Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection Author(s): Elke Hockings Source: Tempo, New Series, No.

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Elke Hockings
Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection

is made palatable. On the European continent, Lachenmann'smusic is more or less successfully The eminent Germancomposer Helmut Lachen- merchandizedby means of a highly philosophic mann enjoys an exalted reputationamong a small vernacular. This dialectic rhetoric has seldom music enthuscircle of Englishcontemporarymusic enthusiasts. been attractiveto English-speaking To the wider English music public, though, he is iasts. Against the music lovers' inclination for little known.1 There are hardly any compre- loosely-linked literary metaphors, English hensive accounts of Lachenmann in English.2 speaking academia in general appears to be His consciously elusive compositional style plagued by a bad conscience. It strives for the could even be introducedto the Englishaudience positivist's rhetoric, full of factual information as 'old-guard avantgarde'3 without being and one-dimensionallogic (this understandingof logic excludes the most stimulating logic of challenged at all. The apparent confusion about Lachenmann's oppositions). There is a general resistance to music in English-speakingcountriesis somewhat anything that is by definition ambiguous: for His persistently unusualandchallenging example, the aesthetic experience.4 surprising. On the other hand, English music literature instrumentaltreatments - often associated with modernism - can be only one reason for this is less filled with home-made philosophical hesitantAnglo-American reception.Compositions speculations than its German counterpart. One that explore unusual sounds are by no means would be hardpressed, for example, to find in an uncommon in these parts of the world. The English article an argument that builds on such problems might stem less from the disposition of monstrous universalities as 'art worthy of its Lachenmann's music than from the way his music name is . . .: 1. German-English-Modern
l One onlyneedsto compare theEnglish andGerman version of the Heritage serieseds. MichaelRaeburn, Alan of Music co-eds.FelixAprahamian, Wilfried Mellers Kendal, (Oxford: OxfordUniversity who did not Press,1989).Lachenmann, feature at all in the originalEnglishversion,was given due counterpart. respectin its German 2 is listedin English Lachenmann as Although encyclopedias articles havebeen earlyas 1974,only threeof Lachenmann's so far.Oneof these,'Die Sch6nheit translated intoEnglish und die Sch6nt6ner. Zum Problem musikalischer Asthetik heute', in Tempo 135 (December 1980)as 'The"beautiful" appeared in musictoday'.The thirdarticle,'On Structuralism', wasto appearin the summerof 1994. Selectedstatements by the in English in thecomposer wereoffered translations composer HelmutLachenmann brochure (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf,11980, Various have 21986,31990). passages by andon Lachenmann in Englishas programme notes(e.g. Huddersfield appeared MusicFestival1986,Warsaw Autumn1979, Contemporary 1981, 1988, 1991) or as record/CD notes. Three English DavidSmeyers and articles Freeman, by Robin JohnWarnaby are held at Breitkopf& Hartelin Wiesbaden. Only David waspublished, in anAmerican account The Smeyer's journal,

... art worthy of its name should also always have a futuristic, utopian character . . . (Walter Gieseler)5

... artworthy of itsname. . . wants to be morethanan

art work . . . (Rudolf Stephan)6 ... That means conclusively that every art work

newto theuniverse of itsnameaddssomething worthy

... (Konrad Boehmer)7

The gusto invoked by a phrase like this exhibits - if nothing else - the speaker's selfconfidence. As if he knew what art is! Does the
4 The authorcan ensurethe support of an Englishopinion.

See Christopher Fox, 'British Music at Darmstadt 1982-92', Tempo186 (September 1993), p.25. 5 im 20. Jahrhundert. Details - Zusammenhdnige Komposition (Celle: Moeck Verlag, 1975), p.3, trans. E.H. All translations are by E.H.; original German omitted only to conserve space. 6 'Uber Schwierigkeiten der Bewertung und der Analyse Clarinet.A number of performance and CD review articles neuester Musik', Vom musikalischenDenken. Gesammelte have appearedin Englishlanguagedaily newspapers and Vortrage, eds. Rainer Damm, Andreas Taub (Mainz: Schott's music periodicals.Two of 23 recordingsare presently Sohne, 1984), p.350. Classical Catalogue available, according to the Gramophone (the 7 'Wider der Strategie der Verinnerlichung(Zur kompositorstill does not list any). Opuscatalogue Boehmer. Das ischen Methodik und Asthetik) (1990)', Konrad 3 GeorgeBenjamin, brochure Meltdown (South bi;se Ohr. Texte zur Musik 1961-1991, ed. Burkhardt Soll programme BankCentre,London18-25 July1993),n.p. (Cologne: DuMont, 1993), p.225.

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HelmutLachenmann's Concept of Rejection 5 valuable attempt to tell justify the method of excluding what is supposedly not worthy? Generalizationsin the vein of German versus English or dialectical versus positivistic do not help to clarify what may be seen more as disjoining tendencies rather than as opposing facts. Making a case for the differences between GermanandEnglishwaysof verbalcommunication in music-writingsemphasizesthe need to understand the German attributes in Lachenmann's language, and to separate German modernist rhetoric from Lachenmann's individualconcepts. Only then can one start understanding these concepts as complex, fascinating and even at times paradoxicalexpressionsof a creative mind. It would exceed the scope of this article to investigate comprehensively all of the apparent distinctions, but a few thoughts about some underlying German values might be helpful. Many German texts on contemporarymusic lose their rhetorical energy when translated into English. In their original German version, they gathered their main momentum out of a battle with an abstractenemy: society. This version of German idealism has infiltrated all strands of social communication. It has to be said that lingering German guilt about fascism and the two World Wars, the resistanceto overpowering state intervention in personal matters, the urge for salient individuality in a tightly controlled infrastructure, and the opposition to overconsumption in one of the richest countries of this world, are issues not shared to the same existential degree by Anglo-Americans. The continuous reference to German history and to the political world at large was able to fuel German modernist music aesthetics. The global issues that were meant to be present in human behavioural issues were, at their core, middleclassconventionalityand ignorance.Philosophical and political criticism moved onto a highly abstractlevel and became, inevitably, somewhat diluted by focussing on the symptoms of human behaviour rather than insisting on specific assessments of concrete political and economic realities. It has been said that a dose of sensual provocation will alert a criticalmind to whatever it is that might be wrong in this world. Unfortunately, the enemy has never been less abstractthan 'society'. The main regulatives of this society, namely the market and the resulting have never been targeted performance-pressure, (who, after all, would like to saw off the branch on which they are sitting?8) so the impact of
8 As Jiirg Stenzl has rightly pointed out in respect to the bourgeois model of the German new music industry, 'Tradition und Traditionsbruch', Die neue Musik und die

