Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection

Author(s): Elke Hockings

Source: Tempo, New Series, No. 193, German Issue (Jul., 1995), pp. 4-10+12-14
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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 Elke Hockings
Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection
1. German-English-Modern
The eminent German composer Helmut Lachen-
mann enjoys an exalted reputation among a small
circle of English contemporary music enthusiasts.
To the wider English music public, though, he is
little known.1 There are hardly any compre-
hensive accounts of Lachenmann in English.2
His consciously elusive compositional style
could even be introduced to the English audience
as 'old-guard avantgarde'3 without being
challenged at all.
The apparent confusion about Lachenmann's
music in English-speaking countries is somewhat
surprising. His persistently unusual and challenging
instrumental treatments - often associated with
modernism - can be only one reason for this
hesitant Anglo-American reception. Compositions
that explore unusual sounds are by no means
uncommon in these parts of the world. The
problems might stem less from the disposition of
Lachenmann's music than from the way his music
l One only needs to compare the English and German version
of the Heritage of Music series eds. Michael Raeburn, Alan
Kendal, co-eds. Felix Aprahamian, Wilfried Mellers (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1989). Lachenmann, who did not
feature at all in the original English version, was given due
respect in its German counterpart.
2 Although Lachenmann is listed in English encyclopedias as
early as 1974, only three of Lachenmann's articles have been
translated into English so far. One of these, 'Die Sch6nheit und
die Sch6nt6ner. Zum Problem musikalischer Asthetik heute',
appeared in Tempo 135 (December 1980) as 'The "beautiful"
in music today'. The third article, 'On Structuralism', was to
appear in the summer of 1994. Selected statements by the
composer were offered in English translations in the composer
brochure Helmut Lachenmann (Wiesbaden: Breitkopf, 11980,
21986, 31990). Various passages by and on Lachenmann have
appeared in English as programme notes (e.g. Huddersfield
Contemporary Music Festival 1986, Warsaw Autumn 1979,
1981, 1988, 1991) or as record/CD notes. Three English
articles by Robin Freeman, David Smeyers and John Warnaby
are held at Breitkopf & Hartel in Wiesbaden. Only David
Smeyer's account was published, in an American journal, The
Clarinet. A number of performance and CD review articles
have appeared in English language daily newspapers and
music periodicals. Two of 23 recordings are presently
available, according to the Gramophone Classical Catalogue (the
Opus catalogue still does not list any).
3 George Benjamin, programme brochure Meltdown (South
Bank Centre, London 18-25 July 1993), n.p.
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is made palatable. On the European continent,
Lachenmann's music is more or less successfully
merchandized by means of a highly philosophic
vernacular. This dialectic rhetoric has seldom
been attractive to English-speaking music enthus-
iasts. Against the music lovers' inclination for
loosely-linked literary metaphors, English
speaking academia in general appears to be
plagued by a bad conscience. It strives for the
positivist's rhetoric, full of factual information
and one-dimensional logic (this understanding of
logic excludes the most stimulating logic of
oppositions). There is a general resistance to
anything that is by definition ambiguous: for
example, the aesthetic experience.4
On the other hand, English music literature
is less filled with home-made philosophical
speculations than its German counterpart. One
would be hard pressed, for example, to find in an
English article an argument that builds on such
monstrous universalities as 'art worthy of its
name is . . .:
... art worthy of its name should also always have a
futuristic, utopian character . . . (Walter Gieseler)5
... art worthy of its name . . . wants to be more than an
art work . . . (Rudolf Stephan)6
... That means conclusively that every art work
worthy of its name adds something new to the universe
... (Konrad Boehmer)7
The gusto invoked by a phrase like this
exhibits - if nothing else - the speaker's self-
confidence. As if he knew what art is! Does the
4 The author can ensure the support of an English opinion.
See Christopher Fox, 'British Music at Darmstadt 1982-92',
Tempo 186 (September 1993), p.25.
5 Komposition im 20. Jahrhundert. Details - Zusammenhdnige
(Celle: Moeck Verlag, 1975), p.3, trans. E.H. All translations
are by E.H.; original German omitted only to conserve space.
6 'Uber Schwierigkeiten der Bewertung und der Analyse
neuester Musik', Vom musikalischen Denken. Gesammelte
Vortrage, eds. Rainer Damm, Andreas Taub (Mainz: Schott's
Sohne, 1984), p.350.
7 'Wider der Strategie der Verinnerlichung (Zur kompositor-
ischen Methodik und Asthetik) (1990)', Konrad Boehmer. Das
bi;se Ohr. Texte zur Musik 1961-1991, ed. Burkhardt Soll
(Cologne: DuMont, 1993), p.225.
 Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection 5

