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Contemporary Music Review Vol. 23, No. 3/4, September/December 2004, pp. 59 – 79 On My Second String Quartet (‘Reigen seliger Geister’)1 Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Helmut Lachenmann (translated by Evan Johnson)2 This is a translation of Helmut Lachenmann’s analysis of his second string quartet, Reigen seliger Geister. He describes the background of the piece, discusses some of the effects used in the score and shows how it connects to other works in his oeuvre. Although intentionally vague at times, it is nonetheless highly insightful. This article, written in 1994 – 1995, appears in German in MaeE. Keywords: Analysis; Extended Techniques; Listening; String Quartet To speak about a piece, for me, means to describe the concept of material evidenced therein and to explicate the relationships in which it stands and by which it defines itself. The transcendental aspect of the piece—that is, its aesthetic and poetic force (Stringenz)—is not forgotten; its significance comes through in all of these observations. With all of the bias, incompletion—that is, imperfection—to approach it differently is to lose oneself in words. My first string quartet, Gran Torso, was written 19 years before Reigen.3 My conception of a musique concre`te instrumentale—in which categories are primarily delineated not by the usual parameters, but rather through the (always differently deployed) bodily energetic (ko¨rperlich-energetischen) aspects of their foregrounding of sound or of noise (Gera¨usch)—had in Gran Torso to confront for the first time such a traditionally comprised sound apparatus (Klangapparat) as the string quartet, which has become almost forbidden by its very familiarity. In the earlier orchestral works Air and Kontrakadenz,4 the standard instrumental paradigm was distorted in terms of sonic realism through the backdoor of expanded percussion and additional ad hoc instruments: switches whipped through the air, snapped branches, rattling electronic alarm bells in Air—radio broadcasts, water sloshing in resonant basins, noisily rubbed polystyrene in Kontrakadenz ultimately simplified the necessary examination of hearing itself; they did not reach the summit, admittedly, but they showed the way, they helped ‘aim the antennae’ and made a number of things more plausible. ISSN 0749-4467 (print)/ISSN 1477-2256 (online) ª 2004 Taylor & Francis Ltd DOI: 10.1080/0749445042000285681 light ‘breathing’ bowstroke on a string loosely held in a ‘muting grip’ (Da¨mpfgriff): there is also the simultaneous movement of the drawn bow between the bridge (at the frog of the bow) and the damping finger (at the tip). for example. wiping. On the cello it is naturally reversed: movement between the bridge with the tip and the fingerboard (specifically. neither simply make use of the earlier. is not only defined here through the relatively quick. (This also entailed—not only in Reigen—the recollection of things previously excluded. while the mapped-out sound world gradually transforms itself into a diametrically opposed landscape of quite differently structured pizzicato fields. the damping finger) with the frog. as the product of vertical strikes of the bow against the string. (Witness. springing. but rather served as variants of broader sound categories brought to the fore in ever-varying ways. Johnson) In Gran Torso. changed in the meantime—to see into the already-developed landscape more keenly.) And as in the previously written cello study Pression. definable as characteristic noises. although its meaning and performance in his and my case do not overlap 100 per cent. The habits of hearing and performance implied by my chosen ensemble (Instrumentarium) created a resistance—‘their’ resistance— to my initial ideas about poetics and sound syntax.) In fact.) The flautato technique itself. as always. the sonic landscapes developed in Gran Torso opened themselves even wider in Reigen. rhythmically and harmonically defined. the work—as a field of categories completing and at the same time transforming itself poco a poco—emerges first through flautato gestures. or the legno battuto on stopped strings: here as a means of the pianississimo articulation of silence. stroking forms of bow movement. as did my compositional means. even consonant elements—a reconciliation that could not be called a retreat into a pre-critical (vorkritischen) state. thrown.