Various ‘Inventionen II’

01 Takehito Shimazu Zytoplasma (10:55)
02 Boguslaw Schaeffer Maa’ts (9:55)
03 Rolf Enström Fractal (22:22)

Total time 43:12
LP released on Edition RZ, 1985

Take a look at Berlin’s 1984 Inventionen Festival’s program and you realise how consistent the choices of organizer Robert Zank were: NY sound artist Yoshi(masa) Wada; Montreal’s electro-acoustic improvising group Sondes; François Bayle and Bernard Parmegiani from INA-GRM; composers from South America and Sweden. The works on this LP were showcased and sometimes premiered during the Festival’s 2nd edition, hence the ‘Inventionen II’ title. Takehito Shimazu (b.1949) is a Japanese electronic and computer music composer whose works have been well received in Europe. His track ‘Zytoplasma’ is build on a constant electronic drone, growing in pitch and intensity for the first 7 minutes. It will be the basis to a rigid grid of electronic bleeps and buzzes, an evocation of a primary soup growing in intensity and diversity, starting with simple sound cells morphing into more complex sonic organisms (white noise, sort of). Thanks to its fine synthetic sounds, varied textures and un-hurried pace, the piece is a joy to listen to. Boguslaw Schaefer was featured on vol. I already – please refer to previous post for info. Composed at Stockholm’s EMS studios by Swedish Rolf Enström (b.1951), ‘Fractal’ was premiered at Inventionen ‘84. It is an ambitious electroacoustic composition based on processed sounds from classical instruments as well as synth and computer parts. The inspiration apparently comes from processed photos. The music is purely electroacoustic with great care to timbre: sounds are included for their timbral properties, mostly like musical objects under the scrutiny of the composer. To no surprise for an Edition RZ LP, sound quality is very good, appropriately for this kind of music. Is this reason enough not to reissue it on CD? – I wonder.

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Paul Dessau ‘Der Anachronistische Zug’

01 Der Anachronistische Zug – Part I (7:20)
02 Der Anachronistische Zug – Part II (8:04)

Total time 15:24
Mono 45rpm, Eterna, East Berlin, 1974

Paul Dessau: voice
Werner Stolze: piano
Walter Kodwitz: drums

This 7” single came with the commemorative book ‘Paul Dessau Aus Gesprächen’, published by Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Leipzig, East Germany, 1974, written for Paul Dessau’s 80th birthday by Dieter Boeck, Fritz Hennenberg, Evelyn Richter et al. ‘Der Anachronistische Zug’ is a ballad for song, piano and percussion composed by Dessau in 1956, based on Bertolt Brecht’s 1947 poem: ‘Der anachronistische Zug oder Freiheit und Democracy’ (The Anachronic Train, or Freedom and Democracy). Text of the Brecht poem (in German) can be found here. The Brecht poem is a protest song against old Nazi Party in prosperous post-war Germany. Paul Dessau was one of East Germany’s most prominent composers. He composed several operas based on Brecht’s writings, including Puntila, in 1956. On ‘Der Anachronistische Zug’, Dessau, aged 80, sings in a charming voice along an unusual accompanyment of piano and drums.

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Various ‘Inventionen I’

01 Boguslaw Schaeffer ‘Berlin 80 II’ (13:34)
02 Ricardo Mandolini ‘Fabulas II’ (10:24)
03 Sukhi Kang [piano: Alan Marks] ‘Inventio’ (23:26)

Total time 47:40
LP released on Edition RZ, ref RZ 3002, Berlin, 1985

This LP was to be the first in a series of compilation discs devoted to electro-acoustic music from Europe and Asia, on Robert Zank’s Edition RZ. Inventionen was first a Berlin contemporary music festival held from 1982 on, though the LP and CD releases are companion studio recordings of the live events. To no surprise from this label, sound engineering and pressing quality is supreme, a benchmark for all things vinyl, thanks to Robert Zank’s attention to technical details. Boguslaw Schaeffer is a Polish contemporary music composer, musicologist, playwright, writer, graphic artist (see one of his incredible graphic scores here) director of various avantgarde music journals. From 1963 a lecturer in composition in Polish music academies. He became interested in electronic music and sound processing in the early 1960s, working at the Experimental Studio (Studio Eksperymentalne) of Polish Radio in Warsaw from 1965 on. ‘Berlin 80 II’, composed 1980, is for piano and tape. I suppose it to be an evocation of Berlin, and it does indeed start with a quote/sample from Kurt Weil’s Three Penny Opera. The piece morphs successively into different scenes not necessarily related and each using different sound sources as basic material, be it electronic noise, drums, sample, electronically processed piano, etc. Sparse, untreated piano notes are the only permanent element in this fairly minimal, gorgeous piece. ‘Inventio’ is a solo piano work by Korean composer Sukhi Kang. While it is close to Boulez and Stockhausen’s own piano sonatas from the 1940s-50s, some incursion into inside- and prepared piano playing give it a broader scope, not unlike George Crumb’s 1973 Makrokosmos. For info on Ricardo Mandolini, see previous post,‘Elektro Akustische-Musik’ here.