valuable attempt to tell justify the method of such protest has been very limited. Heinz-Klaus
excluding what is supposedly not worthy? Metzger even claims that modernism never
Generalizations in the vein of German versus really existed.9
English or dialectical versus positivistic do not Not only were the objects of this criticism too
help to clarify what may be seen more as abstract. An aesthetic aim that bows exclusively
disjoining tendencies rather than as opposing to the 'lord of specialized work'10 in that
facts. Making a case for the differences between it celebrates detail, the intensity of the extreme
German and English ways of verbal communication and the effort to decipher multiplicity, cannot
in music-writings emphasizes the need to under- care about anything else. This is a fact, not
stand the German attributes in Lachenmann's a judgement. After all, the functions of music
language, and to separate German modernistare manifold! Those composers (including
rhetoric from Lachenmann's individual concepts. Lachenmann) who wanted to combine social
Only then can one start understanding thesecriticism with a sophisticated structuralism have
concepts as complex, fascinating and even athad to face the 20th-century dilemma: there is
times paradoxical expressions of a creative mind. not enough scope for an individual person - and
It would exceed the scope of this article tothe aesthetic experience is foremost an individual
investigate comprehensively all of the apparentone - to engage in both aesthetic sophistication
distinctions, but a few thoughts about someand the solving of such global problems as, for
underlying German values might be helpful.example, starvation in the Third World, ecological
Many German texts on contemporary music lose disaster or Serbian militancy. German modernism
their rhetorical energy when translated intohas defensively ridden the horse of guilt a touch
English. In their original German version, theytoo noisily, while underrating the individual's
gathered their main momentum out of a battledecision-making ability.
with an abstract enemy: society. This version of At the same time, one should never under-
German idealism has infiltrated all strands of estimate the enormous creative power that has
social communication. It has to be said that resulted from this frustration with the undeni-
ably poor state of the world. Moreover, the
lingering German guilt about fascism and the
two World Wars, the resistance to overpoweringcomposers who admitted to feelings of increasing
state intervention in personal matters, the urge
powerlessness have retained a personal integrity
that others, who appropriated various artistic
for salient individuality in a tightly controlled
infrastructure, and the opposition to over- styles from the fashions of the day, have not.
consumption in one of the richest countries In of assessing theoretical writings of modernist
this world, are issues not shared to the samecomposers the task is to cut through this
existential degree by Anglo-Americans. honourable frustration, without minimizing the
The continuous reference to German history global problems, while reflecting on inadequacies
of language.
and to the political world at large was able to fuel
German modernist music aesthetics. The globalLachenmann's verbal strategies are a heavily
issues that were meant to be present in human intertwined conglomerate of social, aesthetic and
behavioural issues were, at their core, middle- technical issues that can best be understood when
read against the German contemporary music
class conventionality and ignorance. Philosophical
and political criticism moved onto a highly
Tradition. Sieben Kongressbeitraqe utid eine atialytische Studie,
abstract level and became, inevitably, somewhat
Veroffentlichungen des Instituts fiir Neue Musik und Musikziehungt
diluted by focussing on the symptoms of human
Darmstadt 19, ed. Reinhold Brinkmann (Mainz: Schott's
behaviour rather than insisting on specificSohne, 1978), particularly pp.94-97.
assessments of concrete political and economic
9 'K6olner Manifest 1991', Blick zuriuck tnach vort. eini Buch zur
realities. It has been said that a dose of sensual
paemoderne, eds. Ingrid Roschek, Heribert C. Ottersbach,
provocation will alert a critical mind to whatever
Manos Tsangaris (Cologne: Thiirmchen, 1992), pp.80-83.
it is that might be wrong in this world. l0 See 'flying from the social pressure to explain everything
Unfortunately, the enemy has never been less.. into an ethos of work', Lachenmann in an interview with
abstract than 'society'. The main regulatives of Heinz-Klaus Metzger, 'Fragen und Antworten (1988)', Musik-
Konzepte 61/62. Helmut Lachenmann, eds. Heinz-Klaus
this society, namely the market and the resulting
Metzger, Rainer Riehn (Munich: edition text + kritik, 1988),
performance-pressure, have never been targetedpp.118-119.
(who, after all, would like to saw off the branch Similarly, Morton Feldman: 'I know nobody except Inyself
on which they are sitting?8) so the impact ofwho works so intensely . . . But they (younger composers.
E.H.) do not understand the amount of work that is necessary
8 As Jiirg Stenzl has rightly pointed out in respect to the to write a piece . . .', in '. . . wie eine Ausdiinnung der Musik
bourgeois model of the German new music industry, durch Terpentin. Morton Feldman und lannis Xenakis in
'Tradition und Traditionsbruch', Die neue Musik und die Gesprach', MusikTexte 52 (Jan. 1994), pp.44-45.

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6 Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection

Meanwhile, I find it more and more dull to formulate a

kind of programme about my work ... my trust in
language is receding. What happens in programme
notes like this one is a manifold hiding of composers.
The art consists of distinguishing the mask from the
face. I do not exclude myself, because I feel that
everything that we composers utter - in the silly
perception that the verbal medium is more coherent
than the aesthetic - is more or less the debris of sense
and feelings. We throw them behind us in odd
persecution mania in the hope of escaping control of
this perplexity for which no magazine is responsible.
(1980)11

This perplexity seems to have grown even

greater, because in 1988 Lachenmann gave this
surprising answer to a question from Heinz-Klaus
Metzger:

I am always turning around in circles, as you probably

Helmut Lachenmann (photo: Charlotte Oswald)
scene of the last 25 years. This background could
be outlined with the following key stages: Cage's
appearance in Darmstadt in 1958, the 'Art and
Politics' debate in the late 1960s/early 70s,
Lachenmann's argument with Friedrich Neumann
about the achievements of serialism in 1971, the
revival of the aesthetic category of the beautiful
(in reaction to Peter Michael Braun, 1975/76),
the joint appearance of Lachenmann and Wolfgang
Rihm in Darmstadt 1982, the Henze-debate
have realized, when I think about the relationship
between material and intentions ... But nobody
should ask me, how this mechanism of disturbance and
bringing to consciousness really functions and why this
process of disturbance through structural reinterpreta-
tion appears to be not only mere resistance but an
expressive act. I believe in this mechanism, and the
older I become the more I fly from the horrible social
pressure to explain everything into a kind of ethos of
work. (1988)12
Despite the change in rhetoric, Lachenmann
has formulated most effectively an approach to
composition which relates to the structuralists'
concept of rejection 13 with a specific consider-
ation of the 'aura'.14 The following outline of
11 programme brochure Donaueschinger Musikta,qe 1980,
pp.22-23.
12 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 119-120.

