foss - the changing composer-performer relationship

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The Changing Composer-Performer Relationship: A Monologue and a DialogueAuthor(s): Lukas FossSource: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Spring, 1963), pp. 45-53Published by: Perspectives of New MusicStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/832102

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THE CHANGING COMPOSER-PERFORMERRELATIONSHIP: A MONOLOGUE

AND A DIALOGUELUKAS FOSS

ON THE heels of the invaluable discovery of what is commonlyreferredto as electronic music there followed a diametricallyopposedmovement endeavoringto draw the performercloser into the com-poser'slaboratory, o build performanceat times "into" he composi-tion. This movement consists of a series of efforts in differentdirections,effortsso full of vague, half-understoodimplications,thatan attempt at objectivecritical assessmentwould seem to be prema-ture. Also, I hardly qualify as an objective observer, having beensteadily involved with new performanceideas for some time. Thusmy remarkshere may best be understoodas observationsmade from"within."

Progress in the arts: a series of gifted mistakesperhaps.We oweour greatestmusical achievements o an unmusical idea: the divisionof what is an indivisiblewhole, "music,"nto two separateprocesses:composition(the making of the music) andperformance the makingof music), a division as nonsensical as the division of form and con-tent. The historyof music is a seriesof violations,untenablepositions,each opening doors, as it were: the well-temperedscale, Wagner'smusic drama, Stravinsky'sneoclassicism, Schoenberg's twelve-tonemethod, to name but a few. ("My method does not quite work . . .that makes it interesting,"Arnold Schoenbergto Gustave Arlt, U.C.L.A.). The methodicaldivision of labor (I write it, you play it)servedus well, until composerand performerbecame like two halvesof a worm separatedby a knife, each proceeding obliviously on itscourse.Around 1915, composition withdrew underground, leaving thefield to the performerand to the music of the past. That this createda sterile state of affairs "above"ground was perfectly clear to themore educated virtuoso, who has been trying ever since to resolvethe conflict, often leading a Jekyll and Hyde existence on account

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PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSICof it. Thus, Arthur Schnabelgave his audience Beethovenand Schu-bert;his lifelong involvementwith Schoenbergwas kept scrupulouslyto himself. His 1960 counterpart,Glenn Gould,rebels,openlyattacksour "narcissisticlistening,"despises our applause, threatensto retirefrom the concertcircuit at the age of thirty.LeonardBernstein,deeplyaware of the missing element of urgency in our symphonic culture,consoleshimselfwith the musicaltheater-and so on.The conflictstill rages, and yet the feud between compositionandperformance s over. The factor which led to the conflict,the divisionof labor (performance/composition), will remainwith us. The pro-cedural advantages are too great to be sacrificed. But a creativeinvestigation s in full swing, and correctionof the sterilizing aspectsis under way. Composershave had to abandon Beethoven'sproudposition:"Does he think I havehis silly fiddlein mind when the spirittalks to me?" Composers are again involved in performance, withperformance.More-they work with handpicked performerstowarda common goal. Among the new composer-performereams: Cageand Tudor, Boulez and the Siidwestfunk,Berio and CathyBerberian,Babbitt and Bethany Beardslee,Pousseur and a group of seven, myown ImprovisationChamberEnsemble. Each of the teams mentionedis involvedin a search, what we might call a joint enterprisein newmusic. Characteristichere is the composers fascination with thepossibilityof new tasks for his new-foundpartnerand confidant.Thenew tasks demand new ideas of coordination. n fact, the creationofa new vocabularyrequiresthat the composergive constant attentionto all performanceproblemsin connectionwith his score.As a result,a thorough overhaulingof conductingtechnique s in the making,newinstrumentaldiscoverieshave antiquatedevery existing orchestrationtreatise,-traditional limitations of voice and instrument have provedto be mythical:the pianowas the first instrument o expand,the fluteunderwenta change of personality (due largely to Gazzeloni). Thehumanvoice followed;percussioncameinto its own.1The emancipationof percussionand, for that matter, the new useof flute, voice, strings (Penderecki), and Sprechchor (Kagel) mustactuallybe attributed o yet another actor: I began by observingthattheperformancemovementdirectlyfollowed the discoveryof electronicmusic. Paradoxically, it is the advent of electronic music whichsparkedthe performancerenaissance.

