Symposium: Luigi Nono and Prometeo (Page 128) - NTT ...

L u i g i N o n o

L u i g i N o n o a n d P r o m e t e o

Special Article

H e l m u t L A C H E N M A N N

I S O Z A K I A r a t a

A S A D A A k i r a

C H O K I S e i j i

S y m p o s i u m

T r a n s l a t i o n : A l f e d B I R N B A U M

InterCommunicationNo.27 Winter 1999Special Article 129

A Dialectic of Progress and RegressionHelmut LACHENMANN: Between 1958 and1960 I studied composition under Luigi NONO.This coincided exactly with when Darmstadt [1] wasin the throes of searching for a "new music."Three central figures dominated at Darmstadtback then: BOULEZ, STOCKHAUSEN andNONO. Around the time I began my studiesunder NONO, while all three utilized the sametechniques, it was becoming clear that NONOwas taking a completely different path from theother two. To the other composers, NONOseemed stuck in a neo-Webernian [2]expressionist mode. Yet in 1958, whenSTOCKHAUSEN came out with «Gruppen» [3] andBOULEZ with «Improvisation sur Mallarmé» [4],both highly ornamental virtuoso works, NONOcriticized them as recidivist backtracking tostatus quo bourgeois music. Whereas NONO asa composer really delved into the notion of musicas "punctual," which had its beginnings atDarmstadt, BOULEZ and STOCKHAUSEN hadstrayed from such thinking and become moreornamental. Not only that, we might even saythat NONO differed from BOULEZ and fromSTOCKHAUSEN in his philosophy, the ideologybehind the music; his concepts of freedom weresomething radically apart. At the same time,NONO once wrote me this in a letter: "Look outfor BOULEZ. His music is just likeSTRAVINSKY's. He's trying to recreate the courtmusic of Louis XIV, who'd stay in the palacelistening to music instead of hunting."On the other hand, NONO continued to use thevarious affective forms of the tradition—exposedelements of pathos, for instance, such as in afanfare—things that BOULEZ and others hadrejected from their structuralist thinking. Whatdiffered from music up until then, however, was

that these sounds appeared in forms brokendown by his own unique methods. NONO did notemploy such sonorities in any embellished orvirtuoso or ornamental way; rather his creativitylay in dissecting closer and closer to the veryinner nature of the sounds, creating from withinthe broken pieces. Works like «Varianti» or «Ilcanto sospeso» [the suspended song] exemplifythis approach. We can discern a dialectic ofprogress and regression in NONO's works fromthat period. Trumpet parts, for instance, carryassociations with BEETHOVEN's fanfares, thetympanies echo of military music. Even in thevocal parts we hear something of traditionalEuropean bel canto. Not that he uses them as-is;they're twisted and bent into an expression thatis all his own. Nor does he take an exoticmuseum-like perspective, merely giving usanother walk-through tour of instruments andvoices as they were used in other Westernmusic. Rather, his "scandalous" experiments atthe time, we might say, lay in breaking down theold even as he maintained it. «Fragmente-Stille,an Diotima» and «Prometeo» are often cited asmajor turning points in NONO's ouevre, however,I disagree. I can't help hearing «Prometeo» asone gigantic madrigal. That is to say, even as heuses the old categories, they are unbelievablytransformed, opening up new conduits to the actof listening.

ISOZAKI Arata: Personally speaking, aroundwhen I first met NONO, somehow I gathered thatthis Akiyoshidai International Art Village ConcertHall was to be built for the Japan premiere of«Prometeo».In Paris there is a park called Parc de la Villette.Originally fairly outlying, it now finds itself rightbeside the périférique loop road. In the early

Austrian composer. Studied underSCHÖNBERG; together with SCHÖNBERGand fellow disciple BERG, is said to belong tothe New Vienna School [Neue WienerSchule]. Created even more rigorously twelve-note works than SCHÖNBERG, while hislatter period works move toward a proto-totalserialism, making him a hero of the totalserialists.

[3] «Gruppen». In this work the 109-chairorchestra is divided into three groups of 36,37 and 36 seated left, center and right, eachplaying at a different tempo so as to createshifting layers of auditory space. Premiered inMarch 1958 with STOCKHAUSEN, BOULEZ

and Bruno MADERNA conducting.STOCKHAUSEN also composed «Carré»(1960) for four orchestra groups and fourchoral groups surrounding the audience.

[4] «Improvisations sur Mallarmé». A work forsoprano and orchestra based upon the poetryof MALLARMÉ. Parts I (1957) and II (1957)were premiered in January 1958, while Part III(1959) was premiered in June 1959.Thereafter, he consolidated these togetherwith the similarly MALLARMÉ-based«Tombeau» (1959) and «Don» (1962) underthe title «Pli selon pli, portrait de Mallarmé»(1962, revised 1983).

[1] International Summer Courses for NewMusic (Internationale Fereinkurse für NeueMusik) in Darmstadt. Founded in 1946 bymusicologist Wolfgang STEINECKE (1910-61) for the dissemination of music bySCHÖNBERG and others banned under theNazis. Particularly famous from 1951 on as amecca for avantgarde music centered on the"total serialism" (a "total" expansion uponSCHÖNBERG's twelve-note "serialism" bymeans of rhythms and dynamics) expoundedby composers Pièrre BOULEZ (1925- ),Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN (1928- ) and LuigiNONO (1924-90).

[2] Anton (von) WEBERN (1883-1945).

