Transcript Week 6 - Alexander Sigman | composer

Contemporary Composition Seminar
Fall 2012
Instructor: Prof. SIGMAN
Thursday 14:00-16:00
Lecture VI
0. Administrata
• Assignment II: due 내 일!
• Midterm Exam: 11 월 01 일
• Review: 10 월 25 일
?’s?
I. Prescriptive (규정하는) vs.
Descriptive (기 술적인) Notation
A. Prescriptive Scoring
• Set of performance instructions (명령)
• No clear indication of sounding result (결과)
• E.g., Lachenmann, Pression and Guero
B. Descriptive Scoring
• Indication of sounding result, without a clear
indication of how to produce the sounding
result
• OR:
• The ideal interpretation (이상적인 성능) of
the piece, which may or may not be possible
to achieve
• E.g.: electronic works such as Stockhausen’s
Studie II and Xenakis Mycenae alpha; also
Xenakis, Evryali
C. Prescriptive or Descriptive?
• Most repertoire that we will study contains
both prescriptive and descriptive elements
• 우리가 공부하게 될 대부분의 레퍼토리가
규정하는과 설명을 모두 요소를 포함.
II. Critical Music III: Cardew and
Kagel
A. Cornelius Cardew
1. Bio
• (1936-1981)
• 영국 사람
• Performed on guitar (기 타) in the premiere of
Boulez’ Le Marteau sans maître (learned
guitar for this occasion)
• 1958-60: assistant to Stockhausen (and
actually composed Stockhausen’s Carré)
• Maoist/leftist politics
• Killed by MI5 agent?
2. Context: 영국, 1960s-70s
Common Associations
World War II: Bombings
(Coventry, ca. 1945)
Cold War
Radical Visual Art and Cinema
Student Protests/Social Change
Musical Experimentalism and
Institutionalised Music: Gavin
Bryars and the Portsmouth
Sinfonia
• “Popular” classical music as found source
material (재 료)
• The Orchestra as material
• Performance experience/physical effort as a
musical parameter (“uncontrolled variables”)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpJ6anurf
uw
Leading Questions
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Music, institutions, and professionalism
The role of the composer
The role of notation
Collective musical experience and democracy:
the role of improvisation
Music, value, “cheapness,” and capitalism
The institutionalisation of the avant-garde
High culture vs. low culture and society
Music new music be “good” music?
3. The Scratch Orchestra
John Cage Influence
• In 1958, Cardew first attended concerts of
John Cage and David Tudor
• Introduced the music of Cage, Feldman, La
Monte Young, Christian Wolff and others to
English audiences in the 1960s
• Graphic scores
• Indeterminate notation
• Composer and intention
Improvisation: the AMM
• Cardew joined the AMM, an improvised music
collective, in 1966
• Spontaneous, unplanned ensembles
• Collective decision-making
• Any musicians could join performances
• Unconventional playing techniques
• Unconventional instruments
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iDLmFLQ
I-I
Scratch Orchestra Origins
• Founded in 1969 by Cardew and Howard
Skempton
• Members: musicians (students) and nonmusicians (not ONLY specialists)
• Performed original compositions, popular
classics, “Scratch music” (group structured
improvisations), and improvisation “rituals”
Scratch Orchestra “Constitution”
Ideals
• Group ritual (의 식) via improvisation
• Text scores and graphic scores that nonmusicians could read and create
• Importance of the image
• Anti-academic perspective
• Collective experience
• Intersection of musical practices
• Use of unconventional, cheap (싼), and
homemade instruments/electronics
Not Necessarily “English” Music
• Compilation of experimental English music
from 1960-1977
• Includes recordings of Scratch Orchestra
performances
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9weaMqZ
kH4w
4. Treatise (1963-67)
• During this time, Cardew worked as a graphic
designer (그래픽 디자이너) for a publisher
• 193-page score; 1 continuous line
• Notation: geometric elements “treated” to
distortion processes
• For any instrument or group of instruments
• NOT a descriptive score: abstract relationships
formed and maintained between symbol and
musical material
Treatise: Score and Performance
Examples
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9nR903Bdcs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dy-k678En4I
5. The Great Learning (1968-71)
• Texts: Confucius, translated by Ezra Pound
• In 7 “Paragraphs”
• Musical situations described and instructions
provided
• For musicians and non-musicians
• Voices, organ, percussion instruments
• Communal, ritual experience
• Performed by The Scratch Orchestra
Great Learning Score
• Simple melodic and rhythmic patterns
• Repeated texts
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d84yl3Zvdo
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4. Music about Politics
• In 1974, Cardew wrote a book entitled
Stockhausen serves Imperialism (제국주의)
• Maoist critique of Stockhausen and Cage
“We sing for the future!” and other
songs (노래)
• In the 1970s, Cardew focused on writing music
for the people (popular song), rather than only
by the people (collective experiences)
• Marxist/Maoist texts
• Clear political messages
• Renaissance English music influences
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eed1xXeD
ElI
B. Mauricio Kagel
1. Bio
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(1931-2008)
Born in Argentina, immigrated to Germany
Worked in Cologne
Highly influential on 2 generations of (mostly
German) composers
• Known for work in music theatre
• Absurdism (부조리) and humour (유머)
2. Instrumental Theatre: Match
(1964)
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“Contest” (경기) between 2 cellists
Referee (심판) = percussionist
Extremely difficult cello parts
Music about music
Match Score and Film
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8hnJzwI3-fs
3. Theatre of the Absurd:
Staatstheater (1967-70)
• For chorus, orchestra, corps de ballet (of nondancers)
• Satire (풍자 코메디) of the conventions of
opera and theatre
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuM8sYuZ
Pp8
4. Historical Music: Ludwig van
(1970)
• What happened in 1770?
• Film
• As in Lachenmann’s Accanto: the banality
(진부) of Classical music in contemporary
culture
• Endless repetition and distortion of Beethoven
themes = endless, meaningless repetition and
distortion of performers
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=play
er_embedded&v=_-KoEofNim4#!