Thanks to reader Sto, from Norway, for providing the music.

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Below: an 8mn film on Boguslav Schaeffer

‘Watervalwater – Ecrits Bruts Oratorium’

01 Hymne (0:56)
02 Qaqi (1:08)
03 Les Mots (3:22)
04 Je Suis Boeuf (2:12)
05 Huiskamer (0:44)
06 Rembrant (4:43)
07 Feest – Deel 1 (1:27)
08 Aproppo (2:43)
09 Teleologie (1:17)
10 Rawanda (2:53)
11 Feest – Deel 2 (1:42)
12 Blitzen Uber Die Bleef (1:32)
13 Gloria (2:44)
14 Liturgie Van Het Doopsel (5:51)
15 Liturgie Van Het Huwelijk (3:22)
16 Uitvaartliturgie (14:06)
17 Johnny In A (10:38)
18 Liefdeslied (1:20)

Total time 60:00
CD released by Ferri Records, Belgium, 2001

The Watervalwater project is the brainchild of Belgian stage director Wim De Wulf and composer Johan De Smet. It was performed at the Psychiatric Center Caritas in Melle, Belgium by a cast of volunteer patients as musicians and actors, supported by professional singers and musicians including the Flemish Radio Choir (see De Smet interview in Flemish). The texts are based on inpatients’ writings like Michel Dave, Jim Vanden Bossche, Frans Kruye, plus a pair of famous untaught writers, namely Adolf Wölfli and Vaclav Nijinski, mostly sung in Flemish with the occasional French and German. Johan De Smet is a neo-classical composer who was involved in a few weird projects along the years, especially setting to music the Marc Sleen’s Nero comic strip in 1984 and the silly Kamagurka comic strips with Peter Van Heirseele (see here). Also a member of The Simpletones, De Smet is best known for his stage music for Flanders theater companies. The music he composed for Watervalwater is contemporary classical music for small orchestra, singers and choir with echoes of Darius Milhaud’s Boeuf Sur Le Toit, Hans Werner Henze’s L’Upupa and Policcino, or Adolf Wölfli’s Gelesen Und Vertont 1978 LP (download here). I guess you’ll have to trust my word on this one, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the references above, but this is actually an amazing project. The weirdness of the whereabouts only enhances the special quality of this unique event.

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Rosenfest Berlin 1984 ‘Fragment XXX’

AKT 1:
01 Giancarlo Schiaffini ‘Finale’ (7:31)
AKT 2:
02 Robert Ashley ‘The City Of Kleist – Ausschnitt I’ (7:33)
03 Robert Ashley ‘The City Of Kleist – Ausschnitt II’ (7:34)
04 Blue Gene Tyranny ‘The City Of Kleist – Finale’ (7:57)
AKT 3:
05 Henning Christiansen ‘Ausschnitt’ (7:36)
06 Henning Christiansen ‘Finale’ (7:30)
(note: ‘ausschnitt’=excerpt)

Total time 45:30
Book+three 7” singles, DAAD galerie, Berlin, 1984

Interestingly, on this triple 7-inches set, we see an Italian, two Americans and a Danish composer venture into Musiktheater, a typically German territory. Not only this, they also reconfigure a legendary Sturm Und Drang theater play by Heinrich Von Kleist, ‘Penthesilea’, decidedly  taking all the risks with German heritage. ‘Rosenfest’ was a contemporary art exhibition taking place in the Berlin DAAD galery, 1984, blending visual artists and avantgarde music composers like Robert Ashley, Henning Christiansen, Per Kirkeby, Jannis Kounelis, Guilio Paolini, Carlo Quartucci, Carla Tatò, Lawrence Weiner. The catalogue also includes Daniel Buren. The companion 3-discs set documents their version of Kleist’s Penthesilea, with each scene created by different composers/interprets: Giancarlo Schiaffini, Robert Ashley, Blue Gene Tyranny and Henning Christiansen. To hear Robert Ashley uttering German indecipherale words is a delight (beginning and end of tr.#2). His 2 scenes are typical Ashley, with collective, declamatory vocals over synth drones and piano courtesy Blue Gene Tyranny. The latter’s contribution includes a beautiful, extended piano+synth duo, both played by Tyranny apparently.The voice of Italian actress Carla Tatò is prominent in several tracks — her slightly excessive Italian voice prefectly suitable for a Dario Fo theater play. The 2 compositions by Danish Fluxus artist Henning Christiansen are based on thundering, low piano pedals, church organ, saxophone and field recordings. In these 2 tracks, the vocals are more discrete, building a perfect end-of-the-world atmosphere.