InterCommunication No.27 Winter 1999 Special Article130

'80s, an international competition was held forredoing the park as part of MITTÉRAND'sGrands Projets [5] . The brief for the competitioncalled for an arts center complete with a largeexhibition space, a music school and a concerthall. An international jury was convened ofsomething under 20 persons from around theworld, myself as one of the judges from thearchitect side, and in the jury representing theartist-musicians was NONO. Several otherarchitects were also on the jury, including RenzoPIANO [6], and even more landscape designers,the chairman of the world's landscapingassociation—this was an all-out world effort tocreate landscape design here. For a fact, thearchitects and artists were relegated to theadjunct role of creating the "receptacle"structures. The idea being to make the parkinternational, in a word, a gift from Paris to thenext century. We reviewed and debated nearly1,000 proposals sent in from all over the world,but landscapers' proposals were just notinteresting. To the architects, they seemed stuckin 19th century thinking. There were severalinteresting proposals from architects, but thegeneral consensus was that they wereunfeasible. The two professional camps were ona collision course and the whole thing became afighting match.The French Ministry of Culture who sponsoredthe competition began to think that if this kept upthe architects and landscapers of the world werein danger of never speaking to one anotheragain. When all of a sudden NONO stood up andsaid, "So far I've listened to the opinions of bothprofessions, but there's nothing worthdiscussing, nothing to show the 21st century.The landscapers are hopelessly 19th century,

the architects are hopelessly 20th century, andno one's reading forward from here. I don't wantanything to do with this jury." So saying, he wenthome. I was enthralled with this stand up play ofhis. Because two years prior, when I wasdesigning the Museum of Contemporary Art inLos Angeles, I ran into the same sort of deadlockwith the client, and just stood up and walked out.Remembering that, I had to think, "Good show!"It made me feel close to NONO as a person. Ofcourse, when it came time for the second jury, hecame back and judged together with everyone.And that's when the decision went to theproposal by Swiss-born architect BernardTSCHUMI [7] —the landscapers lost. And theproposal selected at next stage of competitionsfor the Cité de la musique music facility in thePark was by French architect Christian dePORTZAMPARC [8] . The combination of thesetwo rounded out the Park and facilities. In themidst of all these political circumstances, Irealized that when NONO stood up and walkedout, this was his way to break the stalemate wideopen, the posture he assumed to get thingsmoving. Now here's a man, I thought, who knowshow to operate. That's one of the first thingsabout him that earned my respect. Then when he was invited to come to SuntoryHall in Tokyo [9], I was able to spend more timewith him, and we came to a very personalrelationship, so much so that ultimately I endedup designing his tomb for him where he wasburied on Isola San Michele. So when planswere drawn up for the Hall at Akiyoshidai andHOSOKAWA Toshio [10] was saying, "Let's do«Prometeo» for the launch," I was overjoyed.Actually, it was Renzo PIANO who'd served onthe same jury who created the staging for the

Manhattan Transcripts (Academy Editions) andArchitecture and Disjunction (MIT Press).

[8] Christian de PORTZAMPARC (1944- ).Moroccan-born architect. Won the 1992 Grand Prixd'Architecture of France and 1994 Pritzker Prize.

[9] In autumn 1987, NONO was invited to Japanunder the auspices of the Suntory Hall InternationalProgram for Music Composition (Dir.: the lateTAKEMITSU Toru) and on 28 November he hadthe world premiere of the commissioned work «2)No hay caminos, hay que caminar . . . AndreiTarkovsky» performed at Suntory Hall, Tokyo.

[10] HOSOKAWA Toshio (1955- ). Japanesecomposer. Works include «Jo-Ha-Kyu» (1980),

«Preludio» (1982), «Tokyo 1985» (1985),«Utsurohi» (1986), «Hiroshima Requiem» (1989)and the opera «King Lear» (1998). Since 1989, asArtistic Director of the Akiyoshidai InternationalContemporary Music Seminar & Festival he has putconsiderable efforts into cultivating a newgeneration of young Japan composers.

[11] André RICHARD (1944- ). Swiss-born.Studied composition at Geneva and Freiburgbefore becoming Director of the Experimentalstudioder Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des SudwestfunksFreiburg. Worked as assistant to NONO toward theend of his career, in charge of the electronicsounds for «Prometeo» and many other of hisworks.

[5] Les Grands Projets. Major public urbanredevelopment scheme initiated by former Frenchpresident François MITTÉRAND. Enlisted manynoted contemporary architects to design suchprojects as the Musée du Louvre Pyramide (I.M.PEI), Institut du Monde Arabe (Jean NOUVEL) andParc de la Villette (Bernard TSCHUMI).

[6] Renzo PIANO (1937- ). Italian-born architect.Major works include the Centre Georges Pompidou(together with Richard ROGERS) and the KansaiInternational Airport Terminal.

[7] Bernard TSCHUMI (1944- ). Swiss-bornarchitect. Major works include the Parc de laVillette. At present, Dean of Columbia UniversityGraduate School of Architecture. Writings include


original premiere in Venice in '84. Thecompetition I was just talking about took placefrom the end of '82 to the beginning of '83, I thinkit was, right around the time NONO was in thethroes of giving shape to «Prometeo». That'swhen I met him.Well, I was thrilled with HOSOKAWA's idea forthe Japan premiere. Only there was oneproblem: I can scarcely read music. I didn't havea clue how to approach music as an architect. SoI was relieved to hear HOSOKAWA tell me, "No,even if you could read normal scores, youwouldn't be able to read the score for«Prometeo». This is no ordinary score." Thatbeing the case, I decided I might as well workfrom scratch. The one and only lead I had to goon was André RICHARD [11], who told me

concretely how to best interpret the spatialstructures in «Prometeo». As I understood it, themovements of «Prometeo» called "isolas"—"Isola Prima," "Isola Seconda," etc.—wereapparently suggested to the scenario byMassimo CACCIARI's [12] unique contribution tocontemporary philosophy, the "archipelago"thesis, so that the time-space arrangement ofthese "islands" forms the composition of«Prometeo». That is how I understood it. Sowhat I had to do, then, was create "islands" inspace. Islands in both the volumetric and floatingsense. They could be in the audience seating orthey could be on stage. Whatever was presentcould be scattered free-floating through space. Icommunicated [by fax] with RICHARD, and laterwith him directly when he came to Japan, about

Luigi NONO (1924-90)Italian composer. Together with BOULEZ andSTOCKHAUSEN, a central figure in the landscapeof post-WWII European avantgarde music. Noted forhis synthesis of radical political thought and newmusical techniques, he left behind a large repertoryof powerful and hauntingly beautiful musical works.

