From Bestelnummer DMR 1010-12: Anagrama (1957-58), for four soloists, speaking chorus, and chamber ensemble Kagel comes from a cosmopolitan family of Jewish origin in which the use of several languages was taken for granted, which took an interest in modern art, particularly the Bauhaus, and was distinguished by an anti-Fascist, Democratic, Socialist philosophy. This stimulated Kagel's interest in literature, the history of which he studied - under, among others, Borges - and which has been reflected in his compositions since 1950. Seeds of the future are to be found in the very earliest of his scores - in the superimposition of various texts in "Palimpsestos" for choir (1950), the important work "String Sextet" (1953, revised 1957), the "5 Cantos de Genesis for voice and piano" (1954), or in the cantata "De ruina mundis" (1955), on a text by Savonarola and compositorially influenced by Kagel's favourite composer, Monteverdi. Then came "Anagrama", the early main work, whose style of text composition has scarcely any roots in earlier music - at the most in the hocket or caccia, certainly not the Viennese School - although parallels are to be found in the literature of the 20th century, particularly in Joyce and the Dadaists. "Transicion I and II" (1958) followed, and the end of the decade was marked by a work that was to found one of Kagel's domains: "Sur Scene", his first contribution to instrumental theatre. The composition "Anagrama" for four solo voices, speaking chorus, and instruments, written between February 1957 and November 1958, after preparatory work in Argentina, was given its first performance at the ICMS Festival in Cologne on nth June 1960. Nearly all the speech elements and sounds are derived from the palindrome on gnats and moths (wrongly attributed to Dante): In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (we circle in the night and are consumed by fire), whose completely symmetrical structure is the equivalent of Webern's late twelve-tone rows. This is not a superficial comparison, for this piece, constructed in five sections and in three levels, represents no less than an attempt to match in vocal music the standard of synthetic sound differentiation based on Webern's work achieved in electronic music of that period. Of course, "Anagrama" at the same time also has its sources in completely different worlds, above all in Romanic- Manneristic Surrealism, but also in the Romantic-Universalistic spirit, which was obsessed with the idea that everything was connected with everything else. Kagel uses German, French, Italian, and Spanish; Latin is reserved for the palindrome, whose vocabulary of sounds (i, n, g, r, u, m, s, o, c, t, e) is extended by transposing the letters into acoustical terms; the c of consumimur, for example is mutated into a German k or a Spanish q (as in queso), the k in turn - together with s - provides the German x (as in Xylophon). It is not the meaning of the words, then, but their sound values which are the most essential part of all sound, word, and text composition here - most obviously so in what Kagel calls "acoustical translation". Pure sound imitation produces from the palindrome a sentence like: "In giro immoto notte e quieto ingu" (p. 36, b. 15). In line with Kagel's conception of lexica as the "summa summarum of all permuration systems", most of the new words are formed out of more or less regular rearrangements of the palindrome syllables. From "rum", for example, the words rumor (Sp.: rumour), rue (Fr.: street), Ruhe (G.: rest), Russe (G.: Russian), and rustre (Fr.: boorish) are derived, and there is an effortless development with about 30 intermediate steps from rime (Fr.: rhyme), ruinoso (Sp.: ruinous) or ripieno (It.: full) to Regung (G.: movement, emotion etc.), Regen (G.: rain) and requiem - partly via regular, partly via associative word production. The sentences formed from the new words are superimposed, as in a palimpsest, to form absurd dialogues, as in, for example: "Quien teme?" (Sp.: whom do you fear?) - "Tiens, mon Seigneur, ecoute un cri rôti" (Fr.: Well, sir, hear a roast cry) - "Je suis innocent" (Fr.: I am innocent). Or they are vaguely related: "Ein Ritter sitzt im Griinen" (G.: A knight sits in the open - "ieri ricino" (It.: castor-oil yesterday) - "er summt in seinem Eisen" (G.: He hums in his iron) - "oggi riposo" (It.: closed today). In general, a lack of syntactical connection between parts of sentences, dense polyphony, and an additional darkening of the sound (by use of vocal clusters, for example), combine to make such speech compositions almost totally incomprehensible. The phonetically written vocal sounds, the counterpart of the diversity of forms in the "Streichsextett", form a compendium of articulation methods, resembling electronic amplitude and frequency modulation. Pursing of the lips, breathy notes, nasalization, diverse vibrati, etc., create a rich spectrum of individual tone colours and transitions which before this composition had been restricted to electronic sound synthesis. The