pierre-LaurentAimard (pno), Pierre Strauch (vlc) (Accord 202082) Allegrosostenuto; Pression; Dal niente;Ein KinderspielDavid Smeyers (cl), BernhardWambach Allegro Sostenuto KM 2407 ?20.40 (pno), Michael Bach (vlc) (CPO 999 102-2) Dal niente BG 866 ?9.25 "...Zwei Musik Gefhuhle..."; mit Leonardo;Notturno; Gran Torso InterieurI Helmut Lachenmann (spkr), Bjorn Wilker Score KM 2233 ?18.45 (perc), Andreas Lindenbaum (vlc), Klangforum Parts KM 2261 ?23.85 Wien/Hans Zender (Accord 204852) Pression BG 865 ?5.40 There are also LP recordingsincluding Air (Michael W Ranta(perc), Radio-Sinfonieorchester Salut fur Caudwell EB 8399 ?14.60 Frankfurt/LukasFoss (HarmoniaMundi DMR 1015)), II. String Quartet KM 2410 ?30.00 Grantorso (Societa CameristicaItaliana (ABT ERZ .0 temA BG 737 ?13.10 1003)), Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied(Berne String Quartet,SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden/Sylvain Trio fluido BG 648 ?14.25 Cambreling(Harmonia Mundi DMR 1028)) and Mouvement(-vor der Erstarrung)(/PeterEotvos (HarmoniaMundi HM 713D)). A live recordingof the first performanceof Schwangkungen Echo Andante BG 735 ?10.00 am Rand(SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden/Ernest a, Guero EB 9018 ?5.40 Bour) is included as part of the four-CDset '40 Jahre AU there Ein Kinderspiel EB 8275 ?9.25 DonaueschingerMusiktage' (col legno 31800); -z is also a live recordingof Accanto(Eduard Brunner (cl), i Five Variations SWF-SinfonieorchesterBaden-Baden), included on CD 03 on Franz Schubert BG 1033 ?6.90 col AU 31836. ConsolationsI & II are included in .0 legno Wiegenmusik BG 734 ?5.40 a costly box set (Schola CantorumStuttgart/ 800 not availablein C. (Cadenza 893)), generally 0t the UK. Some of the solo pieces also exist on various recitaldiscs. All these recordingsare of interest,but I i:l. For further information, please contact 0 would particularlyrecommend the outstandingAU our UK Representative Robin Winter, 31804, MO 782019, WWE 31862, and WWE 31863. 0 Phone 01263 768 732, Fax 768 733. I would like to expressmy intensegratitude to Dr Frank Reinischof Breitkopf& Hdrtelfor providingscores and 0; recordingsof Lachenmannsmusic. U 0e Breitkopf Hartel

THE MUSICAL TIMES /FEBRUARY 1998 15