Connections: John Cage

                iMitations

            invErsions

                    reTrograde forms

             motives tHat are varied

          Or

not varieD

        once Music

            bEgins

                iT remains

                        He said the same

            even variatiOn is repetition

               some things changeD others not (schoenberg)

– John Cage

X:  writings '79–'82, 126

Schoenberg was a magnificent teacher, who always gave the impression that he was putting us in touch with musical principles.  I studied counterpoint at his home and attended all his classes at USC and later at UCLA when he moved there.  I also took his course in harmony, for which I had no gift.  Several times I tried to explain to Schoenberg that I had no feeling for harmony.  He told me that without a feeling for harmony I would always encounter an obstacle, a wall through which I wouldn't be able to pass.  My reply was that in that case I would devote my life to beating my head against that wall – and maybe that is what I've been doing ever since.

 – John Cage to Jeff Goldberg

"John Cage Interviewed" (May 1976)

reprinted in Conversing with Cage, ed. Richard Kostelanetz

Concert (January 23, 2011): "When Kandinsky Met Schönberg"

Several concerts and other events around the world are taking place this month to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the concert of Schoenberg's works that took place in Munich on January 2, 1911.    In Washington, DC, the Verge Ensemble is giving a concert with a brief pre-concert presentation at the National Gallery of Art on January 23, 2011 and another concert at La Maison Française/Embassy of France on March 31st.  Both concerts feature works from the celebrated 1911 concert as well as works surveying music created by others over the past century.  The National Gallery concert program is given below along with a program note by Verge artistic director, Steve Antosca.
Recommended reading on the initial encounter between Schoenberg and Kandinsky and its impact:  Schönberg & Kandinsky: An historic encounter, ed. by Konrad Boehmer.

Program and notes for National Gallery of Art concert

When Kandinsky Met Schönberg

A Wind From Another Planet

National Gallery of Art – January 23, 2011, 6:30 PM, West Garden Court

a pre-concert lecture will be held in the West Building Lecture Hall at 6:00 PM

Arnold Schönberg
Drei Klavierstücke (Three Piano Pieces), Op. 11 (1909) 

Mässige (at a moderate speed)

Mässige (at a moderate speed)

Bewegt (with motion)

Audrey Andrist, piano

Steve Antosca
traces of spirit whispers ~ i. circulation of the light (2003) – piano and audio

Audrey Andrist, piano

Steve Antosca, computer

Györgi Ligeti
Continuum (1968) – harpsichord

Jenny Lin, harpsichord

Elliott Carter
Caténaires (2006) – piano

Audrey Andrist, piano

~intermission~

John Cage
Amores (1943) – piano and percussion

Jenny Lin, piano

Quintin Mallette, percussion*

William Richards, percussion

Doug Wallace, percussion*

John Luther Adams
Red Arc/Blue Veil (2002) – piano, percussion and processed audio

Jenny Lin, piano

William Richards, percussion

Steve Antosca, computer

The pre-concert talk will include Stephen Soderberg, Contemporary Music Specialist at the Library of Congress, contributing author of  Music Theory and Mathematics: Chords, Collections and Transformations; composer/theorist Thomas DeLio, University of Maryland, author of the recent book The Amores of John Cage; and composer/VERGE ensemble Artistic Director Steve Antosca

*guest artists

CONCERT NOTES

When Kandinsky Met Schönberg : January 1911 – January 2011

In 2003, the Jewish Museum in New York presented der Blaue Reiter exhibit, representing an intriguing period in time after painter Wassily Kandinsky experienced the music of composer Arnold Schönberg at an historic concert in Munich on January 2, 1911. In 2009/2010 at the Kandinsky exhibit at the Guggenheim, while walking up the winding pathway, an observer was transported chronologically through the styles of Kandinsky. Immersed in his work, you realize the transformation which occurred in his paintings from 1909 through 1914, represented by works such as Untitled-First Abstraction (1909), Composition V (1911),  With A Black Arc (1912) and Improvisation 31 (Sea Battle) (1913) (on view in the East Building of the National Gallery of Art).