instrumental articulation is also alienated. Their sound spectra and the connection of the palindrome letters with certain pitches aims at the acoustical integration of speech and music. That this does not lead to any kind of mechanical rigidity, but on the contrary, contributes towards a multifarious and large-scale structure is already made clear by the fact that identical connections only recur after 12 (pitches) times 11 (letters) =132 notes. In fact the form of the work is an implied criticism of the rigid formal structures of serial music; its ideal is constant transition even in the smallest elements - a concept derived partly from painting, in particular from Klee's "visual thought". "Anagrama", then, is a passing tableau of colours and relationships which half conceals an anagrammatic form of semantics deriving from spontaneous and intentional associations and which occasionally descends from the heights of serial rationality - as in a passage of extreme density and intensity on which Kagel comments: "If these creams should awaken in the listener an impression that these are injured, suffering persons, then the chorus is to be heartily congratulated." Werner Kluppelholz (Translation: John Bell) From Bestelnummer DMR 1016-18: Sur Scčne (Anfang) (1959/60), chamber musical theatre piece in one act for speaker, mime, singer, and three instrumentalists. Alfred Feussner, speaker; Eduard Wollitz, singer; Alfons, Aloys, and Bernhard Kontarsky, instrumentalists. Directed by Mauricio Kagel. MAURICIO KAGEL Mauricio Kagel, who was born in Buenos Aires on 24 December 1931, is one of the most interesting and daringly experimental composers of our time. As he once put it, he was "trained as an autodidact by contact with unsatisfactory teachers". This applied most of all to composition; in piano, cello, clarinet, theory and conducting he received private instruction. Before beginning composing at age 18 he had familiarized himself with Schoenberg, Webern, Varese and Ives by performing and analyzing their works. Even his early compositions were experimental in nature: in "Música para la torre" (1953-54) he composed a changing musical backdrop for an exhibition tower, the motions being accompanied by music on tape. In the early 1950s he developed a keen interest in film music, and co-founded the Argentinian "Cinemateque" in Buenos Aires (notable for the first synchronization of René Clair's "Entr'acte" with Satie's original filmscore which was performed live in the cinema). He also edited articles on photography and film for "Nueva Visión", a periodical concerned with contemporary architecture and visual communication. In 1955 he became a rehearsal pianist and conductor at the Teatro Colón and head of studies at the chamber opera. Two years later he received a DAAD grant to study at the Electronic Music Studio in Cologne, where he now lives permanently. For his "Transición" (1959) Kagel invented "movable sheet music", in which some of the systems slide along grooves and at times notes are printed on rotating discs. In 1960 he founded the Cologne New Music Ensemble, with which he performed his pathbreaking work "Sur Scčne" (1959-60). For this manner of composition which at times conveys the impression of a "Gesamtkunstwerk", he coined the term "instrumental theater": not only is the music written out, but also the acting, motions and stage blocking. Since then he has continued to practice and elaborate this concept. Theoretical ramifications have led him again and again to new solutions which point away from a purely visual presentation to a novel and dimly musical brand of theater. Kagel is fond of experimenting with unusual sound-producing devices and "denaturalized" acoustical sources. He was visiting professor at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses fur New Music from 1960-66, and at the Berlin Academy for Film and Television since 1967. Kagel directs all his stage works, films and radio plays himself. Sur Scene The preliminary text of this "chamber music play" was drafted in 1958, and the work itself was composed in 1959- 1960 and premiered on 6 May 1962 during the "pro musica nova" festival on a commission from Bremen Radio. In more than a chronological sense it was written in close proximity to the choral piece "Anagrama" (1957-58). "Sur Scene" is dominated by the excessively artificial and absurd aspects of "Anagrama". Four processes are presented synchronously by six men. The Speaker is even comprehensible in his declamations, though only acoustically. As Kagel explains, an "ad hoc logic" is used not only to "compose thought-articulations" but also to "create a confusion of simple facts or banal comments". Yet this text is a collage drawn from literary sources. The Speaker is also the Actor, appearing first as a music professor, then as a scientist and a cultural philosopher. The task of the musical and mimetic modulations in the speech, Kagel maintains, is to highlight not "the meaning of the text - semantic adaptation" but rather the "utter ambiguity