Music and Emigration

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SIKORSKI MUSIC PUBLISHERS • WWW.SIKORSKI.DE • CONTACT@SIKORSKI.DE
magazine
Music
and
Emigration
”Two times two is four in every country” Emigrant, Cosmopolitan or Victim of Persecution?
Twelve Questions on the
Subject of “Emigration”
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
1. What were the most important
reasons why you left your
homeland?
3. Are there direct references to the
subject of emigration in your music?
4. Did the music help you come to
terms with your personal fate?
5. What connections to your former
homeland have you been
able to maintain,
emotionally and outwardly?
6. Is music at all capable of
translating political, societal
and personal problems
into the language of music?
7. What means are best suited
to do this?
8. Do you feel like a kind
of ambassador for the country
of your birth?
9. Of the composers who have
remained in your homeland, with
which ones do you maintain contact?
10. How was your emigration evaluated by these composers at the time
of your emigration?
11. In which of your works, in your
opinion, have you most vehemently
expressed a longing for your
original homeland?
12. What influences since your
emigration most strongly influenced
your further development?
CONTENTS
2. What effect did emigration have
on your work in general?
03
Music and Emigration - Feature
04
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh
06
Lera Auerbach
08
Xiaoyong Chen
10
Elena Firsova
12
Sofia Gubaidulina
13
Giya Kancheli
15
Milko Kelemen
16
Krzysztof Meyer
17
Slava Ulanovski
18
Lin Yang
20
Benjamin Yusupov
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Christian Steiner / Ali Sade: Archiv Sikorski / Gija Kantscheli: Priska Ketterer /
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ARTWORK
zajaczek.com
editorial
FEATURE
Music and
Emigration
Dear readers,
The concept of “homeland”
has been frequently discussed
during recent times at many
levels, including the political
one. By no means should
anything ideological be
understood by this, but
rather, at best, the perception
“Two times two is four in every country”Emigrant, Cosmopolitan
or Victim of Persecution?
of the environment and one’s
own roots. Many people
have left their homeland,
either by their own free will or
by force. This step has
especially left deep traces in
the works of those composers
who have emigrated.
In our catalogues you will find
composers from Russia,
countries bordering the
Orient such as Azerbaijan and
Georgia, as well as China and
many other countries.
Many of them have exciting
and moving stories to tell
Emigration has many faces. Not only as regards
the persons who have ever dared this step, but
especially in view of the reasons which drove
them to leave their homelands for the long term.
here have always been migration
movements throughout human history,
either for reasons of existential
threats or out of hope for better living conditions in another country. In the twentieth
century the political relations shifted so
radically that individuals, some living and
suffering under dictatorships, were forced
to escape the pressure. It was none other
than Arnold Schönberg who, questioned
about his emigration, made the following
statements:
T
about their emigration. We
have asked them about their
feelings and experiences, and
their responses have enabled
“Nothing comes out of a person
that is not already inside him.
And two times two is four – in
every country.“
us to make interesting connections to their music.
Read about the individual
fates, life stories and backgrounds of the creation of
their works, many of which
have meanwhile been
frequently performed.
Dagmar Sikorski
Dr. Axel Sikorski
Besides Germany during the period of
National Socialism, other countries were
especially strongly affected by the emigration of intellectuals, artists and scientists.
After the 1917 October Revolution, numerous composers fled from Russia and that
country’s music history was split into two
currents – one taking part within the Soviet
Union and the other outside of it. Stalin put
a heavy damper on the euphoria of Russian
art in the 1920s. At the same time, Russian
music established itself abroad, represented
by names such as Prokofiev, Rachmaninoff
and Stravinsky. Serge Prokofiev revealed
himself to be a key figure in the period
between 1930 and 1950; he returned to
the Soviet Union and unified musical cultures of both the East and the West within
himself.
