MaerzMusik – Festival of Contemporary Music
17 to 25 March 2012
Poles: John Cage 100 – Wolfgang Rihm 60
Their work and its consequences
Their work and its consequences
MaerzMusik 2012 serves as an experimental setting: by presenting the work of John Cage and Wolfgang Rihm, who both mark anniversaries this year, two artistic positions confront one another that could hardly be more contradictory in their respective radicalism. They can be viewed as poles of a contemporary musical cosmos which emerges as a multi- dimensional, creative field of tension, constantly developing further yet without really being reconciled under the ostensibly protective roof of ›anything goes‹ pluralism.
John Cage fundamentally redefined our concept of music and expanded it interdisciplinarily by introducing chance, ›indeterminacy‹ and simultaneity in his compositions, emancipating silence as a musical substance, undertaking imaginative extensions of the instrumental sound, creating free calligraphic forms of notation and producing texts prolifically. His groundbreaking works triggered an artistic earthquake with manifold consequences. Under the heading »Cage and Consequences«, MaerzMusik marks his 100th birthday as well as the 20th anniversary of his death by exploring the works and impact of this monumental artist who had a lasting influence on subsequent generations of composers, musicians and artists.
In March 2012, Wolfgang Rihm celebrates his 60th birthday. While Cage conceived an experimental concept of music in which the compository subject is limited to the establishing of rules from which the musical work emerges randomly, ›objectively‹ as it were, Rihm claimed for himself an idiom of the highest expressiveness and subjectivity. His notion of artistic freedom aims at the instant power of sound imagination that unfolds unhampered by fixed strategies and constructs. It is embodied in a plethora of compositions of various kinds. Not least through his teaching activities did Rihm also inspire and influence a large number of composers.
Joan La Barbara, who worked closely with Cage, opens the festival with a new production of his emblematic Song Books performed by her New York ensemble Ne(x)tworks and the Berlin-based Maulwerkern. The next day, two of his final works will be performed simultaneously: 103 for large orchestra and One11 – ›a film without subject‹ – from the Number Pieces series.
The concert cycle by La Monte Young with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble in the Dream Light installation by Marian Zazeela is a sensation. La Monte Young is considered to be the actual ›inventor‹ of Minimal Music, when he started working long held pitches into his compositions from the mid-1950s on. The concert cycle could be a final opportunity to experience the duo in Europe, as both stopped travelling more than 10 years ago.
Another major attraction will surely be the encounter between Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, who together formed the Sonic Arts Union from 1966 to 1976 and are counted among the most important experimental composers in the wake of Cage and the New York School.
Younger representatives of a post-Cage wave can be heard at the late-night Sonic Arts Lounges at Berghain and at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele: Elliott Sharp (with zeitkratzer), Annie Gosfield, Tomomi Adachi, Werner Dafeldecker and Valerio Tricoli, among others.Rihm’s earliest as well as more recent works will be performed. They will be directly confronted with works from »Cage and Beyond« in the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the Remix Ensemble concerts. The RIAS Kammerchor encounters Rihm’s motets with music by Heinrich Schütz, much as contemporary compositions are contrasted with historical music as a common thread throughout parts of the programme. Mark Andre incorporates works by Mozart in his music for the choregraphic concert gefaltet with Sasha Waltz & Guests. Sergej Newski’s Autland is based on a canon of 32 voices by Johannes Ockeghem. The festival closes with a performance of Cage’s Branches for plant sounds at the Botanical Gardens in Dahlem and with a multifaceted programme of »dedicated« works by Phil Corner, Dieter Schnebel, Alvin Curran, Akio Suzuki, Walter Zimmermann, among others, at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
The organisers of the 11th MaerzMusik would especially like to thank the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Capital Cultural Fund, without whose support the festival’s utopian projects would not have been realised. The focal point »Cage & Consequences« takes place with the support of and in cooperation with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme which, starting in the 1960s and with John Cage himself, has invited almost all significant composers of this genre to Berlin. Their footprints are omnipresent in Berlin musical life.