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 60 H.5 the polyvalently expressed energetic aspect ultimately thematized itself. that shifts over the strings all the way onto the bridge. (I borrow the indication flautato from Luigi Nono’s Varianti. nor could I abandon the terrain that I had conquered. In terms of sound technique. The received playing style itself had to be expanded. toneless string noise as the clear product of tremolo bowing. it was clear to me that every innovative push that Gran Torso represented (at least for me) had set a standard against which the new engagement with this ensemble (Besetzung) must measure itself. but had rather to signify forward-looking integration on a somehow resulting path. When I conceived Reigen in 1988/1989. in its absolutely basic form. It came down to how to proceed from there and this meant: to go ‘deeper’ and—with an outlook. Lachenmann (trans. transformed by extreme slowness. (The sound of . already-developed means. there as an impulse-variant of pizzicato and other short attacks. the ‘reconciliation’ with the temporarily obsolete: with melodically. there were no such ‘backdoors’. mediated with other. Everything was sparked by its ‘development’ (Durchfu¨hrung). both inward and outward. but also as precise pitches in an appropriately different context. Tone and noise were not opposites. more precise and more varied. But this was fruitful and my visions became keener. in composing. I could. E. rendered alien. beginning or ending extremely high toward the bridge—‘in the snow’. at first. They represent a different part of the hierarchy of categories [Kategorien-Hierarchie]. 399). It is accompanied by a crescendo of fingered pitches shining through when the bow moves over the center of the string. the tuning peg. the flautato bow movement itself results in a brightness-glissando in the rustling component (Rausch-Anteil). At the end of the string. along with analogous playing techniques on the scroll. p. It mediates between absolute tonelessness on the one hand and full C-flat major consonance on the other. the tailpiece. Wiesbaden. by contrast. the rustling predominates. It is. the rib. the flautato technique trades that in here for what I called ‘air seized from tone’ (Luft aus den To¨nen gegriffen) in my first introduction to this work (Lachenmann.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 61 harmonics must be muffled when using this technique. Figure 1 # 1989. When the bow moves completely onto the bridge. The toneless string noise—almost a peripheral instantiation (Randerscheinung) of flautato playing—forms. According to the narrowing or widening distance between the bridge and the bowing location on the string. a more or less unique. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. a central depot and hub for a characteristic wealth of variations of noise and sound. a sonic center—in other words. and—at the end of the piece—on the wooden mute. the fingered pitches change completely into string noise (see Figure 1).) A dull darkening of tone of more peripheral significance in other pieces. Through the movement of the bow from bridge to the damping finger (but also through the occasional ‘ethereal glissando’ (Spha¨rische Glissando) performed with the left hand. or even in a very high—almost ‘arctic’—position. . characteristic repertoire of usable ‘rustle variations’ (Rauschvarianten). 1996. the musicians say) the rustling opens up seamlessly into the pitch-oriented area (tonho¨hen-orientierten Bereich). almost homophonically treated 16-stringed sonic mechanism (Klang-Gera¨t). 6. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. Unison sound and unison rustling.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 62 H. These are ‘exercised’ and ‘exorcised’ through a wide variety of distortions: one could say that they propel the piece onward from the opening. Its further instantiations: . Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. and from there into tonelessness (see the score. i. onto the bridge and back onto the strings.e. we find ourselves involved with a single. from disappearance into tonelessness back into re-emergence in the same way as the simple flautato sound: what takes place in a single instrumental voice can be transferred to the whole instrumental apparatus (see Figure 3). II. through synchronized dynamics and shared bow movements. Wiesbaden. p. . as the result of a subtraction process) (Figure 4). Their most lavish variants appear as fast figures in an ordinario-bowed tutti texture that draws (real and imitated) overtone-glissando figures out of a polytonal field. E. the synchronous multiplication or amplification of sound or noise (which by successive ‘switchings off’ of single instruments shift the resulting sound or noise into a different light. mm. the flautato sound resumes with pitches different from the ones it had when it was subsumed. Again and again in the course of the overall processes of the piece. 