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Citation: Pace, I. (1998). Positive or negative 2. The Musical Times, 139(1860), pp. 4-15.

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City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Positive or negative2 concludes his introduction, begun last month, to the music of

1. From UBSEQUENTto completing Accanto, whose form of socialism has been found Stalinist by many4 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 far Caudwell (1977) for two guitars, a A comparison of this work with '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 piano, 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." 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: Criticismand 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. RichardToop: as at one point a counterpointed quotation from Joachim Hespos. 'Breakingtaboos', 'Das trunkene Lied' from Nietzsche's Zarathustra ('O But popular genres were to continue to inform for programmenote 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 from the super- (1979--80), for amplified string quartet and orches- Lachenmann's distinguished structural concerns of Accanto. tra. This work is structured in five continuous sec- programmenote for of the the within each of which there are several subsec- the work, supplied Very soon after the 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 The beat abstruse musical arguments. The dance models are Grundbestimmungen nothing. begins 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 zur Musikder Lachenmann opens up crevices in the texture which unlikely that one would be able to recognise the par- GegenwartI, ed. without HerbertHenck extend beyond such a length as would make them ticular forms utilised prior knowledge, (Cologne:Musik- comprehensible as aberrations, and consequentially though in a live performance the theatrics of the verlagHerbert 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 translatedand sonic Lachenmann is in no sense a formal- final it would sound different were these in Elke (though work; 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'scon- 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 no.193 Tempo (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 containsmuch nounced, through passages grea- longer part section, furtherdiscussion ter 'individualism' towards fragmentation, dessica- a dotted rhythm is foregrounded (ex.4), the same as of the subjectof 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, 'Schattentainze'of his set

4 THE MUSICAL TIMES / FEBRUARY 1998 of short piano pieces, Ein Kinderspiel (1980), written P 3 around the same time, and which comes closest to ..- the music of Lachenmann's near-contemporary Ni- colaus A. Huber, in its restriction of particular para- 21 I 7--,T 1 meters such as pitch, so that others, such as reso- nance, become more apparent Within the dance sections, however, Lachenmann p 3 E43 ....W _6 3 continues to our as when he play upon expectations, J - 2 (Ica, 33 inserts unexpected 3/16s into the 4/4s of the 'Capri- - _•- cio'. In the the is allowed Wp1 6 3 'Gigue', xylophone writing : Salut Caudwe Exo f----T---r I. --- to move towards the verge of banality, but is imme- Am 6- (I.Ot diately drawn back. Remarkable new instrumental colours are created, for example the combination of piccolo and high piano, and there are occasional Ex.l: Salutfar Caudwell moments vaguely reminiscent of composers such as Berlioz or Bart6k. But more controversially, the music makes exten- I --I sive oblique allusion to the German national an- 4?4 : ?- _ - - -I - - a•,W . . . . _ _ . . _ . . , them. This was widely regarded as an untouchable area amongst composers of the left because of its appalling associations with Nazism, as Stockhausen found when he was heavily criticised for his use of it in Hymnen. Stockhausen had taken a rather naive view of this anthem as, like other, emb- any merely Ex.2: Salutfar 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 oratorio), 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 ensemble 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- a 'music of dead movements, Erstarrung) (1983-84), tion?, also not: with which tricksdo I adjustmyself practically the last convulsions and its pseudo-activ- to it?: rather,the task is to understandthose tonal ity: rubble out of empty - dotted triplet, motored - 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 "stop- 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

