lunes, 17 de septiembre de 2007

Espcial Helmut Lachenmann #1


Lachenmann obliga al escucha a confrontar y cuestionar sus expectativas y respuestas en torno a la música. Esto para extender los poderes de la percepción. Esto está lejos del nihilismo, o de una vision de la música como un simulacro de una sociedad alienada y fragmentada.

Lachenmann se inserta en una generación de alemanes que desconfían de las convenciones del pasado, vinculándolas al genocidio. Esta generación ha sido influida por el pensamiento de Adorno, Horkheimer, Benjamin, Marcuse y Habermas.

Lachenmann estudió serialismo con Stockhausen. Luego Nono tuvo un impacto decisivo en Lachenmann. Su percepción sobre la relación entre la revolución social y la musical; su vision de la responsabilidad social del artista llegaron a lo más profundo de Lachenmann. Las ideas de Nono de usar en su música fragmentos de cartas y audios de personajes y hechos de resistencia social como marchas o discursos politicos, fue tomada por Lachenmann en una visión más fundamental: las connotaciones políticas de la música abstracta, de las combinaciones del sonido.


Del creador.

Esto aprendí entre los mortales como la más grande maravilla

Que no existían ni la tierra ni el cielo

Que no había un árbol ni una montaña

Tampoco estrellas, y el sol no brillaba

Ni la luna brillaba, ni existía el glorioso mar

Cuando no había nada, ni fines ni limites

Sólo existía el Dios Todopoderoso

De todos los seres el de mayor gracia

Buenos espíritus, y Dios es sagrado


Dios todopoderoso, creador del cielo y la tierra y quien has dado tanto a los Buenos hombres, en tu gracia otórgame la Buena voluntad, sabiduría y fuerza para resistir demonios, evitar el mal y hacer tu voluntad.



Texto usado por Lachenmann para Consolation II (text from the Wessobrunner Gebet [9th century German prayer (modern German translation)]), 16 mixed voices, 1968. Hans Zender, Ensemble Aisthesis, and Schola Heidelberg

Sobre la belleza según Lachenmann

"LACHENMANN: Yes. Tonality was something that wasn't rejected, but had to be overcome. We have to find new antennae in ourselves, to listen more, and this is a wonderful adventure of discovery. For me, my music has as much beauty as any conventional music, maybe more. Beauty is a precious idea. I want to liberate this term from the standardized categories. I'll give you a little example. I used to teach children, and I presented them the music of Stockhausen, etc. They said that it wasn't beautiful, they didn't like it. I asked them what they liked, what they thought was beautiful, and they first hesitantly named some pop music. The next week, I went there and brought two pictures with me. One was an attractive photograph of the movie star Sophia Loren. The other was a drawing by Albrecht Dürer, who had drawn a picture of his mother: very old, with a long nose, and bitter looking face. She had a hard life, and her face was full of wrinkles. I showed the two pictures and asked "Who is more beautiful?" They were totally confused, and then came the wonderful answer I'll never forget - it was the highlight of my life. A girl said "I think the ugly one is more beautiful". This is the dialectical way. Looking at this picture, one feels the precise observation of her son. Not to make it more beautiful, not idealized, just showing it. It was full of intensity. To me, as important as beauty is the word intensity. I search for this in music."

“Beauty as the rejection of habit”, a maxim that has long been valid for the composer, Helmut Lachenmann

De la musica negativa.

(término musica negativa, en el sentido peyorativo en el que lo usó Hans Werner Henze para criticar la música de Lachenmann)

"I'm allergic to the idea that my music is rejection. Did Schoenberg reject tonality because he made atonal music? No. He was going with what he had learned from tradition. The whole direction of occidental music is going on from tradition by provocation. Provoking humankind to new experiences. This is human, this is beautiful, this is serene, and it requires the participation of the listener in this adventure. Provocation in this sense is not a negative thing. Society's laziness creates these polemical situations. I've had such scandals because of these thoughts, where people were angry because, on the one hand they love music, and this was a music they couldn't follow, they were lost, and on the other hand, they preferred a comfortable way of thinking about music. Maybe they need such comfort, because they are full of fear in everyday life, there are so many catastrophes. Going to an opera or concert hall, they don't want to be confused. But I think in that situation, you shouldn't have fear of being confused. You should be glad to be confused. It's the most active way to live. Confusion is to discover oneself in a new way. This is my dialectic of provocation and beauty, and music as a great and wonderful adventure. I like to speak of music in positive terms. I was so happy when you asked me if it's not music, what is it then. This is a question we should cultivate. I wait for pieces that bring me to this existential question."

Sobre la ópera La niña de los cerillos.

"It is a piece of amazing power, all originating from unlikely text sources, including the classic Andersen fairy tale, some of Nietzsche’s most famous poetry, a text about the volcano Stromboli by Leonardo da Vinci, and a prison letter from Gudrun Ensslin, Lachenmann’s childhood friend. These combine to make a compelling statement about the world today, a pointed but oblique criticism of a world which cares not enough for its people. The protagonist’s suffering is constantly felt throughout the piece, but never is it a detriment or nuisance; quite on the contrary, the listener is drawn into her struggle for life against the elements. The enormous orchestral forces, including more than 100 players, further create this eerily familiar yet frightening world. It is a work difficult to produce because of the music’s inherent theatricality, but a piece chilling even in one’s living room. The addition of the Japanese shô mouth organ, famous for its lament-like, sustained tone, creates a further level of drama and fright in this score."


Playlist del miercoles 8 y domingo 12 de agosto del 2007:

  1. Allegro sostenuto. clarinet (+ bass clarinet), cello, piano, 1986-88, revised 1989 Bernhard Wambach, David Smeyers, Michael Bach (hasta el 6:23)
  2. Consolation II (text from the Wessobrunner Gebet [9th century German prayer (modern German translation)]), 16 mixed voices, 1968 (also incorporated into Les Consolations); Les Consolations (texts by Hans Christian Andersen [translation from the Drömersche Verlangsanstalt], Ernst Toller, the Wessobrunner Gebet), 16 mixed voices, large orchestra (76 players), 6 tapes, 1977-78. Hans Zender, Ensemble Aisthesis, and Schola Heidelberg
  3. Ein kinderspiel (7 small pieces), 1980. Bernhard Wambach
  4. Staub für Orchester (1985-87) Südwestfunk Baden-Baden
  5. Ópera. La niña de los cerillos. Chorale prelude ''O du fröliche'' (Joyous night) Recorded 5-8 July 2001. Staatsoper Stuttgart, Lothar

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