Many of Lachenmann's

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Citation: Pace, I. (1998). Positive or negative 1. The Musical Times, 139(1859), pp. 9-17.

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City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Positive or negative1 In a two-partarticle, the first in a series surveying developmentsin contemporaryGermanic music, IAN PACE introduces the music of Helmut Lachenmann

N THE1994 MeltdownFestival at the South but no article has given a comprehensive survey of 1. Elke Hockings: 'HelmutLachen- Bank, a performance by Ensemble Modern of the music. This article (concluded next month) is mann's of Helmut Lachenmann's "... Zwei intended to fill that concept Gefihle..." gap.4 rejection',in Tempo, Musik mit Leonardo (1992) provoked furious no.193 (July 1995). reactions from some members of the audience (like M ODERNGERMAN music from genera- one of a of Saffron Wal- tions than that of Stock- 2. David Smeyers: might expect quaint group younger 'The hausen and Henze open-minded den concert-goers exposed to La valse), incensed at is, relatively speak- clarinettist(Helmut this incursion of such a 'modernist' work into the ing, an unfamiliar area in Britain today, Lachenmann's festival. The audacity of Ensemble Modern in pro- despite many of the composers' having a major rep- clarinet)',in The Clarinet 16 gramming this work alongside the uncontroversial utation all around Europe and elsewhere as well as (1989). sample of 'good composition' provided by Thomas in their native country. The modernistic develop- 3. These are 'The Adds's Chambersymphony came in for particular crit- ments of the 1950s had a special potency for young Beautifulin music icism. Clearly Lachenmann, even after well over Germans, distrustful of the conventions of the past, today',in Tempo, no.135 (December of work, retains the potential to provoke which could be seen to have been tainted by the cul- thirty years and 'On and unsettle the to bear ture from which a culture which 1980), fragile assumptions brought they originated, structuralism', in in of on contemporary music. culminated genocide. The critical tradition Contemporary Music This was not by any means the first airing of German aesthetic thought, encompassing such fig- Review, vol. 12 Lachenmann's work in Britain: the Almeida and ures as Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Walter part 1(1995), Huddersfield festivals had made features Herbert Marcuse and more the latter a highly previously Benjamin, recently Jur- intricate and diffi- of his which had received less attention. Habermas has continued to inform much of the work, gen cult, but penetrating However, since the Meltdown concert, performances intellectual and cultural life of that country. An essay. Lachenmann's of the trio Allegro sostenuto (1986-88) have gener- almost mystical faith in Hegelian dialectics has pro- collected writings ated considerable interest, and a concert by the vided a hope for progress even after the devastation are published in Ensemble in the the of the war who was born in German as Helmut Composers' Sounding Century years. Lachenmann, Lachenmann --Musik 1998 season will include Mouvement (-vor der 1935, is a child of this era, and his ideas and work als existentielle Erstarrung) (1983-84.) are heavily influenced by this tradition. Erfahrung: Schriften It is all too easy to dismiss the work of Lachen- Lachenmann was then at first, like many of his 1996-1995, ed. Josef Hausler mann (or that of Dieter Schnebel, Mathias Spah- contemporaries, drawn towards the music of the (Wies- Nicolaus A. Huber and as musica 1950s serialists. He studied with Stockhausen baden, 1996). Any linger, others) neg- briefly translators out there in manner that the term was in and then with who was to ativa, the deprecatory Cologne, Luigi Nono, considering the used by Hans Werner Henze in his attack on these have a decisive impact upon his work. Nono's per- preparation of an composers. What is at play is the fact that Lachen- ception of an equation between musical and social English version mann's music forces the listener to confront and revolution, in distinction to other of this substantial socialistically- volume would be their from and inclined such as Hans Eisler, and aware- question ingrained expectations composers performing a great responses to music, in an attempt to extend and fur- ness of the social responsibility of the artist, were to service. I urge them ther illuminate one's powers of perception. This is be a profound influence on the young Lachenmann, to do so! far from mere nihilism, or a view of music as an but where Nono's work expanded from a post- simulacrum of a Webernian serial to such 4. This article is (inevitably redundant) fragmented language encompass in based on and alienated matter as the letters of condemned part society. polemical subject a lecture, 'Helmut To date, there has only been one major article resistance fighters, the recorded sounds of street Lachenmann and published in English on Lachenmann, by Elke Hoc- demonstrations or leftist texts such as those of Che other currents in German kings,1 and an article by David Smeyers looking at Guevara, Lachenmann wished instead to engage in a music', Lachenmann's clarinet Various shorter more fundamental examination of the con- which I gave on writing.2 political 7 1997 as have in CD and two of notations of abstract of February pieces appeared booklets, seemingly music, notes, part of the Redlands Lachenmann's own essays have been translated into sounds and their combinations. Lecture series at English.3 Hockings's article is a critical look at the Serialism on one hand, and the chance proce- Reading University. development of Lachenmann's aesthetic position, dures of John Cage on the other, had taken conven-