26 – 28. Figure 2 Cello part. 85 – 112). when the bow returns to the strings. Johnson) The temporary ‘drowning’ of pitch in toneless string noise on the bridge allows a ‘hidden’ variation of the fingering so that. Streichquartett. Such disappearances and modified returns are achieved in Reigen through figures that can somewhat recklessly be called ‘trill variants’. That tutti texture can be brought. Lachenmann (trans. # 1989. mm. mm. Streichquartett. 27. 6. p. 99 – 102. The cooperative ‘paraphrasing’ of ‘simple’ modes of playing: for example. m. # 1989. a sort of ‘composed’ flautato through the synchronization of grit-free harmonics. # 1989. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. Figure 4 Reduction of II. .Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 63 Figure 3 II. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. 18. Wiesbaden. p. Wiesbaden. Streichquartett. made . Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. Johnson) brilliant through a unison in half of the quartet. Wiesbaden. Lachenmann (trans. And. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. as a further variation of such flautato nuances. Figure 6 Reduction of II. Streichquartett.64 Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 . Also among the functions of the ‘super-instrument’ is the hocket-like formation of sequences out of mutually cooperative single entries of a few or all of the Figure 5 Reduction of II. mm. 32. with absolutely toneless string noise intensified through doubling in the other players (Figure 5). # 1989. H. 30. m. 177 – 180. the formation of such an imaginary ‘super-instrument’ (SuperInstrument) from its component ‘simple’ sound forms and playing techniques helped the compositional process to the diversification and dialectical redefinition of what appears at first to be a purely physically oriented sonic correspondence (physikalisch orientierten Klangzusammenhang). 169. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. E. the parallel deployment of tones greatly separated in sonic space (Figure 6). p. p. Not least. and without which the orientation of concrete sounds into a botanized presentation would be ruined. # 1989. Wiesbaden. Streichquartett. of which a speculative idea of abstract or concrete form—however clever—would not itself be capable. . Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. . in the form of a flautato field constantly counterpointed with or interpenetrated by single impulses . The true ‘formal core’—the ‘geographical’ pole—is. full of ‘fantastic excitement’ thanks to the tearing-off effect of the reversal of the original plosives. by contrast. widely spaced in an outstretched ‘arpeggio’. Here the crescendoing up-bow is unmuted: it has been freed through a lasciar vibrare indication and creates a minor second with the pizzicato of the violin’s open string (Figure 9). its ‘implosive’ ascending and sharply cut-off dynamic curve is the reversal of an ‘explosive’ decaying impulse. Lifting it. thus intensifying the perception of the ‘subsidiary noises’ (Nebengera¨usche). unsuspectingly and full of reverence. ‘arpeggio’ and a physically articulated structure in one (Figure 10). along with the ‘trill variants’. (These events are foreshadowed from the first bar forward. works along these lines—as if depersonalized. From the viewpoint of the resulting ‘super-instrument’. This moment could be the musical core. The quasi-motivic gesture that is hinted at at the beginning. Assuming that it was a two-sided tape. I found myself with a recording of Arnold Schoenberg’s voice in my hands. the ‘magnetic North Pole’ for the movement from the flautato to the pizzicato located antipodally on this soundglobe (Klang-Globus). . a ‘panting’ sound effect results. so to speak. in which successive entries came together as homogeneous sound sources in a total spectrum (Gesamtfeld) in such a way that—with large and irregular distances between entries and without ‘pedal’—they appear as a virtual sonic unity on the ‘inner screen’. 11. The pizzicato landscape that opens up at the same time consists of a wide spectrum of variants. are apotheosized and become de-tonalized through extreme spatial and temporal expanses: ‘sequence’. (In 1958. one could also conceive of a ‘super-sequence’ as a wider or narrower ‘arpeggio’. It proves to be a ‘reversed pizzicato’.