such protest has been very limited. Heinz-Klaus Metzger even claims that modernism never really existed.9 Not only were the objects of this criticism too abstract.An aesthetic aim that bows exclusively to the 'lord of specialized work'10 in that it celebrates detail, the intensity of the extreme and the effort to decipher multiplicity, cannot care about anything else. This is a fact, not a judgement. After all, the functions of music are manifold! Those composers (including Lachenmann) who wanted to combine social criticism with a sophisticated structuralismhave had to face the 20th-century dilemma: there is not enough scope for an individual person - and the aestheticexperience is foremost an individual one - to engage in both aesthetic sophistication and the solving of such global problems as, for in the ThirdWorld, ecological example, starvation disasteror Serbianmilitancy.Germanmodernism has defensively ridden the horse of guilt a touch too noisily, while underrating the individual's decision-making ability. At the same time, one should never underestimate the enormous creative power that has resulted from this frustrationwith the undeniably poor state of the world. Moreover, the composerswho admittedto feelings of increasing powerlessness have retained a personal integrity that others, who appropriated various artistic styles from the fashions of the day, have not. In assessing theoretical writings of modernist composers the task is to cut through this honourable frustration,without minimizing the global problems,while reflectingon inadequacies of language. Lachenmann'sverbal strategies are a heavily intertwined conglomerateof social, aesthetic and technical issues that can best be understoodwhen read against the German contemporary music
Tradition. Sieben Kongressbeitraqe utideine atialytische Studie, desInstituts Veroffentlichungen fiir Neue MusikundMusikziehungt

Darmstadt 19, ed. ReinholdBrinkmann(Mainz: Schott's Sohne,1978),particularly pp.94-97.

9 'K6olner Manifest 1991', Blickzuriuck tnach vort. einiBuch zur

eds. IngridRoschek,HeribertC. Ottersbach, paemoderne, ManosTsangaris (Cologne:Thiirmchen, 1992),pp.80-83. See from the social to 'flying everything pressure explain l0 .. intoan ethosof work',Lachenmann in an interview with Heinz-Klaus undAntworten MusikMetzger, 'Fragen (1988)',
Konzepte 61/62. Helmut Lachenmann, eds. Heinz-Klaus

Rainer Riehn(Munich: editiontext + kritik,1988), Metzger, pp.118-119. Morton 'I knownobodyexceptInyself Feldman: Similarly, who worksso intensely. . . But they (youngercomposers. theamount of workthatis necessary E.H.)do not understand to writea piece. . .', in '. . . wie eine Ausdiinnung derMusik durchTerpentin. MortonFeldman und lannis Xenakisin MusikTexte 52 (Jan.1994),pp.44-45. Gesprach',

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HelmutLachenmann's Concept of Rejection

Meanwhile, I find it more and more dull to formulate a kind of programme about my work ... my trust in language is receding. What happens in programme notes like this one is a manifold hiding of composers. The art consists of distinguishing the mask from the face. I do not exclude myself, because I feel that everything that we composers utter - in the silly perception that the verbal medium is more coherent than the aesthetic - is more or less the debris of sense and feelings. We throw them behind us in odd persecution mania in the hope of escaping control of this perplexity for which no magazine is responsible. (1980)11 This perplexity seems to have grown even greater, because in 1988 Lachenmann gave this

surprisinganswerto a question from Heinz-Klaus Metzger:

I am always turning around in circles, as you probably have realized, when I think about the relationship between material and intentions ... But nobody should ask me, how this mechanism of disturbanceand bringing to consciousnessreally functions and why this process of disturbancethrough structuralreinterpretation appears to be not only mere resistance but an expressive act. I believe in this mechanism, and the older I become the more I fly from the horrible social pressure to explain everything into a kind of ethos of work. (1988)12

Helmut Lachenmann (photo:CharlotteOswald)

scene of the last 25 years. This backgroundcould be outlined with the following key stages: Cage's appearance in Darmstadt in 1958, the 'Art and Politics' debate in the late 1960s/early 70s, Lachenmann's argumentwith FriedrichNeumann about the achievements of serialism in 1971, the revival of the aesthetic category of the beautiful (in reaction to Peter Michael Braun, 1975/76), of Lachenmann andWolfgang thejoint appearance Rihm in Darmstadt 1982, the Henze-debate about 'musica negativa' 1983, and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Generally, Lachenmann's aesthetic thoughts have been formulated against the backgroundof a wider paradigmaticshift: the problemsof employing the metaphorof structure were fully abandoned for the problematic metaphor of speech in the middle of the 1970s. Anyone who familiarizes himself with Lachenmann's verbal intentions is bound to recognize the obvious change in his rhetoric, from paradigmaticconviction to a more personal view. His early writings continually interwove social interpretations and personal accusations with logical arguments. Increasingly, though, Lachenmannhas admittedthat while his personal aesthetic philosophy stimulates him, the issue of music perception is finally 'left to the demons'. From the programme notes to Tanzsuitemit Deutschlandlied(1980) onwards, Lachenmann increasingly stresses the personal nature of his statements:

