George Brecht: 1957-64 Composition
George
Brecht wrote a text in 1957 entitled Chance-Imagery,
which traced the role of chance in mathematics and science and related it to
philosophy considering, amongst others the pivotal concepts of Jackson Pollock[1],
and describing a formula for generating chance in visual art. Brecht initially
enrolled in John Cage's experimental composition class following communications
with Cage on the subject of these ‘chance determined processes’. His interest
in aleatoricism continued through his experiments in Cage's class, where he
directed these investigations towards the compilation of sounds. As early as
1959, Brecht composed Card Piece for
Voices, where cards are shuffled to determine both the sequences of lyrics,
and note pitches on which the lyrics are sung.
The
Event score originates with George Brecht, who constructed worded motifs on
small pieces of card and presented them in Cage's classes, to initiate a
discussion based around the possibilities each idea presented. Brecht notes: 'the
score is an event; so is the finding an incident of it. In composing music, the
composer permits an experience by arranging a situation in which sound arises.
If a musical score (sound-score) prepares a musical (sound) situation, the
event-score prepares one for events in all dimensions'[2].
In Brecht's Event scores, the initial idea is minimalistic, so as not to impose
but inspire artistic expression in an action.
An illustrative example is his 1962 Event score
Concerto for Orchestra, (fig. 13)
which reads 'exchanging'. The encounterer may follow this in any means, as the
object is not provided. The score is comprised of a single word, and the lack
of a supporting sentence gives it an abstract quality, highlighting its
conceptual value. The use of a verb, instead of a noun, presents it as not an
instruction but a continuous action. The implication is to explore the
possibilities of the action, not to arrive at a given outcome. The isolation of
this single word provides a distance, which shows the nature of the Event score
to be a contemplative, personal, and simplistic experience. In the form the
participant chooses to execute the score, he reveals something about himself,
rather than becoming simply a tool through which the composer can dictate his
message. Such forms of Event scores are like mini experiments to gain knowledge
and an understanding both of our behaviour, and of our environment.
Concerto for Orchestra presents an
abundance of choices: what is to be
exchanged - a physical object, or a communication, gesture, handshake; with
whom is 'it' to be exchanged? The title of the composition provides a setting,
participants and props, but does not contribute guidance for actions. Although
the title suggests a sonic outcome, the body of the score does not confirm
this. As previous Fluxus scores have focused on indeterminate sound, it could
be construed that the 'concerto' is composed of all sounds within the time the
performer chooses. Alternatively 'exchanging' could refer to an exchange of
notes, phrases or melodies and motifs, using the instruments of the orchestra.
In observing the choices the performer makes in realising the score, we are
offered a glimpse of their person.
As George Maciunas began to organise festivals
for Fluxus Events, Brecht composed variations on his scores with specific
performance instructions called 'Fluxversions'. These adaptations are no longer
an exploration of a situation, but a theatrical exposition of a theme.
Fluxversions are indebted to the Futurist movement, which introduced a free
form of theatre.
The Futurist movement was launched by Filippo
Marinetti (1876-1944), in a Manifesto published in the French newspaper Le Figaro in 1909. Futurists introduced
the noise of machinery into the context of music, as they admired the
industrial advances of humanity over nature. In 1913 Luigi Russolo built large
scale instruments called 'itonarumori', which generated noise resembling the
sounds of technology, exploiting the contrast between sounds that machines can
produce over the capabilities of traditional instruments, which Futurists
dismissed as limited and belonging to an era long gone. In theatre, Futurists
rejected all traditional dramatic genres and scenographies, as banal or
irrelevant, in its place laying emphasis on movement and gesture. Futurists
engaged in crude parodies and harsh ridicule both as an attack against the stereotypical
bourgeois audience of theatre, and to condemn conventional theatrical content.
The Futurists sought to empower their audiences through this open form of
theatre.
Brecht’s
Fluxversions are designed to provoke the audience, as each is highly unexpected
and left completely unexplained. Some Fluxversions are designed to parody the rituals
and traditions of Western music, others poke fun at the role of the audience.
Each is a large protest on a small scale.
Concerto for Orchestra, Fluxversion 2, mocks the
traditional concert situation. In asking the players to exchange their scores,
Brecht objects to the form of traditional concert recital where an orchestra
faithfully recreates the piece of music. Through this he redefines the concept
of a music performance, exchanging the conventional mode of repetition of a
score for his updated model of interactivity.
Fluxversion 3 takes the form of a game. The orchestra is divided to
create two war-like fronts, wind musicians against the strings, in a lurid,
farcical battle. As the orchestra manoeuvre their instruments in combat as
weapons, only the conductor retains his dignified status, allowed to rule
supreme as the judge. This caricature of the traditional orchestra ensemble
remonstrates against Viennese institutions. Brecht plants a further humorous
twist in the deconstruction of the word 'concerto' which derives from the Latin
'concertare'. This can mean either 'to dispute' or 'to work together',
revealing Brecht's inspiration for the score.
Octet for Winds (1964) also
divides the performers into opposing 'teams' challenging them in a childlike
competition. Here, a vat or basin filled with water is in the central position,
and wind musicians gather around the perimeter facing each other, holding their
instruments at the ready. A toy sailboat is placed in the water, and it becomes
each performers quest to blow through their instruments with enough strength to
puff the boat to an opposing 'shore', whilst simultaneously playing 'some
popular tune'. The infantile joy and innocence in this piece is made absurd by
the context proposed by the title, again ridiculing the traditional orchestra.
In a feature section for the August 1962 edition
of Stars and Stripes, the US Airforce
newspaper, the Fluxus artists Benjamin Patterson and Emmett Williams succeeded
in publishing some Fluxus propaganda. Williams plays the role of interviewer to
a comically mad Patterson, who retaliates to a question with: "What do you
mean is it music? Of course it's music. It's performed on a musical instrument,
it's taking place in a concert hall, and I'm a trained musician!"[3].
In listing the materials necessary to become a musician (one instrument, one
concert hall, one title), Patterson satirises elitist customs.
Brecht
uses water as an instrument in his Event Drip
Music (1962). This performance documents the sound of water falling from
elevated vessel into another. 'Drip' connotes a miniscule happening, and in its
small size, gains the audiences' attention. In minimising the sound in quantity
and amplitude, Brecht zooms in on the concept of the alert and focused
listener. This piece was initially explored using vials and pipettes from a
laboratory as Brecht earned a living as a chemist for some time (fig. 14). As
with the Fluxversion, he expanded the action from its minimalist essence and
converted it into a more accessible performance: figure 15 shows Dick Higgins
stood on a ladder with a bucket on the ground and watering can in hand. As with
many Fluxus events, the execution was simple, practical, brief, and used mass-produced
objects, encouraging the audience to focus solely on everyday sounds. It
demonstrates the do-it-yourself attitude towards music that Fluxus artists employ
to involve the audience.
[1] George Brecht:
Events - A Heterospective, Alfred Fischer, Julia Robinson and Kasper Konig, (Museum Ludwig, Köln, 2006), page
22.
[2] Quote from article entitled EVENTS.
(assembled notes.), page 226 of George
Brecht: Events - A Heterospective, Alfred Fischer, Julia Robinson and Kasper Konig, (Museum Ludwig, Köln, 2006).
[3] Benjamin
Patterson in discussion with Emmett Williams, in an article entitled Way Way Way Out, published in the American Army magazine
The Stars and Stripes, 30 August 1962
No comments:
Post a Comment