Unnecessary Music: Kagel at 50

Author(s): Paul Griffiths

Source: The Musical Times, Vol. 122, No. 1666 (Dec., 1981), pp. 811-812
Published by: Musical Times Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/961246
Accessed: 28-06-2017 16:43 UTC

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Ex. 6
a lilting, swaying passage using dotted notes to convey ef-
fectively the gradual descent of the machine (ex.8).

Ex. 8

Ex. 7

f. IF

Va -
(b)

The Rape of Proserpine received 33 performances in its

first season, a remarkable achievement in an age where a
and slow-moving, lumpish bass (ex.7a). Later (ex.7b) it handful of performances was considered good. Even in the
following year, the year of The Beggar's Opera, it reached
a total of 24. However, this only underlines the fact that
The incidental music ranges, literally, from the sublime the main traditions of pantomime were by now firmly
established and well able to withstand both the assault of
chariot all that is attempted is a series of reiterated semi- ballad opera and later, the demise of Harlequin. The Rape
quavers and scalic passages of the most obvious kind. But of Proserpine remained a popular pantomime throughout
when Ceres descends in another chariot Galliard provides the century, and had its last performance on 2 June 1798.

Unnecessary Music: Kagel at 50

Paul Griffiths

Mauricio Kagel's 50th birthday on Christmas eve is like Ligeti that same year, by the presence of Stockhausen
celebrated seven days early in the Elizabeth Hall when theand the electronic music studio of West German Radio -
composer conducts the London Sinfonietta in his 'Kontra--he brought with him several scores which already showed
Danse', 'Blue's Blue', '10 Marches to Miss the JVictory' andhis willingness to speculate pretty wildly about what
'Finale'. music might be. In his String Sextet (1953, revised 1957),
for instance, he chooses a medium redolent of Brahms and
It is perhaps not a large claim to make, but it may beSchoenberg for music of austere mechanical operation and
worth pointing out that Mauricio Kagel is the most in- atonality, and at the same time he deliberately
teresting composer to have come out of Latin America. dismembers and disfigures his closely woven, beautiful
For since he has spent almost half of his life living in Col-and expressive quarter-tone harmony. Anagrama
ogne, and since his surname bespeaks German origins,(1955 - 8), begun in Buenos Aires but completed in Col-
one may easily forget that he was born Mauricio Ratilogne, goes further. Here the constructive techniques, we
Kagel in Buenos Aires on 24 December 1931, and that all are assured, are as rigorous and pure as those of the first
his training (mostly self-inflicted) and his early activity asbook of Structures of Boulez, to whom the score is
a composer and conductor took place in the Argentinededicated. However, the material is deliberately chosen as
capital. And while it may be hard to discern in Kagel'simpure: the emphasis is on speech sounds from the chorus
output much trace of Hispanic culture, his origins farand noises from the accompanying ensemble. Moreover,
from Europe may well account for the amused detachmentthe claims of serialism to a kind of 'logic', much vaunted
with which he has been able to practise his art even whileat the time, are exposed by the use of rules that are
living almost next door to a composer with very differentludicrously illogical, notably the instrumental delivery of
attitudes, namely Stockhausen. texts in pitch code (this long before the 'communicable
When Kagel arrived in Cologne in 1957 - attracted, language' of Messiaen's Miditations sur le mystere de la
811

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Sainte Trinite). And not only on this internal level is the scale comedies from Kagel himself. Since these usually de-
work openly misguided, for one's fundamental expecta- pend on a substantial visual component, music quotation
tion of vocal music, that words are being conveyed, is is beside the point and description would be wearying, so
simply ignored: the text, in four languages, is broken a couple of examples must suffice. Perhaps the best known
down into individual phonemes. In sum, Anagrama is a of Kagel's works of instrumental theatre is Match (1964),
highly elaborate process for producing a result which, the subject of one of the composer's own brilliant films.
however appealing it may be in its new soundscapes, is Here the element of sport in musical virtuosity is brought
manifestly absurd. It is the first clear announcement of out and ridiculed, with two cellists competing in feats of
Kagel's great secret: how to be complex and silly at the extraordinariness, refereed by a percussionist. And
same time. another of Kagel's films, Ludwig van (1969-70), is a
Since silliness is in essence a feature of drama rather critical examination of Beethoven's place in the musical
than of music, Kagel's subsequent concentration on
world of the present. These two works together explore
brands of musical theatre was inevitable. His next work
many of the themes that have been closest to Kagel in his
inspection of contemporary musical'culture: the extra-
after Anagrama, Transicidn II for pianist, percussionist
musical pressures on musicians, whether those of
and tapes (1958-9: Transicidn I, an electronic composi-
tion, was completed in 1960), is ostensibly a study in thephysiology, finance or tradition; the concern of the au-
mediation between pitched sound and noise, between pre- dience with performance rather than composition; the
sent and past, tape being used to link back to the earlierEurocentric nature of musical civilization; the role of the
musician as entertainer:
history of the performance. But it is also a theatrical event,
with the two players operating on a grand piano with the Of late Kagel has chosen to examine these themes
kind of disinterested, exploratory intent that Kagel must within the opera house, the very centre of musical life in
have appreciated in the recent visit to Europe of John his adopted Germany. He has done so, furthermore,
Cage and David Tudor. Nor can one ignore the connec- despite the fact that his Staatstheater (1971) appeared to be
tion in terms of resources with Stockhausen's Kontakte, the inopera to end opera, using all the apparatus of the opera
progress at the same time, or the notational virtuosity house - soloists, chorus, orchestra, ballet company and
which seems to parody Stockhausen's in Refrain and props - in a sequence of skits mocking their functions
Zyklus. and original purposes. The most recent of his post-
Then came Kagel's explicit espousal of music-theatre in operatic operas, Aus Deutschland (1981), is a drama of the
Sur scene for three instrumentalists using keyboard and lied, a threnody for Schubert and his works, conducted
percussion instruments and three other performers, a still with the same wry disbelief and fascination.
speaker, a bass and a mime (1958-60), which is a satire So far, attempts to bring Kagel to English audiences
bringing 'on to the stage' all the accoutrements of music, have been sporadic and only marginally successful. But
from rehearsal exercises to a critic's explanation. As such, we surely cannot for long ignore one who, while constant-
Sur scene was the ancestor of numerous European works of ly revealing how unnecessary music has become, yet con-
music-theatre, from Stockhausen's Originale to Ligeti's stantly adds to its store.
Aventures, and including the large output of similar small-

The Valentines of Leicester

A reappraisal of an 18th-century musical family
Martin Medforth

In the 18th century the musical life of Leicester was over 20 years at the beginning of the 18th century, ap-
dominated by one family. This family were descendants of parently a unique achievement at a time when musicians
one Thomas 'Follentine' or Valentine,' who appears to with an Italian training often found London the centre
offering the best rewards.
have arrived in the town to serve as a wait (town musician)
around 1670. There can be little doubt that Robert, or 'Roberto
Their activities were not confined to Leicester. Robert Valentini', was an Englishman: the continental imprints
Valentine, almost certainly a member of the family, of his works make this clear through their use of the title
established himself successfully as a musician in Italy for'Inglese'. The main reason for our associating him with
the Leicester family is that these were the only Valentines
known to have been active as musicians in England at this
1 Confusion exists as to the form of the name well into the 18th century; 'Valen-
tine' is the final standard form. time. Between 1660 and 1700 two children named Robert
812

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