Variazioni canoniche (sulla serie dell' Op. 41 diArnold Schoenberg) 1950Polifonica-Monodia-Ritmica 1951Epitaph auf Federico García Lorca 1952-53La victoire de Guernica 1954Il canto sospeso 1956Varianti 1957Composizione per orchestra n.2: Diario polacco '581959Omaggio a Emilio Vedova 1961Intolleranza 1960 1961La fabbrica illuminata 1964A floresta é jovem e cheja de vida 1966Per Bastiana－Tai-Yang Cheng 1967Musica-Manifesto 1969 Y entonces comprendió 1970 Como una ola de fuerza y luz 1972Al gran sole carico d'amore 1975...sofferte onde serene... 1977 Fragmente-Stille,an Diotima 1980Prometeo 1984No hay caminos, hay que caminar...AndrejTarkowskij 1987La Lontananza Nostalgica Utopica-Futura 1988

L u i g i N o n o

photo©: Grazia Lissi


these physical arrangements and established theplacement and size of the orchestra pit. It wasmy idea to try to create a spatial parallel betweenour view of the world as "archipelagos" and theconcretization of the performing space in"archipelagos."Another thing, the image of this hall had to dowith its being here in Akiyoshidai. NowAkiyoshidai is a cartesian tableland with stalacticcavities. That is, with caverns. So, during thedesign process I hit upon the idea, what if Ioverlap the cave image with that of the islands. Aglass-walled court filled with water brought upfront and center—this would be one of thefloating islands. Actually, all the various lodges ofthe Village are floating like islands. So this ideaof putting together a collective body of islandseach with its own function referred not only theHall but extended to the overall layout concepts.That is, the spatial configuration of this entire ArtVillage came to manifest the vision NONO andCACCIARI imagined in «Prometeo» asreassembled within the conditions of Akiyoshidaihere in Japan. Yesterday, listening to the Japanpremiere of «Prometeo», the flow of the sound inthis space created here was exceptional.

Intensive SpaceASADA Akira: We have just heard Mr.LACHENMANN's comments based on his longrelationship as a composer with NONO since the'50s, as well as Mr. ISOZAKI's comments basedon his relationship as an architect with NONOsince the '80s, so what I would like to do now issomehow link these two through a considerationof NONO and space. Actually, in '87 when NONO came to Japan forthe performance of his new work at Suntory Hall,

I had the pleasure of guiding him around Kyoto,going to temples and different parts of towntogether and talking. One special memory thatlingers is of Daitokuji temple, with its many sub-temples each with its own rock garden or mossgarden. It's a diverse little microcosm all packedcompactly into one temple. How was I todescribe all those spaces? Well, categorizingvery roughly, I started by saying there areextensive spaces and intensive spaces, spacesthat spread outward and spaces that fold in onthemselves. For example, a city like Paris laidout on the grand axes of baroque city planningdisplays truly expansive spaces. Kyoto, on theother hand, is a simple grid, not a particularlystriking city when viewed from outside, but hereand there are small but dense pockets such asthe temple I just mentioned folded into the fabric,and these are intensive spaces. I don't know ifNONO accepted my explanation or not.However, pursuing these thoughts further, itstrikes me that NONO's music is possessed of adeep spatial sense, and that spatiality is ifanything intensive rather than extensive.This seems to have something to do with thedifference at Darmstadt since the '50s, as Mr.LACHENMANN pointed out, between BOULEZand STOCKHAUSEN on the one hand andNONO on the other. A problem that arose atDarmstadt in the '50s was that as the variousmusical parameters—pitch, duration, dynamics,timbre, etc.—were serialized and summarilystructured, it got to where everything merelysounded like dots of scattered sound. How toovercome this was the issue. STOCKHAUSENand BOULEZ's solution was that of extensivespatial enhancement, creating great fields andrich constellations of these points in a sort of

[12] Massimo CACCIARI (1944- ). Italianphilosopher. Collaborator with NONO from the latterhalf of the '70s on such works as «Das atmendeKlarsein» (1981) and «Prometeo». At present,Mayor of Venice. Writings include Architecture andNihilism: On the Philosophy of Modern Architecture(translated by Stephen Sartarelli, Yale UniversityPress, 1993), DRAN (1992), L'Angelo necessario[The Necessary Angel] (Milan, 1986) and Icone dellalegge [Icons of Law] (Milan, 1985).

[13] STOCKHAUSEN's major work-in-progress«Licht» is to incorporate a "Helicopter Quartet" inwhich members of a string quartet are to be airbornein helicopters. «Sirius» (1976) is another work bySTOCKHAUSEN.

[14] «Répons» (1981). Work for six solo instruments

(two pianos, a cymbalon, a vibraphone, a harp anda glockenspiel—including real-time electronicaudiotransforms) and chamber orchestra.Incorporated a full panoply of technologiesdeveloped for the Institut Recherche et CoordinationAcoustic/Musique (IRCAM) where BOULEZ servedas Director.

[15] In the morning of this same day prior to theSymposium, André RICHARD gave a lecture on"Electronic Music of Luigi Nono" demonstrating liveelectronic acoustics at the Akiyoshidai InternationalArt Village Concert Hall.

[16] Halaphon. An apparatus conceived by Germanaudiotechnician Hans Peter Haller, allowing soundsto move freely through a space. Utilized in«Prometeo».