1 The extent to which percussion has begun to preoccupy the composer can beillustrated by the recent mania for acquiring one's own percussion instruments, thenlending them out to percussionists. Stockhausen bought a Degan vibraphone, Beriobrought a marimba from San Francisco to Milan, Boulez owns a whole collection ofpercussion instruments. Can we imagine composers twenty years ago going to suchpains to ensure faithful performance? *46


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THE CHANGING COMPOSER-PERFORMER RELATIONSHIPElectronic music showed up the limitations of live performance,the limitations of traditionaltone production,the restrictivenessof arhythmforever bound to meter and bar line, notationtied to a systemof counting. Electronic music introduceduntried possibilities, and inso doing presenteda challenge, shocked live music out of its inertia,kindled in musicians the desire to provethat live music "cando it too."When I say: "I like my electronic music live,"the somewhatflippantremarkcontainsa tribute. Via electronic music came a new approachnot only to the above-mentioned nstrumentsand voices, but to theirplacementon stage, to phonetics,to notation. Percussionfound a newclimate in a "handmade"white noise. Today, it appearsto some that

electronic music has served its purpose in thus pointing the way."Tape fails," says Morton Feldman. And I remember reading inThomas Mann: "Everything,even nature, turns into mere scenery,background,the instant the human being steps forward."II

"I beg your pardonif I may be so bold as to interrupt:this newteam, this joint 'composer-performernterprise n new music,' is it toreplacethe composer'sformer, solitary work?""Giveup solitude, and you have given up composition.But per-formance is alwayswith or for or both. As to the team (I dislike theword as much as you do), it complementsthe composer'swork, itis a bridge . . .""Thenall is as it alwayswas, it would seem.""Yesand no. When I advise a young composer-one so young andfoolish as to seek advice-I say: study old and new music, work byyourself. When you grow up, find your performer(s)-and thenwork by yourself again.""I am a performer.I am intriguedby the 'laboratory'approachofrecent music, but I must admit that I find my powers as an instru-mentalist,the capabilitiesof my instrument,more often abusedthanused. Playing behindthe bridge, inside the piano, slappingthe wood,this is not a new task, it is withdrawalto meremarginalpossibilities.""Marginalpossibilitiesaregood for marginalpurposes.. .""And as to the new freedoms and choices suddenly handed to theperformer, they seem intriguing and dangerous at first, but soonrevealan inane foolproofness.They are safe, eitherbecausethe givenentities controlthe desired result, neutralizingmy own additions,orbecausethe resultdoesnot concernthe composer(only the "situation"does). In either instance, I am given choice because 'it matters notwhat I do.'"

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PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC"And hat you resent,understandably.But performer-choiceswhereit matterscanbe accomplishedonly afteryearsof study. My colleaguesof the ImprovisationEnsembleandI undertook uch a studyfiveyearsago. In spite of this experience,or perhapsbecauseof it, I am amongthe most reluctant of composerswhen it comes to introducing per-former-freedomnto my composition.Moments of incompletenotationdo exist, but only-to quoteyou-where it is safe.""Thenwhy have them at all?""For the same reason that figured bass was 'filled in' by the per-former. As you know, solo parts plus basso continuo, reasonablyinsured the harmonicresult. Figured bass was never conceived as aperformer-freedom ut as a form of shorthand or composerand per-former;one avoids cluttering up the score with unessentials. Todayour scores are more cluttered. Schoenberg invented H- and N- toclarify the Notenbild (a makeshiftdevice, to be sure). This bringsme to the notationaldilemma of the 1940's and 1950's: the precisenotationwhich results in imprecise performance.Can we speak at allof precisenotation f the practicalrealizationcan but approximate hecomplexitieson the page? The dilemma lies in the need to notate

everyminutedetail ... Take a rubato.Here is a comparativelyvaguenotation:(Allegro) poco accel. rit.

The accelerando,ritardando,written out would produce:

This seemingly precisenotationputs the performer n a strait jacket.It is a translationof the supple into the realm of the rigid. A rigidrubato: contradiction n terms. Imagine asking the performerto feela moment 'out of time,' as it were, when it is notated slavishly 'intime.'Similarly,an effectof, say, chaos, must not be notatedin termsof a subtle order.To learn to play the disorderly n orderlyfashion isto multiplyrehearsal ime by one hundred.""Allowme to be the devil's advocatehere. Is not the orderlyfashion48?


