Lachenmann: Kontrakadenz

Description

World premiere: Stuttgart (Musik der Zeit), April 23, 1971

"Kontrakadenz" – "difference" of acoustic situations, the blueprint of a musical model of communication based on the experience I had in pieces composed just before this one, especially in Air and Pression : That what resounds does not resound for the sake of its tonality and its structural modification, but signals the actual use of energies in the musicians‘ actions and renders the mechanical conditions and instances of resistance associated with these actions tangible, audible, anticipatable. Form and detail resulted from the effort of realistically laying bare this aspect and placing it in the dialectical setting imposed by the use of a symphonic apparatus.

The title may save the piece from being perceived as an extreme case of antitonality instead of, as intended, an example of an immanent logic, which must be assumed and the handling of which is a matter of aware awareness.

(Helmut Lachenmann)**