Despite the change in rhetoric, Lachenmann has formulated most effectively an approach to composition which relates to the structuralists' concept of rejection 13with a specific consideration of the 'aura'.14The following outline of
11programme brochure Donaueschinger 1980, Musikta,qe pp.22-23. 12 und Antworten', 'Fragen p.119-120.
13The label Verweigerungsmusiker has of rejection) (musician often accompanied musicians around1969 (andafter)who The in the vein of Lachenmann. composedand verbalized authoris thinkinghere of NicolausA. Huber, Friedhelm DieterSchnebel D6hl (around 1970),HansUlrichLehmann, (around1970) and Hans-Joachim Hespos (with different andmorerecentlyMathias motivations), Spahlinger political is the core But the conceptof rejection andGerhard Stabler. of any modernist thoughtgoingbackto the firsthalfof this ThomasMeyercoinedthe term century.More specifically, - to indicate of musical the familiarity 'Lachenmann-school' instrumental textures treatments, 'qualified' silence) (unusual - originally in a supplement of theTagesanzeiger (15. published 32 (Dec. 1989),p.53. MusikTexte Dec. 1989),partly reprinted Lachenmann hastriedto demonstrate thathe is not Naturally, joining the 'exploitingtourism'of estrangedinstrumental sounds.'Fragen und Antworten', p.133. 14The term 'aura'is supposedto describea phenomenon which is less concretelyassociablewith certainstructural thanthe term'meaning'. to the common Contrary paradigms in the term'aura' wasfirstmentioned by Adorno assumption, a letterto Walter (Feb.1940):'The termaura... Benjamin Walter . .' in Th. W. AdornoUber not fullythought through am Main:Suhrkamp, BenjaminFrankfurt 1970),p.160. It is becamea crucial backbone true,though,thatthe term'aura'

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HelmutLachenmann's of Rejection 7 Concept his concept of rejection is not exhaustivebut aims at specification. Otherwise, Lachenmann loses against generalities; as Tristan Murail put it recently: 'Every composer rejects, since every composer has choices'.15 It is important, in what follows, to keep in mind that, at least since 1982, Lachenmannhas denounced the concept of rejection.16 He repeatedly claims that this concept has been widely misunderstood.
The term [rejection, E.H.] is unfortunately not my

to the termof invention butusedby me ... in relation of habits; andthenthe whole beautyandof rejection
rubbish started. I then had to dig myself permanently out of all sorts of, even well meaning, interpretations ... (1992)17

Despite these denunciations, 'Je refuse le refus',18 Lachenmann spoke in 1990 about the 'good old days of estrangement',19 recalling the stimulating spirit of resistance that has certainly played a crucial part in his conceptualization.At the same time as his denunciationof rejection one can read, reassuringly,
The task of the composer finally implies the creation of a context which cleanses it [the sound, E.H.] and which gives it back its virginity under a new perspective. And this means less: to make, but to avoid, to exclude the self-evident, to invoke creative resistance. (1993)20

representativeproblems. Firstly,the reception of musicis alreadystronglyestablished Lachenmann's using 'well meaning interpretations'that do not necessarily reflect Lachenmann's own ideas. Secondly, his concepts have evidently undergone a development in the last 30 years. The same statement can mean different things at different times. Thirdly, even the most dedicated disciple of Lachenmann'smusic will have to admit that there are a number of issues that are not completely rational in Lachenmann'swritings. Hence, to follow Lachenmann's theoretical reflections requiresan awareness,not only of the German attributes and modernist language, but also of the irrationalities woven in the verbal expressionsof a living composer who had set out to, and succeeded in, writing original music. 2. The Development of Lachenmann'sConcept
of Rejection21

A 'Lachenmannconcept of rejection' cannot be simply extracted from Lachenmann'swritten words, nor can the silent consent of the composer be assumed.This particularissue ratherunearths
of Benjamin's argument in Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalterseiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp,

2.1 Provocation Against What? Lachenmann's questioningof social conditions is undoubtedly reflected in the provocative pose of his music. It reveals on the first encounter nextto an impression of seriousness anda somewhat exotic ingenuity - a strong sense of alternative thinking which is supported by his writings. He has the courage to verbalize experiences that are different from our everyday ones. This almost reminds one of enlightened religious elements and has been described - againstan undoubtedly different representationby Lachenmannhimself
- as Catholic.22

Musikinstitut No.810. Darmstadt,

17 Lachenmann in

absorbedthis term 1963), particularly p.18. Lachenmann throughGy6rgyLukacs's writings. 15Tristan talkto the concerton 25/07/ Murail,pre-concert - SouthBankCentre. 1993(Meltdown festival1993,London 21 See Peter Becker's general discussion of the concept of 18-25July 1993). 'Neue Musik zwischen Angebot und Verweigerung', rejection 16 In the open discussionswith Wolfgang Rihm at the Komponieren heute. Asthetische,soziolo,ische und paidagogische Darmstadt summer course1982,taperecording, Internationales Fragen.Sieben Beitraiqe, des Institutsfur Neue Ver6ffentlichung,en
Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt23, ed. Ekkehard Jost (Mainz: Schott, 1983), pp.24-37.
22 Frank Sielecki categorized Lachenmann as catholic in his PhD, 'Das Politische in den Kompositionen von Helmut Lachenmann und Nicolaus A. Huber', Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelm Universitat Bonn, Germany, 1991, unpublished. Sofia Gubaidulina referred to the music of Helmut Lachenmannto illustrate her idea of music's spiritual quality, 'The Hand of Fate', Composer to Composer. Conversations About Music,ed. Andrew Ford (St. Leonards: Allen & Contemporary Unwin Pty Ltd, 1993), pp.124-125. It might be noteworthy to point out that Lachenmanngrew up in a clergyman's household. Lachenmann's own view is expressed in the following statement, 'I am actually not a marxist, rather religiously minded - and at the same time full of doubts towards all' (1993), in the interview with Peter Szendy, 'Des paradis ephemeres', programme brochure Les FestivalD'Automnea Paris 1993, p.4.