THE MUSICAL TIMES /JANUARY 1998 9 5. 'On structural- tional musical language apart, producing for Stock- sive use of unusual instrumental techniques, partic- ism', Further p.97. hausen an 'imaginary music of the stars'; for Cage ularly with stringed instruments. In live perfor- interestingdiscus- sounds had been freed from the sion of Lachenmann glue that had previ- mance, the unusuality and theatricality of these and serialism ously held them together. Lachenmann came to see techniques would draw attention to the concrete are included in serialism as a fundamentally historical phenomenon, nature of sound production (almost the polar oppo- Hockings,and also rather than a new universal lingua franca. site of the pure sound(s) of Cage and Feldman), just in ThomasKabisch: as Pierre Schaffer's original musique concrete used 'Dialectialcompos- In fact, a study of works fromthe 'classical'period of actual recorded - dialectical sounds, that could be readily associ- ing serialism,such as the CantoSospeso or Incontriby listening',which ated with the material world. Nono, Structuresor Marteau Boulez, is printedin the Luigi by Grup- booklet for Roland pen or Kontrapunkteby Stockhausen,reveals that the MANY OF LACHENMANN'Sworks Keller'sCD of the compellingquality of this music is not just derived from the 1950s to the earlier 1960s, piano music (col from the virtuous consistencywith which the self- such as Souvenir for chamber legno, AU 31813). imposed rules are adheredto - and work - but also (1959) at least as much from the wisdom with which the orchestra of woodwind, xylophone. 6. Froman inter- even with the aid of such a of rules - and lower use an serial lan- view between music, system piano strings, essentially Lachenmannand and in dialecticalcontact with it - constitutesa reac- guage and a relatively large degree of continuity, to Heinz-Klaus tion to existing social structures and the existing create a type of Nonoesque icy lyricism. The piano Metzger:'Fragen communicative'rules of the bourgeois aesthetic works Echo andante (1962) and Wiegenmusik (1963) und Antworten apparatusthey have created,and offers them resis- are as much concerned with after-effects and reso- (1988)', in Musik- tance - not rhetoricalbut actual- their just putting nances of sounds, those elements marginalised in Konzepte61/62. normalfunctioning out of action, indeed sometimes conventional writing, as with sounding notes them- HelmutLachenmann, even destroyingit. It was this resistanceto the estab- edd.: selves, a consideration that Lachenmann would Metzger, lished which constitutedthe strengthof these revo- RainerRiehn, return to in various works. The latter lutionaryaesthetic outbursts and accountedfor the subsequent p.123. also shows an beautyof these works at a time when the traditional piece early use of tonal fragments their in unfamiliar 7. ibid,p.123. concept of 'beauty'was regardedas highly suspect 'made strange' by being placed by most of these composers.5 contexts. The culmination of Lachenmann's early 8. Not been having comes in Les consolations (1967-68, able to attend the period perhaps Lachenmann also realised the of what rev. 1977-78) for 16 voices and a wild and premiereof this importance