We invite you to follow, with excitement, curiosity and pleasure, the unexpected and exhilarating results generated by our musical test bed!
Matthias Osterwold
John Cage fundamentally redefined our concept of music and expanded it interdisciplinarily by introducing chance, ›indeterminacy‹ and simultaneity in his compositions, emancipating silence as a musical substance, undertaking imaginative extensions of the instrumental sound, creating free calligraphic forms of notation and producing texts prolifically. His groundbreaking works triggered an artistic earthquake with manifold consequences. Under the heading »Cage and Consequences«, MaerzMusik marks his 100th birthday as well as the 20th anniversary of his death by exploring the works and impact of this monumental artist who had a lasting influence on subsequent generations of composers, musicians and artists.
In March 2012, Wolfgang Rihm celebrates his 60th birthday. While Cage conceived an experimental concept of music in which the compository subject is limited to the establishing of rules from which the musical work emerges randomly, ›objectively‹ as it were, Rihm claimed for himself an idiom of the highest expressiveness and subjectivity. His notion of artistic freedom aims at the instant power of sound imagination that unfolds unhampered by fixed strategies and constructs. It is embodied in a plethora of compositions of various kinds. Not least through his teaching activities did Rihm also inspire and influence a large number of composers.
Joan La Barbara, who worked closely with Cage, opens the festival with a new production of his emblematic Song Books performed by her New York ensemble Ne(x)tworks and the Berlin-based Maulwerkern. The next day, two of his final works will be performed simultaneously: 103 for large orchestra and One11 – ›a film without subject‹ – from the Number Pieces series.
The concert cycle by La Monte Young with The Just Alap Raga Ensemble in the Dream Light installation by Marian Zazeela is a sensation. La Monte Young is considered to be the actual ›inventor‹ of Minimal Music, when he started working long held pitches into his compositions from the mid-1950s on. The concert cycle could be a final opportunity to experience the duo in Europe, as both stopped travelling more than 10 years ago.
Another major attraction will surely be the encounter between Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, who together formed the Sonic Arts Union from 1966 to 1976 and are counted among the most important experimental composers in the wake of Cage and the New York School.
Younger representatives of a post-Cage wave can be heard at the late-night Sonic Arts Lounges at Berghain and at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele: Elliott Sharp (with zeitkratzer), Annie Gosfield, Tomomi Adachi, Werner Dafeldecker and Valerio Tricoli, among others.Rihm’s earliest as well as more recent works will be performed. They will be directly confronted with works from »Cage and Beyond« in the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the Remix Ensemble concerts. The RIAS Kammerchor encounters Rihm’s motets with music by Heinrich Schütz, much as contemporary compositions are contrasted with historical music as a common thread throughout parts of the programme. Mark Andre incorporates works by Mozart in his music for the choregraphic concert gefaltet with Sasha Waltz & Guests. Sergej Newski’s Autland is based on a canon of 32 voices by Johannes Ockeghem. The festival closes with a performance of Cage’s Branches for plant sounds at the Botanical Gardens in Dahlem and with a multifaceted programme of »dedicated« works by Phil Corner, Dieter Schnebel, Alvin Curran, Akio Suzuki, Walter Zimmermann, among others, at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
The organisers of the 11th MaerzMusik would especially like to thank the Federal Cultural Foundation and the Capital Cultural Fund, without whose support the festival’s utopian projects would not have been realised. The focal point »Cage & Consequences« takes place with the support of and in cooperation with the DAAD Artists-in-Berlin Programme which, starting in the 1960s and with John Cage himself, has invited almost all significant composers of this genre to Berlin. Their footprints are omnipresent in Berlin musical life.
We invite you to follow, with excitement, curiosity and pleasure, the unexpected and exhilarating results generated by our musical test bed!
Matthias Osterwold