Lachenmann's concept of rejection is most audibly an attitude of general provocation. His musical 'language'is, on the first encounter, that of an 'enfant terrible' who provides an aesthetic experience by means of an 'intense shock'.23

an interview with Christine Mast, Hessischer II (18 Feb.1992),14-page Rundfunk mss.,heldat Breitkopf,p.12. 18 Lachenmann in an interviewin Parisduringthe Festival D'Automne a Paris Radio (1 Oct. 1993,SalleOlivierMessiaen, and by Clytus France), reported by Anne Rey in Le Monde
derGegenwart, Gottwald, 'Helmut Lachenmann', Komponisten eds. Hanns-Werner Heister, Walter Wolfgang Sparrer (Munich: edition text + kritik, 4th subsequent delivery, 1994), n.p.
19 20

Sketchbook (rot;fest; gross)262 S., PaulSacherStiftung,n.p.

Lachenmann in an interview with Peter Szendy, 'Des paradis 6phemeres. Entretien avec Helmut Lachenmann', programme brochure FestivalD'Automnea Paris 1993. Helmut Lachenmann, p.5; trans from Lachenmann's German translation, n.p.

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s Concept HelmutLachenmann of Rejection

if you like: the hidden work. (1973)25

Regular sound-waves and an uninterruptedflow of soundsare suppressed.His continuousscorings of unusualinstrumentaltreatments,his expanded recourse to silence and statics, immediately stir the attention and create a suspensefulintensity of unfulfilled expectations. In the context of recent German discussions24 silence, equilibriumand quietness are celebrated as the ultimate modernist's rejection. They are used to refuse communication and to manifest defiance against the industrious performance of our century. Since Cage and Feldman,however, silence was not only understood as disruptionor confrontationbut also as an act of opening. The use of silence has extended the spatialdimensions within which the perception of musical motion proceeds. But there are certainlymore aspectsto silence and quietness. They demonstrate a composer's personality which could probably be described as self-critical. The modesty of acousticalmeansconveys a suddenbewilderment. At this point, hysterical and grotesque laughter and depressive mania succumb to the admission of a very personal responsibility. Various religiouspracticeshave tried to reachthis point of identification with one's own responsibilities. Christians have emulated this striving, in their It is this aspectof silence that call dona nobispacem. will retain an ethical value long after the effects of the unexpected novelty and the provocation have subsided. When Lachenmannfirst mentioned the term rejection in 1973, he would define the normal to provoke. tone as an objectof rejectionprimarily Together with temA and Pressionfor cello, Air in a conscious break in mycreative process exemplifies anattempt andoffer matters of course: social-aesthetic of beautynot by mere rejectionof the commonbut of ruling theconditions alsothrough beauty: disguising of theunderlying assuppression requirements physical of the underlying as suppression andenergies, efforts;
23 Lachenmann, 24 For

Increasingly, Lachenmann's muted sounds and extinguished noises have been joined by tones. By 1988, he claimed traditionally-produced that he is,
.. . less happy to employ 'exterritorial'sound material. Since the issue is not about new sounds but about new listening, this has also to stand the test with the 'beautiful tone' of a cello string. (1988)26 The incorporation of normal tones and flowing gestures have proven to be an addition to the brand-name 'Lachenmann'. Far from neoromantic or 'Klangfarben'-composers, Lachen-

mann's primary palette of textures is still

arousingly elusive. Beyond the experiments with instrumental alternatives, Lachenmann's main object of

provocationhas been tonality as an incarnationof humanignorance.In the vein of WalterBenjamin,

Lachenmann has led a complex argument that connects a compositional technique (e.g. traditional tonality) with reception habits in the 'age of technical reproduction'. Against an anonymous enemy - the complacent mass - the participants called for an 'Aesthetics of Resistance'.27 Tonality was used as a euphemism not only for habitual reception but also for concert hall music representation, for an ignorant audience and for a musicianship of mere virtuosity. The attack against traditional tonality was moreover a provocation against a multitude of implied musical phenomena: such as, for example, established genres, commercial dance rhythms, orchestral hierarchy or formal schemata that

were associated, unquestioned, with bourgeois

music making.

If one investigates Lachenmann's attack

against tonality in his music, rather than in his writings, one detects an aspect of tonality other than the proclaimed listening convenience or functional tutelage. Lachenmann's attack against tonality has mainly been an attack on the

auf die 'Luigi Nono oder der Riickblick

serielle Musik (1969)', Melos 36/6 (June 1971), p.225.

ently demonstrate this misnomer (tonal suction, tension, pulse). Directed musical motion is Herbert NeulandMusikverlag Gladbach: Henck (Bergisch indeed, to Lachenmann's discomfort, not confined Henck, 1982), pp.97-109.
Neuland. Ans'tze zur Musik der Gegeinwart II, ed. Herbert Gerhard Stabler, 'Silences. (Ver-)Schweigen', Schtebel 60 (Hofheim: Wolke 1990), pp.231-255, trans. into Engl. (Gerhard Stabler), 'About Silence or What happens when nothing happens?' Eonta 1/2 (1991), pp.68-81. The same article modified as 'Stille. Schrei. Stille. Den Sackeschmeissern',
Positionle

atDarmstadt lecture theBecker (seenote21). example, ClytusGottwald,'Tonund Laut.Abschiedvon Hegel',

perception of directed musical motion.28Two of his criticalcomments from 1969 and 1979 suffici-

25 'Die

gefihrdete Kommunikation Gedanken und Praktiken eines Komponsiten(1973)',Musica 28/3 (May-June1974),p.230. 26 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 120.