about 'musica negativa' 1983, and the fall of the

13 The label Verweigerungsmusiker (musician of rejection) has
often accompanied musicians around 1969 (and after) who
Berlin Wall in 1989. Generally, Lachenmann's
composed and verbalized in the vein of Lachenmann. The
aesthetic thoughts have been formulated against
author is thinking here of Nicolaus A. Huber, Friedhelm
the background of a wider paradigmatic shift: the
D6hl (around 1970), Hans Ulrich Lehmann, Dieter Schnebel
problems of employing the metaphor of structure (around 1970) and Hans-Joachim Hespos (with different
were fully abandoned for the problematic political motivations), and more recently Mathias Spahlinger
and Gerhard Stabler. But the concept of rejection is the core
metaphor of speech in the middle of the 1970s.
of any modernist thought going back to the first half of this
Anyone who familiarizes himself with century. More specifically, Thomas Meyer coined the term
Lachenmann's verbal intentions is bound to 'Lachenmann-school' - to indicate the familiarity of musical
recognize the obvious change in his rhetoric,
textures (unusual instrumental treatments, 'qualified' silence)
- originally published in a supplement of the Tagesanzeiger (15.
from paradigmatic conviction to a more personal
Dec. 1989), partly reprinted MusikTexte 32 (Dec. 1989), p.53.
view. His early writings continually interwove
Naturally, Lachenmann has tried to demonstrate that he is not
social interpretations and personal accusations
joining the 'exploiting tourism' of estranged instrumental
with logical arguments. Increasingly, though,
sounds. 'Fragen und Antworten', p.133.
Lachenmann has admitted that while his personal
14 The term 'aura' is supposed to describe a phenomenon
aesthetic philosophy stimulates him, the issue of is less concretely associable with certain structural
which
music perception is finally 'left to the demons'.
paradigms than the term 'meaning'. Contrary to the common
assumption, the term 'aura' was first mentioned by Adorno in
From the programme notes to Tanzsuite mit
a letter to Walter Benjamin (Feb. 1940): 'The term aura ...
Deutschlandlied (1980) onwards, Lachenmann
not fully thought through . .' in Th. W. Adorno Uber Walter
increasingly stresses the personal natureBenjamin
of Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1970), p. 160. It is
his statements: true, though, that the term 'aura' became a crucial backbone

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his concept of rejection is not exhaustive but aims
at specification. Otherwise, Lachenmann loses
against generalities; as Tristan Murail put it
recently: 'Every composer rejects, since every
composer has choices'.15
It is important, in what follows, to keep in
mind that, at least since 1982, Lachenmann has
denounced the concept of rejection.16 He times. Thirdly, even the most dedicated disciple
repeatedly claims that this concept has been of Lachenmann's music will have to admit that
widely misunderstood.
The term [rejection, E.H.] is unfortunately not my
invention but used by me ... in relation to the term of
reflections requires an awareness, not only of the
beauty and of rejection of habits; and then the whole
rubbish started. I then had to dig myself permanently
German attributes and modernist language, but
out of all sorts of, even well meaning, interpretations
also of the irrationalities woven in the verbal
... (1992)17
Despite these denunciations, 'Je refuse le
refus',18 Lachenmann spoke in 1990 about the
'good old days of estrangement',19 recalling the
stimulating spirit of resistance that has certainly
played a crucial part in his conceptualization. At
the same time as his denunciation of rejection one
can read, reassuringly,
The task of the composer finally implies the creation of
a context which cleanses it [the sound, E.H.] and which
gives it back its virginity under a new perspective. And
this means less: to make, but to avoid, to exclude the
self-evident, to invoke creative resistance. (1993)20
A 'Lachenmann concept of rejection' cannot
be simply extracted from Lachenmann's written
words, nor can the silent consent of the composer
be assumed. This particular issue rather unearths
of Benjamin's argument in Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner
technischen Reproduzierbarkeit (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp,
1963), particularly p.18. Lachenmann absorbed this term
through Gy6rgy Lukacs's writings.
15 Tristan Murail, pre-concert talk to the concert on 25/07/
1993 (Meltdown festival 1993, London - South Bank Centre.
18-25 July 1993).
16 In the open discussions with Wolfgang Rihm at the
Darmstadt summer course 1982, tape recording, Internationales
Musikinstitut Darmstadt, No.810.
17 Lachenmann in an interview with Christine Mast,
Hessischer Rundfunk II (18 Feb. 1992), 14-page mss., held at
Breitkopf, p.12.
18 Lachenmann in an interview in Paris during the Festival
D'Automne a Paris (1 Oct. 1993, Salle Olivier Messiaen, Radio
France), reported by Anne Rey in Le Monde and by Clytus
Gottwald, 'Helmut Lachenmann', Komponisten der Gegenwart,
eds. Hanns-Werner Heister, Walter Wolfgang Sparrer
(Munich: edition text + kritik, 4th subsequent delivery,
1994), n.p.
19 Sketch book (rot; fest; gross) 262 S., Paul Sacher Stiftung, n.p.
20 Lachenmann in an interview with Peter Szendy, 'Des
paradis 6phemeres. Entretien avec Helmut Lachenmann',
programme brochure Festival D'Automne a Paris 1993. Helmut
Lachenmann, p.5; trans from Lachenmann's German trans-
lation, n.p.
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Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection 7
representative problems. Firstly, the reception of
Lachenmann's music is already strongly established
using 'well meaning interpretations' that do not
necessarily reflect Lachenmann's own ideas.
Secondly, his concepts have evidently undergone
a development in the last 30 years. The same
statement can mean different things at different
there are a number of issues that are not
completely rational in Lachenmann's writings.
Hence, to follow Lachenmann's theoretical
expressions of a living composer who had set out
to, and succeeded in, writing original music.
2. The Development of Lachenmann's Concept
of Rejection21
2.1 Provocation Against What?
Lachenmann's questioning of social conditions
is undoubtedly reflected in the provocative pose
of his music. It reveals on the first encounter -
next to an impression of seriousness and a somewhat
exotic ingenuity - a strong sense of alternative
thinking which is supported by his writings. He
has the courage to verbalize experiences that are
different from our everyday ones. This almost
reminds one of enlightened religious elements
and has been described - against an undoubtedly
different representation by Lachenmann himself
- as Catholic.22
Lachenmann's concept of rejection is most
audibly an attitude of general provocation. His
musical 'language' is, on the first encounter, that
of an 'enfant terrible' who provides an aesthetic
experience by means of an 'intense shock'.23
21 See Peter Becker's general discussion of the concept of
rejection 'Neue Musik zwischen Angebot und Verweigerung',
Komponieren heute. Asthetische, soziolo,ische und paidagogische
Fragen. Sieben Beitraiqe, Ver6ffentlichung,en des Instituts fur Neue
Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt 23, ed. Ekkehard Jost
(Mainz: Schott, 1983), pp.24-37.
22 Frank Sielecki categorized Lachenmann as catholic in his
PhD, 'Das Politische in den Kompositionen von Helmut
Lachenmann und Nicolaus A. Huber', Rheinische Friedrich
Wilhelm Universitat Bonn, Germany, 1991, unpublished.
Sofia Gubaidulina referred to the music of Helmut
Lachenmann to illustrate her idea of music's spiritual quality,
'The Hand of Fate', Composer to Composer. Conversations About
Contemporary Music, ed. Andrew Ford (St. Leonards: Allen &
Unwin Pty Ltd, 1993), pp.124-125.
It might be noteworthy to point out that Lachenmann grew
up in a clergyman's household. Lachenmann's own view is
expressed in the following statement, 'I am actually not a
marxist, rather religiously minded - and at the same time full
of doubts towards all' (1993), in the interview with Peter
Szendy, 'Des paradis ephemeres', programme brochure Les
Festival D'Automne a Paris 1993, p.4.
8 Helmut Lachenmann s Concept of Rejection