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THE CHANGING COMPOSER-PERFORMER RELATIONSHIPthe only way to play the disorderly?Is not all notationa translation?Is it not a sign of sophistication hat this is so? I know of some recentexperiments n which the notationsimply consistsof showingchangesin the position of the hands on a keyboard . . .""Youmean Ligeti's organ pieces.""Is this not an infinitelymore primitivenotationalconcept? It isour traditionalnotation'sability to translate subtleties like a rubatointo measured exactitude which makes it a highly developed tool.Inspirednotation s inspiredtranslation, ranspositionof the inexpres-sible to the domain of the exact. Take Beethoven's ntroduction o thelast movement in Opus 106, those chords in both hands, that noone can feel as anticipatingthe beat, because the beat becomes amere abstraction,as in Webern a hundred years later. I marvel atthe surrealism of this notation, implying-without footnotes-thetentative no-beat feeling of a music in search of ... the fugue theme.Not to mentionthe ingenious

in the GrosseFuge. As to the complexitiesof the 1940's and 1950's,agreed,I amyet to heara preciseandspiritedperformanceof Boulez'sMarteau, instead of all the counting, watching, and approximating.But at least it's all there on paper.The function of notation s not onlyto serve the immediateperformanceefficiently,but to keep, to con-serve.What will happento all the aleatoryscores in a hundredyears?""It is perhaps typical and commendablethat you, the performer,should be concerned with the composition'simmortality. For thecomposerthe issue is how to make it, not how to keep it. New tasks:new performance,new notation. Let me forget the 'masterwork.'Wehave new problems-some of them perhaps primitive, hence primi-tively notated.But here I must clearup a misunderstanding. shouldlike to see traditionalnotationexpanded,not replaced. For instance:I am well aware of the inherentsubtlety of the relationshipof barline and beat to the music, which 'overcomes' hem. But we also needmomentsof no bar line and no beat-notes held not by mutual agree-ment as to the numberof counts,but via a spontaneousreactionof oneperformer o the other.Here is a germ of a performance ask capableof much development,and, as yet, far from resolved in the notation-coordinationdomain: a music where the instrumentsor voices eitherindividuallyorin groups, act andreactto andagainstone another, ike* 49.


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PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSICcharacters in a play, at times turning the concert stage into a battle-field. This idea proved to be fertile ground for ensemble improvisation.It is easier to improvise in that manner than to compose. On the otherhand, one can go much further with it in actual composition. One candevelop it into a veritable polyphony of musics, with each music inde-pendent of the tempo and pulse of the other. I repeat, this presents acoordination-notation problem. Ives wrestled with this problem, notwithout reward, but, lacking practical performance experience, hecould only derive certain limited effects. Carter found a useful devicein 'metrical modulation,' but one that demands concentration by eachperformer on his own part to the point of shutting out the conflictingpulse of the others; hence, a genuine reacting, in my sense of the word,cannot take place (isn't supposed to, perhaps). Stockhausen's Gruppenis the most daring attempt, with its three orchestras, but here thecomposer relies on the makeshift method of metronome watching, amethod which completely isolates one group from the other. I amconvinced that genuine coordination must ultimately be obtained via'reaction,' in other words, via musical points of reference, via listeningand playing accordingly. Such interplay would constitute a taskcapable of engaging the performer's entire musical being.""Is it not perhaps too schizoid a task, forcing upon the performera role of simultaneous support and opposition? While you ask twoplayers to play at each other, you still expect them to play witheach other."

'Why not? Performance always required the ability to combine,say, passive and active, leading and following. Every downbeat isalso an upbeat; our senses take in, enjoy what is just moving into thepast, as our mind is shaping the next sounds. Performance also re-quires the ability to 'interpret' while at the same time allowing themusic to 'speak for itself.' And the degree of tension in a performanceis dependent on the presence of such a dual effort on the performer'spart. A crescendo to a climax is dramatic only if the performer is boththe racehorse and the horseman holding the reins. Playing at as wellas with is simply an extension of the duality principle inherent in thedrama of musical performance.""Are there any examples in your recent music which bear out thisprinciple?""There is the clarinet, barking in the foreground at a distant tunein the background of Echoi III, a piece in which the foreground ismuch of the time in conflict with the background. But do not stress

2 At the root of this paradox is a phenomenon experienced by all performers: theemergence of the interpreter's originality through identification with the author andsubmersion in his work. 50


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THE CHANGING COMPOSER-PERFORMER RELATIONSHIPthe 'conflict' aspect of these notions. We are dealing here with a varia-tion of the old idea of different things going on at the same time, andthe somewhat newer idea of what may be called a montage. The un-foreseen relationships forming between the mounted elements interestus today, open up new possibilities. There is a moment in Bach'sMatthew Passion which always struck me as unique and prophetic.A concert-duet, a setting of a poem of meditative nature, is suddenlyblotted out (without preparation) by the chorus shouting: 'Bind himnot ' Meanwhile, the concert-duet continues under the shouting, un-perturbed; a form of superimposition, this; a montage of two musics,that stand in opposition to one another, yet miraculously relate, theway everything relates if one but finds the key, the nonsense can makesense and 'open doors' in the hands of genius.""You mentioned the notation-coordination difficulties arising withthe realization of these ideas. Can you show this on paper?""It would take the space of a book to do it.""You mentioned the need for notation to expand, as indeed it doestoday. Is this in the direction of the performer's choice, in the directionof 'less notation'?"