orchestra, work in Hamburg Cage had achieved, but believed the 'liberation of colourful work using phonemes and other funda- (January1997), I sound' to be an insufficient task for a composer; mental vocal units, that displays a love for and won- have discussed not indeed he was later to criticise Cage for wallowing in derment in the widest possible variety of sounds, it at length in these aesthetic wasteland: a for believers and and relates to works from the articles.For an 'an paradise comparable period by It is contention that Lachen- overview,see nonbelievers'.6 my Kagel, Schnebel, Ligeti, Berio, Bussotti and others. John Warnaby: mann's music is almost unthinkable had the Cage of One of the texts for this work was, Hans Christian 'Lachenmann's the Music of changes not occurred previously, as he Andersen's 'Das Madchen mit den Schwefelholzern', Das Madchenmit says: 'I also partake of Cage's fortune, however my which is also the basis for his recent of den stage-work Schwefelholzern', creative curiosity does not land there but takes off that name.8 in Tempo,no.201 from there.'7 For a in the New at a But the first work to demonstrate Lachenmann's (July 1997). composer World, certain distance from the war experience, it was pos- mature aesthetic ideas and techniques was temA sible to strike a thoroughly ambivalent view towards (1968) for voice, flute and cello (ex.1). The flute (musical) history; for Lachenmann a new musical makes much use of breath sounds and different language had to he built out of the ashes of the old, modes of blowing, speaking and singing into the with an ever-aware and critical eye towards the his- instrument, and key clicks, the vocal part involves a torical traces implicit in sounds, gestures and other plethora of vocal techniques (some anticipated in musical characteristics. Les consolations) with intricate motions of tongue Thus Lachenmann formulated the concept of and throat, and the cello has a marked scordatura, as 'verwiegerungen', which is often translated as 'rejec- well as being required to bow various pasts of the tion', 'refusal' or 'repudiation'. It was necessary to body of the instrument; the sounds produced range reject the conventions of the past, because of the from the wispy and ethereal to the grating and prim- associations I mentioned earlier. Music had become itive. This player also uses harmonic stops so as to rarefied, phantasmagorical, to use Adorno's term: a prevent a string vibrating when it is struck legno bat- work could become a fetishised commodity, praised tuto, the fingers of the left hand striking the string, for its transparency, for making invisible the circum- and often plays the same pitch on different strings, stances of its production on either composer's or sometimes simultaneously; the scordatura provides performer's part, music 'from the heavens' (my quo- different overtone combinations to the usual ones. tation marks). In contradistinction to this view, La- The piece mediates between these types of sounds chenmann set about the development of an 'instru- and more historically identifiable expressive ges- mental musique concrte'. He began to make exten- tures, with the latter gradually usurped by the for-