of role behaviour and the universe of discourse". And if the montage technique destroys any possible meaning in the text it does so twice over by its acoustical presentation, producing an effect of total alienation. Five different levels of pitch, volume and duration are indicated for reciting the speech. The audience hears not only speech-melody, at times multiplied by tapes, but also a "de-naturalization" of language. The Singer vacillates between the normal and the grotesque, singing isolated sounds, simple syllables, even scraps of words. The vocal part in "Sur Scene" is purely musical, yet not free of semantics. This produces close connections with the Speaker. We hear elements of Wagnerian pathos, the intensity of German lieder and the like. Being an actor, the Singer establishes links with the other actors, and plays various instruments such as the glockenspiel and a positive organ. He has the dual function of deluding the audience (and of pointing out non-existent psychological tensions among his fellow players) and of attracting the audience's attention to himself. Each Instrumentalist has both music and a role to play, though his role is not as alienated as the Speaker's or the Singer's. The "stage movements" result from the fact that the instruments (two pianos, harpsichord, positive organ, glockenspiel, a set of tubular bells and several metallophones and membranophones) are scattered over the stage. There is a second process involved, a Mime who does nothing but imitate meaningless actions. In the course of the piece he develops what Kagel calls a "quasi-pantomime of boredom". He takes a stance by applauding, with either positive or negative effect, by yawning, making faces, or giggling. He also functions as a one-man claque. He takes on the part of the Speaker when the latter leaves his podium. He steps aside, walks to the positive organ, and remains transfixed until the piece is over. Since "Sur Scene" does not have a precise beginning the Mime is already on stage as the audience enters. The second Actor appears, sits at the piano and starts practicing. As the Speaker begins, the practicing gradually stops. The Instrumentalists play together, even though changing instruments frequently. In this manner various ambiguous roles emerge. Despite the absence of a definite plot, situations crystallize which could combine into a single plot. Each participant is on his own; yet possibilities of movement emerge and reactions take place. Each musician practices by himself while the three actors form a group and exchange roles, making music and speech mutually independent. At the end, all the music - from the Singer, the Speaker and the Instrumentalists - is taken over by the loudspeakers, and all participants are on stage acting independently, miming and playing at cross purposes. The piece disintegrates. We hear chit-chat about music - cliches continually being produced by the world of music. Then we hear music which, now and then, fails to escape deliberate inanity. We see the condition of alienation existing among people in the world of music. We recognize the absurd traits of coincidence. Events on stage are exaggerated to the point of grotesqueness, to extremes of artificiality and smug delight. Only through distortion and reflection does reality emerge in all its clarity - a melancholy object lesson in the pointlessness and vanity of "comment c'est". From Deutsche Grammophon 137 006: Music for Renaissance Instruments (1965/66) Collegium instrumentale, conducted by Mauricio Kagel This work contains neither prediction, pointers to the future, nor a comforting return to the past: the use of Renaissance instruments here has no programmatic purpose in any general sense. The only decisive fact is that these instruments correspond to my tonal concept better than any present-day stringed and wind instruments could. The systematic alienation of conventional instrumental sound, which comes into its own in the material and methods of the most modem music, seemed to me to justify an attempt, for once, to reverse the normally accepted view on the subject of the composition of tone colour. The individual quality of restraint which belongs to the nature of these Renaissance instruments made it all the easier for me to introduce each of them in its own unadulterated tonal character. While still a student of musicology in Argentina I began to sketch a similar piece, but I dropped the project at that time, since one of the essential conditions for bringing the idea to fruition-the formation of a truly orchestral ensemble of early instruments-could not then be fulfilled. In the renaissance of the Renaissance which we are now experiencing such an ensemble has become feasible, because copies of most of the instruments have recently been made, and numerous musicians have become proficient in playing them. Only the formation of complete families of typical instruments, played by 23 musicians, could produce a sound picture true to the period in question. (All the Renaissance instruments