From Hugh Levick, Artistic Director
This post from our artistic chief originally appeared in September’s “Hear to the Ground”, our new e-newsletter for the LA composer community. Subscribe here
I’ve been reading ‘ancient masters’. I find what Helmut Lachenmann had to say still relevant for me as a composer. I am sharing some of it in case it can be of interest to anyone else.
“Music only has meaning when it points beyond its own structure to other structures and relationships-that is, to realities and possibilities around us and within us.”
Inspired by Mark Swed’s last LA Times article, announcing his retirement after 30 years at the LA Times, I think about John Cage, whose vision of music pointed far beyond that with which even most composers concern themselves. Inspired by Buddhism’s “emptiness means everything is always there”, for Cage music could be invisible and inaudible. I understand that but am more hung up with “realities and possibilities around us.”
“ Art as product and witness of thought; as carrier of insecurity.”
What a wonderful idea: ‘insecurity’ is audible in a music that affirms uncertainty, which is another name for reality.
The experimental performer, pianist, and music philosopher Paolo de Assis writes, “Lachenmann’s program latently involves a political dimension, since it stimulates the ’emergence of another reason, another sensibility, which defy the rationality and sensibility incorporated in the dominant social institutions’.”
Our music defies that “rationality and sensibility” because the Industrial Age initiated a transformation of “Reason” that made rational thought into a vehicle for Madness. Of course, we have to say NO. For us as creators there IS an alternative!
Comments?
We love sparking dialogue in the LA composer community. As with all the ideas shared in our newsletter, these insights are meant to open up conversation, invite different viewpoints, and celebrate the diverse perspectives within our network.
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