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Jaroslav Krček ‘Vánoční zpěvy z doby husitské’

01 In Hoc Anni Circulo + Jesus Our Saviour (3:33)
02 Children Young & Old (3:29)
03 By The Word Of The Testament + Nascitur De Virgine (3:02)
04 A Merry Day Has Arrived For Us (1:48)
05 Danielis Prophecia (4:26)
06 A Strange Affair Has Occurred (3:53)
07 The City Which Is Called Bethlehem (2:23)
08 A Single Voice At This Time (3:47)
09 We Come Singing In Praise (3:55)
10 Puer Natus In Bethleem + Nunc Angelorum Gloria (4:03)
11 Pueri Nativitatem (2:18)
12 The Lord Is Born (4:04)
13 Puer Nobis Nascitur (2:05)
14 In The Reign Of Caesar Augustus (2:18)

Total time 44:30
Recorded 1979, LP released on Supraphon in 1981

Musica Bohemica ensemble with:
Voice: Jaroslav Tománek, Lubomir Vraspir, Vratislav Vinický, Jaroslav Krček
Solo oboe: Gabriela Krčkova
Solo violin: Jaroslav Krištšfek
Cond.: Jaroslav Krček

Musica Bohemica is a chamber ensemble specialising in Bohemian Christmas songs. It was created in 1975 by Jaroslav Krček, then musical director for the Supraphon company, as an offspring from an older ensemble called Chorea Bohemica, founded 1967. This LP (whose title translates as ‘Christmas Carols from the Jistebnice Hymnal’, a Hussite song book) is a collection of Christmas songs from the middle of the 15th century. The Hussites were followers of Jan Hus’ protestant doctrine. Krček’s arrangments are based on Renaissance musical notation (see picture above), which required re-creating the hymns to suitable pitch and rhythm. The resulting songs surround the humble Carols with grandeur and eloquence. Janacek’s Glagolithic Mass comes to mind when hearing a song like #8 ‘A Single Voice At This Time’ as it is rendered with a decidedly slavic conviction. The Ensemble really engages in a communal, lively re-enacting of the Hussites supposed congregational meetings and whereabouts. I assume these songs are still part of Musica Bohemica’s repertoire nowadays, evidence of their lasting impact on listeners. This record is not from personal collection. It was uploaded on a russian forum with a comprehensive Renaissance and Baroque music section. Their detailled introduction is a vital resource.

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Jaroslav Krček ‘Raab’

01 Raab – Part I (25:49)
02 Raab – Part II (13:16)
03 Raab – Part III (14:05)

Total time 53:00

Recorded 1971 in Supraphon studios, Prague.
First release on Recommended Records, R.R.23, 1985.

Cast:
Raab . . . . . . . . . . Milada Jirgová
Eolnas . . . . . . . . . . Pavel Jurkovič
Ronochaj . . . . . . . . . . Jaroslav Tománek
Joshua . . . . . . . . . . Vratislav Vinický
Mother . . . . . . . . . . Vlasta Pecháčková
Father . . . . . . . . . . Vratislav Vinický
Sisters . . . . . . . . . . Milada Jirgová, Jitka Čechová
Narrator . . . . . . . . . . Radovan Lukavský
Viola . . . . . . . . . . Karel Špelina

According to Lenka Dohnalová’s 2000 article ‘Electro-acoustic Music in Czech Republic’, electroacoustic music started in Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s thanks to equipment facilities provided to composers by national radio studios of Plzeň (Pilsen) and Praha (Prague). Miloslav Kabeláč (whose 1972’s ‘E. Fontibus Bohemicis – Op.55′ is considered a seminal composition) taught new music to a whole generation of pupils during the 1970s, including Petr Kotik and Jaroslav Krček. The latter (b1939), a radio producer, conductor, classical and folk music composer, is famous to experimental music lovers for his exquisite electroacoustic piece ‘Sonaty Slavičkove’, composed 1970 and included in the legendary ReR compilation LP ‘Aide Mémoire-Folk Music-Sonaty Slavičkove’ (1985). During the 1970s, Krček worked as musical director for Plzen Radio and Supraphon record label (see my Wikipedia article for more info).

Raab (aka Raab The Harlot) was created in Czechoslovakia as ‘Nevěstka Raab (The Prostitute Raab) - An Electronic Opera’ in 1971 . Best described as an electroacoustic oratorio, it was created in the Prague Electronic Music Studio in 1970-71. It was banned by the communist regime in 1972. This was a time for many contemporary avantgarde music dramas like Iannis Xenakis’ ‘Nuits’ (1968) or Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s ‘Requiem Für Einen Jungen Dichter’ (1969). The story of Raab (or Rahab as she is known in the Bible) is based on the Fall of Jericho from the Book of Joshua, a Jewish king planning to conquer the town: “Joshua son of Nun sent two spies out from Shittim secretly and instructed them: “Find out what you can about the land, especially Jericho. They stopped at the house of a prostitute named Rahab and spent the night there“ [Joshua 2:1].