Kandinsky, who had not met Schönberg prior to the concert, moved to Munich to be exposed to the avant-garde, as he was slowly evolving toward his abstractionist style of painting. He instantaneously connected to Schönberg’s music, and felt Schönberg was creating in music what he was attempting to effect in painting. Schönberg had crossed a crucial point in his style, motivated only by direct emotional expression. Under the influence of Schönberg’s sound, Kandinsky created one of his most endearing paintings immediately after the concert – Impression III (Concert) (1911). Introducing himself, Kandinsky wrote to Schönberg on Jan. 18: “What we are striving for and our whole manner of thought and feeling have so much in common that I feel completely justified in expressing my empathy.”

This was a critical moment – a kairos moment – in art and music. Kandinsky was concerned with making painting more abstract, more like music, by removing figuration from art, and Schönberg was moving away from any sense of tonality in his music with the pathbreaking String Quartet No. 2 (op. 10, 1908), adventurous in harmonic style and the use of a soprano, and Three Piano Pieces (op. 11, 1909). These works, while not 12-tone, no longer lingered in the realm of tonality. Kandinsky published Concerning the Spiritual in Art, der Blaue Reiter Almanac, and Klänge in 1912. So this concert was a fascinating confluence in time, art and music that has had enormous repercussions throughout the 20th century. You can only find this kind of powerful ripple effect in the arts through such potent creators as Kandinsky and Schönberg.

[Program note by Steve Antosca] 

In 1911, the concert included an announcement poster in which Schoenberg  justified the direction his music was taking.  The following sentences in particular were latched onto by Kandinsky:

Dissonances are only different from consonance in degree; they are nothing more than remoter consonances. Today we have already reached the point where we no longer make the distinction between consonances and dissonances.

.

Lied der Waldtaube from Gurrelieder

I will have more to say later about Gurrelieder and the circumstances and age in which it was conceived.  But for now, here is a performance of the famous "Lied der Waldtaube" in a performance by Michelle De Young during a performance conducted by Seiji Ozawa at the Saito Kinen Festival in 2005.  A portion in the middle was edited out, but I have nevertheless grown fond of this particular performance.  The rough translation reflecting the cut is mine (suggestions and corrections gladly accepted) and is provided in a format that can be used as sur- or sub-titles by linking to this post in another window and adjusting the split screen appropriately.

Tauben von Gurre! Sorge quält mich,

vom Weg über die Insel her!

Doves of Gurre! I am full of sorrow,

from making my way over the island!

Kommet! Lauschet!

Come! Listen!

Tot ist Tove! Nacht auf ihrem Auge,

das der Tag des Königs war!

Tove is dead! Night is in her eye,

which was the King's day!

Still ist ihr Herz,

doch des Königs Herz schlägt wild,

tot und doch wild!

Her heart is silent,

but the King's heart beats wild,

Dead, yet wild!

Seltsam gleichend einem Boot

auf der Woge,

Strangely like a boat

on the wave,

wenn der, zu dess' Empfang

die Planken huldigend

sich gekrümmt,

when, in greeting

the planks in homage
bent,

des Schiffes Steurer tot liegt,

verstrickt in der Tiefe Tang.

the ship's helmsman lies dead,

entangled in the weeds of the deep.

Keiner bringt ihnen Botschaft,

unwegsam der Weg.

There is no message,

the road is impassable.

Wie zwei Ströme

waren ihre Gedanken,

Ströme gleitend Seit' an Seite.

Like two  streams

were their thoughts, 

Streams flowing side by side.

Wo strömen nun Toves Gedanken?

Where do Tove's thoughts flow now?

Die des Königs winden sich

seltsam dahin,

Those of the King wind
strangely here,

suchen nach denen Toves,

finden sie nicht.

searching for those of Tove,

finding nothing.

.   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .

Der König öffnet Toves Sarg,

starrt und lauscht

mit bebenden Lippen,

The King opens Tove's coffin,

Stares and listens

with quivering lips,

Tove ist stumm!

Tove is silent!

Weit flog ich, Klage sucht' ich,

fand gar viel!

 I flew far, sought grief,

and found it aplenty!

