Compositional and Aesthetic Tensions in Mauricio Kagel's Antithese für einen Darsteller mit elektroni

304 Pages·2017·1.38 MB·English

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Makoto Mikawa, The University of Western Ontario
Supervisor: Dr. Kevin Mooney, The University of Western Ontario
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree
in Music
© Makoto Mikawa 2012
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Mikawa, Makoto, "Anarchy in the Unity: Compositional and Aesthetic Tensions in Mauricio Kagel's
Antithese für einen Darsteller mit elektronischen und öffentlichen Klängen (1962)" (2012). Electronic
Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 951.
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ANARCHY IN THE UNITY:
COMPOSITIONAL AND AESTHETIC TENSIONS
IN MAURICIO KAGEL’S ANTITHESE FÜR EINEN DARSTELLER
MIT ELEKTRONISCHEN UND ÖFFENTLICHEN KLÄNGEN (1962)

(Spine title: Anarchy in the Unity: Mauricio Kagel’s Antithese)

(Thesis Format: Monograph)

by

Makoto Mikawa

Graduate Program in Music

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
The University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada

© Makoto Mikawa 2012
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO
SCHOOL OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES

CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION

Supervisor Examiners

______________________________ ______________________________
Dr. Kevin Mooney Dr. Catherine Nolan

______________________________
Supervisory Committee Dr. Richard Semmens

______________________________ ______________________________
Dr. Richard S. Parks Dr. Norma Coates

______________________________
Dr. Lori Burns

The thesis by

Makoto Mikawa

entitled:

Anarchy in the Unity: Compositional and Aesthetic Tensions
in Mauricio Kagel’s Antithese für einen Darsteller
mit elektronischen und öffentlichen Klängen (1962)

is accepted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

Date__________________________ _______________________________
Chair of the Thesis Examination Board

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ABSTRACT

In 1962 the Argentine-German composer Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008) completed
an innovative multimedia/interdisciplinary piece, Antithese für einen Darsteller mit
elektronischen und öffentlichen Klängen. The unique compositional style and formal
structure consisting of heterogeneous compositional components reflected his profound
insights into issues inherent in postwar avant-garde music. Kagel remarked strikingly that
“anarchy in the piece was omnipresent.” Indeed, his use of the term ‘anarchy’ is a
keystone not only of the structural features of Antithese, but also of Kagel’s aesthetic of
music in the piece. The present study seeks to reveal Kagel’s idea of anarchy in musical
context and how he attempts to epitomize this particular thought in the complex and
transliterate formal structure of Antithese.
This study first reviews Kagel’s Buenos Aires period in terms of the cultivation
and development of his musical composition and notion of anarchy. The review also
incorporates problematic aspects of postwar new music in Europe which emerged in the
period chronologically parallel to Kagel’s Argentinian era. The next stage deals with
Kagel’s engagement in electroacoustic composition in Germany and the development of
his own compositional method and style in its realm, where he consciously distanced
himself from controversy between Parisian musique concrète and Cologne elektronische
Musik.
Because Antithese is a unique form of Instrumental Theater – a compositional
approach Kagel invented – and a piece he dedicated to John Cage, this study examines
distinctive features of Kagel’s theatricalization in the piece in contrast to his other
theatrical pieces, as well as to Cage’s musical theater work. This examination clarifies the
aesthetic distinction between Kagel and Cage which underlies their theatrical-theoretical
differences. Intriguing in terms of compositional aesthetic content is that Antithese
encompasses Kagel’s serial thought and an approach of Grenzüberschreitung of art
genres which may seem antithetical in compositional-characteristic terms. This feature
suggests that a latent part of his aesthetic intention was to create tension as a concealed
component derived from the coexistence of heterogeneous ideas and elements on various
levels of Antithese’s complex structure. Indeed, tension, as an indispensable element of
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the piece, is a key to deciphering Kagel’s notion of anarchy in music.

Keywords: anarchy in music, postwar avant-garde music, electroacoustic music,
multimedia/interdisciplinary composition, musical continuity,
theatricalization, sectionalization, montage technique, psychologization,
Instrumental Theater, serial thought, open form, Verfransung of art genres,
Grenzüberschreitung, liberal anarchism.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This dissertation would have never been completed without the support of my
committee members, other professors, my friends and colleagues, and my family.
First and foremost, I am sincerely grateful to my advisor, Kevin Mooney, for his
guidance, support, patience, critical reading, and providing me valuable advice. His
knowledge and intuition inspired me and enriched my research skills and the contents of
this study. The wide spectrum of his thought of postwar music-aesthetic and philosophy
always motivated my enthusiasm of research for these particular topics. Above all,
valuable discussions of certain music-aesthetic issues with him vastly contributed to
better thematizing each chapter and deepening its content.
I would also like to thank my second reader, Richard S. Parks, for his supervision,
enthusiasm, and encouragement. With his countless suggestions for revisions, he
provided me significant opportunities to discuss music-theoretical issues in the postwar
compositional development. He devoted tirelessly much of his time to the editorial advice
through which I have benefited not only to polish my writing but also to expand my
intellectual horizon.
I wish to thank the Kagel estate for granting permission to cite Kagel’s letters to
Cage and David Tudor.
My thanks also go to a number of scholars who provided me helpful suggestions
and/or resource materials, especially Werner Klüppelholz, Björn Heile, Matthias Kassel,
Paul Attinello, Marcus Zagorski, Antje Tumat, Jörg Stelkens, Katharina Olivia Brand,
Sherry Föhr, Michèle Noirjean-Linder, Johanna Blask, Dennis Patrick, Juan María
Solare, Benjamin Patterson, Lucanne Magill, John Bewley, Jeanette Casey, Sen Uesaki,
Masako Isobe, and André Chaudron.
I am grateful to the Northwestern University Music Library in Evanston, Illinois;
the State University of New York at Buffalo Music Library in Buffalo, New York; the
Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland; the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles,
California; the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung der Universität zu Köln in Schloss
Wahn, Köln; the Kunst- und Museumsbibliothek im Museum Ludwig, Köln; the Sogetsu
Kaikan Archive, Tokyo; the Digital Archive Research Center at the Keio University,
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Tokyo; and the Biblioteca Nationale Centrale di Firenze in Florence, Italy, for allowing
me to access their collections and rare materials.
I am indebted to my colleagues and friends for support and help with this project.
Thanks to Paul Sanden, Anna Boyden, Barry Griner, Christine Faist, and Pierre Thomé. I
also wish to thank Christine Sobkowiak, Melanie Weber, and Elke Rettberg for helping
me to better understand resources in German.
A special thanks goes to the graduate program assistant, Shelly Koster, for
providing information and arranging many things during my doctoral study. I would also
like to thank the thesis examiners, Catherine Nolan, Richard Semmens, Norma Coates,
and Lori Burns, for their helpful questions and suggestions.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their support and understanding of
my studies.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
CERTIFICATE OF EXAMINATION ................................................................................. ii
ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... vii
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................ xi
LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................... xii

