# Mauricio Kagel



## Guest

Over the last couple of days, I've been exploring a few guys and have noticed some gaping holes in our index. So here's one (from the pagan gods of wikipedia):

_Mauricio Kagel (December 24, 1931 - September 18, 2008) was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance.

Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into a Jewish family which fled from Russia in the 1920s. He studied music, history of literature, and philosophy in Buenos Aires. In 1957 he came as a scholar to Cologne, Germany, where he lived until his death.

From 1960-66 and 1972-76, he taught at the International Summer School at Darmstadt.

He taught at the State University of New York at Buffalo from 1964 to 1965 as Slee Professor of music theory and at the Berlin Film and Television Academy as a visiting lecturer. He served as director of courses for new music in Gothenburg and Cologne. He was professor for new music theatre at the Cologne Conservatory from 1974 to 1997.

Invited by Walter Fink, he was the second composer featured in the annual Komponistenporträt of the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1991. In 2000 he received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.

Among his students were Maria de Alvear, Carola Bauckholt, Branimir Krstić, David Sawer, Rickard Scheffer, Juan Maria Solare, Gerald Barry and Chao-Ming Tung.

He died in Cologne on September 18, 2008 after a long illness, at the age of 76.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Many of his later pieces give specific theatrical instructions to the performers, such as to adopt certain facial expressions while playing, to make their stage entrances in a particular way, to physically interact with other performers and so on. His work is comparable to the Theatre of the Absurd.

Staatstheater (1971) is probably the piece that most clearly shows his absurdist tendency. This work is described as a "ballet for non-dancers", though in many ways is more like an opera, and the devices it uses as musical instruments include chamber pots and even enema equipment. As the work progresses, the piece itself, and opera and ballet in general, becomes its own subject matter. Similar is the radio play Ein Aufnahmezustand (1969) which is about the incidents surrounding the recording of a radio play.

Kagel also made films, with one of the best known being Ludwig van (1970), a critical interrogation of the uses of Beethoven's music made during the bicentenary of that composer's birth. In it, a reproduction of Beethoven's studio is seen, as part of a fictive visit of the Beethoven House in Bonn. Everything in it is papered with sheet music of Beethoven's pieces. The soundtrack of the film is a piano playing the music as it appears in each shot. Because the music has been wrapped around curves and edges, it is somewhat distorted, but Beethovenian motifs can still be heard. In other parts, the film contains parodies of radio or TV broadcasts connected with the "Beethoven Year 1770". Kagel later turned the film into a piece of sheet music itself which could be performed in a concert without the film - the score consists of close-ups of various areas of the studio, which are to be interpreted by the performing pianist.

Other pieces include Con Voce (With Voice), where a masked trio silently mimes playing instruments and Match (1964), a tennis game for cellists with a percussionist as umpire (for Siegfried Palm), also the subject of one of Kagel's films and perhaps the best-known of his works of instrumental theatre.

Kagel also wrote a large number of more conventional, "pure" pieces, including orchestral music, chamber music, and film scores. Many of these also make references to music of the past by, amongst others, Beethoven, Brahms, Bach, and Liszt.

He has been regarded by music historians as deploying a critical intelligence interrogating the position of music in society._

/ENDWIKIPEDIAPASTINGS

Anyway, I think he's a fascinating composer that deserves a guestbook here without question. Seemingly lesser known than his Darmstadt brethren Nono, Berio, and Maderna, but very rewarding in his own unique way. I have not listened to much of this "absurdist theatre" music, but some of my personal favorites so far include his *string quartets* (often played with unique techniques, including knitting needles and whatnot), the *Music For Renaissance Instruments*, his *Die Stucke Der Windrose*, and, last but not least, his *Sankt-Bach-Passion*, which is simultaneously a parody and a serious work and profound commentary.


----------



## Weston

Today at work I listened to a piece called "Schwarzes Madrigal, for voices & instruments." It's unlike anything I've ever heard before, and also I think it's probably fairly accessible though I'm told I'm no longer a good judge of that. It's a superb work in either event. I'm really glad I stumbled upon this album.


----------



## quack

For all those people who think that modern music is just a lot of random noises, well here's your proof.






I love this though, for all it's supposed randomness, real or perceived, it is very compelling.