10 (1992), pp.24-26.

The issue of the last-mentioned periodical Positionet was devoted to the issue of silence (with contributions by Walter Zimmermann, Eric de Vischner, Wolfgang Gratzer, Gerold W. Gruber). So are recent contributions by Mathias Spahlinger, Heinz Holliger or Nikolaus A. Huber.

27Peter Weiss, Asthetik des WiderstandesI-III (Berlin: Henschelverlag, 1983). 28 This appears to be one possible metaphor applied in musical percption. An article on musical motion by the author has been recently submitted for publication in Contemporary Music Review.

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HelmutLachenmann's Conceptof Rejection 9 < \'

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Hitel, Wiesbaden ? 1989 by B.ritkopf&

Thispublished still score withpermissionfrom second StringQuartet(1989) (reproduced Figure1. Openingpageof Lachenmann's Breitkopfl. since nets is the basisforalmostall of Lachenmann's retainsthe 'structural compositions melody' of rhythmic (R. Toop)at the top. This device

theendof thesixties.

to tonality (nor is tonal music, by the way, 'only' a directed process). While in 1969 he still asked, How do I free myself finally from the obviously obsolete tonality, its mental models and forms of - or in otherwords:how do I get to a communication of the kind of musicbeyondthe laws of experience taboos?29 andits aesthetic tonalconsciousness in 1979 he had to conclude, how muchone wantsto freeoneself Itdoesnotmatter
from tonality [directed motion, E.H.]. It always

is alsonot:How do I catches up on you. The problem also not: with which escapefrom the tonalsuction?, tricksdo I adjustmyselfto it?: rather,the taskis to thosetonaldeterminations of the material understand withthecontinually changing together whole.(1979)30 If one reads 'musical motion' instead of tonality, one has to agree with Lachenmannthat the categories of tension and relaxation (dissonance/consonance, cadence) can be present in all music. Yet he has failed to acknowledge that the possibilities of tonal motion are not necessarily exhausted by composing it as a directed process of goal and solution, as some harmony theories might want us to believe. Lachenmann,secondly,
29 'Luigi Nono oder der Riickblick auf die serielle Musik', p.225. 30'Vier Grundbestimmungen des Musikh6rens (1979-80), Neuland. Ansdtze zur Musik der Gegenwart I, ed. Herbert Henck (Cologne: Musikverlag Herbert Henck, 1980), p.68.

also missed the point that directed 'gestures and movements' are not determinedby an increaseor decrease of tonal tension alone, but by any directed change of acoustic parameters(increase or decreaseof volume, widening or narrowingof the overtone band, acceleration or deceleration, tendency to either pulsed or pulseless fields) and, most importantly, by the abstracting levels of human perception.31 Whatever metaphorical terms are employed in explaining humanperception, the mental switch between concentrationon detailed gestures or orientation towards more cohesive movements applies in the same way for functional tonality as for post-tonal music. The more information the perceiving mind receives, the more it will abstract, but a direction it will have. Lachenmann's compositionstry to suppressthe direction of identifiablegesturesand movements. The ratio of changing acoustical parameters is
called'perceptual of human perception, phenomenon hasbeena recentfocusof and'stream segregation', streaming' S. McAdams research musicpsychology (e.g. FredLehrdahl, and A. Bregman).This mainly Americanresearchwas theworkby Helga andknownin Germany accessible through de la Motte-Haber.Her book on music psychologywas publishedin 1985. Her paper in the Darmstadtspring De la Mottein 1992explicitly quotedLehrdahl. symposium musikalischer Formen', Haber, 'Uber die Wahrnehmung Neue desInstitutsfiir Form inder Neuen Musik. Veroffentlichungen Darmstadt MusikundMusikerziehung 33, ed. Ekkehard Jost Schott,1992),pp.26-35,particularly p.32, 33. (Mainz:
31 This

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10 HelmutLachenmann's of Rejection Concept often either radically low, so that his gestures appear totally isolated, or so high that fields of manifold overlapped activities freeze into static blocks.32 Lachenmann's resistance to motion/ tonalityhas maturedsince his outspokenoffensive around 1970. Although he has continued to equate 'gesture and the dialectic mechanism of tension and relaxation' with tonal thinking,33
tonality has faded as the main object of his attacks,

both in his writings and in his compositions.

For the sake of consolation, I have decided from my currentperspective to have no more conflict with tonal means whatsoever. Hence, no more fear of contact, because I simply tell myself I have been there ... (1992)34 One can therefore not help noticing in Lachenmann's later works an increased cohesive

noises, but on an involvement with the mystery of an aestheticexperience that even Lachenmann will finally leave 'up to the demons'.38 Until 1988, he strove verbally to pinpoint the goal of his compositional endeavour. The keywords in with the understandinghave been 'structuralism' inclusion of the 'aura'. For Lachenmann, provocation against the common always included interference with familiar sound combinations. In his words, the structuralist's approachexpresseditself with calls for 'individuationof the meansin a work',39for a 'confrontationwith interconnections and necessities of the musical material' (1979),40 for a 'detachment' of 'means out of their common speech connection' (1982),41 for a 'structural
refraction of old relationships' (1988),42 for a

gesticulation, which he had once damned as

absurd forms. In an introduction to his first string quartet Gran Torso(1971-72, 76, 88), Lachenmann admitted that since Klangschatten (1972) his

musical form has displayed an 'immediately comprehensible, unequivocal gesture'.35 This process has taken place since Accanto(1975-76, 82) both within his own musicalidiom and by the incorporation of recognizable quotes. Lachenmann's concept of rejection has
obviously lessened its provocative habitus, both as regards the unusual treatment of instruments as

well as his milder attitude to tonality. His provocation has formed, in any case, only the startingpoint from which he 'pursueshis way to the end'.36 By turning his provocation into processes,Lachenmann's compositionally-shaped works have succeeded beyond those of his many followers.
2.2 Interference to what extent?