10 THE MUSICAL TIMES / JANUARY 1998 temA fur Fl6te, Stimme (Mezzosopran) und Violoncello/for Flute,Voice (Mezzo-Soprano)and Violoncello

ca. 60, aber immer flexibel Helmut Lachenmann(19681

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THE MUSICAL TIMES /JANUARY 1998 11 every conceivable manner except the standard one; espr. 3. nichste Bogenstellungunouffbllig vorbereiten the bow is applied both below and on the bridge, on stop*)(Doumfn)the frog, and to parts of the shell, the fingers of the left hand are rubbed against the strings, the strings are overbowed, and so on. Yet the piece is much more than an exemplification of a concept; Lachenmann is able to create intricate and fascinat- ing structural procedures through interplays, juxta- positions and transformations between sounds. Very c- stop notes or - occasionally clearly pitched interrupt accompany the long, ever-changing, lines of sound, in a manner not completely dissimilar to that achieved Stockhausen when ring-modulated i F by Spildus derBognh in Mantra. Dal niente uses as a h...... g...... u.ur 17Hdgtonge H. pitch vectors cross ,a,Abstrich"t; Bewegungyore Instrunent umgdkehr o wgl, A: outa BogenIr'ku.ppnam Frosch out don Stog, unbeweglichgeprstt, tlnk* fthrl a from to rol Doumennogeldurchs Bogenhoot. parameter spectrum pitched unpitched u A notes, running in tandem (though engaging in a dialectical relationship) with the pitch spectrum -ub,a different tgsrj itself. The clarinettist graduates between degrees of 'breathiness', from clear pitches to unpitched breaths. A melodic line performed without discernable pitches still however possesses con- a vie[ - ..... ics,outStogy toural characteristics, so it becomes ghostly D.uck. .to .. shadow of a musical line, or an oblique perspective thereof. Sometimes a continuous line of notes is Ex.3:Pression p.3 pre- Bogen stop so as to Bubho o sented, of which only fragments are pitched g produce a filtering effect. Guero, which was written in response to a com- mission from Alfons Kontarsky for a short piece re-invents the du am 1 using new techniques, completely ualbe uogel6npb DaummH chsin linkinFintcrspitunn 09 piano as a six-manual guero. The piece does not on the die irweils vorgoschriebrneStrocko im Bogtnhaor ab und ziehen contain a single note played keys: instead, dieson Tell der Bespannung untor Druck out don Saiton heroul bzw,zum St#9 herunter Lachenmann has the pianist scrape along the keys with the fingernails, and pluck in the gaps. Whereas Ex.3: Pression,p.3 the interactions and progressions in Pression and Dal niente were between sound-types. Guero is thoroughly physical and theatrical: the overall progres- sion in the piece is literally upwards, as the focus of the scraping graduates from the front of the white keys, onto their surface, then to the front of the black keys, to their surface, and finally onto the tun- 9. Lachenmannhas mer. Much is made of the correspondences between ing pegs. The closest the piece approaches to pitched consideredthe the voice and the 'vocal' qualities of the flute, in con- notes is at the end, where a couple of strings are dialecticalrelation- trast to the more earthbound instrument of the cello. plucked, but in front of the dampers in such a man- between struc- ship Lachenmann was not in this adverse to ele- ner as to a effect. ture and musical piece produce part-muted, part-ponticello of virtuosic but these are in materialat length; ments display, kept Ai this is discussed cheek by their contextualisation,9 as for example FTERTHE 'cleansing' experience of these extensivelyin 'On when one particularly virtuosic passage is violently works, Lachenmann was able to embark structuralism'. wrenched apart (ex.2). At other points, the music on a major ensemble piece even more dis- moves in and out of silence, or some unheard back- sected than temA, his first string quartet ground continuum. Gran torso (1971, rev. 1976, 1988). An elaborate Three crucially important solo works that fol- counterpoint is set between the four players, each of lowed, Pression (1969) for cello, Dal niente (Interieur which has scordatura. All the types of techniques III) (1970) for clarinet and Guero (1970, rev. 1988) employed in Pression are made use of here, and nu- for piano exemplify in an archetypal manner merous others besides: for example the tension peg Lachenmann's concerns of the time. In each, non- on the bow is used to pluck the strings, resulting in standard instrumental techniques form in part the a sound a little reminiscent of the sitar. With this raison d'etreof the piece. In Pression (ex.3), the cel- work, Lachenmann managed to consolidate his new list is called upon to play the instrument in almost type of notation (ex.4), which served most subse-

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THE MUSICAL TIMES /JANUARY 1998 13 S- nA------( • )