Massimo CACCIARI


planar or volumetric expansion. But not NONO;as Mr. LACHENMANN has said, he adheredstrictly to points-as-points. Peering inside eachpoint of sound, each is seen to be skewed everso slightly, to possess a completely distinctquality depending on where it resonates from. Orelse there will be some subtle interplay with thesilence surrounding it. In such a way, byrigorously listening to each single sound indepth, he was rediscovering the intensive spacethat opens within a point of sound. Thus,whereas BOULEZ and STOCKHAUSENexpanded extensively outward, we can say thatNONO looked intensively inward to discover anextremely deep inner space. Such were the differences that arose when thesecomposers sought to create literally spatialmusics. In STOCKHAUSEN's «Gruppen», forexample, the three orchestras in triangularconfiguration, when the brass sections hit thesame bold harmonic at the climax—not to call itgermanic megalomania—he creates aspectacular spatial experience backed with acertain brand of authority, an utterly extensivespatial experience. But STOCKHAUSEN's notone to be satisfied with that; he has to put stringquartets on helicopters, he wants to play musicin outer space, he has to go all the way to Sirius!(Laughs) [13] This goes back a bit further, but inthe '80s BOULEZ turned out a robustdevelopment by placing the orchestra and soloinstruments around the audience in «Répons»[14] , then modulated the orchestra and soloistsor the crosstalk (répons) between the soloistswith live electronics. Actually, when you listen toit, you can distinctly hear the contrapuntalreverberations sound-to-sound. Nonetheless,these are strictly extensive experiments. All in all,when you listen to this work, you cannot help feelyou are being feasted on a banquet ofsumptuous yet somehow sterile soundpainstakingly rendered with consummate skill.Though quite frankly, given my own decadentbourgeois tastes, I certainly have nothing againstsuch sterile scintillation. (Laughs)Still, with «Répons», it must be said that this yetsterile product has been realized by the mosthighly polished technologies and massive budgetthat afforded an artist who stands at the veryforefront of French national cultural policy.Whereas «Prometeo», even with its same spatial

motion of sound and resonance sound-to-sound,is of a completely different nature. Grantedsounds do travel through space. But his was notthe pursuit of spectacular effects such as soundsrevolving or responding back and forth across anextensive space. Rather, his is more, as Mr.ISOZAKI has said, an enclosed cavern-likespace, a dark space both acoustically andvisually. Yet the closer we listen, we tune in onthe most subtle, seemingly impossible echoes,and moreover coming from places skewedslightly from the sound sources. And as we trainour ears, before we know it we find ourselveslost among these islands in a cave. What givesthis work this unassuming character is, I believe,the way he uses acoustic technologies.This has been demonstrated and explained to usby NONO's longtime collaborator AndréRICHARD [15] . Take, for example, the"Halaphon," [16] which enables the sound torevolve spatially. But it does not merely spin thesound; that would be like a production at aworld's fair pavilion, just some spectacular thrustof sound in extensive space. Whereas withNONO, he might have the sounds rotate rightand left at the same time so that you wouldn'teven know which way they were turning. Forsure the sounds are moving, but not on any clearvector through extensive space; the variousmovements cancel each other out, unsettle anysense of direction, or else they dissipate inmultiple directions, making for a mazelike soundjourney within an intensive space. For the original premiere of «Prometeo», RenzoPIANO designed a boatlike structure inside SanLorenzo in Florence, and just before that NONOsaid, "My head feels just like San Lorenzo."Meaning, he was imagining how sounds mighttravel around the church interior of his own skull.Conversely put, whether San Lorenzo orAkiyoshidai Concert Hall, the whole is a skull—NONO's or again of any of our own—whoseinterior is the site of a sound pilgrimage that arewe following, an extremely deep intensive spaceexperience. That very probably was NONO'sthinking. Which I believe was realized in an idealform for this Japan premiere at Akiyoshidai.NONO himself is no longer with us, but thisdeeper intent was brilliantly realized by thosewho knew and understood him well. As a lover ofNONO's music, I was thrilled at this opportunityto be on hand for this achievement.


CHOKI Seiji: With this Japan premiere, Iconducted with my students a study of NONO'soeuvre centered on «Prometeo». And whatstruck me was, how virtually nil awareness ofNONO there was in Japan. First of all, there'salmost no literature on NONO in Japanese. Notthat this is a uniquely Japanese problem; nocollected works of NONO have come out in Italywhereas they have in Germany in German.Almost all of NONO's early works premiered inGermany. It was the 1960s before NONO'sworks began to premiere in Italy, from«Intolleranza 1960». NONO had a difficult timeworking in Italy, so much so that he andMADERNA made a studio in Darmstadt, soNONO himself was something of a traveler orexpatriate. Someone with such a background is probablytoo difficult to pin down to a single concept inJapan. My own doctoral thesis was a study of thecomposer BUSONI [17] who likewise was bornin Italy but lived practically his whole life in Berlin.Japan has a hard time absorbing informationabout composers like these, who resist localizingto some one source of output. With NONO, hewas already active in Darmstadt by the time hebegan seriously composing, and in his lateryears he based himself in Freiburg. His musicsare just barely there in German; we here,however, can scarcely piece together a coherentpicture of the composer. Was he a Germancomposer? Was he an Italian composer?Without establishing such a framework, I fear, weJapanese would never come to grips with thelikes of him. And another thing, much of his vocal music is

written in Italian, and there was little opportunityto perform it here up to now. It's hard to find out if

even his early masterpiece «Il canto sospeso»was ever performed in Japan. For sure, two ofhis most important operatic works «Intolleranza1960» and «Al gran sole carico d'amore» [thegreat sun of blooming love] have yet to bestaged here. That «Prometeo» should be the firstof his major works to be put on here is somethingof a paradox timewise. But as always, Japansticks mainly to 19th century operas, and we justcannot seem to break out of the mold. On manylevels, there would seem to be no chance ofstaging NONO's operas in Japan. Converselyput, an "opera for listening" like «Prometeo»probably stood more of a chance of beingperformed.This is still a question in my own mind, but whatmade him call «Prometeo» an "opera"? Perhapsit's all a big mistake on our part? (Laughs) If wecall it an opera, if we consider it within anoperatic framework, then it's a giganticrevolution. To have created an opera thateschews any kind of operatic staging or scriptmakes «Prometeo» a unique work, if nothingelse, in the history of opera. When we watch a19th century-type opera, we sit in our seatspassively taking in the spaces that unfold beforeus. The post-War operas of POUSSEUR [18]and KAGEL [19] do move toward liberatingopera, but NONO has broken down open inwholly another way. While this is definitely a "tragedy of listening,"this work shows us that we do not listen with ourhearing alone. Rare is the work that shows us sokeenly just where we are situated in the concerthall. By the 19th century conception of opera,each individual listener is hearing the songs in anideal space. Surely no one could possibly listenunder these same conditions with even the most

progress.[19] Mauricio KAGEL (1931- ). Argentine-borncomposer, has resided in Germany since 1957.Has worked in a wide variety of genres,including musical theater, radio drama and film.His representative work is the absurdist opera«Staatstheater» (1971) in which the singers andorchestra members go out of kilter while settingup the stage props and ballet dancers gothrough their exercises.