'sensitive, keenly heard handling of the musical material' (1990).43While these underlying ideas of de- and reconstruction stem from post-war serialism (with reference to the German Beethoven-Brahms-Schoenbergvariation tradition), Lachenmann'sreflective language initially took its impulse from the Weiss/Benjamin/Lukacs tradition, and later shifted to the language of philosophy. post-structuralist The artwork is meant to be a complex organism of reshuffled and adjusted particles in an ever-changingcontext. Lachenmann expressed his thorough sympathy with the premises of serialism.This is why he has often been assigned the role of defender of modernism.44
. . . the thought of the serial as a speculative process to detach the consciously levelled modification of the original material from the common, materialized context, and additionallyto mediate the (verdinglichten) abrupt,this has remained for me, and not only for me, a valuable idea out of the serial lesson. Beyond the mechanical-academic misuse, it is possibly the core element of musical structuralismwhich is able to lead our merely hearing ears to an alternativelistening, and
37 Hans Werne Henze, Die englische Katze. Eit Arbeitstagebuch

It is essential to demonstratethe point where Lachenmann's provocative attitudefeeds into his compositionalworks. The successof his compositions has not rested on 'ritualizing the sad and annoying social conditions'37 with squeaking

32 Lachenmann used other metaphorical terms for what the Sep. 1990), p.414. author calls static blocks: he compared the composer with an 39'Bedingungen des Materials', p.97. families' whole manipulating player pipe=sound 'organ a called he 4) a different At composition 'Vier Grundbestimmungen des Musikh6rens', p.67. place (blocks?). a 'polyphony of orders' (of blocks?), 'Vier Grundbestim- 41 'Accanto. Einfiihrung zu einer Auffiihrung in Zurich am mungen', p.73. 23. November 1982', Musik-Kontzepte 61/62. HelmutLachen33 'Bedingungen des Materials. Stichworte zur Praxis der mann, p.63. Beitrdge 42 '78, Darmstddter Theoriebildung (1978)', Ferienkurse 'Fragen und Antworten', p.120. zur Neuen Musik17, ed. ErnstThomas (Mainz:Schott's S6hne, 43 'Musik hat ihre Unschuld verloren', p.416. 1978), p.93. 44 For 34Lachenmann in the interview with Christine Mast, p.10. example, within the Miinchner Biennale 1990 a versus Postmoderne, symposiumwas held under the title Moderne 35 Held as an introductory paper at a 'musica-viva' concert in which thrived once again upon the polarization between Munich, recorded 8 April 1984. Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm, alias modernism 36 versus postmodernism. 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 131.

1978-1982 (Frankfurt a. M.: S. Fischer, 1983), p.346. 3SLachenmannquotes here a phrase by Luigi Nono, 'Musik 8-9 (Aug/ hat ihre Unschuld verloren', MusikundGesellschaft

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12 HelmutLachenmann's of Rejection Concept beyondthat, to a new way of feeling by takingthe thatthe It hasto be assumed, common however, apart. whichare determinations expressive ('relationships'), entailed in the sound material, are not blindly overruled, ignored,raped.(1986)45 The fashionableterms de- and reconstruction are easily translatable into the classic term variation. Lachenmannhimself recognized this. such which causes Thecompositional process preliminary in andincidental negationcouldalmostbe described On thematic thecategories of theclassic development. the illustrated the oppositeside, I have analytically in the definitenegationandtransformation processes andthe firstmovement of Beethoven's Harfenquartett fourthpiece out of Weberns op.10. (1988)46 The emphasis of this approach is not the proclaimed de- and reconstruction but the totality of its applied variation principles. 'Expressive reinterpretation through compreleaves manyquestions hensivevariation',naturally unansweredwhich cannot be taken up here. One query might, however, be directed to the degree of variation,as no composition is completely free of variation, and therefore of 'individuationand estrangement'. How much variation destroys common associations,and up to which point is it The subtletiesof various 'mere stylisticimitation'? degrees of estrangementwould be more effective subjects of reflection than some extremist deconstructivistslogans. hasincreasingly conceivedmusical Lachenmann materialin termsof sound and actioncategories47 Attention should ratherthan physicalparameters. be directed to his statement from 1988 about 'graded scales of qualitativejumps': I happen of composing, in theforefront upona Already of moreor less connection mental for me incalculable complex categories.Includingtheir fragility,they Thisrelates to the instruments. formmycompositional of thefifties,butwhichinitially in parameters thinking startedfrom quantitivegrading,and played, so to Thegraded installed withpreviously regulators. speak, scalesthat I create for myself consistratherout of to anarcoanda jumpsthatmakea pizzicato qualitative andtheir andtheregulators to a fortissimo, pianissimo aredetermined by myself.(1988)48 wayof functioning
45

Once the awarenessof Lachenmann's thinking that make in complex acoustic('qualitative jumps a pizzicatoto an arco . . .') ratherthan physically measurableevents49has been acknowledged, his article from 1983 on the 'Siciliano' from his Tanzsuite yields ample examples. For example, he differentiatesbetween a 'distorted sound level', 'sounds which relate to blown tones but are beaten, plucked or touched' and an 'effectively toneless and hoarse tonelessness'. His treatment of those unique categoriesin 'Siciliano',however, employs traditional variation principles such as 'exposition..., combination..., separation.... addition ..., intensification and extension'.50 fascinationwith extreme sounds Lachenmann's and with varioustypes of naturaland manipulated echoes has much in common with the thinking in electronic studios of the 1950s and 60s. There is reasonto believe that he conceived timbre, tonemotion and echo very much in terms of electronically produced music.51 Titles such as Echo Schattentanz, Andante, Klangschatten, Ausklang have hinted at his preoccupation with various echo phenomena. As a more important extension to the has taken the structuralist's concept, Lachenmann into of 'aura'52 abstract concept philosophically account in his compositional manipulations. of compositional I think, the decisive specification fromthe particular can be extracted way of thinking of in favour of inclusion thetermof structure reducing the social this procedure the 'aura', becausethrough of the individual experience realityandthe existential
Acoustic events out of a multiplicity of physical data were already Karlheinz Stockhausen's starting point for further in his Gesang der construction ('Empfindungsqualitdten') Juinglinge (1959/60) as Christoph (1955/56) and in his Kontakte Blumenr6der pointed out in 'Serielle Musik um 1960: Stockhausens Kontakte', Analysen, Beitraie zu einer Problemgeschichte des Komponierens.Festschrift fur Hans Heinrich zum 65. Geburtstag (Stuttgart:Franz Steiner Verlag, E,qebrecht 1984). p.504.
5( 'Siciliano', pp.76-70. See Lachenmann'sdescription of the
49