Regular sound-waves and an uninterrupted flow
of sounds are suppressed. His continuous scorings
of unusual instrumental treatments, his expanded
recourse to silence and statics, immediately stir
the attention and create a suspenseful intensity of
unfulfilled expectations.
In the context of recent German discussions24
silence, equilibrium and quietness are celebrated
as the ultimate modernist's rejection. They are
used to refuse communication and to manifest
if you like: the hidden work. (1973)25
Increasingly, Lachenmann's muted sounds
and extinguished noises have been joined by
traditionally-produced tones. By 1988, he claimed
that he is,
. . . less happy to employ 'exterritorial' sound material.
Since the issue is not about new sounds but about new
listening, this has also to stand the test with the
'beautiful tone' of a cello string. (1988)26

defiance against the industrious performance of The incorporation of normal tones and
our century. Since Cage and Feldman, however, flowing gestures have proven to be an addition to
silence was not only understood as disruption or the brand-name 'Lachenmann'. Far from neo-
confrontation but also as an act of opening. The romantic or 'Klangfarben'-composers, Lachen-
use of silence has extended the spatial dimensions mann's primary palette of textures is still
within which the perception of musical motion arousingly elusive.
proceeds. But there are certainly more aspects to Beyond the experiments with instrumental
silence and quietness. They demonstrate a alternatives, Lachenmann's main object of
composer's personality which could probably provocation has been tonality as an incarnation of
be described as self-critical. The modesty ofhuman ignorance. In the vein of Walter Benjamin,
acoustical means conveys a sudden bewilderment. Lachenmann has led a complex argument that
At this point, hysterical and grotesque laughter connects a compositional technique (e.g. tradi-
and depressive mania succumb to the admission tional tonality) with reception habits in the 'age
of a very personal responsibility. Various of technical reproduction'. Against an anonymous
religious practices have tried to reach this point ofenemy - the complacent mass - the participants
identification with one's own responsibilities. called for an 'Aesthetics of Resistance'.27 Tonality
Christians have emulated this striving, in their was used as a euphemism not only for habitual
call dona nobispacem. It is this aspect of silence that reception but also for concert hall music
will retain an ethical value long after the effects representation, for an ignorant audience and for a
of the unexpected novelty and the provocation musicianship of mere virtuosity. The attack
have subsided. against traditional tonality was moreover a
When Lachenmann first mentioned the term provocation against a multitude of implied
rejection in 1973, he would define the normal musical phenomena: such as, for example,
tone as an object of rejection primarily to provoke. established genres, commercial dance rhythms,
orchestral hierarchy or formal schemata that
Together with temA and Pression for cello, Air
exemplifies in my creative process a conscious break in
were associated, unquestioned, with bourgeois
social-aesthetic matters of course: an attempt and offer music making.
of beauty not by mere rejection of the common but If one investigates Lachenmann's attack
also through disguising the conditions of ruling beauty: against tonality in his music, rather than in his
as suppression of the underlying physical requirements writings, one detects an aspect of tonality other
and energies, as suppression of the underlying efforts; than the proclaimed listening convenience or
functional tutelage. Lachenmann's attack against
23 Lachenmann, 'Luigi Nono oder der Riickblick auf die tonality has mainly been an attack on the
serielle Musik (1969)', Melos 36/6 (June 1971), p.225.
perception of directed musical motion.28 Two of
24 For example, the Becker lecture at Darmstadt (see note 21). his critical comments from 1969 and 1979 suffici-
Clytus Gottwald, 'Ton und Laut. Abschied von Hegel',
ently demonstrate this misnomer (tonal suction,
Neuland. Ans'tze zur Musik der Gegeinwart II, ed. Herbert
Henck (Bergisch Gladbach: Neuland Musikverlag Herbert tension, pulse). Directed musical motion is
Henck, 1982), pp.97-109. indeed, to Lachenmann's discomfort, not confined
Gerhard Stabler, 'Silences. (Ver-)Schweigen', Schtebel 60
25 'Die gefihrdete Kommunikation Gedanken und Praktiken
(Hofheim: Wolke 1990), pp.231-255, trans. into Engl.
eines Komponsiten (1973)', Musica 28/3 (May-June 1974), p.230.
(Gerhard Stabler), 'About Silence or What happens when
nothing happens?' Eonta 1/2 (1991), pp.68-81. The same 26 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 120.
article modified as 'Stille. Schrei. Stille. Den Sacke-
27 Peter Weiss, Asthetik des Widerstandes I-III (Berlin:
schmeissern', Positionle 10 (1992), pp.24-26.
Henschelverlag, 1983).
The issue of the last-mentioned periodical Positionet was
28 This appears to be one possible metaphor applied in
devoted to the issue of silence (with contributions by Walter
Zimmermann, Eric de Vischner, Wolfgang Gratzer, Gerold musical percption. An article on musical motion by the author
W. Gruber). So are recent contributions by Mathias has been recently submitted for publication in Contemporary
Music Review.
Spahlinger, Heinz Holliger or Nikolaus A. Huber.

