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March 30, 2009
Mauricio Kagel, "Der Schall"
-- Liner Notes --Der Schall (1968)
for five players (with 54 instruments)
Side A (14'18)
Side B (23'02)
Cologne Ensemble for New Music:
I. Edward H. Tarr
II. Vinko Globokar
III. Karlheinz Bottner
IV. Wilhelm Bruck
V. Christoph Caskel
Production: Karl Faust
Artistic Supervision: Mauricio Kagel
Recording Engineer: Justus Liebig
Recording Place: Studio Rhenus, Godorf bei Koln. (5. und 6. November 1969)
Formation of players during the recording session:
Design: Holger Matthies. Hamburg
Composers are still weighed down by the implicit yet definite need to write works for as familiar an instrumentarium as possible-lest the number of performances should be limited and keep the music from spreading as desired. However, reproduction by tape or record has reduced the importance of these traditional views, since the reproducibility of musical ideas by means of instruments or instrument-like music props no longer depends on a music that is "playable". It's rather the other way round: "unplayable" music may nowadays avail itself of mechanical repetition ad libitum. It seems paradoxical that in music which would ultimately lead to the abolition of public musicmaking the performer can expect to enter into a more active and lively cooperation.
The selection of instruments in "Der Schall" (= "sound" as defined in physics) resulted from the wish to arrive not at an utilitarian but at an almost imaginary ensemble, one which hardly occurs in "real life". It was decided beforehand never to repeat combinations of instruments in this composition. The principle applied throughout was: each instrument could only be used for a certain period of time. Furthermore: the number of different periods should correspond to at least half the instrumentarium, the duration of the longest period not exceeding a third of the total duration of the piece.
The five players of "Der Schall" have the following instruments at their disposal:
I. Foghorn, spaghetti tube with trumpet mouthpiece, straight cornet, C-trumpet, baroque trumpet (clarino), plastic tubing with ringed joints, tromba da tirarsi, short tube with plastic funnel, 20 meters of garden hose with plastic funnel, antilope horn, various mutes and mouthpieces.Mauricio Kagel was born in Buenos Aires on December 24th 1931. Musical training and varied activities on behalf of new music in Buenos Aires. In Europe since 1957, lives in Cologne. Has worked at the electronic studios in Cologne, Munich and Utrecht. 1960-66 lecturer at the International Summer Courses for New Music at Darmstadt. 1965 Slee Professor of Composition at the State University of New York in Buffalo. 1969 Director of the Institute for New Music at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne and of the "Cologne New Music Courses". Conductor, stage and film director, principally of his own works. Extensive lecture and recital tours in Europe and America.
II. Conch trumpet, pandean pipe, 2 posthorns, hand-drum as mute, double foghorn, plastic tubing with connection piece, plastic tubing with ringed joints, trombone, various mutes and mouthpieces, nafir.
Ill. Low jew's harp, sitar, banjo, octave guitar, stoessel lute, rubberphone (rubber bands to be plucked), various gloves, bowing and plucking requisites.
IV. 6-12 organ pipes (mixtures) to be blown by mouth, 2 pandean pipes, taishokoto, ocarina, Kimuan violin (Kimuanyemuanye) bass balalaika, bass mouth-organ, 2 brass tubes, various bowing and plucking requisites.
V. Bell-board (eight bells fixed to a board, to be bowed only), genuine Cagniard de la Tour siren (blown siren with frequency measuring device), cuckoo (a short of seesaw with two bellows, each adjustable in pitch),4 tortoiseshelIs, nose-flute, bassdrum, telephone, 2 brass tubes, 1 musical box.
Works: String Sextet (1953), Transicion II for piano, percussion and two sound tapes (1957-58). Anagrama for four solo voices. speaking chorus and chamber ensemble (1957-58). Transicion I for electronic sounds (195-60). Sur Scene, chamber music theatre piece (1959-60), Sonant for guitar, harp, double-bass and membranophone instruments(l960), Pandora's Box, bandoneon piece (1960), Metapiece (Mimetics) for piano (1961). Heterophonie for orchestra (195961). Improvisation Ajoutee for organ (1961/62), Antithese, composition for electronic and public sounds (1962). Die Frauen, a feminine play for voices and instruments (l962/64), Phonophonie, four melodramas for two voices and other sound sources (196-64), Match for three players (1964). Diaphonie for chorus, orchestra and diapositive projections (1964), Tremens, scenic montage of a test (196345), Pas de cinq, transformation scene for five performers (1965). Die Himmelsmechanik, composition with stage scenes (1965), Camera Obscura, chromatic piece for light sources with actors (1965), Music for Renaissance Instruments (196546), String Quartet (196-67). Kommentar & Extempore, monologue with gestures (196667). Variaktionen for singers and actors (1967). Hallelujah for voices (1967-68), Phantasie for organ with obbligati (1967), Montage for various sound sources (1967), Der Schall for five players (1968). Synchronstudie for singer, noisemaker and film projection (1968), Privat for lonely listener(s) (1968), Ornithologica Multiplicata for exotic and indigenous birds (1968). Acustica for experimental sound-requisites generators and loudspeakers (1968-70), (Radio Play) Ein Aufnahmezustand (1969), Ludwig van, Hommage from Beethoven (1969), Klangwehr for marching military band (1969/70), Tactil for three (1969170). Films: Antithese (1965). Match (1965/66), Solo (1967), Duo (1968) Hallelujah (1968), Ludwig van
(1969).
Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by newmusicrebloggers on Mar 30, 2009 at 02:11 PM