process.
5l Lachenmann'sconcept of'musique concrete instrumentale'

is as complex a topic as his concept of 'rejection', and is therefore not pursued here any further.
52

16 (Oct, 1986), 'Uber das Komponieren (1986)', MusikTexte

The term 'aura' is described by Lachenmann in 'Die vier

Grundbestimmungen', p.72; also in 'Bedingungen des p.12. Materials', p.96; Lachenmann also uses the term 'existential 46'Fragen und Antworten', pp.123-4. aspect' synonymously with 'aura' in 'Bedingungen des 47'Siciliano Abbildungenund KommentarfragmenteMaterials', p.93. Lachenmann, 61/62.Helmnut pp.76-77. (1983)',Musik-Konzepte Confusingly, Lachenmann's term 'aesthetic apparatus' into action not The translation of Bewegutngskategorien movement categories is not perfectly correct, but expresses better what the author believed Lachenmannwas meaning to say. There is reason to assume that he is more concerned with various ways of sound-production rather than with musical motion as mentioned earlier in this article. 48 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 125. (first mentioned in 'Die Schonheit und die Schont6ner. Zum Problem musikalischer Asthetik heute (1976), Neue Musikzeitung 26/1 (Feb-March 1977), pp.1-7) is sometimes used synonymously with all 'aspects of the musical material' (see 'Uber das Komponieren', p.9) and sometimes synonymously with the 'aura' only (see 'Musik als Abbild vom Menschen', NZ/M 146 (Nov 1985), p.17).

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HelmutLachenmann's Concept of Rejection 13 appearnot only as a componentto hide from or to

reject but as an essential component of musical information, however mirrored (1978)53

Lachenmann's increasing reference to the 'speech quality' (rather than 'auratic quality') might have been the result of confrontationwith semiotic theory. Foreign and native literatureon semiotics appearedin publicationlists54from the early 1970s onwards and spread among German intellectuals. Lachenmann's struggle for credibility in a commercially-orientedmusic industry expresses itself as avoidance of unequivocality, even if his theoretical writings apparently disguise precisely this degree of imprecision. The resulting 'speechless gesticulation' (Konrad Boehmer55) of his music cannot rely on an establishedsystem of communicationalsigns but operates on other cognitive levels of game and perceptual ambiguity/mobility. One of Lachenmann's achievements rests in the subtle shadings that can be made out in this zone between the definitely familiar and referential chaos. Lachenmann's attemptto restore credibility to music's 'speech quality' through structuralinterference occurs on at least two levels. He disappointsexpectationsconjuredup by symbolic signs and he avoids clearly articulatedform 'from above' (Adorno). The first approach can be loosely described;the second necessitatesanalysis that cannot be done independently of the composer. Lachenmannmanipulatesassociations with, for example, tonal gestures (e.g. Mozart's clarinet concerto in Acccanto),folk songs (e.g. the nursery rhyme 'Hanschen klein' in Ein dance rhythms (as for example a Kinderspiel), siciliano in Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied), musicians' habits (e.g. the virtuoso), quotes in quotes (e.g. the folk song 'Oh du lieber Augustin' that Schoenberg used in his Second String Quartet is used againin Lachenmann's orchestral Mouvement), mannerisms(e.g. the unresolved romantic swell
53 'Bedingungen des Materials', p.97. 54 For example, Umberto Eco's in die Semiotikwas Einfiihrung translatedinto German in 1972; his Opera Apertaas Das Offene Kunstwerkin 1973; Jean Piaget's Der Strukturalismus was translated in 1973. desSchonen.Kunstals Hans-Georg Gadamer, Die Aktualitdt Spiel, Symbolund Fest (Stuttgart, 1977). Adorno's Musik, Sprache und ihr Verhiltnis im gegenwirtigen was published in 1978, Gesammelte Komponieren Schriften16 (Franfurt am Main: Suhrkamp), where he states on p.650: 'Music has to have a speech character', it is not enough just being an 'acoustical kaleidoscope'. Naom Chomsky. AspektederSyntax-Theorie (Frankfurtam Main: Suhrkamp, 1983). 55 'Sprachlose Gestik als Formproblem neuer Musik', Formin derNeuen Musik, Veroffentlichungen des Institutsfjur Neue Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt 33, ed. Ekkehard Jost (Mainz: Schott, 1992), pp. 16-25.

