Margaret McLay
Three Recent Works by György Kurtág
Aspects of Settings of Texts by Lichtenberg, Hölderlin and
Beckett
Looking at Kurtág's oeuvre as a whole, the wide choice of
literary sources and the apt settings of words are established features. With
Kurtág the skill at word-setting extends to several languages. As an educated
Hungarian from Transylvania, he speaks Hungarian, Romanian (and hence Italian),
and German. To which he added later studies of French, English and Russian.
His knowledge of the literature of many countries is astonishing. He was a
central figure in Budapest musical life holding sessions at his flat for young
musicians and others, during which not only musical scores were analysed,
but also works of literature: sessions on Joyce's Finnegan's Wake were particularly
influential.
Kurtág's music is imbued, too, with the love of musical puzzles-some
obvious, others well-hidden, some humorous, others serious, bringing to mind
the second motto which prefaces the Péter Bornemisza Concerto: "...Some will
smile at them, some will shudder at them, some will find little in them, others
will take several meanings from them..." As early as the Opus 1 String Quartet,
there is a double pun in the fifth movement. This is an ostinato and Kurtág
directs it to be played "molto ostinato". The first violin part resembles
mule-like braying in the opening bars. Joyce's influence in the multi-language
pun can be seen in another re- ference to the donkey family, in number 9 of
the Twelve New Microludes from book 3 of Játékok (Games, the collection of
pieces designed to introduce young children to playing the piano) which is
called "A konok Ász" ("Stubborn Ab); of course "Ász" sounds like "ass" in
English. There are also "musical rebuses" as in the petal-like duration signs
in the third section of the third movement of the Bornemisza Concerto, Opus
7, to the words "Virág az ember" ("man is as a flower").
These traits are well demonstrated in three recent works,
the Hölderlin-Gesänge, Opus 35 (in progress), ... pas a pas-nulle part...,
Opus 36 (1993-98), to poems by Samuel Beckett in French and English, and Einige
Sätze aus den Sudelbüchern Georg Christoph Lichtenbergs, Opus 37 (1996). Only
the last of these works is published to date. The Hölderlin settings are described
as a work in progress, and there are differences between the manuscript score
of the Beckett settings and the tape of the World Premiere. The observations
made in this paper, therefore, bear this in mind.
Einige Sätze aus den Sudelbüchern Georg Christoph
Lichtenbergs, for solo soprano
As the Lichtenberg settings are published and therefore in
a more finalized form, it is sensible to consider this work first. Kurtág
writes that this is not a song cycle; the singer is, rather, free to choose
which songs to perform and in what order. There is something almost improvisatory
about the work, which is added to by the choice given to the performer.
Moreover, singers can opt to perform some of the items with
instruments: the Appendix contains arrangements of some of the songs for Trumpet(s),
Horn or Double Bass. Kurtág also suggests that it is not necessary to choose
a large number of the songs: five or six may be enough. Typically, the intensity
of his expression makes an impact with only a few numbers. The items can also
be performed in other contexts with other works, perhaps with the music of
other composers. It is also possible to perform a song more than once in the
same performance, allowing different perspectives on it each time. One is
reminded of the concerts held by the composers of the New Music Studio in
Budapest in the 70's and 80's, which contained much experimental music by
composers from different countries as well as from Hungary. Kurtág influenced
and inspired these younger composers, and was in turn interested in many of
the developments presented at these concerts. The idea of giving the performer
this choice is, however, an interesting development for Kurtág who has a very
precise idea of how he wishes his works to be performed, right down to the
timbre of the individual voice he feels best suits each composition. The idea
of choosing a cycle of pieces from a larger oeuvre may well have come from
performing selections from Játékok, sometimes with music by other composers.
Although Kurtág has described Játékok as "litter"1
the writing down of any musical idea which came to him, even if it was someone
else's, has helped to stimulate his compositional flow, and has provided him
with a source of material for more "serious" compositions. This freedom now
appears to have extended to a certain latitude for the performer, too.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742-99) was a German physicist
who lectured at the University of Göttingen. He is not remembered much for
his physics, but rather for his witty aphorisms, which have been published
in several languages. "Sudeln" means "to scribble", "daub", "mess about".
The word "Sudelbuch" therefore could mean "book of scribbles" or "book of
rubbish". Kurtág may well have been amused by the apparent connection with
this title and his own description of Játékok. Kurtág became acquainted with
Lichtenberg's work during a stay at the Wirtschaftskolleg zu Berlin, where
the dedicatees of the work, Professor Wolf and Annette Lepenies entertained
him after dinner with selections from the aphorisms.2
The following gives a flavour of Lichtenberg's wit:
Whoever loves himself has at least the advantage of not
having many rivals.