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14 THE MUSICAL TIMES /JANUARY 1998 quent string writing. Amongst the many new sym- bols devised is the 'bridge'clef, which signifies the position of the bow between the bridge and the tailpiece, and the use of 'virtual'dynamics. These are used to signify the dynamic a player would achieve were they to play the instrumentin a normal man- (SELECTION) ner; however, the fact that, for example, they are bowing the wood of the instrument makes the of thus creat- sounding dynamiconly a fraction this, Writings 1962-96 ing a disjunctionbetween historicallyderived phys- Musik als existentielle ical action and resultant sound, another way of Erfahrung Essays, Interviews, Work Commentaries drawingattention to the natureof sound creation. 480 pages, music examples, hard cover The work is quite sectional, with differenttech- ISBN3-7651-0247-4 f37.70 niques predominantin differentsections, though in the earlier part of the work the progress is from Orchestrad orks (Scores) many sonic and gestural types towards a fixation upon certainelements, such as grindingsounds pro- 0 Accanto PB 5109 f27.70 duced by excessive bow pressure or regularrhyth- S Air PB 5110 f18.45 mic patterns.The viola, traditionallythe least promi- N Ausklang PB 5168 f56.15 nent memberof the quartet(and the butt of so many a Harmonica PB 5117 f27.70 jokes) has an especiallyprominent part. Around half M Kontrakadenz BG 876 f27.70 the work seems to to a and way through grind halt, Mouvement PB 5152 f27.70 the viola has a long solo, mostly on the tailpiece,on 0 Notturno PB 5405 f20.75 the threshold of audibility (ex.5). Another level of . 'virtuality'is providedby the temporubato indication i Staub PB 5177 f26.15 is to Tableau PB 5416 f18.45 during the sustained sound; this hardly likely i be perceptible to a listener, but has an important i Tanzsuite mit effect on the psychology of the performer.The piece Deutschlandlied PB 5114 f32.30 attains only a partialrecovery from this state of sta- sis for the conclusion. Lachenmann continues to r Musi work upon and subvertone's expectations; the sheer SChain 0 Sostenuto 2407 length, combinedwith the intensity,of the viola solo Allegro KM f20.40 exceeds the dimensionsthat would make it palatable E Dal niente BG 866 f9.25 as mere 'exotica'(as in Lachenmann'sattack on 'the M Gran Torso of hedonists, sonor- Score KM 2233 f18.45 cheap pretensions avant-garde Parts KM 2261 f23.85 ity-chefs, exotic-meditationistsand nostalgia-mer- 0 Pression BG 865 f5.40 chants'10)and elsewherethe judicious timing of sud- den fortissimoscome just at the right point to pre- N Salut fijr Caudwell EB8399 f14.60 vent the mind from being lulled into submission. II.String Quartet KM2410 ?30.00 All of these works can be considered'beautiful' if N temA BG 737 f13.10 one is preparedto accept Lachenmann'srethinking N Trio fluido BG 648 f14.25 of the nature of 'the Beautiful'.Beauty is indeed a defined which has meant historically phenomenon Music different things to people from different eras. For "oPiano Lachenmann,beauty was not the business of false H Echo Andante BG 735 f10.00 images, idealisations:in one of his most daringutte- SGuero EB 9018 ?5.40 he declaresthat 'The of the Beau- rances, experience •i Ein Kinderspiel EB8275 ?9.25 tiful is indissolubly connected with making percep- i Five Variations tible the social contradictionsin our because reality: on Franz Schubert BG 1033 ?6.90 to make them is to make them surmoun- perceptible Wiegenmusik BG 734 table.'11I often hear people denounce Lachenmann's ?5.40 S• music as joyless, academic and depressing.For my own I find the lifeless and watering- part, recycling further information, please contact down of musical cliches or the tedious SFor spinning-out our UK Representative Robin Winter of surfaces that one finds in many of the younger Phone 01263 768 732, Fax 768 733. British composers'work (though the second criti- ' cism can also be applied to much contemporary Frenchmusic) a much more experience. downlifting Breitkopf H rtel

THE MUSICAL TIMES /JANUARY 1998 15 ftirEduard Brunner - in Freundschaft- Accanto Musikfir einen Klarinettistenmit Orchester

HelmutLachenmann (1975/76)