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 65 instruments. in the memory of the listener (see Figures 10. Where this muting grip is applied so that it suddenly ‘closes the mouth’. The ‘muting grip’ has yet to be discussed: in principle it blocks all of the strings through a loose laying of the left hand on their actual vibrations. where in the course of the aforementioned sequence-projections the single tones of a G major sixth chord. It works as a bridge between the flautato structures of the opening and the pizzicato fields that drive everything else out at the end. leaves the open strings free. 14. that is. takes place in mm. where the mutually contrasted playing techniques meet each other.) The singular ‘key moment’. I found myself listening. on the other hand. and then eliminated. The idea of the ‘super-sequence’ (Super-Sequenz) is the basic vehicle for the characteristic transformational process of this piece. to the backward-speaking voice of a hoarse/ happy6 Schoenberg telling stories in what sounded to me like a ‘foreign tongue’. as it were (Figures 7 and 8). 17). through an unexpected blocking of an unstoppably eruptive up-bow gesture. so to speak. 183 – 184. when listening to my teacher Luigi Nono’s tapes in his house. I copied both the front and back sides. 23. # 1989. Streichquartett. mm. Wiesbaden. Wiesbaden. # 1989. m. 38 – 39. Figure 9 Reduction of II. Streichquartett. 221 – 224. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. p. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. E. 26. # 1989. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. Johnson) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Figure 7 Reduction of II. pp. Streichquartett.66 H. Figure 8 Reduction of II. Wiesbaden. 143 – 144. Figure 10 Reduction of II. p. 32 –33. 124. 183 – 184. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. Wiesbaden. pp. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. mm. # 1989. . Lachenmann (trans. mm. Streichquartett. at most. At the end. At the same time. one encounters ‘subtraction sounds’ (Subtraktionskla¨ngen). extremely short bowings. Legno battuto (Figure 11b) and pressed (Figure 11c) accents function as boundary forms. Eight styles of left-hand grip are rhythmically dovetailed with each other. which remain from the heretofore six-voice texture through a partial damping of the strings. with the arrival of the sound of four open strings. they are closely related to the equally reverberant bowed harmonics. The string quartet has become an imaginary ‘guitar’ with varying planes of strings: Salut fu¨r Caudwell7 sends its regards. these are reconciled with the flautando gesture and the hierarchy oriented around it through an increasing saltando presence and the related short hints of tremolo. sensory and spiritual experience meet and interpenetrate in the double concept of sound-structure/structure-sound (Klangstruktur/Strukturklang)—can be used seamlessly in a more precise analysis of the beginning of Reigen: arrangements of flautato bowings. and even the pianississimo placement of the screw of the bow onto open strings—so that both halves of the string sound equally (Figure 11f)—or simply as double-stopped minor seconds (Figure 11g). Finally. and fully with the doubling and quadrupling thereof. in that after each ripping attack a different string is allowed to resonate undamped: the last form to appear of that ‘meta-melodic’ category. a composite gesture. about which the talk in this piece was of a ‘sequence built through hocket’ (hoquetisch gebildeter Sequenz) (Figure 14). As undamped octave and twelfth harmonics (Figure 11a).) The pizzicato variants themselves: their diversity and the forms of their conjunction make them virtually impossible to illustrate adequately. hocket-style. After measure 280 the bows are set aside. distorted in the meantime through the ‘extreme scordatura’—before its broadly rhythmicized repetition gets stuck to the point of unrecognizability—issues from itself an expansive six-note ‘song’ (Gesang). impulse families. Arco actions act here more and more as foreign bodies (Fremdko¨rper) or. the tutti open-string sound. often dotted rhythms. Simultaneities strummed with plectrums create. as if they had been filtered (Figure 13). attacks with a struck or briefly pressed bow. restless gestures (saltando/ . in which sound and form. except through the score itself.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 67 like legno battuto dots. The Battered Time-Net ‘Structure: polyphony of arrangements’ (Struktur: Polyphonie von Anordnungen): my old definition—always at hand since the typology of sound I established in the 1960s. partially crystallized in square. giving the thus-created ‘super-sequence’ a structural profile (Figure 12). Double sounds are formed through the coupling of strings in front of and behind the bridge (Figure 11d). simultaneities on the first and fourth strings at the interval of the double octave (Figure 11e). Nevertheless they also already hint at the pizzicato gesture that will later take the upper hand. serve to prolong resonance artificially. Wiesbaden. pp. 40 – 43. (e) 280. Lachenmann (trans. Streichquartett. mm. (f) 246. E. . ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. (c) 245. (g) 241. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. 48.H. (d) 236. # 1989. (a) 231. (b) 239. Johnson) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 68 Figure 11 Reduction of II. through ad libitum touching (‘relying on luck’) and rhythmicized release of the strings in the area above the fourth partial. (c) Random harmonics. (g) Open strings. (d) Stopping unidentifiable pitches through ‘tearing’ right at the bridge. Note: The dotted brackets around the violin clef refer to the ‘extreme scordatura’. no exact definition of the resulting pitches. or consonant stops. (b) Natural-harmonic finger pressure (second and third overtones). as high as possible. (e) Tight grip. (f) Strings behind the bridge. which permits. as resonant as possible. .Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 69 Figure 12 (a) Strings stopped at a distance of a minor sixth. despite the precise notation of the fingering. .70 H. (In such pieces as Ein Kinderspiel 9 and Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied. branching out on various scales. the measurements of the whole pre-compositionally regulated. but finally form not a succession but a mutually completing attraction: an arpeggio in an imaginary universal sound/space/field [Gesamt-Klang/GesamtRaum/Gesamt-Feld]. (The pitches notated there. # 1989. They crystallize temporarily into a quasi-Waltz (mm. which through that reduction has been given room for the aura11 of the sounds—thus bringing more intricate complexities—e. . Lachenmann (trans. in which events occur successively and are homogeneously constructed to merge melodically and rhythmically. quoted materials—into play. 47. (Figure 15). m. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. from measure 280ff. 274. finally form in the ‘epilogue’ the latent temporal skeleton for the end of the piece: the ‘internal rhythm’ has therefore become the structural net: ‘regression’ toward the close. Their internal rhythmic structure rips out their stitches as if from within. exist simply for a possible verification of the generating principle. 240 – 241). And where that ‘hocket sequence’ forms. which originates at the beginning. p. however.) . that in the score is notated above the instrumental parts as a ‘rhythmic frame’. tremolo). the net has finally become almost totally nonfunctional. which owe themselves to easily traced 12-tone permutations. traveling alongside as if from underground. Streichquartett. They thus fit into the timearticulating (zeitartikulierenden) particulars of a net8 previously generated for the entire work: a net of extremely aperiodic pulses. Johnson) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Figure 13 Reduction of II.g. For that reason. ‘reduced’ in complexity. E. it demarcates only general temporal areas.10 above all in the Siciliano of the latter. Wiesbaden. These rhythmic gestures. and so on overlay each other and work together. they play no role. Instead. Just such a simplification of the structural construction can be discerned as an (intermediary) product of a perpetual spatial idea of time. in that space appears merely the total rhythm resulting from the complementary cooperation of the played gestures. its presentation along the upper staff is abandoned. crystallizing entirely into a plastic rhythm.) The sonic events placed in this ‘net’. Musically. become ‘unwieldy’ in the course of the piece. further expanded. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. of the score. there exists a relative of this type of structure. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 71 Figure 14 II. 344 – 351. mm. pp. # 1989. Streichquartett. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. Wiesbaden. . 58 – 59. Johnson) . E. Lachenmann (trans.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 72 H. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. Streichquartett. . pp. Wiesbaden. 52 – 53. 303 – 314. # 1989. mm. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 73 Figure 15 II. figures that. they form an artificial ‘keyboard’ for flautato actions tied to larger-scale gestures (‘supersequences’. . the ‘artificial’ natural harmonics must help out where the open strings do not include all chromatic steps—like dummy glissandi played over fictional open strings by the hand. that ‘nature’ is manipulated beforehand. Most of the ‘sequences’. its ‘tonality’. But overall. In the case of Reigen. present themselves as artfully organized. fixed at the beginning from the complete 12 notes of the scale on the one hand. for their part. The echo of a pizzicato octave harmonic. differing from the ‘nature’ that is imitated. right in the middle of Reigen. the muffled-string sound. become more and more infiltrated with sounds along the lines of ‘artificial natural noises’ (ku¨nstlichem Naturlaut). Thus.Which is stronger: C major or pizzicato?. In the aforementioned large field of overlaid harmonic glissandi (mm.e it can sabotage an expanded musical perception (. the sound of the strings behind the bridge. can all be brought into relation. Even when strongly controlled intervallically. that is to say of the unique sound of the ‘apparatuses’ (Gera¨te): among these are the sound of the open strings along with their harmonic spectra. Such a chromatic setup allows the occasional quid pro quo game between ‘artificial’ and ‘natural’ harmony.) (Figure 19). but rather ‘break formation’ and bring into play their own interval constellations. In measure 117. . . E. . prescribed by the external mechanical/physical conditions of the structure of the instrument. it must be defined in their context. the noise of a legno battuto attack distilled through a damping grip. thus belongs with the toneless noise of bowing on the scroll. but in fact simply collect under a particular technical sonic aspect the pitch repertoire that has been standing at the ready (Figure 18). . the complex sonic edifices of strings heavily pressed either above or behind the bridge. On them is based the unique sound of the 16-string ‘super-instrument’. as if ‘prepared’. through the scordatura given at the beginning and its transformations (Figure 17). The harmony that was previously often incidentally weighed down by such a connection. . Johnson) Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Harmony/Scordatura—and a Glance at the Epilogue In principle. fit in not merely in imitation. becomes the unforced natural presence of the sonic body. harmony can distort— i. but also all the sounds and noises (Kla¨nge und Gera¨usche) that are suppressed in the extremely cultivated technique of the performance of pitches and other ‘natural sounds’: the toneless string noise. . Lachenmann (trans. and from constantly and/or continuously widening or narrowing interval fields on the other (Figures 16a and b). depending on the particular tuning. The tone rows in Reigen.).74 H. 96 – 110). the basic sound is ‘manipulated’ anew: an ‘artificial scordatura’ is temporarily established: the players hold quadruple stops that complement each other chromatically—just like the open strings themselves. where pitches become unit particles in cooperation with other sonic categories. harmony ‘reigns’ where tones form the music. . 1. Streichquartett.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 75 Figure 16a II. # 1989. p. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. 1 – 5. Wiesbaden. mm. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. Streichquartett. 1 – 5. Johnson) Figure 16a II. # 1989. mm. From measure 296. 37. bangs its head against the wall of this scordatura. Figure 18 Reduction of II. 16b Ha Figure Wiesbaden. the touched-upon sounds always differently filtered. Streichquartett. 210. the music. Lachenmann (trans. But by itself. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. 1. # 1989. Pitch structure at the opening. Figure 17 Initial scordatura. Wiesbaden. m. E. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. And one can hiss as . Breitkopf & ¨ rtel. p. the strike of a fist against the keyboard of a well-tempered keyboard can produce nothing but diatonic or pentatonic clusters. p.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 76 H. It is the point that is reached somewhere in almost all of my compositions. by which means each string will be assigned a different interval. Then. beforehand.e. based on whether the damping grip stops the deepened and thus drowned-out area of the strings or not (Figure 20). These two times interpenetrate: music in search of non-music. theoretically ad infinitum. Measure 374. Of all the reminiscences that it celebrates under varying conditions (among which the sloweddown tremolo movement sends a greeting in the direction of Gran Torso). on this no longer controllable gamut of 16 ‘hopelessly detuned’ strings— ‘transformed’ by arco con sordino—the Epilogue takes its course. which came through subtly. Each player has here a different. But not a magic that . sometimes more than once: where the music pauses—in a ‘sounding fermata’—and an ostinato passage either loses or finds itself before it ‘continues’. It is the moment in mountain climbing where one takes a deep breath and surveys the horizon: its intensity is unexplainable without the effort leading up to it. the evocation of the originally so delicately produced flautato undergoes the most conspicuous transformation: since the obligatory bow motion between bridge and fingerboard described at the beginning is now performed with pressed bow. the established pitch frameworks (Tonho¨hen-Rahmen) renew themselves through the ‘extreme scordatura’ set up in the course of performance. can be repeated ad libitum. by no particular distance. at most.Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 Contemporary Music Review 77 Figure 19 ‘Artificial scordatura’ through fixed harmonic-pressure left-hand positions. The dynamic time of this ‘traversal’ (Begehens) is something different from the static. the noise component’s brightness changes. so that from here as few fifthrelationships as possible lie behind the music. violently as one likes into a harmonica: nothing will emerge but a pre-programmed C major triad. timeless time of the traversed landscape itself. freely determined time to detune the strings of his instrument wildly. i. From this point in Reigen. here come to light as gently rattling pitch glissandi: downwardly or upwardly directed. overlapping downward glissandi in the two violins. which consists of alternating. Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 78 H. Translator’s note: I have endeavored wherever possible to retain Lachenmann’s often idiosyncratic punctuation and sentence structure (including several incomplete sentences).g. to which occurrences those footnotes are attached. Gera¨usch and SuperSequenz). in order to show it where it has freed itself—where it may free itself. 366 – 371. Wiesbaden. Notes [1] [2] Round of the Blessed Spirits. Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. Lachenmann uses italics only for work titles and for one occurrence each of the two words net and aura. but also for what it does not provide. are to be found in the original. the many different words used to describe the string quartet: ensemble. Lachenmann (trans. commas and dashes have been added and modified where necessary to aid readability in English. either because the word or phrase is integral to Lachenmann’s technical vocabulary and is used systematically (e.). device. however. Johnson) Figure 20 II. seeks to master perception. however. As explained in notes 8 and 11. p. rather an open space that ‘takes it captive’. I have given the German originals at the first appearance of words and phrases for which that information strikes me as useful. The near-total lack (other than a few tantalizing titbits) of specifics regarding the pitch and rhythmic organization of the piece. in comparison to the detailed taxonomies of different sonic vocabularies and playing techniques. E. 62. apparatus. The article is noteworthy not only for the detailed information it provides on the formal construction of Lachenmann’s second string quartet. # 1989.g. All quotation marks and ellipses. is an interesting reflection . or because their usage in German seems idiosyncratic and singular in a way that is not easily captured in translation (e. I have also set Italian musical terms in italics that are invariably my own. mm. Streichquartett. etc. ‘Reigen seliger Geister’. or of the importance of their analysis to the understanding of his work. A work for two guitars (and speaking by both musicians) from 1977. Written in 1968/1969 and 1970/1971 respectively. H. Schriften 1966 – 1995 (p. For amplified string quartet and large orchestra. 399). . His first quartet had been started 18 years and finished 17 years before Reigen. see note 8. Editor’s note: Here Lachenmann’s recollection is slightly in error. In J. an odd and difficult-to-translate pun. Heiser/heiter.). Written in 1969/1970. perhaps. A set of seven small piano pieces written in 1980. written in 1979/1980. Ha¨usler (Ed. his own estimation of their originality. Commentary on the Zweites Streichquartett (‘Reigen seliger Geister’) (1989). All footnotes. Italics in the original—one of only two usages of italics used in the original other than work titles. are my own. The other usage of italics. (1996). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Ha¨rtel. Musik als existentielle Erfahrung. Reference Lachenmann. unless otherwise marked.Contemporary Music Review 79 [3] Downloaded by [Pontificia Universidad Javeria] at 12:35 06 September 2011 [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] not necessarily of Lachenmann’s compositional priorities but of his willingness to address them to a public audience—and thus.