Other aphorisms are less humorous in intent:
What use is the sunrise if we do not get up?
Some of the collection are not even aphorisms but are rather
incomplete sayings, for instance
When our blessed cow was alive, a woman in Göttingen once
said.
Most of the sayings contain a condensed profound thought.
Kurtág likens one of them to a Buddhist koan:
Order leads to all that is virtuous! but what leads to
order?
The match in these short sayings between Kurtág's own pithy
style and wit is remarkable. Kurtág sets twenty-two aphorisms in all for solo
soprano, and there is an appendix which contains the optional items for instruments:
an Introduction and Epilogue plus intermezzi based on seven of the aphorisms.
Regarding the choice of items for performance, Kurtág writes
that:
One should be guided in the selection and organization
primarily by the contrasting and complementing of characters and keys.
The notion of "keys" is a Kurtágian one. There is the sense
of a "home", or referential pitch as, for instance, in the sets of Microludes.
The opening piece "The Potatoes" begins with a six-note arrangement made up
of the notes either side of Eb and E which are the two final pitches. The
song entitled "Touropa" ("Eurotour") is strongly based round C, opening with
a fanfare-like perfect 5th figure. This association is strengthened further
in the Epilogo which is based on this number, and is set appropriately for
solo trumpet.
In other pieces there appears to be a less clear sense of
a "home", or referential pitch. But there are clear thematic connections between
some pieces, for instance "Geständnis" (Confession):
It is not the spirit but the flesh which makes a nonconformist.
is connected to the "fleshly" (in more ways than one!) aphorism
"Ein Gourmand":
"The word succulent could be pronounced so that, when someone
heard it, he might believe that he was biting into a ripe peach."
Kurtág hints at the connection in the musical settings. The
words "sondern den Fleisch" (but the flesh) from "Geständnis" are arranged
in a similar way to the setting of "so auszusprechen" (may be pronounced so)
in "Ein Gourmand". The first three and a half bars of the instrumental Introduzione,
too, is based on "Ein Gourmand". The character of the three movements is connected,
with the directions "Mit Schwung", "Con moto", and "Con slancio" respectively,
suggesting a similarly energetic approach to each. The Introduzione is, in
Kurtág's delightfully miniaturistic way, like those opera preludes which on
an altogether larger scale quote from the music which is to come. It is based
largely round "Ein Gourmand" and a much shorter piece to the words "A girl
scarce twelve fashions old." This latter piece is connected in subject-matter
and musically to "The girls had a pair of sinfully beautiful hands."
There are some "musical rebuses". The first piece in the
collection "The Potatoes" seems to have a visual aspect, in that all the notes
are semibreves which look rather like potatoes, and they lie in or underneath
the stave as if below the earth; the text reads: "The potatoes are lying there,
and are sleeping for their resurrection." At the word "resurrection" the semibreves
rise to the top of the stave.
More obvious representations are the "church towers" of "Kirchtürme"
represented by widely leaping intervals. The words of this aphorism allow
Kurtág the excuse for the use of musical inversion on the word "umgekehrte"
(inverted), but it is a quasi-inversion-it should not be too predictable.
Of the instrumental pieces there are five intermezzi between
the Introduzione, and Epilogo, and alternative settings of two of the songs.
One of the intermezzi is for double bass, as is the alternative setting of
the tiny song "Ein einschläfriger Kirchstuhl" ("einschläfrig" means "single"
as in "single bed" but also has connotations of the verb "einschläfern" to
lull to sleep, to drug"). The double bass provides suitably hollow and drowsy
harmonics to the vocal line. The other alternative setting is of the words
The American whom Columbus discovered, made a bad discovery.
(surely, a remarkably "modern" thought for an eighteenth-century
writer!) Here two trumpets are placed at a little distance on either side
of the singer. The notion of seeking and discovering is conveyed by a canon.
To depict the actual discovery, the trumpets play alternately in unison with
the singer, whilst the unfortunate aspect of this discovery for the native
American is shown in a fragmenting texture which contains more silence than
notes.
The intermezzi include virtually unchanged versions
of the vocal numbers on which they are based. With the exception of the solo
trumpet, the other instruments are sparsely deployed: three are for solo trumpet,
one for two trumpets, and the number based on "What use is the sunrise if
we do not get up?" is a canon for two trumpets and horn. There is one intermezzo
for double bass alone.