[20] fermata. One type of rest notation inclassical music. Indicates notes and rests of freelength.

[21] LaSalle Quartet. American string quartet

(now disbanded). Specialized in WEBERN andother contemporary composers. Friends withNONO ever since the '50s Darmstadt's SummerSchool days, they commissioned and premieredhis «Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima».

[22] Arditti Sting Quartet. English string quartetled by violinist Irvine ARDITTI (1953- ). Wasnoted for their astonishing skill and polishedclarity of performance, highly acclaimed for theirrenditions of contemporary music for strings.

[17] Ferruccio BUSONI (1866-1924). Italiancomposer-pianist. His best-known work is«Piano Concerto» (1904). From 1894 on, hespent most of his life in Berlin. Remembered asthe author of Sketch of A New Esthetic of Music(1907) in which he sets forth theories of atonaland microtonal music, and as an annotator ofBACH's works.

[18] Henri POUSSEUR (1929- ). Belgiancomposer. In his opera «Votre Faust» (1967), acollaboration with French writer Michel BUTOR,a composer named Henri is commissioned towrite an opera on the Faust legend, and theaudience can participate by "voting" for any ofseveral prepared paths by which the story can


advanced CD or record technologies; certainlyno other work differs so greatly depending onwhere in the space you're listening to it or keepsyou casting about for where the sound is comingfrom. This disorientation is not felt listening toBOULEZ's «Répons». In BOULEZ's works, thebest place to hear it is where BOULEZ isconducting. Which is why he has to conduct hisown works. For though physically «Répons»differs according to the listening position, that isnot, it would seem, essentially BOULEZ.Nonetheless, as to NONO's acceptance inJapan, the fact that «Prometeo» should premierehere ahead of other more conventional operaslike «Intolleranza 1960» or «Al gran sole caricod'amore» does have the advantage of betteracquainting us with the essence of NONO thecomposer. While listening to a composer's worksin chronological order is one way ofunderstanding him, the perspective fromculmination back toward the past is perhaps, in asense, more in accord with the Benjaminianvision that underlies NONO and CACCIARI'stexts. Which makes this premiere very thought-provoking indeed.

«Prometeo» as Non-OperaLACHENMANN: There are three things I want tosay. First, what Mr. ASADA said aboutSTOCKHAUSEN's «Gruppen» concerns a mere19 seconds, but we shouldn't forget that«Gruppen» is all of 25 minutes long. Grantedthere is a moment where the brass hit harmonicsfrom three directions, but that moment is one ofthe more prosaic sounds in the work. At thesame time, there are complex spatialphenomena that constitute some of the mostreadily comprehensible moments. Relationsbetween NONO and STOCKHAUSEN wereambivalent. If I may transpose it to an image:there was a period for STOCKHAUSEN wherehe was like a child set down in front of toy trainset and he enjoyed playing God, moving thelocomotives around at will, which was just theperiod when he wrote the piece Mr. ASADA wasdiscussing. Now if you say NONO did not havesuch a period, I'd have to say that he had hischild's hour at the computers and machinesfreely manipulating sounds maybe 20 years laterthan STOCKHAUSEN. I am a composer whostudied under NONO and as such am certainly

closer to NONO, so I can assure you that thisdiscussion of the composers in terms of anopposition between BOULEZ andSTOCKHAUSEN is problematic.STOCKHAUSEN's spatial concepts are alsoentirely new temporal concepts. It would take along time to explain, and I'd rather not.I am totally in agreement with Mr. ASADA'sobservations that whereas BOULEZ andSTOCKHAUSEN pushed ever outward, NONO'simpetus was inward, always inward. The greatestproblem with this view, however, is the tendencyto mystify NONO's works or NONO himself. Fora fact, the structure of his works is unbelievablysimple. However, more than implementing thisand that to unfold the structure, you could say hisefforts were dedicated to the perception ofstructure itself or to making previously-unheard-of structures possible. In «Fragmente-Stille, anDiotima» he wrote heaps of fermata [20] , allannotated to 23 seconds or whatever veryprecisely. The LaSalle Quartette [21] debuted it.And at that debut, the LaSalle moved their bowsever so slowly trying somehow to hold on for 23seconds, but in the end the bowing just can'thold out. Just like at the end of a very slowSCHUMANN piece, they bowed little by little everso economically until the sound finally died out,and still it didn't last 23 seconds. After that, whenNONO learned that the Arditti String Quartet [22]was to perform this piece, he said, "They won'tbe able to play this piece, they can't evenunderstand it." And yet when we heard theFreiburg performance, NONO came to meextremely enervated. "Arditti didn't interpret thepiece, they realized the music I intended." Evenso, Irvine ARDITTI told me, "We have to sustainthe sound for 23 seconds. The length of the bowis about 87 cm. So it's simple division: if youscarcely move the bow about 3.2 cm per second,it'll last for 23 seconds." (Laughs) ARDITTIlooked at the bow precisely and determined thathe had to play it 3.2 cm per second, and as aresult all sorts of new broken, shakey soundscame out. NONO told me. "At last we've beenable to intercede in the very structure of soundput forth here. LaSalle played this piece as if itwere WEBERN. But Arditti laid bare thestructures within the sound and expanded them."This drive to penetrate ever inward into thesound, this dissection of sound, so as to