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 Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection 9

+
\' ,.h j.' < r d& < u; 7- )i r 1
_;f i - Xi,z; a>;

.4i -11 - IfIgI

V

? 1989

Figure 1. O
retains the
the end of

to also missed the point that directed 'gestures and

tonal
a movements' are not determined by an increase or
direct
decrease of tonal tension alone, but by any
How do
directed change of acoustic parameters (increase
obsolete
or decrease of volume, widening or narrowing of
commun
the overtone band, acceleration or deceleration,
kind of
tendency to either pulsed or pulseless fields)
tonal con and,
most importantly, by the abstracting levels of
in 1979
human perception.31 Whatever metaphorical
It terms are employed in explaining human percep-
does n
tion, the mental switch between concentration on
from to
detailed gestures or orientation towards more
catches u
escape
cohesive movements applies in the same way for fr
tricks
functional tonality as for post-tonal music. The do
understa
more information the perceiving mind receives,
together
the more it will abstract, but a direction it
If one reads 'musical motion' instead of will have.
tonality, one has to agree with Lachenmann that Lachenmann's compositions try to suppress the
direction of identifiable gestures and movements.
the categories of tension and relaxation (disso-
nance/consonance, cadence) can be present in The
all ratio of changing acoustical parameters is
music. Yet he has failed to acknowledge that the
31 This phenomenon of human perception, called 'perceptual
possibilities of tonal motion are not necessarily
streaming' and 'stream segregation', has been a recent focus of
music psychology research (e.g. Fred Lehrdahl, S. McAdams
exhausted by composing it as a directed process
and A. Bregman). This mainly American research was
of goal and solution, as some harmony theoriesaccessible and known in Germany through the work by Helga
might want us to believe. Lachenmann, secondly,
de la Motte-Haber. Her book on music psychology was
published in 1985. Her paper in the Darmstadt spring
29 'Luigi Nono oder der Riickblick auf die serielle Musik',
symposium in 1992 explicitly quoted Lehrdahl. De la Motte-
p.225.
Haber, 'Uber die Wahrnehmung musikalischer Formen',
30 'Vier Grundbestimmungen des Musikh6rens (1979-80), Form in der Neuen Musik. Veroffentlichungen des Institutsfiir Neue
Neuland. Ansdtze zur Musik der Gegenwart I, ed. Herbert Musik und Musikerziehung Darmstadt 33, ed. Ekkehard Jost
Henck (Cologne: Musikverlag Herbert Henck, 1980), p.68. (Mainz: Schott, 1992), pp.26-35, particularly p.32, 33.