Generally the Lichtenberg settings form a humorous work with
a light touch. The gentle humour highlights the more serious underlying themes
and matches the character of the aphorisms most aptly.
Hölderlin-Gesänge, Opus 35, for solo baritone
Like the Lichtenberg settings, this work is not a song-cycle
in the traditional sense. To date there are thirteen numbers, one of which
"Gestalt und Geist" is given five alternative accompaniments drawn from an
ensemble of bass flute, clarinet, horn, trombone, tuba, violin, viola, cello
and double bass. The setting of "Hälfte des Lebens" is for three baritones.
From these items, a programme should be drawn up. Kurtág gives a sample suggesting
seven items, and as in the Lichtenberg settings, there are correspondences
between certain of the songs. This work is still in progress and, as is often
the case with Kurtág, it is being compiled over a number of years. The earliest
setting is a rewriting of AN... which first appeared in a version for Tenor
and Piano as his Opus 29, in 1988-9, whilst the most recent numbers in the
version of the score available to date are from 1997.
Hölderlin's poetry, imbued as it is with the Romantic spirit
but also inspired by Classical Greece, is in contrast to the witty aphorisms
of Lichtenberg, although only three decades separate them. Hölderlin's language
is high-flown and melodic. There is an abundance of vocatives, commands and
direct questions which suffuse his language with a forceful and compelling
energy. Kurtág's expressive range is as suited to Hölderlin's powerful sentiment
as it is to Lichtenberg's terseness, yet he does not overbalance Hölderlin's
language. An example of the parity between text and music is in the setting
of "Hälfte des Lebens" (Half of Life), final line: "Es klirren die Fahnen"
("the flags rattle"). Kurtág matches the dry sound of the word "klirren" with
a hastily sung line dovetailed between the two lower parts, and using bare-sounding
intervals of perfect and augmented 4ths. This piece also seems to contain
another of those visual representations, here of the "golden pears" of the
first line shown by a suitably pear-shaped phrase mark. The lyrical, euphonious
quality of much of Hölderlin's language can be difficult to enhance with a
musical setting. But Kurtág here concentrates on the darker aspects of Hölderlin,
on the melancholia and mental disturbance which led to insanity. Kurtág chooses
to set several of the shorter poems, a letter, and the celebrated memorial
to Hölderlin by Paul Celan. There is a dark despair in many of the texts stemming
from Hölderlin's feeling of alienation as the poet-mediator between "das Heilige"
(the divine) and mankind. The fragment "Nun versteh' ich den Menschen erst,
da ich ferne von ihm und in der Einsamkeit lebe!" ("For the first time I understand
mankind now that I live far from it, in isolation") describes this state.
The pain is felt, too, in the line: "Denn Kunst und Sinnen hat Schmerzen gekostet
von Anbeginn" ("for art and reflection have cost pain from the beginning")
from "Der Spaziergang".
The musical settings often hint at the madness which was
to come to Hölderlin in his later years. A number of the songs make a feature
of tortuous, usually chromatic lines, whose narrow ambit and shape suggest
the struggle of the artist to reach his ideal, the increasing difficulty of
making himself understood, of articulating the divine message, of articulating
at all. This is particularly apposite for Kurtág who finds composition so
demanding, that even the shortest utterance takes effort. An atmosphere of
bleakness prevails. The first song, "Im Walde" (In the forest) contrasts "noble
nature" (du edles Wild) using an opening out wedge figure, with man concealing
himself in a garb of shame "verschämte Gewand" set to a sinuous line creeping
around semitones.
The melodic line gradually opens out further as the poet
talks of the gift of speech with which man can witness "all-encompassing love".
The setting of one of Hölderlin's letters to his mother has
similarly tor- tuous opening phrases, descriptive of the poet's frustration
that he cannot make himself completely understood. The second song, a fragment
merely entitled "An..." (To... ) also has a winding melodic line, but here
the vocalist is required to pick out certain main pitches representative of
the ideal world of Elysium and Diotima (the embodiment of Hölderlin's ideal
love) whilst singing winding elaborations bocca chiusa sug-gestive of the
poet's struggle to reach this ideal.