required for my composition were represented in the Theatrum Instrumentorumof the "Syntagma Musicum" by Michael Praetorius (1619). During recent years I have become so familiar with each of the instruments used that I could think out its tonal function afresh, and have been able to develop the performing techniques beyond the conventional limits. Even an instrument such as the recorder, which is closely associated with home and school music making of a very different kind, proved to be extremely versatile, and more suitable for use in new instrumental music than, for example, the transverse flute. Each instrumental part of this work was composed like a solo line. However, the parts were put together as a full score, written in more or less normal notation. Other versions of the work are also possible, using any number of players from two to twenty-two, in every combination of instruments drawn from the original scoring. These reduced versions are entitled "Chamber Music for Renaissance Instruments". The concept of an ad hoc orchestra made up of whatever instruments are available--in accordance with the performing practice of the Renaissance period--is here taken literally, so that a degree of variation is possible which cannot be foreseen by the composer. This work (1965/66) was written in memoriam Claudio Monteverdi. Nevertheless it contains no collages of old music. Mauricio Kagel born in Buenos Aires, 24th December 1931. Musical training and varied activities on behalf of new music in Buenos Aires. In Europe since 1957, lives in Cologne. Has worked at the electronic studios in Cologne, Munich and Utrecht. Since 1960 lecturer at the International Holiday Courses for New Music, Darmstadt. 1965 Slee Professor of Composition at the State University of New York in Buffalo. Conductor, producer and film director, principally of his own works. Extensive lecture and recital tours in Europe and America. Works: String Sextet (1953), Transición II for piano, percussion and two sound tapes (1957-58), Anagrama for four solo voices, speaking chorus and chamber ensemble (1957-58), Transicion I for electronic sounds (1958-60), Sur Scčne, chamber music theatre piece (1959-60), Sonant for guitar, harp, contrabass and drum-headed instruments (1960), Pandorasbox, bandoneonpiece (1960), Metapiece (mimetics) for piano (1961), Heterophonie for orchestra (1959-61), Antithese, composition for electronic and publicly performed sounds (1962), Die Frauen, a scenic piece on women for voices and instruments (1962-64), Phonophonie, four melodramas for two voices and other sources of sound (1963-64), Match for three players (1964), Diaphonie for chorus, orchestra and diapositive projections (1964), Tremens, scenic montage of a test (1963-65), Pas de cinq, transformation scene for five performers (1965), Die Himmelsmechanik, composition with stage scenes (1965), Camera obscura, chromatic piece for light sources with representers (1965), Music for Renaissance Instruments (1965-66), String Quartet (1965-67), Kommentar & Extempore, monologue with gestures (1966-67), Variationen for singers and actors (1967). Films: Antithese, Match, Solo, Duo, Hallelujah. Organ works: Improvisation ajoutée (1961-62), Fantasia with Obbligati(1967). From Deutsche Grammophon 137 003: Mauricio Kagel Fantasia for Organ with obbligati Gerd Zacher, organ Obbligato signifies something necessary and Indispensable. The obbligati in Kagel's organ work are, to that extent, its genuinely principal part, a kind of cantus firmus. They consist of tape recordings, preferably made by the organist himself, since they illustrate the acoustical background of his life. (In the present recording half of the obbligati were taped by Kagel and half by Gerd Zacher). These sounds on tape begin with falling rain, continuing with a running tap, a toilet being flushed, and the sound of a kettle boiling, after which water music we hear an egg-timer, toaster, and a morning news bulletin. This start of the day is followed by leaving the house and travelling by underground train; the sound of bells marks the arrival at church. Recordings from a Christening, a Wedding and a Memorial Service create the church atmosphere, also symbolizing further areas of the organist's life. Such muslque concrete--in itself by no means obbligato--is put into its context by the strict musique abstraite of the Fantasia for Organ. This gives signifiance to the tape recordings by creating transitions between them, foreshadowing what is to come, and recollecting what is past. It gives musical continuity to the purely biographical tape recordings. The organ part takes the material of the obbligati back into terms of music in ever new ways. As the tape recordings resist such musical integration owing to their associative character, insisting on their own extra-musical connections, the dialectical linking of the two elements gives rise to a kind of musical "radio play", in which the aural background to the organist's intimate life penetrates Into the sphere of his official activities.