[Helmut Lachenmann] said that ... when the work ["Air"] was finally performed in Frankfurt, Germany, the audience halted the percussive piece with shouts of “This is not music!” and derisive laughter.
Rick Schultz, "All he asks is: ‘Try to like it’", Los Angeles Times, 13 April 2008.
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Ah... the lethal judgment so beloved by lay people and experts alike: to dismiss the result of someone's creative efforts not because it lacks originality or craft, not because it involves factual errors or unsound arguments, but because it violates some a priori conditions supposedly necessary for admitting any kind of meaningful evaluation at all, whether positive or negative.
Thus, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was dismissed by a notable 19th century music biographer as "not belong[ing] to the art ... [of] music". Several decades later Edgar Varese's Hyperprism prompted a New York Times critic to write, "If Mr. Varese honestly believes this kind of thing is music, then he is ... deluded".
In the visual arts, one of James Whistler's (now celebrated) paintings was dismissed by an eminent 19th century art critic as "flinging a pot of paint in the public's face".
In mathematics the distinguished and influential 19th century mathematician Leopold Kronecker reportedly dismissed Georg Cantor's pioneering work in set theory by saying "I don't know if there is more philosophy or theology in this paper, but I am sure there is no mathematics in it".
And in physics, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Sheldon Glashow dismissed string theory by saying that "the theory is not physics at all but merely mathematical 'smoke and mirrors'".
These are the examples that readily came to mind when I learned about the audience's behavior at the premiere of Helmut Lachenmann's first major orchestral work Air, music for orchestra and percussion soloist (1967). And just as with the above mentioned works, the passage of time has changed the perception of Lachenmann's Air from that of an irritatingly incomprehensible succession of scratching and wheezing noises to that of a musical work that is startling, thrilling, and even unexpectedly beautiful.
Or so it seem to have been the case for the Amsterdam audience at a 1997 concert where Air was superbly performed by the busy and versatile Radio Filharmonish Orkest under Ingo Metzmacher. The rapturous attention of the audience surely wasn't a case of polite music lovers patiently waiting to hear something more 'accessible' and 'pleasant' later on the program. For what came later was a propulsive performance of explosively dissonant Arcana for large orchestra by the "deluded" Edgar Varese, a work which (given the time of its creation) is arguably the most aesthetically jolting composition of the past century.
It is also worth noting that the passage of time often makes previously incomprehensible works not just comprehensible but easily comprehensible, at least to those who have serious interest in the discipline. Today undergraduates at reputable universities may discover the pleasures of Beethoven, Varese, Whistler, or Cantor through introductory courses offered by departments of music, art, or mathematics. And a top-notch performance of Lachenmann's music today no longer requires a specialized contemporary music ensemble. It does not even require a professional orchestra. A good student orchestra will suffice, as witnessed by the immaculate 2019 Berlin performance of Lachenmann's Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied by the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie (and the JACK Quartet) conducted by Jonathan Nott.
If I were given the right to choose an inscription on Lachenmann's tombstone, I would go with the opening line from a well-known songs by the Rolling Stones:
Time is on my side, yes it is.
4 comments:
Have you ever listened to the1954 premiere performance, broadcast in still-infant stereo on French radio, of Edgard Varese's "Deserts"? You'll get a good idea of what the premiere of "Le Sacre du Printemps" was like. I have never heard such raucous rudeness in a concert hall. How Herman Scherchen got through the piece is a miracle. At times, the catcalls and derisive laughter are so loud it is nearly impossible to hear the music. Decades later, I attended a Philadelphia Orchestra concert at which Christoph Eschenbach paired "Arcana" with "Das Lied Von Der Erde." The audience was nearly as merciless in its reaction to Varese, but, at least, waited until the end of the piece to heap its scorn on the music. Maybe I should feel proud to have defended the music I heard that night by almost getting into a fistfight with the man in back of me who screamed malicious things at the conductor for having challenged his limited tastes so forthrightly. Now I doubt I will ever get another chance to hear Varese in Philadelphia. But it isn't just the common folk who are so plebeian. Read Alan Watts' "Beat Zen, Square Zen," where he justly attacks John Cage's attack on Varese. Although I love Cage, his grounds for attacking Eduard were groundless. I can only hope time is on both men's side.
David,
I am curious when the Eschenbach performance of Arcana you mention took place. I have a 1985 concert recording of the Phila O. playing this piece under Riccardo Muti (with breathtakingly luxurious brass section) and the audience seems to have enjoyed the performance a good deal (or at least behaved very politely). If you do not this recording (it was once issued as part of the Centennial Edition of the Phila O.), email me and I will send it to you privately.
"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible." -- FRANK ZAPPA
The jury is largely coming down on the side of Glashow's assessment of "string theory". It's beautiful mathematics but has not shown to be useful in any practice.
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