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10 Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection
often either radically low, so that his gestures
appear totally isolated, or so high that fields of
manifold overlapped activities freeze into static
blocks.32 Lachenmann's resistance to motion/
tonality has matured since his outspoken offensive
around 1970. Although he has continued to
equate 'gesture and the dialectic mechanism of
tension and relaxation' with tonal thinking,33
tonality has faded as the main object of his attacks,
both in his writings and in his compositions.
For the sake of consolation, I have decided from my
current perspective to have no more conflict with tonal
means whatsoever. Hence, no more fear of contact,
because I simply tell myself I have been there ...
(1992)34
One can therefore not help noticing in
Lachenmann's later works an increased cohesive
gesticulation, which he had once damned as
absurd forms. In an introduction to his first string
quartet Gran Torso (1971-72, 76, 88), Lachenmann
admitted that since Klangschatten (1972) his
musical form has displayed an 'immediately
comprehensible, unequivocal gesture'.35 This
process has taken place since Accanto (1975-76,
82) both within his own musical idiom and by the
incorporation of recognizable quotes.
Lachenmann's concept of rejection has
obviously lessened its provocative habitus, both
as regards the unusual treatment of instruments as
well as his milder attitude to tonality. His
provocation has formed, in any case, only the
starting point from which he 'pursues his way to
the end'.36 By turning his provocation into
compositionally-shaped processes, Lachenmann's
works have succeeded beyond those of his many
followers.
2.2 Interference to what extent?
It is essential to demonstrate the point where
Lachenmann's provocative attitude feeds into his
compositional works. The success of his composi-
tions has not rested on 'ritualizing the sad and
annoying social conditions'37 with squeaking
32 Lachenmann used other metaphorical terms for what the
author calls static blocks: he compared the composer with an
'organ player manipulating whole pipe=sound families'
(blocks?). At a different place he called a composition
a 'polyphony of orders' (of blocks?), 'Vier Grundbestim-
mungen', p.73.
33 'Bedingungen des Materials. Stichworte zur Praxis der
Theoriebildung (1978)', Ferienkurse '78, Darmstddter Beitrdge
zur Neuen Musik 17, ed. Ernst Thomas (Mainz: Schott's S6hne,
1978), p.93.
34 Lachenmann in the interview with Christine Mast, p.10.
35 Held as an introductory paper at a 'musica-viva' concert in
Munich, recorded 8 April 1984.
36 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 131.
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noises, but on an involvement with the mystery
of an aesthetic experience that even Lachenmann
will finally leave 'up to the demons'.38 Until
1988, he strove verbally to pinpoint the goal of
his compositional endeavour. The keywords in
understanding have been 'structuralism' with the
inclusion of the 'aura'.
For Lachenmann, provocation against the
common always included interference with
familiar sound combinations. In his words, the
structuralist's approach expressed itself with calls
for 'individuation of the means in a work',39 for a
'confrontation with interconnections and neces-
sities of the musical material' (1979),40 for a
'detachment' of 'means out of their common
speech connection' (1982),41 for a 'structural
refraction of old relationships' (1988),42 for a
'sensitive, keenly heard handling of the musical
material' (1990).43 While these underlying ideas
of de- and reconstruction stem from post-war
serialism (with reference to the German Beet-
hoven-Brahms-Schoenberg variation tradition),
Lachenmann's reflective language initially took
its impulse from the Weiss/Benjamin/Lukacs
tradition, and later shifted to the language of
post-structuralist philosophy.
The artwork is meant to be a complex
organism of reshuffled and adjusted particles in
an ever-changing context. Lachenmann expressed
his thorough sympathy with the premises of
serialism. This is why he has often been assigned
the role of defender of modernism.44
. . . the thought of the serial as a speculative process to
detach the consciously levelled modification of the
original material from the common, materialized
(verdinglichten) context, and additionally to mediate the
abrupt, this has remained for me, and not only for me,
a valuable idea out of the serial lesson. Beyond the
mechanical-academic misuse, it is possibly the core
element of musical structuralism which is able to lead
our merely hearing ears to an alternative listening, and
37 Hans Werne Henze, Die englische Katze. Eit Arbeitstagebuch
1978-1982 (Frankfurt a. M.: S. Fischer, 1983), p.346.
3S Lachenmann quotes here a phrase by Luigi Nono, 'Musik
hat ihre Unschuld verloren', Musik und Gesellschaft 8-9 (Aug/
Sep. 1990), p.414.
39 'Bedingungen des Materials', p.97.
4) 'Vier Grundbestimmungen des Musikh6rens', p.67.
41 'Accanto. Einfiihrung zu einer Auffiihrung in Zurich am
23. November 1982', Musik-Kontzepte 61/62. Helmut Lachen-
mann, p.63.
42 'Fragen und Antworten', p.120.
43 'Musik hat ihre Unschuld verloren', p.416.
44 For example, within the Miinchner Biennale 1990 a
symposium was held under the title Moderne versus Postmoderne,
which thrived once again upon the polarization between
Helmut Lachenmann and Wolfgang Rihm, alias modernism
versus postmodernism.
12 Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection

beyond that, to a new way of feeling by taking the Once the awareness of Lachenmann's thinking
common apart. It has to be assumed, however, that the in complex acoustic ('qualitative jumps that make
expressive determinations ('relationships'), which are a pizzicato to an arco . . .') rather than physically
entailed in the sound material, are not blindly measurable events49 has been acknowledged, his
overruled, ignored, raped. (1986)45 article from 1983 on the 'Siciliano' from his
Tanzsuite yields ample examples. For example, he
The fashionable terms de- and reconstruction
are easily translatable into the classic term differentiates between a 'distorted sound level',
variation. Lachenmann himself recognized this. 'sounds which relate to blown tones but are
beaten, plucked or touched' and an 'effectively
The compositional process which causes such preliminary toneless and hoarse tonelessness'. His treatment
and incidental negation could almost be described in
of those unique categories in 'Siciliano', however,
the categories of the classic thematic development. On
employs traditional variation principles such as
the opposite side, I have analytically illustrated the
definite negation and transformation processes in the
'exposition..., combination..., separation....
first movement of Beethoven's Harfenquartett and the
addition . .., intensification and extension'.50
Lachenmann's fascination with extreme sounds
fourth piece out of Weberns op. 10. (1988)46
and with various types of natural and manipulated
The emphasis of this approach is not the echoes has much in common with the thinking in
proclaimed de- and reconstruction but the electronic studios of the 1950s and 60s. There is
totality of its applied variation principles. reason to believe that he conceived timbre, tone-
'Expressive reinterpretation through compre- motion and echo very much in terms of
hensive variation', naturally leaves many questions
electronically produced music.51 Titles such as
unanswered which cannot be taken up here. One
Echo Andante, Klangschatten, Schattentanz, Ausklang
query might, however, be directed to the degree have hinted at his preoccupation with various
of variation, as no composition is completely free echo phenomena.
of variation, and therefore of 'individuation and
As a more important extension to the
estrangement'. How much variation destroys structuralist's concept, Lachenmann has taken the
common associations, and up to which point is it philosophically abstract concept of 'aura'52 into
'mere stylistic imitation'? The subtleties of various account in his compositional manipulations.
degrees of estrangement would be more effective
subjects of reflection than some extremist I think, the decisive specification of compositional
deconstructivist slogans. thinking can be extracted from the particular way of
reducing the term of structure in favour of inclusion of
Lachenmann has increasingly conceived musical
the 'aura', because through this procedure the social
material in terms of sound and action categories 47
reality and the existential experience of the individual
rather than physical parameters. Attention should
be directed to his statement from 1988 about
49 Acoustic events out of a multiplicity of physical data were
'graded scales of qualitative jumps': already Karlheinz Stockhausen's starting point for further
construction ('Empfindungsqualitdten') in his Gesang der
Already in the forefront of composing, I happen upon aJuinglinge (1955/56) and in his Kontakte (1959/60) as Christoph
for me incalculable mental connection of more or lessBlumenr6der pointed out in 'Serielle Musik um 1960:
complex categories. Including their fragility, theyStockhausens Kontakte', Analysen, Beitraie zu einer Problem-
form my compositional instruments. This relates to thegeschichte des Komponierens. Festschrift fur Hans Heinrich
thinking in parameters of the fifties, but which initially E,qebrecht zum 65. Geburtstag (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag,
started from quantitive grading, and played, so to1984). p.504.
speak, with previously installed regulators. The graded 5( 'Siciliano', pp.76-70. See Lachenmann's description of the
scales that I create for myself consist rather out ofprocess.
qualitative jumps that make a pizzicato to an arco and a5l Lachenmann's concept of'musique concrete instrumentale'
pianissimo to a fortissimo, and the regulators and theiris as complex a topic as his concept of 'rejection', and is
way of functioning are determined by myself. (1988)48therefore not pursued here any further.
45 'Uber das Komponieren (1986)', MusikTexte 16 (Oct, 1986),52 The term 'aura' is described by Lachenmann in 'Die vier
p.12. Grundbestimmungen', p.72; also in 'Bedingungen des
Materials', p.96; Lachenmann also uses the term 'existential
46 'Fragen und Antworten', pp.123-4.
aspect' synonymously with 'aura' in 'Bedingungen des
47 'Siciliano - Abbildungen und Kommentarfragmente Materials', p.93.
(1983)', Musik-Konzepte 61/62. Helmnut Lachenmann, pp.76-77. Confusingly, Lachenmann's term 'aesthetic apparatus'
The translation of Bewegutngskategorien into action not (first mentioned in 'Die Schonheit und die Schont6ner. Zum
movement categories is not perfectly correct, but expresses
Problem musikalischer Asthetik heute (1976), Neue Musik-
better what the author believed Lachenmann was meaning to
zeitung 26/1 (Feb-March 1977), pp.1-7) is sometimes used
say. There is reason to assume that he is more concerned with synonymously with all 'aspects of the musical material' (see
various ways of sound-production rather than with musical 'Uber das Komponieren', p.9) and sometimes synonymously
motion as mentioned earlier in this article.
with the 'aura' only (see 'Musik als Abbild vom Menschen',
48 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 125. NZ/M 146 (Nov 1985), p.17).