Chapter
1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................1
Background and Context .............................................................................1
Scope and Object of Study ..........................................................................3
Literature Review ........................................................................................8
Antithese (1962) ..............................................................................8
Anarchy in Music ............................................................................9
Postwar Avant-Garde Music .........................................................11
Methods and Approaches ..........................................................................13
Musical Continuity and Sectionalization .....................................13
Instrumental Theater .....................................................................14
Application of Serial Thought ......................................................17
Organization ..............................................................................................19

2 TWO BACKDROPS FOR ANTITHESE ................................................................23
Introduction ................................................................................................23
Kagel in Buenos Aires ...............................................................................24
Anti-Despotism – Kagel’s Views on Social and Cultural Life ......24
Jorge Luis Borges as Opposition to Perón .....................................27
Liberal Anarchism .........................................................................30
Borges as Composition Teacher ....................................................35
Kagel’s Involvement in Electroacoustic Composition ..................37
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Path to Europe ................................................................................41
Issues in the Development of Electroacoustic Composition in Europe .....44
Introduction ....................................................................................44
Pierre Boulez: Serialization in the musique concrète Studio .........48
The Compositional Method of Étude sérielle sur un son ..............49
Musique concrète: Pierre Schaeffer’s Theory and Aesthetic .........56
Boulez versus Schaeffer .................................................................58
Kagel – Marching to the Beat of His Own Drum ..........................64

3 ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC AND ANTITHESE ..............................................67
Introduction ................................................................................................67
Musical Continuity and Electroacoustic Composition ..............................73
Iannis Xenakis: Metastaseis and Diamorphoses ...........................74
György Ligeti: Glissandi and Atmosphères ...................................78
Transición I (1958-60) ...............................................................................84
Influence of Cologne Elektronische Musik Tradition
and Aesthetic ......................................................................84
Musical Continuity and Translation-Rotation Theory ...................88
Photographic Notation ...................................................................92
Antithese: für elektronische und öffentliche Klänge (1962) .......................96
Siemens-Studio in Munich .............................................................96
Josef Anton Riedl – Kagel’s Colleague at the Siemens-Studio ...100
Raw Concrete Materials as a Formal Yardstick ..........................106
Disposition of Public Sounds and Sectionalization .....................110
Montage Technique and Psychologization in Antithese ..............117
Scandal as Compositional Material .............................................122
Sonant Scandal in 1961 ................................................................131
Criticism of Electroacoustic Music
in the Electroacoustic Piece ..............................................135

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4 THEATRICALIZATION IN ANTITHESE ..........................................................138
Introduction ..............................................................................................138
Instrumental Theater as a Distinct Form of Musical Theater ..................143
Structure of Theatricalized Antithese .......................................................150
Composition of Main Actions with Alfred Feussner ...............................158
Published Version (1965) ............................................................158
Initial Sketch to First Version (1962/63) .....................................161
Reviews of Antithese’s Premiere in Cologne ...............................164
Analysis of the Stage Version ......................................................168
Relationship to Cage’s Music ..................................................................175
Involvement in Cage’s Music ......................................................175
“Music = Thought” ......................................................................180
Anarchy in Music .........................................................................184

5 SERIAL THOUGHT AND VERFRANSUNG IN ANTITHESE ...........................195
Introduction ..............................................................................................195
Serial Thought in Connection with Open Form .......................................198
Serial Thought as a Vision of Structural Innovation ...................198
Pousseur’s Serial Thought in the Open Work Scambi (1957) .....206
Serial Thought in Antithese ......................................................................212
Verfransung – Infringement or Straying off Course ................................215
Introduction ..................................................................................215
Crossover among Art Genres .......................................................216
Potential Origin of Adorno’s Verfransung Perception of
Avant-Garde Music ..........................................................221
Path to the Verfransung ...............................................................232
“Die Kunst und die Künste” .........................................................236
Verfransung as a Result of Diversified
Compositional Approaches ..............................................244
Antithese as Work of Grenzüberschreitung .............................................246

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