Wollt' ein Mönch am Seile ziehn,

Abendsegen läuten;

A monk went to pull the bell rope

for the evening's prayers;

doch er sah den Wagenlenker

und vernahm die Trauerbotschaft:

but then he saw the coachman

and heard the horrible news:

Sonne sank, indes die Glocke

Grabgeläute tönte.

The sun sank, while the bell

tolled the death knell.

Weit flog ich, Klage sucht' ich

und den Tod!

I flew far, sought grief

and death!

Helwigs Falke war's, der grausam

Gurres Taube zerriß.

Helwig's falcon it was, who cruelly

 tore apart Gurre's dove.

`

Gurrelieder ~ Backstory

This is a very brief outline sketching the backstory of the Danish legend of Valdemar and Tove ~ the basis for Jens Peter Jacobsen's poem, Gurre-Lieder, which Schoenberg used as his text in the German translation by Robert Franz Arnold.  A more detailed background can be found as part of the liner notes for Vox recording VBX 206.

• It is the 12th or 13th century.
• Valdemar is the king of Denmark.  The queen is Helvig.
• One day Valdemar travels to the island of Rügen in the Baltic to see his brother.
• On Rügen Valdemar discovers "Little Tove" in a castle all alone.  They fall in love.
• Valdemar returns to Zealand, bringing Tove and her brother Hening with him.  There Valdemar builds the castle Gurre for Tove.  Gurre "is to be the retreat, the isle of continuing."
• The queen, Helvig, is not happy with this arrangement but waits for an opportunity for revenge.
• When Valdemar is finally gone off on a journey, Helvig induces her own lover, Folkvard, to bolt the door to the bath chamber, trapping  Tove inside.  They force scalding hot steam into the chamber and Tove dies an agonizing death.
• Valdemar returns and takes his revenge on Folkvard by sealing him in a barrel with nails pounded in the sides and rolling it around until he dies his own agonizing death.
• Valdemar, driven inward by his grief, now goes on a "spiritual" search for Tove that takes him to the other side of the grave ~ an eternal hunt, striking fear across the countryside as he rides his steed wildly through woods and over plains.

"Legends like that of Valdemar Atterdag’s wild ride are extremely widespread in Europe, the
protagonist varying from one country to the next."  And some of these folk tales may have made their way to the New World resulting in stories such as "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

The Vox liner notes provide a much more detailed account of the tangle of myths and legends that ultimately resulted in Jacobsen's poem, many of them with gruesome details such as Folkvard's slaying (which is not taken up in the Jacobsen poem) and Tove's murder ("Helvig's falcon [Folkvard] it was, who cruelly tore apart Gurre's dove [Tove]").

And once there did stand a Gurre castle in Zealand in Denmark whose ruins can be seen to this day (click for a tour).  Fact and legend co-mingle in Jacobsen's verse to create the wonderful haunting text for Schoenberg's Wagnerian cantata ~ his own musical vision of the ruins of Gurre.








.

"How one becomes lonely"

As usual, after this tremendous success [Vienna premiere performance of Gurrelieder in 1913] I was asked whether I was happy.  But I was not.  I was rather indifferent, if not even a little angry.  I foresaw that this success would have no influence on the fate of my later works.  I had, during these thirteen years, developed my style in such a manner that, to the ordinary concert-goer, it seemed to bear no relation to all preceding music.  I had had to fight for every new work; I had been offended in the most outrageous manner by criticism; I had lost friends and I had completely lost any belief in the judgement of friends.  And I stood alone against a world of enemies.

~ Arnold Schoenberg         

"How One Becomes Lonely" (1937)         

Reprinted in Style and Idea, p.41          

.

Some Good Advice

In my development, there occurred a period when I had to reject Wagner, although he had theretofore been my idol.  I once mentioned this to Mahler somewhat violently, and he replied that my feeling was known to him also, as there had been times when he rejected this or that musician.  "But," he added, "one must not overstep oneself, since one always has to return to the great ones, who stand immovable in their place, and should theretofore always command one's respect."

~ Arnold Schoenberg,

From a speech on Gustav Mahler

(quoted by David Joseph Bach

in "A Note on Arnold Schoenberg,"

Musical Quarterly,

 Vol. XXII, no.1, January 1936)

annus mirabilis

Science is not art.
Art is not science.