Rahab (unidentified singer pictured here) helps the two spies and hide them from the King of Jericho’s guards, thus helping the Israelites conquer Jericho. The libretto is by Zdeněk Barborka using an invented language that can pass for an approximation of aramaic, Jesus’ native tongue (check the sound files on this Wikipedia article). The opera opens with an introductory recitative in czech, followed (at 4′) by one of several long instrumental crescendos build from slowed-down trumpets and cymbals crashes reaching to a climax before a long decaying low rumble, an allusion to the trumpets used by Joshua during the 7-days siege of Jericho. The sound is reminiscent of the bell casting scene in Tarkovsky’s film Andrei Rublev, 1966. It sets the tone for the rest of a hieratic, imposing score. The opera relies mostly on vocals with occasional electroacoustic interjections in the form of processed acoustic instruments like viola, tam-tam or full orchestra, transformed through studio treatment and montage. Vocal deliveries are pretty diverse, ranging from singing to sprechgesang, from the plaintive to the exhalted, from emphatic to hushed voices. The cast includes core members of the Chorea Bohemica ensemble from which will stem the Musica Bohemica ensemble, to be founded by Jaroslav Krček in 1975 (see next post).

As far as I can tell, the opera wasn’t staged in 1971 or at any time during the communist regime. In 1989, after the Velvet Revolution put an end to communism in Czech country, the LP was finally issued by local label Panton, four years after its original release by Chris Cutler on his own Recommended Records. A new production of Nevěstka Raab was staged in 2003 at Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts (JAMU) in Brno, with costume and stage design by Radka Mizerová (b1976). Another production was presented in 2004, by stage director Magdalena Krčková (b1977) at Jičín’s Cultural House (Kulturním dome v Jicíne). Interestingly, this performance included dancers as well as actors and singers.

Download (incl. 12pp booklet + Sonáty slavíčkové as a bonus).

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Lenka Dohnalová lists several electro-acoustic works by Krček:

• Sonáty slavíčkové (Nightingales Sonatas), 1969
• Nevěstka Raab (Prostitute Raab), 1971
• Koncert (Concert), 1978
• Rozmluvy s časem (Talks with Time), 1990
• O světlo světa (O lux mundi), 1992

Javier Alvarez ‘Papalotl’

Transformaciones Exóticas

1. Acuerdos Por Diferencia (11:30)
   for harp and electroacoustic sounds (1989)
2. Temazcal (7:54)
   for amplified maracas and electroacoustic sounds 1984
3. Papalotl (13:15)
   for piano and electroacoustic sounds (1987)
4. Mannam (14:00)
   for kayagum (Korean zither) and electroacosutic sounds (1992)
5. Así El Acero (9:10)
   for steel pan (1988)

Total time 55:45
CD released on Saydisc Records, England, 1992

Javier Alvarez (b1956) is a Mexican composer living in England from 1982 to 2007, when he moved back to Mexico. ‘Papalotl -Transformaciones Exóticas’ (Papalotl means butterfly) is a collection of compositions pairing an acoustic instrument with prerecorded or live electronic treatment. Since electronic and tape music have been widely accessible to composers (when electroacoustic studios were launched in Europe, Japan and the US during the 1960s), they have favored this formula of pairing a solo instrument with an electroacoustic background, hence retaining the best of both words. The real-time processing technique strategy also allows live performance of these sound works which otherwise might be available on disc only. Besides, the music community asks for new music scores to be performed by young interprets during concert events. Examples of compositions for solo instrument+electronic treatment/tape can be found in: Pierre Boulez’s ‘Dialogue de l’ombre double’ or 1984’s Répons, Barry Truax, Roderik De Man, Stockhausen, Peter Todd Lewis, Luc Ferrari, etc. The ‘Papalotl’ CD shows Alvarez’s skills in the field. ‘Temazcal’ is based on the relentless, semi-improvised performance of Luis Julio Toro on maracas (b&w picture above, while color picture shows composer) on top of a pre-recorded tape of electronically processed contrabass, harp and folk guitar chords. In this brilliant piece, the mix of vernacular Caribbean+South American popular rhythms with extremely elaborated electroacoustic music is irresistible. The last 2 tracks pair exotic instruments such as kayagum and steel pan against a backdrop of elaborated electronic samples. The sound quality is very good for a CD. Interestingly, Saydisc Records is a folk and world music publisher.

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