experience one part of the essence of music isNONO's vision. And that vision of NONO's canbe heard in «Prometeo».Then also, Mr. CHOKI questioned whether itwere not perhaps wrong to call this an opera,and indeed this is not an opera. Conversely, Ithink the work would be all the more easier forthe Japanese audience to take in because it is anon-opera. I am very fond of the ideas of theJapanese philosopher NISHITANI Keiji [23] , thenotion that within the self is an identical part thatis nonself. I think we can hear something veryclose to that in this piece. When I said that«Prometeo» was a non-opera, I meant that itleaps out of the existing space called "opera," it'sthat sort of opera. Earlier I referred to it as agigantic madrigal, but it's so gigantic, so verydistorted, the question becomes, can it even becalled music any more? If the work is a non-opera, can it not at the same time be called non-music? The reason being, music has rhythm,music has harmony, it has conventional musicalelements, but here is a work that eschews all ofthat, does it not? Listening to the piece, we havesomething close to a primal sound experience. Itis nowhere for the concept of music proper toarise; it is the existential site of hearing. Day in,day out, we composers are surrounded toexcess by all kinds of sounds, we live listening toall kinds of music. And because we'resurrounded by so very much music, wesometimes find ourselves even resenting music,but the fact that this is non-music leads us jadedcomposers to new vistas in sound—it's that kindof work. Not only are we in the space madepossible by Mr. ISOZAKI, we are within theinterior of the fragmented sound. Thoseamorphous clarinets, and more, the ineffablynoble songs, it all shapes entirely new contexts.

ASADA: I am in near-total agreement with thefirst two points made by Mr. LACHENMANN. As Isaid before, dividing extensive spaces on theone hand and intensive spaces on the other is alittle too harsh a distinction. Really it calls for amore sensitive discussion. After all, things thatare said about one person tend to becomecritical to somehow strike a contrast. Now, as wehappen to be discussing NONO, I admit Ioversimplified comparisons with BOULEZ andSTOCKHAUSEN. We must recognize theastonishingly high degree of perfection inBOULEZ's works, and those works usingelectronic modulation such as «. . . explosante-fixe . . .» [24] are truly beautiful.STOCKHAUSEN is also a great composer; hisearly «Kontra-Punkte» [25] , which is to beperformed soon at Akiyoshidai, is full of suchexactingly fresh beauty you would think it werecomposed just yesterday—all the more reasonthe later megalomanic excesses are such adisappointment. That much said, if one had tocompare them and NONO on their spatialconcepts, I do believe you could say what I saidbefore . . . was the nuance I hope got across.Now, this second point is extremely important.That is, we must not confuse NONO's peeringinto the interior of sound with mysticism. NONOis easily typecast. In the past he made politicalmusic as a militant communist, which came to apeak with «Al gran sole carico d'amore», thenfrom the latter half of the '70s he turns more andmore toward melancholic reflection, arriving at«Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima» and «Prometeo».In other words, an about-face from thingspolitical. Certainly that node of change is notentirely absent. Rather, however, as Mr.LACHENMANN has said, we should emphasizethe underlying continuity. For instance, in his

[25] «Kontra-Punkte». Work for piano, flute,clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoon, trumpet,trombone, harp, violin and cello. All instrumentsexcept for the piano drop out one after another asthe piece progresses. Premiered in 1953, it isacclaimed as an early masterpiece of totalserialism.

[26] Frederico García LORCA (1898-1936).Spanish poet-playwright. Poetry collections includeRomancero gitano and El cante jondo, playsinclude Bodas de Sangre and La casa da BernadaAlba. Shot by Franco's troops soon after theoutbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

[27] NISHIDA Kitaro (1870-1945). Philosopher.Professor at Kyoto University (1913-28).Established his own brand of "Nishida philosophy"extolling the Japanese negative-value of mu[nothingness], and together with TANABE Hajimeformed the "Kyoto school." Writings include Zen noKenkyu [The Study of Good], Jikaku niokeruChokkan to Hansei [Insight and Reflection in Self-Awareness] and Hataraku Mono kara Miru Mono e[From Working to Seeing].

[23] NISHITANI Keiji (1900-90). Philosopher.Studied under NISHIDA Kitaro, preeminentphilosopher of the Kyoto school (see [27]).Participated in the "Transcending the Modern"debates published in Bungakukai magazine.Writings include Kongenteki Shutaisei noTetsugaku [The Philosophy of FundamentalSubjectivism] and Sekaikan to Kokkakan[Worldview and Stateview].

[24] «. . . explosante-fixe . . .». Work for three flutes(with live electronics) and chamber orchestra.Originally composed in memory of STRAVINSKY,the present version was produced in 1991-93 incollaboration with IRCAM.


very early period NONO is writing pieces basedon the poetry of Federico García LORCA [26] .Of course the key thing here is that LORCA wasa poet murdered by the Fascists, and the contentof the poems is also important. Only in '87 whenNONO came to Japan and lectured on "ThePoetry and Though of Contemporary Music"(Gendai Ongaku no Politikusu [The Politics ofContemporary Music], Suiseisha: Tokyo), hecited the word "verde" in LORCA's poetry, notinghow the poet emphasized the "r" sound in theword to make a break. And then jumping aheada little, he states that even Fidel CASTRO usesthe severing power of "r" in his speeches. NONOfinds a certain politic in LORCA "r" or CASTRO"r." So he is not putting revolutionary texts tomusic as mere propaganda. If we call NONO'smusic political, then, we must think on that levelof politics from the very outset.Conversely, we should not consider his worksfrom the latter half of the '70s on simply as areversal from politics to reflection. Nor moreover,should we mystify this reflexivity. This is anextremely important point. In «Prometeo», thereappear texts from HESIOD's Theogonia andmany other different myths. Yet this is no merericorso to mythic sources. Straightaway he givesus mythological texts alongside texts fromBENJAMIN. BENJAMIN's Ursprung does notrefer to any single "source" recovered by tracingback along linear history. Amidst of the rise ofFascism in the '30s he said that Salvationdepends on tiny fissures in the continuum ofcatastrophe. What BENJAMIN calls Ursprungen[origins] are seen in strata in cross-section. The"micro-messianic power" from his final work Onthe Concept of History is one of the basicconcepts underlying «Prometeo», which againhas to be understood in context as somethingquite different from the absolute messianic powerexpected of the Apocalypse to come.To put the thing from a slightly different angle, itis decisive that NONO and CACCIARI choseBENJAMIN, and not HEIDEGGER. Mr.LACHENMANN referred to Japanese philosophyand to the ideas of NISHITANI Keiji in particular.Now NISHITANI was a pupil of NISHIDA Kitaro[27] , whose writings are so fraught with riddlesthat NISHITANI had to explicate and annotatethem for us; that was his standing. WhereasNISHIDA himself corresponds in the German