Science is the art of proposing falsifiable ideas.
Art is the science of proposing unassailable impressions.

Nevertheless, their set-theoretic intersection, if you will, is not empty.
The same trump card is available in both games.
Imagination – buoyant free association – grants a license not available to the sober mind.

___________________

In 1905, during an eight-month period, Albert Einstein published five papers in Annalen der Physik that would come to change the world forever.

Spanning three quite distinct topics – relativity, the photoelectric effect and Brownian motion – Einstein overturned our view of space and time, showed that it is insufficient to describe light purely as a wave, and laid the foundations for the discovery of atoms.

– Matthew Chalmers, "Five papers that shook the world.")

His general relativity was yet to come, but physicists today refer to 1905 as Einstein's annus mirabilis – "extraordinary year."  A gift to future generations – even if it eventually turns out that his work is superseded.

Three years after Einstein's annus mirabilis, Arnold Schoenberg completed his String Quartet no.2, op.10. That year, 1908, marked the beginning of a remarkable period of creativity for him – musical Gedankenexperimente which culminated in Pierrot Lunaire, op.21 in 1912 and 4 Lieder, op.22 in 1913.  The most prolific year during this span of time, 1909, might be considered as representing this entire creative explosion.

The achievement of Schoenberg and his school between the years 1908 and 1913 is still so explosive in its implications that we are only beginning to understand it today. . . .  In a single year, 1909, Schoenberg finished Das Buch der Hängenden Gärten . . . and wrote the piano pieces, opus 11; the Five Pieces for Orchestra; and the one-act opera Erwartung. . . .

The works from 1908-1913, the great expressionist period, remain an achievement that we have not yet come to terms with.

– Charles Rosen, Arnold Schoenberg (1975)

In summary :

Schoenberg overturned our view of consonance and dissonance, showed that it is insufficient to describe chromaticism purely as decoration and modulation, and laid the foundations for the discovery of serialism and non-functional tonality.

His "Twelve-Tone Composition" and Piano Pieces, op.23 were yet to come, but composers today ought to refer to 1909 as Arnold Schoenberg's annus mirabilis.  A gift to future generations – even if it eventually turns out that his work is buried.

___________________

In the end, sobriety returns
to remind us.

Science is not art.
Art is not science.

The history of science is progressive.
The history of art is cumulative.




.

Steuermann : Schoenberg, Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11 (1909)

. . . thus I come to answer your other question :

     how much is intentional
and how much instinctive.

     My only intention is
     To have no intentions !
     No formal, architectural or other artistic intentions
(except perhaps capturing the mood of a poem),
no aesthetic intentions - none of any kind;  at most this :
     To place nothing inhibiting in the stream of my unconscious
sensations.   [Nothing] to allow anything to infiltrate which may
be invoked by intelligence or consciousness.

Letter from Schoenberg to Busoni, 1909

Di Wu: Schoenberg, Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11 (1909)

Di Wu was a finalist in the Thirtenth Van Cliburn International Competition.

I strive for :

           complete liberation from all forms
from all symbols
of cohesion
and logic.
     Thus :
Away with "motivic working out."
Away with harmony as cement or bricks of a building.
     Harmony is expression
     and nothing else.
     .  .  .
          My music must be
          brief.
     Concise !  In two notes :  not built, but 'expressed' ! !
          And the results I wish for :
          no stylized and sterile protracted emotion.
          People are not like that :
          It is impossible for a person to have only one sensation at a
          time.
               One has thousands simultaneously.  And these thousands
     can no more readily be added together than an apple and a pear.
     They go their own ways.
               And this variegation, this multifariousness, this illogicality
     which our senses demonstrate, the illogicality presented by
     their interactions, set forth by some mounting rush of blood,
     by some reaction of the senses or the nerves, this I should
     like to have in my music.

~ Schoenberg letter to Busoni, 1909

[written shortly after the completion of

the op.11 piano pieces and

the Five Pieces for Orchestra, op.16]

Pollini: Schoenberg, Three Piano Pieces, Op. 11 (1909)