Kagel, again

After the great Heterophonie post by Grey Calx, it's time for another tribute to Maurizio Kagel, who passed away last Thursday at the age of 77. One more of the last few great composers born in the first half of the 20th century is gone. His innovative energy was paired with a unique sense of humor, and thanks to his almost unbelievable productivity he left us a vast body of hundreds of works, many of them unknown gems, often unrecorded, to be (re)discovered in the future.

My collection of pieces is drawn from unreleased radio recordings and several "various artists" compilations, giving a pretty good impression of how varied and wide-ranging Kagel's Oeuvre is.

Kagel directing his "Kantrimiusik", ca. 1975

***

Transicion II (1958/59)

for piano, percussion and two tapes was Kagel's first European piece, very innovative in many ways. The pianist produces singular sounds, juxtaposed or complemented by multifarious clusters, meticulously described in the performance instructions.

The percussionist plays the piano, too - inside, outside, with mallets - producing a wide variety of sounds comparable to Cage's prepared piano. The score makes use of indeterminacy and ambiguity to create structures, connections and different layers of time. A good part of the structures is notated on wheels, which have to be rotated by the players during the performance. Some of the structures have to be pre-recorded and played back during the performance with two tape recorders, sometimes with a heavily processed sound.

David Tudor - piano, Christoph Caskel - percussion

***

Sonant (1960/..)

for guitar, harp, double bass and skin instruments is an early example of "intrumental theater". It makes equal use of carefully elaborated sound production and accidental sounds. Different ways of ensemble playing and interaction are utilized; the performers even have to deal with psychological aspects of interpretation and scenic presentation.

Ensemble Musique Vivante, Paris

Percussion detail from "Sonant"

***

Mimetics (Metapièce) (1961)

for piano and simultaneous performance of a work by a living composer,
simultaneous with General Bass (1971)
for continuous instrumental soundsMimetics (Metapièce) is a piece that's not really a piece at all, more like a non-piece-ultra, notated on single sheets that are glued together in a way that one could read on forever, never reaching an end. Resemblances and similarities between events are created by references to other, past or future events.

General Bass (1971)

is one part of the work cycle "Programm", subtitled "Conversations with Chamber Music". It's a single bassline of octaves, fifths and fourths on various pitches, to be played in a "calm, unpathetic" manner. The performer is asked to constantly vary the colour of sound. A kind of peaceful polemic against the fetish of melody.

Kristine Scholz & Mats Persson - piano, etc.

***

Nah und Fern (1994), radio piece for bells and trumpets with background

This "Radio-Piece" won the prestigious Karl-Sczuka Award in 1996. It combines environmental sounds near and far (nah und fern) around the Domkerk (cathedral) of Utrecht with composed material for carillon and trumpets. Kagel: "Bells are archetypal carriers of acoustic messages and meant to be heard clearly over a wide range; while the distance between listener and soundsource plays a vital role. During the sound recordings and the editing of my radiophonic ringings I tried to interpret the definitions of 'near' and 'far', as if it were actually possible to stretch or shrink space and time through sound events."

Markus Stockhausen, Marco Blaauw, Andreas Gorsch - trumpets
Arie Abbenes - carillon
realization: Mauricio Kagel

***

Ein Aufnahmezustand (1969), radioplay (excerpt)

It's not easy to describe Kagel's definition of "Radio Art". He probably refers to a radiogenic procedure encompassing everything that has to do with sound production, placed in a radiophonic Space of Art. This often extends into narrative structures transporting humorous stories, illustrated by sound.

The recording situation of "Ein Aufnahmezustand" (Kagel's first original radioplay) is a form of game or play: "Only a posteriori each of the seven participants will find out that secondary questions and answers, spontaneous utterances, casual remarks and environmental noises are the main interest of this production. Their artfully articulated sounds and words are accepted as indispensable garbage, edited into the piece later on, as second-grade material." This is very effectively demonstrated in the final section, which uses a rehearsal of wind players as sound material.

Template for instrumentalist, from "Ein Aufnahmezustand"

***

remember M.K. (1)