context to HEIDEGGER—corresponds both intheory and politics. NISHIDA's mu [nothingness]to HEIDEGGER's Sein [being] as distinct fromindividual beings. Problems occur, however,when we start to mystify their "place of mu" (muno basho) or "site of Sein" as some long-forgotten place beyond the world we live in asactual entities to which we have but to return.That is not only reactionary in theory, politicallythat line of thinking served indirectly to justify tothe militarists in Japan and the Nazis inGermany. It is in that sense I'm saying it's crucialthat NONO and CACCIARI chose BENJAMINand not HEIDEGGER. Their "origins" are notsome facile reclaiming of the meta-historical;they plant themselves squarely in actualhistorical process and try to get at the immediatestrata exposed where that timeflow rupturesmomentarily. Which naturally cancels anyoperatic narrative developing linearly inextensive space. They call it a reverse opera, afalse opera, and that is precisely how we have tothink of «Prometeo».

The Significance of "A Tragedy of Listening"André RICHARD (from the floor): Personally, Ithink it's a mistake just to say «Prometeo» is anon-opera. The work is sub-titled "A Tragedy ofListening" after all. The role played by text in thework is extremely important. Not that the music isadded to follow along with the text, of course, butwe cannot speak of the work without the text.In the original premiere program CACCIARI

wrote that through «Prometeo» NONO wanted toliberate music from the governing circumstancesof dynamics and sight. So as to offer up space tomusic alone.Of course, in «Prometeo» we do see performerson stage. And in that sense, it is not entirelydevoid of any visual element, but the movementson stage do not affect the auditory complexities.Taking only the harmonies, for example, themovement of sound—first one group with onesound connecting next which group and whatsound—is incredibly complex. To give anexample, I previously conducted chorus, andNONO asked me to bring together more voiceswith the exact same tonal qualities as the firstsoprano. And so a female chorus was formed, allwith the same tonal quality as the first soprano.This chorus had two roles: to recite ancient


myths, and to recite BENJAMIN texts asarranged by CACCIARI. The soloist only singsBENJAMIN texts. And the same goes for the altovoices. There is an alto chorus all with the vocalqualities as the alto soloist. And with the tenors,too, except for the role of Prometheus, there isagain the soloist and chorus with the same vocalqualities, the soloist singing BENJAMIN textsonly and the chorus reciting both ancientmythology and BENJAMIN texts at the sametime. Just listening by ear you gradually losetrack where's the soloist and where the chorus.That is, although there are two sound sources,because those sound sources have the samequalities they start to sound alike. It's anextremely curious experiment. For example, atthe very beginning where a chorus sings thewords, "Gaeia gave birth to the land," the"mythology" section that follows is sung in manydifferent harmonics. An internal continuity ofsound winds its way around between the varioussoloists and the various choruses and theorchestra group.Because it is all so musically complex, the workis rescued from visual elements and constraints,indeed freed from them. In that sense, as to whyI do not agree with the proposition that the work

is a non-opera, while granted the work has novisual dramaturgy, it does have a dramaturgy ofsound. And within that sound, text is extremelysignificant. Because there exists this auditorydramaturgy, I think it's problematic to call it anon-opera.

ISOZAKI: Well then, I wonder if I might pose aquestion? Prior to the performance here,«Prometeo» was performed in Brussels [28] , Ibelieve it was staged by Robert WILSON [29] . Afterwhich I happened to meet WILSON, and when Iasked him how it went, he hardly said a word. Hejust went on drinking until finally when it seemedhe'd reached his limit, he said something to theeffect that it should never have been put onstage. (Laughs) So I wanted to hear about it fromsomeone who was involved. Now RobertWILSON is someone whose own expression is inthe visual, so having him stage a work that sorejects the visual should have made for, it seemsto me, a very interesting production. What wasthe result?

RICHARD: A very delicate question. There aresome things in life you have to take on, like it ornot. (Laughs) In this case, we were just lucky to


CACCIARI's libretto (page left, top) and NONO's score (above). III. Isola 2, b) Hölderlin (Mitologia). Two sopranos sing, "Doch / uns ist gegeben / auf keiner Stätte / zu ruhn . . . ."


be able to stage «Prometeo» eight times inBrussels, the condition being that we had to do itat the Opera House, not a concert hall. Actually,NONO himself once tried to stage the piecetogether with Jürgen FLIMM[30], but as talkswent on, they came to see the impossibility of theendeavor, and eventually the project wasshelved. I told WILSON this any number oftimes, but ultimately the decision was not mine.In the end we put on «Prometeo» and it was aflop. We just have to be on our toes from now onnever to let flop like that happen again. Though,honestly speaking, neither the performances northe production was any good. The whole showwas a failure. The visual direction interfered withthe performances; for a fact, the performers toldme it ruined their performances.

LACHENMANN: I'd like to say that «Prometeo»

is a non-opera, not an anti-opera. As a non-opera, we can see a positive point of departure—just now André spoke of a "dramaturgy ofsound"—and this exists not only in NONO, butalso in MAHLER and BEETHOVEN. In thatsense, this dramaturgy of sound is not somethingspecific to «Prometeo» proper. That and, we'vespoken of the importance of the text, well I'veseen «Prometeo» already seven or eight times,and frankly speaking, the text is unintelligible justlistening to the sound alone. Given the difficultyof the core text, indications are there will bemajor problems for those who come to hear«Prometeo» for the first time to make sense of it.Short of which, as Mr. ASADA has said, Isuppose it's only natural that the audience makethe most of a kind of sound-tripping. It would beunreasonable to expect someone listening to thismusic for the first time to grasp the extremely

Beach» (1976) co-written with Philip GLASS. Hasstaged a number of operas.