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 Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection 13

appear not only as a component to hide from or to gesture in Kontrakadenz) as well as certain musical
reject but as an essential component of musical articulations such as arpeggio- and glissando
information, however mirrored (1978)53 patterns, Bartok pizzicati (Gran Torso), or even
concrete sounds of children, as in Fassade.56
Lachenmann's increasing reference to the
Lachenmann has seldom specified his
'speech quality' (rather than 'auratic quality')
objectives more specifically. In the introduction
might have been the result of confrontation with
to the clarinet concerto Accanto (1982), he lists the
semiotic theory. Foreign and native literature on
semiotics appeared in publication lists54 from the
destruction of the melody, harmony and the
beautiful tone. Beyond a provocative rejection,
early 1970s onwards and spread among German
he consciously works against 'a pulsing meter as
intellectuals. Lachenmann's struggle for credi-
basis for every familiar tonal time determin-
bility in a commercially-oriented music industry
ation'.57 During the whole clarinet concerto, for
expresses itself as avoidance of unequivocality,
example, Mozart's concerto runs silently on a
even if his theoretical writings apparently
tape. Only once does it break into the region of
disguise precisely this degree of imprecision.
acoustic perception. Already on an exposed level,
The resulting 'speechless gesticulation' (Konrad
Lachenmann deconstructs Mozart's masterwork,
Boehmer55) of his music cannot rely on an
the tonal language, the genre of a concerto, the
established system of communicational signs but
expectations on a virtuoso soloist and the capacity
operates on other cognitive levels of game and
of a clarinet.
perceptual ambiguity/mobility. One of Lachen-
mann's achievements rests in the subtle shadings In the article on his 'Siciliano' (1983),
that can be made out in this zone between the Lachenmann talks about resisting 'pitch order (in
definitely familiar and referential chaos. a tonal or serial sense) by integrating unexpected

Lachenmann's attempt to restore credibility to noise spectra of all kinds of definite-pitch-