The top comment on youtube is a winner as well.


----------



## Marschallin Blair

quack said:


> For all those people who think that modern music is just a lot of random noises, well here's your proof.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I love this though, for all it's supposed randomness, real or perceived, it is very compelling.
> 
> The top comment on youtube is a winner as well.












_Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?

Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir._

One can only wonder if Colonel Kurtz was a Darmstadt student as well.

I think he'd approve of the 'anything goes' ethos of this composition.


----------



## Weston

Okay, I should have a rebuttal. Here is the Kagel piece I heard earlier today. Quite a bit different from the -- compelling -- sounds above. A bit like Debussy's Nocturnes on DMT with xylophone and odd percussion accompaniment.


----------



## Marschallin Blair

Weston said:


> Okay, I should have a rebuttal. Here is the Kagel piece I heard earlier today. Quite a bit different from the -- compelling -- sounds above. A bit like Debussy's Nocturnes on DMT with xylophone and odd percussion accompaniment.


Fair enough. . . but where's the 'rebut'?- the music to me sounds more like a bad version of Revueltas' _Sensemayá _ mixed with the Bernstein _Mass_ and tracked to _The Serpent and the Rainbow_. . . . . . but nothing like Debussy's _Nocturnes_.


----------



## Guest

So far I have only heard Music For Renaissance Instruments, which despite its title, is a very modern-sounding composition. Don't judge a book by the cover!


----------



## quack

Alexandre Tharaud's Kagel album is also great. Amusing and varied. Some of it seems like reflective, late night jazz other parts wry pastiches.


----------



## Guest

Has anyone here heard _Blue's Blue_? I ask because it is perhaps the one Kagel composition that comes to mind to this day that I find myself pretty incapable of appreciating. I think I get the concept... but it's just so damn sparse.


----------



## SilverSurfer

Hi, nathanb, I have that record, and I agree the concept (a "fake" old recording by an invented mythical bluesman) is better than the musical result.


----------



## Guest

SilverSurfer said:


> Hi, nathanb, I have that record, and I agree the concept (a "fake" old recording by an invented mythical bluesman) is better than the musical result.


A shame, because I feel like _Zwei Akte_ and the _Funf Jazzstucke_ are keepers!


----------



## SilverSurfer

Yeah, but I think we can forgive him. That Montaigne series is a "must" as a whole.


----------



## rsikora

I personally think listening to a choral piece by Kagel like "Hallelujah" or "Anagrama" goes great while staring at a Motherwell painting (open series)


----------



## Xenakiboy

Kagel has become one of my absolute favourite composers now (alongside Xenakis, Schnittke etc)

Die Stucke der windrose is a masterpiece.
String quartets are some of the greatest since Bartok upped the game.
Exotica is a must hear type piece that feels incredibly silly and humourous at first but reveals itself to be otherwise.
Annagrama is an exceptional vocal work
Les Idees Fixes is an orchestral piece that I could listen to for hours
Fantasia for organ is an awesome and inamate joyride 
There are plenty more awesome works but you can't make a list without mention his film Ludwig Van, now That's How you do a portrait film, wow!


----------



## starthrower

My favorite Kagel piece.


----------



## ST4

starthrower said:


> My favorite Kagel piece.


Very very great work!! One of my favorite composers


----------



## starthrower

I just ordered the Orchestral Works CD on Col Legno label. There's a cheapo CD-R version being sold at some sites, but don't buy it. Mine skipped as soon as I got it, so I sent it back.


----------



## rsikora

Enjoying listening to Kagel's "Anagrama" while exploring the minimal paintings of Robert Motherwell


----------



## Opisthokont

Has anybody posted the link to the first staatstheater yet? It's worth watching at least once in your life, whether it's worth watching twice I'll leave up to you.





My favorite mauricio kagel work, actually one of my favorite works of music in general, is pieces of the compass (which was mentioned in the first post here):





I also really like orgelstucke, a bizarre work:





The fascinating thing about kagel to me is that he's kept such a sense of humor and absurdity about himself throughout all of his work. It gives him an absolutely fascinating voice. I think one of the best traits a composer can have is enjoying their own music and the process of writing it - and that's everywhere in kagel's work.


----------