as well as certain musical gesture in Kontrakadenz) articulations such as arpeggio- and glissando patterns, Bartok pizzicati (Gran Torso),or even concrete sounds of children, as in Fassade.56 Lachenmann has seldom specified his objectives more specifically. In the introduction to the clarinetconcertoAccanto (1982), he lists the destruction of the melody, harmony and the beautiful tone. Beyond a provocative rejection, he consciously works against 'a pulsing meter as basis for every familiar tonal time determination'.57During the whole clarinet concerto, for example, Mozart's concerto runs silently on a tape. Only once does it break into the region of acousticperception. Alreadyon an exposed level, LachenmanndeconstructsMozart's masterwork, the tonal language, the genre of a concerto, the expectationson a virtuoso soloist and the capacity of a clarinet. In the article on his 'Siciliano' (1983), Lachenmann talks about resisting 'pitch order (in a tonal or serial sense) by integratingunexpected noise spectra of all kinds of definite-pitchinstruments with indefinable pitches'.58 In response to Heinz-KlausMetzger (1988), he also mentionsmusicalcontradictions whose exhibition results in a compositional strategy, namely between 'polyphonic order and sound', between 'musicians'habits and a new action repertoire', between the 'varying treatments of the fifth tuning of instruments,of tremolos, down and upbows'.59

Lachenmann's sophisticated confrontation with expectations employs much more than a quotation/variationtechnique in a familiarsense. His hinting at the common is so elusive that it demands intensive deciphering. At its best, the aura is conjured up but not real. For example, what could be heard as a tango gesture at the end of Gran Torsocannot be identified in separate hearing of those individual bars. Taken out of context, the sounds that supposedly articulate gesturesof tango rhythmshere can only be taken as such if one has been left craving by the suspense-inducing harshness and suppressed motion of the previous 15 minutes. What follows overwhelms with the same intensity by which a piece of dry bread will appeara culinaryfeast for the starving. This perceptive ambiguity forms a crucial aspect of Lachenmann'scomposition.
56Some of those examples are taken from Michael 'Helmut Lachenmann oder "Das neu zu Mairkelmann, rechtfertigende Sch6ne",' NZfM 123/6 (Nov. 1985), pp.2125; and Lachenmann, 'Fragen und Antworten', pp.128. 57'Accanto'. pp.70. 58 'Siciliano', p.76. 59'Fragen und Antworten', p.124.

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14

HelmutLachenmann's Concept of Rejection Obviously, little analyticalwork has been done on Lachenmann'smusic.61In the few examples available, speculations appear in such awkward language as 'inner and outer pedal points...(?)'
or 'moments of orgasm.. .(?)'62 Lachenmann

The shift of emphasis in Lachenmann's concept of rejection was strong: from a general social critique manifested in a provocation againstthe beautifultone and functionaltonality, to the rejection of the associated'aura'by means of an extended structuralism. The extreme consequences of such an approach resulted, finally, in the rejection of any personal expectations of the composer Helmut Lachenmann,as he demanded from himself, ... a kind of intensiveinner provocation,which follows(him)into(his)sleep.Theissueis notto propel world.Thisshould structural intoa newandinteresting an it excitesus anddemands only be excitingbecause of us. The excitementshould behaviour alternative take placewithinour self-discovery (1988)60 Following Lachenmann'sstatements through the self-evident and the extreme has not solved many questions for theoreticians.Admittedly, he has outlined his internalconcerns, has defined his emphasisat different stagesand has demonstrated open questions. After attractionto and involvetheoreticalstatementsone ment in Lachenmann's is likely to arrive, once again, at the question of the importanceof a composer'sverbalexpressions in relation to their music. Without demanding rational validity, we are prepared to accept that birds and religious notions have been intensely inspiring for Olivier Messiaen. Just because Lachenmann'sstatements appear to be rational does not mean they have not stimulated him in the same way as the birds did for the French himself who master.After all, it was Lachenmann disclosed to Ulrich Mosch that his thoughts have mentalgymnastics': been 'the work accompanying A stretching exercise for the triple flip of the actual performance? What is the actual performance of a musicoand logist interpreting the Lachenmann-sources How his music? of the experience verbalizing successful will the musicologist's attempt be to force the ambiguous into the unequivocal?

himself consciously avoids specifying technical procedures. Like those of Pierre Boulez, Brian Femeyhough and others the compositional constructionsare complex to such a degree that empiricalanalyticalresearchis bound to get lost. What can be deduced are numericalorderingson a very superficial scale. One can bear a number of prejudicestowards academia,but it gives the time and scope to linger on contradictoryissues without having to solve them short-sightedly. The analytical problems with music like Lachenmann'scan indeed be addressed if one allows what appears to be contradictoryin the first instance to become the crucialstimulus.If one is preparedto explore the field of perceptual mobility between various levels of abstraction and focus, one is able to break out of both German generalizing philosophy and Englishpositivist analysis.One is not surprised to find in Brian Ferneyhough a person who bridges those worlds:
... in my own works I attempt to ensure a style-

double coding in and throughthe space immanent mobility of opened up by perceived dissonantial andthesubjective bothfromthe objective relationship multithe formerby meansof 'structural standpoints, ... the latter, subjective,viewpoint is, tracking'63 meanwhile, manifest in the way the shadowy, is allowed theopportunity 'Other' rationally-repressed of a painful to thrust carapace wedgeintothemonadic order...64 The subject analysisis another chapter in the life of the present musicologist. As long as this issue cannot be comprehensivelydiscussed- and it can, unfortunately,not be done at this point the topic of Lachenmann's rejectionwill inevitably remain fragmented.The fragments,nonetheless, are telling.

61 The more substantialones,. e.g. by Hans-Peter Jahn, Peter B6ttinger, Robert Piencikowski and Lachenmann himself 61/62. HelmutLachenmann. appearedmostly in Musik-Konzepte 62 Yuval Shaked, "'Wie ein Kifer auf dem Riicken zappelnd".

zu Mouvement(- vor der Erstarrung-) (1982-84) von Helmut 8 (Feb. 1985), pp.9-16. Lachenmann', MusikTexte
63 See Lachenmann's 'polyphony of order'. 64 'Parallel Universes', Asthetik und Darmstddter Komposition. Beitragezur Neuen Musik 20, ed. Gianmario Borio, Ulrich Mosch (Mainz: Schott, 1994), p.22.

60 'Fragen und Antworten', 133. p.

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