[30] Jürgen FLIMM (1941- ). German dramatist.Also staged many operas. Staged the Frankfurtproduction of NONO's «Al gran sole caricod'amore» in 1979.

[31] «Moses und Aron». Opera by SCHÖNBERGbased on the Old Testament story of Moses andAaron. SCHÖNBERG wrote a script for three acts,but only completed music for the first two acts.

[28] Performed as part of the Ars Musica Festival atBrussels' Halles de Schaerbeek on 4-6, 8-9,11-13March 1997.

[29] Robert WILSON (1941- ). Americanavantgarde dramatist. Numerous collaborationswith musicians such as the opera «Einstein on the

Diagram of Halaphon invented by Hans Peter HALLER.Slow leftward rotation (outer line), quick rightward rotation (inner line), intermittent diagonal movement (dotted line).


complicated concepts behind the texts.

ASADA: The question of opera or non-operadepends on the definition of opera, which gets tobe all very academic. But at least I believe wecan say this. Regarding the possibility orimpossibility of visual staging, we are remindedvia the issue of the forbidding the worship ofidolatry of SCHÖNBERG's opera «Moses undAron»[31] . From that perspective, might notNONO's «Prometeo» offer an answer to thequestion, is opera possible after the incompleteend of «Moses und Aron» at Act II? In «Mosesund Aron», Moses is trying faithfully to obeycommandments from God, particularly theforbidding of idolatry. Accordingly, he does notsing, but expresses himself in Sprachgesang,that is, in speech. Whereas Aaron fashions agolden calf-like idol, saying he must appeal tothe visual in order for the masses to understand,which he expresses quite brilliantly in song. Theconflict between these two continues for two actsuntil Moses happens upon an orgy around thegolden calf that Aaron has bestowed upon themasses, and he breaks down saying, "Words, owords, what I lack art thou." So ends Act II; Act

III and after remained unscored, SCHÖNBERG'staking asylum in America notwithstanding.Accordingly, while plenty of operas were writtenafter that, in the larger sense the history of operacan be said to have been left hanging at theabrupt ending of Act II of «Moses und Aron».Which poses the question, is opera possible anymore? Here NONO, in very radical form,provides an answer how, while banning idolatry,that is, while utterly rejecting the visual, we mightstill be made to experience profound dramathrough sound.But perhaps this is making too much of Jewishsubtexts. Of course, NONO—especially in hislater years—showed great interest in Judica,though I think it was unrelated to what is calledJewish mysticism. In other words, whereas theessence of the Catholic experience ultimatelyreduces to the word "credo" [I believe], theJewish experience is in essence "Listen, oIsrael!" Did he not, then, take this commandmentconcentrated in the word "ascolta" [listen] anduniversalize it? By this commandment "listen,"people are exposed to a diversity of "othervoices," to the multifarious differences born offrequent contradictions and hostilities distributed

photo: Karin Rocholl


archipelago-like through space. That is nothingless than tragedy. In spite of which, it is thattragedy that makes possible our first profoundexperience. In this sense, the "Tragedy ofListening" emerges as the fundamental conceptof «Prometeo». Actually, even without hearingthe whole of the text, the commandment ascoltais repeated here and there impressionistically.Through the course of this we ourselves open uptoward sometimes cruel, yet simultaneouslysubtle distinctions. That, I believe is the essenceof this work.

[This symposium took place on 27 August 1998, AkiyoshidaiKokusai Geijutu-mura (International Art Village).]

Helmut LACHENMANNBorn 1935 in Stuttgart. Composer. Studied compositionunder Luigi NONO. Works include «temA», «Salut fürCaudwell» and the opera «Matchstick Girl».

ISOZAKI ArataBorn 1931 in Oita. Architect. Many internationally recognizedworks, such as the Los Angeles Museum of ContemporaryArt (MOCA) and Barcelona Olympic Sports Hall. Writingsinclude ISOZAKI Arata no Shigoto-jutsu [The Workstyles ofISOZAKI Arata] (Okokusha: Tokyo).

ASADA AkiraBorn 1957 in Kobe. Economist and social philosopher;Associate Professor at Kyoto University. Writings includeKozo to Chikara [Structure and Power] (Keiso Shobo:Tokyo) and Rekishi no Owari to Seikimatsu no Sekai [TheEnd of History and the World at Fin de Siècle] (Shogakukan:Tokyo).

CHOKI SeijiBorn 1958 in Fukuoka. Musicologist; Associate Professor atTokyo University. Known for his multifaceted studies on 20thcentury music. Writings include Ferruccio Busoni (MisuzuShobo: Tokyo) and Daisan Teikoku to Ongakuka-tachi[Musicians and the Third Reich] (Ongaku-no-Tomo-sha:Tokyo).

Special thanks to:Akiyoshidai International Art VillageArchivio Luigi Nono

Masterwork of Luigi NONO's lateryears, drawing on motifs from theGreek myth of Prometheus, with alibretto by philosopher MassimoCACCIARI composed from texts byHESIOD, AESCHYLUS, HÖLDERLINand BENJAMIN, and spatial acousticsby the Experimentalstudio derHeinrich-Strobel-Stiftung desSudwestfunks Freiburg. Initiallyconceived in a form closer to atraditional opera, it ultimatelyeschewed the visual to become a"Tragedy of Listening." The overall

framework is structured in fivemovements called "isolas" [islands].Premiered at the 1984 VeniceBiennale in a giant boat-shaped space(design: Renzo PIANO) installed withinSan Lorenzo in Florence. Amended in1985.

Prometeo – Tragedia dell'ascolto

vocal soloists: soprano×2, alto×2, tenorinstrumental soloists: flute (bass flute,piccolo), clarinet (E♭ clarinet, bass clarinet,contrabass clarinet), tuba (trombone,euphonium), string trio (viola, cello,contrabass), glass×3, speaker×2, chorus,4 orchestras (flute, clarinet, bassoon, horn,trumpet, trombone, violin× 4, viola, cello,contrabass)electronic realisation staffconductor×2

Background Visual: Handwritings of «prometeo» by Luigi NONOLuigi Nono, Verso Prometeo (RICORDI, 1984)

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