"A hundred different composers will devise a hundred differentways. But the new approach to notation can certainly not be equatedwith 'avoidance of notation.' Moreover, granting the performer limitedareas of freedom and choice is primarily a formal and textural, nota notational idea.""When one looks at the beautiful calligraphy, the graphic originalityof recent scores, is it not as if the notation, the 'writing' of the scorehad become an end unto itself?""An end perhaps not, but here too, we have a performance ofsorts . . .""What did you mean earlier by 'moments of incomplete notation'?""Unessentials to be filled in by the performer.""I meant to ask then what could possibly be unessential in a compo-sition, outside of the filling in of a self-evident harmony (as infigured bass).""Take a very fast run, for example, low to high and back to low:

lowest and highest notes may be essential. Intermediate notes may,under certain circumstances (tempo, style) be unessential:

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PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSICLeave it as above,andthereis immediateclarityregardingthe impor-tantlow andhigh notes. The performerwill realizethatthe in-betweennotes need hardly be discernible; the seemingly sketchy notationactually clarifies. I mentionedthe barking of the clarinet in Echoi.This is to be done by way of a tone distortion, rendering pitchesunrecognizable.Hence, I do not write them in, I indicate the approxi-mate height, but erase the staff lines:

P f if .. :'s> ^. PPIn his Tempi Concertati,Berio uses the word 'tutta'to indicate thatthe percussionist s to hit everything, as fast as possible; try to notatethis exactly,andyou forcethe percussionist o wrestlewith an unessen-tial: the 'order'n which these instrumentsare to be hit; the resultingperformancewill seem studied, whereas the effect in the composer'smindwas one of abandonment, f eruption.Of course,choices allottedto the performerneed not be confinedto such detail.""Where draw the line? At what point does the performerbegin tobe smotheredby unsolicitedfreedoms,handed to him with a gestureof: 'You do it.'""Neverdraw the line and say: 'beyond his line there is no art.'ButI sympathizewith you. Many a new task is an old, or worse, a poortask in disguise. It sounds good in theory, fails in practice. Desk-experimentonemay call it; choices allottedto the performerby a com-poser who has no live experience with performanceproblems, andwho works out a new task like a chess problem.Freedom-choice-dangerouswords. Yet the aleatory dea is no idle invention,and quitenaturally follows the serial idea. In fact the two complement oneanother,share the basic premiseof an ingenious 'pre-ordering,'whichguarantees a particularresult. Both involve a canvassing of possi-bilities, which is always in danger of deteriorating nto a cataloguingof possibilities, or games of numerology. Both run the risk of self-deceit,serialmusic in the directionof a would-beorder,aleatorymusicin the directionof a would-befreedom.In our most recent music thetwo techniques join forces, producing perhaps the most interesting'laboratory ituation'of all times.""And hemusic sounds ike a 'laboratory ituation' ome of the time.""Iwould not 'objectto all this, on principle.'Objectif you will, butnot on principle.Objectif you must to the extra work without extra

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THE CHANGING COMPOSER-PERFORMER RELATIONSHIPcreditdemandedof the performerby the most extremealeatoricmusic.Here a situation of 'musical indeterminacy'may well oblige you todecide for yourselfwhat, where, and when to play, perhapseven writeout your own part. In the programbook there will be no mention ofthis 'overlapping'of performanceand composition.One might call it'Action-music,'or even, if you wish, 'Gebrauchsmusik.'"3"How closely related are your improvisationsto the situation ofmusical indeterminacy?""Thelatter lays the emphasison the 'situation'giving birth to theperformance.Chamberimprovisation ays the emphasis on the 'per-formance'resultingfromthe situation,and puts the responsibilityforthe choices squarelyon the shoulders of the performer.It by-passesthe composer. It is composition become performance, performer'smusic."

"Age of performance, aboratoryobsessed ""Yes 'All the world's a performance.'A monkey performs, loversperform, Picasso's drawings are a marvel of performance,and thePresident of the United Statesperformshis office.The word is grow-ing old undermy pen. Give me young words .. .""Like: situation, event, statement,variant, resultant, parameter?""These are 'borrowed'words. One uses them and blushes a little.""I wonder why you neglected to mention 'chance' in this essay?""Quiteby chance, I assureyou . . ."

3 In a number of Cage's compositions one may play as much or as little of the musicas is convenient, use all instruments or only a few, depending on available performancetime and personnel.

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foss - the changing composer-performer relationship

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