music's 'speech quality' through structural inter- instruments with indefinable pitches'.58 In
ference occurs on at least two levels. He response to Heinz-Klaus Metzger (1988), he also
mentions musical contradictions whose exhibition
disappoints expectations conjured up by symbolic
signs and he avoids clearly articulated form results
'from in a compositional strategy, namely
above' (Adorno). The first approach canbetween
be 'polyphonic order and sound', between
'musicians' habits and a new action repertoire',
loosely described; the second necessitates analysis
that cannot be done independently of between
the the 'varying treatments of the fifth
tuning of instruments, of tremolos, down and up-
composer. Lachenmann manipulates associations
bows'.59
with, for example, tonal gestures (e.g. Mozart's
Lachenmann's sophisticated confrontation
clarinet concerto in Acccanto), folk songs (e.g.
the nursery rhyme 'Hanschen klein' inwith Ein expectations employs much more than a
Kinderspiel), dance rhythms (as for example quotation/variation
a technique in a familiar sense.
His hinting at the common is so elusive that it
siciliano in Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied), music-
demands intensive deciphering. At its best, the
ians' habits (e.g. the virtuoso), quotes in quotes
aura is conjured up but not real. For example,
(e.g. the folk song 'Oh du lieber Augustin' that
Schoenberg used in his Second String Quartet what is
could be heard as a tango gesture at the end
of Gran Torso cannot be identified in separate
used again in Lachenmann's Mouvement), orchestral
mannerisms (e.g. the unresolved romantichearing
swell of those individual bars. Taken out of
context, the sounds that supposedly articulate
53 'Bedingungen des Materials', p.97.
gestures of tango rhythms here can only be taken
as such
54 For example, Umberto Eco's Einfiihrung in die Semiotik was if one has been left craving by the
translated into German in 1972; his Opera Aperta as Das Offene
Kunstwerk in 1973; Jean Piaget's Der
suspense-inducing
Strukturalismus was
harshness and suppressed
translated in 1973. motion of the previous 15 minutes. What follows
Hans-Georg Gadamer, Die Aktualitdt des Schonen. Kunst als overwhelms with the same intensity by which a
Spiel, Symbol und Fest (Stuttgart, 1977). piece of dry bread will appear a culinary feast for
Adorno's Musik, Sprache und ihr Verhiltnis im gegenwirtigen the starving. This perceptive ambiguity forms a
Komponieren was published in 1978, Gesammelte Schriften 16
crucial aspect of Lachenmann's composition.
(Franfurt am Main: Suhrkamp), where he states on p.650:
'Music has to have a speech character', it is not enough just 56 Some of those examples are taken from Michael
being an 'acoustical kaleidoscope'. Mairkelmann, 'Helmut Lachenmann oder "Das neu zu
Naom Chomsky. Aspekte der Syntax-Theorie (Frankfurt am rechtfertigende Sch6ne",' NZfM 123/6 (Nov. 1985), pp.21-
Main: Suhrkamp, 1983). 25; and Lachenmann, 'Fragen und Antworten', pp.128.
55 'Sprachlose Gestik als Formproblem neuer Musik', Form in
57 'Accanto'. pp.70.
der Neuen Musik, Veroffentlichungen des Institutsfjur Neue Musik
58 'Siciliano', p.76.
und Musikerziehung Darmstadt 33, ed. Ekkehard Jost (Mainz:
Schott, 1992), pp. 16-25. 59 'Fragen und Antworten', p.124.

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14 Helmut Lachenmann's Concept of Rejection

The shift of emphasis in Lachenmann's Obviously, little analytical work has been done
concept of rejection was strong: from a general on Lachenmann's music.61 In the few examples
social critique manifested in a provocation available, speculations appear in such awkward
against the beautiful tone and functional tonality, language as 'inner and outer pedal points...(?)'
to the rejection of the associated 'aura' by means or 'moments of orgasm.. .(?)'62 Lachenmann
of an extended structuralism. The extreme himself consciously avoids specifying technical
consequences of such an approach resulted,procedures. Like those of Pierre Boulez, Brian
Femeyhough and others the compositional
finally, in the rejection of any personal expect-
ations of the composer Helmut Lachenmann, as constructions are complex to such a degree that
he demanded from himself, empirical analytical research is bound to get lost.
What can be deduced are numerical orderings on
... a kind of intensive inner provocation, which
a very superficial scale.
follows (him) into (his) sleep. The issue is not to propel
One can bear a number of prejudices towards
into a new and interesting structural world. This should
academia, but it gives the time and scope to linger
only be exciting because it excites us and demands an
alternative behaviour of us. The excitement should on contradictory issues without having to solve
take place within our self-discovery (1988)60 them short-sightedly. The analytical problems
with music like Lachenmann's can indeed be
Following Lachenmann's statements through addressed if one allows what appears to be
the self-evident and the extreme has not solved
contradictory in the first instance to become the
many questions for theoreticians. Admittedly, he
crucial stimulus. If one is prepared to explore the
has outlined his internal concerns, has defined his
field of perceptual mobility between various
emphasis at different stages and has demonstrated
levels of abstraction and focus, one is able
open questions. After attraction to and involve- to break out of both German generalizing
ment in Lachenmann's theoretical statements one
philosophy and English positivist analysis. One is
is likely to arrive, once again, at the question of
not surprised to find in Brian Ferneyhough a
the importance of a composer's verbal expressions
person who bridges those worlds:
in relation to their music. Without demanding
... in my own works I attempt to ensure a style-
rational validity, we are prepared to accept that
birds and religious notions have been intenselyimmanent double coding in and through the space
inspiring for Olivier Messiaen. Just because opened up by perceived dissonantial mobility of
relationship both from the objective and the subjective
Lachenmann's statements appear to be rational
standpoints, the former by means of 'structural multi-
does not mean they have not stimulated him in
tracking'63 ... the latter, subjective, viewpoint is,
the same way as the birds did for the French meanwhile, manifest in the way the shadowy,
master. After all, it was Lachenmann himself who
rationally-repressed 'Other' is allowed the opportunity
disclosed to Ulrich Mosch that his thoughts haveto thrust a painful wedge into the monadic carapace of
been 'the work accompanying mental gymnastics': order ...64
A stretching exercise for the triple flip of the
The subject analysis is another chapter in the
actual performance?
life of the present musicologist. As long as this
What is the actual performance of a musico-
issue cannot be comprehensively discussed - and
logist interpreting the Lachenmann-sources and
it can, unfortunately, not be done at this point -
verbalizing the experience of his music? How
the topic of Lachenmann's rejection will inevitably
successful will the musicologist's attempt be to
remain fragmented. The fragments, nonetheless,
force the ambiguous into the unequivocal?
are telling.

61 The more substantial ones,. e.g. by Hans-Peter Jahn, Peter

B6ttinger, Robert Piencikowski and Lachenmann himself
appeared mostly in Musik-Konzepte 61/62. Helmut Lachenmann.

62 Yuval Shaked, "'Wie ein Kifer auf dem Riicken zappelnd".

zu Mouvement (- vor der Erstarrung-) (1982-84) von Helmut
Lachenmann', MusikTexte 8 (Feb. 1985), pp.9-16.

63 See Lachenmann's 'polyphony of order'.

64 'Parallel Universes', Asthetik und Komposition. Darmstddter

Beitrage zur Neuen Musik 20, ed. Gianmario Borio, Ulrich
60 'Fragen und Antworten', p. 133. Mosch (Mainz: Schott, 1994), p.22.

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