The painful struggle to reach articulacy is also represented
in these wordless phrases. "Der Spaziergang" ("the Walk"), too, is based largely
on chromatic scales, but the line here is made more wide-ranging by octave
displacements. Here also the musical elaborations on certain syllables are
suggestive of struggle. The song which Kurtág places centrally in his sample
programme, "An Zimmern" (To Zimmer), makes use of scale-patterns to depict
"die Linien des Lebens" (the lines of life). Here the effect of the scales
is entirely different. The opening phrases are based around a scale of C major
which contrasts with the anguished quality of the more chromatic numbers.
Although the song opens with a wordless, bocca chiusa groping for articulacy,
the text is quickly reach-ed. The melismas in the rest of the song are sung
as part of the text, they are not mumbling additions of incoherence. The whole
tenor of this poem is more positive than the rest in the set: Hölderlin declares
that the gods can enrich our lives "with harmonies and eternal joy and peace."
The pitch set of a semitone plus a minor 3rd is another unifying
element between the songs. it is often linked with concepts of the ideal.
It is already found in the first song for the words "Du edles Wild" (you noble
Nature).
The same motif, now transposed down a semitone, is also the
opening phrase of the second song depicting the ideal state of "Elysium".
Importantly in this number it is also the motif for Diotima, stressing the
link between the ideal state and the ideal love.
The third piece, "Gestalt und Geist" also opens with this
pitch set, and this version of it is quoted exactly in the setting of the
Paul Celan poem at the words "käme ein Mensch" ("if a man came"), which links
this pitch set with Hölderlin himself. Almost the entire song is based on
the motif. Kurtág suggests the Celan setting as the finale in the sample programme,
and it is difficult to see how another of the settings could follow its furious
climax on the nonsense word "Pallaksch!". The poet is now reduced to frustrated
babbling which contrasts with the gift of speech described in "Im Walde" with
its promise of being able to convey the concept of the divine. Philippe Lacoux-Labarthe
has interpreted Celan's poem as referring to the problem for the artist in
the second half of the twentieth century "who wanted to represent his own
historical epoch as Hîlderlin did during his own lifetime, just imagine how
doomed he would be to stammer like the "existentialist" hoboes of Samuel Beckett's
plays"3 -a reference which leads on to a discussion of ...pas a pas-nulle
part... It remains to be seen what revisions and additions Kurtág makes to
the Hölderlin-Gesange, but it already forms a powerful experience.
...pas a pas-nulle part...pomes de Samuel
Beckett, Opus 36
The stumbling for articulacy is echoed in ...pas a pas...
This work is not yet published and the score available to date differs in
some respects from the tape of the premiere, which suggests that Kurtág is
still in the process of revision. This is a song cycle to be performed as
presented in the score. It is a very substantial work for baritone, string
trio and a percussionist, with thirty one vocal numbers and instrumental prelude
and interludes. Starting with citations from Beckett himself, it ends with
Beckett's translations of epigrams of Chamfort, and so we come full-circle
to Lichtenberg: he and Chamfort were almost exact contemporaries. The percussion
required is wide-ranging, and includes a Japanese odaiko, a "little Chinese
tam-tam", a "Burma gong", a police whistle, and a tin containing dried maize.
The percussionist is even asked to vocalize at times.
The use of such extensive percussion is an interesting development
for Kurtág, and it is of course tempting to draw comparisons with Boulez's
Le Marteau sans Maître, and the references to "night" and the apparent madness
of many of the numbers also has echoes of Pierrot Lunaire, but the style here
is very much Kurtág's.
The work was composed between 1993 and 1998, and it is not
surprising, therefore, to find certain similarities in material with the Hölderlin
songs, which may or may not have been a conscious choice. In fact Kurtág does
quote himself quite deliberately in the fifth instrumental Intermezzo, which
is based on the waltz "Hommage a Ránki György" from Book 3 of Játékok, Kurtág's
set of piano pieces for children. Here the dedicatee remains the same, and
the waltz has changed from being a "verkli-keringő" ("hurdy-gurdy waltz")
to a "Pizzicato-keringő", but the material is virtually unchanged from the
original version. This is a waltz that starts but never quite gets anywhere:
the only melody is short-lived, before the accompaniment takes over again,
and this too disintegrates in metrical chaos, indeed it goes "nulle part"
which makes it such a fitting choice for the present work. The opening of
the final song is reminiscent of the fifth of the Microludes, Opus 13 with
its gentle, almost folk-like melody.
Kurtág quotes other composers too, as, for instance Bizet,
in the twentieth song "De pied fermé". Here the depiction of blindly marching
on without a goal is portrayed by the first phrase only of the 'Toreador's
Song' from Carmen!