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9. From Martin 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 Momente, 'a succes- sounds but a new and differentway of hearing, a programme note to of which in itself as some- sion of chords approaching the tonality' of B way hearing recognising CD Accord 202082, different also all the major'.10On a more scientific level, one need only thing perceives implications translated Stefan 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 indirect role. 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',11 or actively address and re-evaluate means of refuge by them in music. As mentioned in part 1 of this article, Lachenmann is thus the notion of attack: on Helmut extending Lachenmann had with de-familiarisa- to include his own Lachenmann's experimented rejection rejecting 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 ICD 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- Steven Lindberg. 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'.13The 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 'exploiting' the world of marginalised " I=C instrumental phenomena 'like a tourist'.14Through- --• out Ausklang, one encounters tonal chords placed surprisingly in otherwise relatively dissonant con- texts (ex.6), tonal (and whole-tone) harmonies overlaid with other pitches or sounds (ex.7), the CA.. Cowell-like use of silently depressed chords, upon which glissandos are played (though here on the keys rather than the strings), or the filtering out of 23.. tonal chords from more dissonant harmonies (ex.8). Much of Ausklang is equally motivated by Lachenmann's long fascination with resonance (another feature in common with Wiegenmusik), and mediation between resonance and motion. One of p M- the fundamental conceits of the work is the idea of cAt # At IA I the orchestra as an expanded sounding-board for the ? piano, picking up and extending the 'aftersound', to take one translation of the work's title, of a piano UIA-AI-.w' 1JrI FI I t=)Y-tft note, as in the high woodwind in ex.9. Higher pitches in the piano lose their pitched quality iij, rapidly, so their orchestral extension is often corre- s? 3• r, spondingly derived from unpitched use of instru- •" ments. Elsewhere the orchestra serves to 'beef up' the sound of the piano, sometimes selectively dou- bling sections of the piano's line (ex. 10). Peter Nik- las Wilson suggests that Lachenmann has moved from an emphasis on the creation of sounds to an greater concentration on their aftereffects;15 cer- tainly the ending of notes becomes as important as their beginnings, as when chords in the piano are .., , •___.3b removed a note at a time. The range and frequency of occurrence of extended is piano techniques not Ex.5 Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied,p.93 huge in quantity; while there is a fair amount of hit- ting the shell and the bars of the piano, sometimes using plastic pots, and passages where the 'guero' overall coherence is provided by the masterly use of 14. ibid. in effect developed the earlier work of the same a concealed concerto form, The continuously run- 15. ibid. name is used, it is not until near the end of the piece ning work can be divided into three sections, which that the 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 doppelginger 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.

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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

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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

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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 L?i

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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, trans- are different of an ultra-intricate been taken the many ways creating by Lachenmann himself), giving lated by John and detailed surface. impression of simultaneous thoughts. The first sec- Tyler Tuttle. Prior to the opera, Das Madchen mit den Schwefel- tion presents ravaging, terrifying imagery of natural halzern (1990-97), Lachenmann completed one fur- phenomena, such as 'Stromboli and Mongbello, ther work. '... Zwei Geffihle...', 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 S-A•,~L-