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10. 'The Beautifulin Lachenmann's music, by contrast, is I think a very entry serves to heighten their impact. Schwang- music today',p.22. positive experience, enabling one to find stimulation kungen am Rand is indeed a bleak work which itself 11. ibid., p.23 or tenderness in unforeseen ways. teeters on the brink of becoming a very arid music Soon afterwards, Lachenmann wrote Schwang- indeed; perhaps it was this factor that led Lachen- 12. It is interesting am Rand title one could mann to conclude this first of that Lachenmann kungen (1974-75) (a imag- phase his musical ine used for a work of has hardlyever used being Hans-Joachim Hespos, development and introduce new considerations. electronicdevices or for which there are many translations, from 'Tee- instruments.This tering on the brink' to 'Peripheral vacillations'), for N THE1970S, many German composers were he because might an orchestra consisting mainly of brass and strings, beginning to re-examine their musical history. their technological with the natureserves to dis- though important addition of two pianos After decisively rejecting the tradition that had tance the sound and two electric guitars. The players are placed liter- preceded them, it became time to enter into a fromits means of ally 'on the edge' of the audience. This piece would critical re-engagement with the past. Lachenmann productionto a seem to be a turning point, consisting as it seems to realised the impossibility of ignoring the historical greaterdegree than of an articulation of the of coherent connotations of even that so removed is the ease with con- impossibility any music, ventionalinstru- musical discourse. It is a sparse work in which dis- from convention as his own, and that to shut out the mental usage. embodied sounds, within a sea of silence, struggle to past was analogous to an attempt to forget history, come together, resulting often in empty repetition. and thus be condemned to repeat its mistakes. The The use of the electric guitars is an important addi- breakthrough work in this respect was the clarinet tional sonic category previously excluded from the concerto Accanto (1975-76) which enters into a dia- vocabulary of 'serious' music.12 Of course logue with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto. The Mozart Lachenmann was not the first person to do this; work is recorded on a tape, which is then played however, his immense skill in 'framing' the sound of back at the same time as the soloist and orchestra the guitars by the contextualisation of their first play. However, the tape part is notated in the score

16 THE MUSICAL TIMES /JANUARY 1998 using the position on the staves to indicate volume (ex.6). It thus contains notes of specified volume and duration,which are usually short, so that only very brief fragmentsor snatches of harmony of the Mozartcan be discerned.The soloist and orchestra's 3(a!.($) , music builds upon Lachenmann'sprevious work, 2- with a long section in regularsemiquavers, extend- one of the ideas in am ing Schwangkungen Rand; -- these are variously fragmented,distorted and over- laid with other material(ex.7). The orchestration,as in all of Lachenmann'sworks for largeforces, is truly bJIn 4. ..Cc spectacular;uninterested in any type of wash of sound or other forms of hazy phantasmagoria, Lachenmann'swriting demonstratesfantastic clarity, -..=fffnT ,~m-,?c with hardly a detail that cannot be heard in a good performance,even the most minute and seemingly ,,, peripheralsounds. 2 •:r I • Around two-thirds of the way through, a tuba II? I l ? player literallyyells out 'B1TTEBRAZU DAS ZITAT' (Please play the extract), and the tape is turned up, unaccompaniedby the players, for several seconds, longer than at any point previously(ex.8). A percus- Az-a sionist then picks up on the beat from the tape just before it fades out again, to provide a link into the section. From this onwards the following point V6 music seems to become harsherand more grotesque, with the soloist speaking or groaning into their instrumentas well as ,playingit. The net result can also be but is from -a bleak, surely essential -3--4. ,,i Lachenmann'spoint of view to temper any senti------.- ments of nostalgiawith their opposite extreme,thus --. avoiding the pitfalls besetting many other works making use of quotation, which appeal to an audience primarilybecause they enable on to bask in the Ex.8: Accanto,p.47 familiarThe effect of the work is to 'objectify'both Lachenmann's'composed' music and the Mozart. ber of different levels. Occasional melodic fragments Music examples are The particularityof each is made apparentby virtue are obliquely (by the type of distancing and filtering ? Breitkopf & Harteland of its contrast from the other. Lachenmann has techniques I spoke of in the context of Dal niente) reproducedby that his was less of the Mozart related to both the Clarinet Concerto and to other explained critique kind permission work itself than of the cultural role it had come to works of Mozart, whilst the large-scale structure of assume, thus necessitating a degree of irreverence. the work bears a certain resemblance to a classical Mozartalso inhabitsthe composed music on a num- concerto, but turned inside out.

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THE MUSICAL TIMES /JANUARY 1998 17