There is much humour in this work compared with the Hölderlin-Gesänge,
but this is suddenly dispelled in the outbursts in the penultimate song where
the most outwardly dramatic gestures are found. The English text of this song
reads: "The trouble with tragedy is the fuss it makes about life and death
and other tuppeny aches." Here the word "fuss" is accompanied by a police
whistle, a moment of almost slapstick comedy which is quickly banished as
the vocalist is directed to sing "furioso" on the outburst "Wha!" at the end.
This has echoes of the outcry on "Pallaksch" at the end of the Hölderlin settings:
a final cry of frustration. The bleakness is all the more palpable for this
sudden contrast. Despite the humorous touches, however, Kurtág resists the
temptation to overdo the comic effects, although there are moments of comic
vocalisation as in Song 15, where the word "pire" ("worst") is to be sung
"glissando" and "quasi Flatterzunge".
This is a work largely of restrained dynamics and gentle
textures in spite of the array of percussion. The timbres which Kurtág draws
from his ensemble are often particularly beautiful. The 23rd song "Sleep"
combines a flowing, gentle vocal line above four-note marimba chords played
tremolo. The 14th song "fin fond de néant" combines the baritone at the bass
of his register with eminently quiet tremolo Cello and Boo-bams. Occasionally
the texture is given impetus by loud outbursts from the drums as in going
from the second to the third song or towards the end of "Le petit macabre".
It is as if a malevolent drum major were directing proceedings. There are
echoes of Pozzo's aggression. In the 27th song "Wit in fools is something
shocking, like cabhorses galopping" bring to mind Pozzo "riding" Lucky in
Waiting for Godot.
The opening Introduzione is set at almost impossibly quiet
dynamics: ppp for percussion, and pppp for the string trio. The percussionist
taps out a quiet tattoo of faltering steps-above which the string trio whisper
scale patterns! The simple rhythm and the scales are the raw materials of
music from which the composer struggles for fluency. "Pas", of course, also
means "not", reinforcing the concept of "going nowhere" ("nulle part") and
even the firmest of steps in song number 20, "de pied fermé" are "sans but"
(aimless), as is the ridiculous posturing of the Pozzo-like galopping of number
27.
The first song "pas a pas" opens out from the semitone, minor
3rd pattern met in the Hölderlin settings. The struggle to become coherent
is continued here. The hesitant sound of the word "pas" recalls the stuttering
Papageno from Die Zauberflöte. The vocal line uses no more than six pitches
mirroring the groping towards articulacy. The sound-world of stumbling is
recalled in the 6th song, "écoute-les..." for the words " sans mot les pas
aux pas un a un" set to a hesitant hocket texture.
Number 19 "Dieppe" also repeats the words "les pas" this
time with the marimba in canon one step behind. Stuttering hocket textures
pervade many of the songs, for instance, the fourth "….le tout petit macabre-Ligetinek"
("the very little macabre-for Ligeti") "imagine si ceci un beau jour cessait".
The interludes provide moments of repose for the listener
from the intensity of the vocal numbers. Each one is an oasis of stillness,
the first exploring delicate bell-sounds, and the third and fourth played
with the quietest of string tones. The third and fourth intermezzi share the
same material, the fourth extending the third slightly. Both make great use
of chords made up of two major thirds a semitone apart, Kurtág's "purity chord".4
Only the third intermezzo promises much with its loud and forceful opening,
but this too subsides into the simple rhythms and scale-like steps of the
Introduction. The final number is an elegiac song with its air of quiet resignation
and it provides a most beautiful contrast to the preceding number, but it
is still an expression of despair, subsiding at the end on a downward chromatic
scale "sigh" to the lowest vocal register.
"Stuttering" and "stammering" the Beckett texts may be but
they have opened up a rich vein of inspiration for Kurtág. ...pas a pas...
is one of Kurtág's finest works, and deserves to be considered as one of the
most important works of the latter half of the century. It is ironic that
in a musical sense this work goes anywhere but "nulle part"!
NOTES
- in conversation with the Author Back
to text
- I am grateful to János Demény for this information Back
to text
- Philippe Lacoux-Labarthe "Poetry as experience" translated
by Anne-Catherine Reilly in SUBSTANCE 60 (in prep.) University of Wisconsin
Press; website: substance.arts.uwo.ca Back
to text
- Kurtág told the author that this chord for him represented
"tisztaság" = purity Back to text
Margaret McLay
is Music Co-ordinator at Eccles College near Manchester. She has written a
thesis and various articles about the music of György Kurtág.