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17. ibid. ousness with the greater violence experienced by a not dissimilar to that between the two pianists 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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THE MUSICAL TIMES /FEBRUARY 1998 13 3 - 54- 3 tique of the pre-existent. Lachenmann's un-concer- fL - tos and un-symphonies serve to extend and rejuve- nate traditional forms, to expand and enrich lis- tener's perceptions and understanding, rather than I- - . _ to lull them into passive submission. This is as true . of Lachenmann as it was of Beethoven. Many of Lachenmann's major works are now avai- -IE"I= 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- r and the stature of the German -- ity, greatest composer , since Stockhausen is finally acknowledged. . , .' ._..fe Helmut Lachenmann:list of works Fiinf Variationeniiber ein Themavon Franz Schubert (1956) piano I \1 ----- Rondo (1957) two pianos (=tF , Souvenir(1959) 41 instruments Fiinf Strophen(1961) nine instruments Echo andante (1962) piano Wiegenmusik(1963) piano IntroversionI (1963) six instruments IntroversionII (1963) six instruments Szenario (1965) electronic music 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 (Musikfir Julia) (1966-68) cello, small orchestra -Dq_- temA (1968) flute, voice, cello Air (1968-69/94) solo percussion, large orchestra Pression(1969) cello Dal niente (InterieurIII) (1970) clarinet Ex.18: '... Zwei Musik mit 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 Konzertfligel, 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) string in ness, Lachenmann, in a manner which quartet Musikkonzepte perhaps Accanto (1975-76) clarinet, orchestra 61/62,p.130, down-plays his own intellect, emphasises: Salut Caudwell two translatedand far (1977) guitars Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied in I am not (1979-80) string quartet, quoted a musicianand do 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 end of producing better music. Music that operates Allegro sostenuto(1986-88) clarinet, cello, piano Tableau(1988-89) orchestra on music's terms, far from that whose appeal (to II. Geister'(1989) Music examples New Music buffs) results from the Streichquartett'Reigen seliger are mainly discovery '... Zwei Gefuuhle...',Musik mit Leonardo(1992) two ? Breitkopf of of sound or structure. & Harteland novelty speakers, 19 players I for one find it difficult to conceive of a defini- reproducedby Das Mddchenmit den Schwefelhdlzern(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) Gran torso;Salut fur CaudwellBerne String m ! L!LiLLi Quartet,Wilhelm Bruck, Theodor Ross (gts) (col legno AU 31804) Funf Variationenuber ein Themavon Franz Schubert; (SELECTION) Echo andante;Wiegenmusik; Guero; Ein Kinderspiel iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiillliiiiiiiiiiii Roland Keller (pno) (col legno AU 31813) Wiegenmusik;Guero; Ein Kinderspiel;Pression; Dal niente;Interieur I; ToccatinaHelmut Lachenmann Musik als existentielle (pno), Uwe (cl), Melise Lucas Erfahrung Mockel Mellinger (vln), Interviews,Work Commentaries Fels (Auvidis MO 782075) Essays, (vlc) Montaigne 480 pages, music examples, hard cover Accanto;Consolation I; KontrakadenzEduard ISBN3-7651-0247-4 f37.70 Brunner (cl), Runfunk-Sinfonieorchester ::•:•...... i:]:i:i~. ~ Saarbrucken/HansZender (Accanto),Schola Cantorum ~iiiiii /ClytusGottwald (ConsolationI), Radio- SinfonieorchesterStuttgart/ Accanto PB (Kontrakadenz)(LP Wergo WER 60122) 5109 f27.70 Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied;Reigen seliger Geister Air PB 5110 f18.45 , Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester :-iiiiiii~~~i•:: -::i;:• ?::::•iii}ii Ausklang PB 5168 f56.15 Berlin/OlafHenzold (Auvidis Montaigne MO 782019) Harmonica PB 5117 f27.70 Ausklang;Tableau Massimiliano Damerini (pno), K61nerRundfunk-Sinfonieorchester (WDR)/Peter Kontrakadenz BG 876 f27.70 Eotvos (Ausklang),Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Mouvement PB 5152 f27.70 Zender Saarbricken/Hans (Tableau)(col legnoWWE Notturno PB 5405 f20.75 31862) Allegrosostenuto; Pression; Dal niente;Interieur I Staub PB 5177 f26.15 EduardBrunner (cl), Massimiliano Damerini (pno), Tableau PB 5416 f18.45 Johannes Beer (perc), Walter Grimmer (vlc) (col legno Tanzsuite mit WWE 31863) Deutschlandlied PB 5114 f32.30 Allegrosostenuto; Pression; Dal niente;Wiegenmusik iiiiiiiiiiiii~i~iiii Alan Damiens (cl), Pierre-LaurentAimard (pno), Pierre Strauch (vlc) (Accord 202082) Allegrosostenuto; Pression; Dal niente;Ein KinderspielDavid Smeyers (cl), BernhardWambach Allegro Sostenuto KM 2407 f20.40 '?iiiiiiiiii~i (pno), Michael Bach (vlc) (CPO 999 102-2) iiiii: Dal niente BG 866 f9.25 "...ZweiGejhuhle..."; Musik mit Leonardo;Notturno; GranTorso I Interieur Helmut Lachenmann (spkr), Bjorn Wilker Score KM 2233 f18.45 (perc), Andreas Lindenbaum (vlc), Klangforum cZii!iiii~i~~~i~~iiiiiiiii Parts KM 2261 f23.85 Wien/Hans Zender (Accord 204852) Pression BG 865 f5.40 There are also LP recordingsincluding Air (Michael ...... !!!!!!!! W Ranta(perc), Radio-Sinfonieorchester Salut fuir Caudwell EB 8399 f14.60 Frankfurt/LukasFoss (HarmoniaMundi DMR 1015)), II. String Quartet KM 2410 f30.00 Grantorso CameristicaItaliana ERZ (Societa (ABT temA BG 737 f13.10 1003)), Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied(Berne String Trio fluido Quartet,SWF-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden/Sylvain BG 648 f14.25 Cambreling(Harmonia Mundi DMR 1028)) and Mouvement(-vor der Erstarrung)(/PeterEotv6s (HarmoniaMundi HM 713D)). A live recordingof the first performanceof Schwangkungen -Q Echo Andante BG 735 f10.00 am Rand Baden-Baden/Ernest (SWF-Sinfonieorchester Guero EB 9018 Bour) is included as part of the four-CDset '40 Jahre f?5.40 E DonaueschingerMusiktage' (col legno AU 31800); there in Kinderspiel EB 8275 ?9.25 is also a live recordingof Accanto(Eduard Brunner (cl), Five Variations SWF-SinfonieorchesterBaden-Baden), included on CD on Franz Schubert BG 1033 ?6.90 col AU 31836. ConsolationsI & II are legno included in Wiegenmusik BG 734 ?5.40 a costly box set (Schola CantorumStuttgart/(Cadenza 800 893)), not generallyavailable in the UK. Some of the solo pieces also exist on various recitaldiscs. All these recordingsare of interest,but I For further information, please contact would particularlyrecommend the outstandingAU our UK Representative Robin Winter 31804, MO 782019, WWE 31862, and WWE 31863. Phone 01263 768 732, Fax 768 733. I would like to expressmy intensegratitude to Dr Frank Reinischof Breithopf& Hartelfor providingscores and recordingsof Lachenmann'smusic. Breitkopfj Hartel

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