Alongside emigrants of earlier times, such
as Serge Prokofiev, Arnold Schönberg and
Igor Stravinsky, there are a large number of
living composers represented in our catalogues who decided to leave their homelands for the widest variety of reasons.
Some of them do not necessarily regard
themselves as emigrants, and even categorically reject the term because they regard
themselves as cosmopolitans, but also
because they are convinced that they
have left their country physically but not
internally.
We have asked these composers a series of
questions pertaining to the subject of emigration. You can read theirs answers on the
following pages and become acquainted
with the given biographical context. At the
end of each contribution, we have introduced
those compositions which the composers
themselves most closely associate with the
subject of emigration.
We have slightly shortened the composers’
answers for the printed edition of Sikorski
Magazine. The complete text can be found
on our website under www.sikorski.de.
You can also register for our Newsletter
there.
SIKORSKI magazine|3
FRANGHIZ ALI-ZADEH
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh
was born in 1947 in
Baku, the capital city
of Azerbaijan, and
studied piano and
composition at the
Conservatory there.
Already during her first year of study, she
consciously bridged the East with the
West by playing Paul Hindemith’s piano
work “Ludus tonalis” at a piano examination.
Ali-Zadeh enjoyed early success in the
West as an interpreter of contemporary
piano works. She laid the cornerstone for
her international career in 1976 at the
Pesaro Music Festival with her “Piano
Sonata in Memory of Alban Berg.” After
occupying herself intensively with the
works of the Second Viennese School and
serial techniques, she turned to the
sounds of her homeland, following the
example of the Mugam art cultivated in
Islamic cultures for centuries. Ali-Zadeh
achieved her international breakthrough
in 1979 with the composition “Habil-sajahy”
for violoncello and prepared piano. She
was Secretary of the Azerbaijani
Composers’ Guild from 1979, with brief
interruptions. Although she was a respected
artist and teacher in her own country, she
decided to leave Azerbaijan in 1992,
moving to Mersin, Turkey. Ali-Zadeh was
strongly committed to the founding of
the Conservatory in Mersin, where she
later taught piano and composition.
However, the exile situation and the feeling of being cut off in a variety of ways
from cultural events burdened Ali-Zadeh
more and more, which is why she returned
to Baku, which was still plagued by crisis,
in 1998. But it was precisely in this that
she recognised a new calling, namely building up a new Azerbaijani musical scene,
for which her presidency of the association
“Women in Music” created a number of
possibilities. Already a year later, she
decided once again to leave Azerbaijan
and moved to Berlin, where she received
a year’s stipend form the German
Academic Exchange Service. It was from
here that her collaboration with the cellist
Yo-Yo Ma began, who was to perform
Ali-Zadeh’s works on several tours during
the course of his “Silk Road Project.”
Since then, the composer has lived
primarily in Germany.
4|SIKORSKI magazine
FRANGHIZ ALI-ZADEH replies:
01.
There were several reasons for
my emigration from Azerbaijan in June
1992. First of all, I had received an official
commission to compose a ballet from the
Turkish Ministry of Culture. On opera and
ballet theatre was to be opened there in
the city of Mersin, the fourth theatre of this
kind after those in Istanbul, Ankara and
Izmir. The then Minister of Culture, Fikri
Saǧlar, from Mersin, wanted to open the
theatre with a new work especially composed for this occasion. The choice fell upon
me, and I went to Mersin – a beautiful city
on the Mediterranean, together with my
family.
Secondly, the summer of 1992 was the
climax of the conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia over Karabach Mountain. The
economical situation after the breakdown
of the Soviet Union was also very difficult.
Thirdly, I sensed that my possibilities as a
composer and pianist were not needed in
Azerbaijan at that time. My works were
performed in Germany, Switzerland and
America, but in Baku they were hardly ever
played or recorded.
For this reason, the invitation to Turkey
was a great stroke of luck for me, if only
from
the
economical
perspective.
Moreover, I had absolutely no intention of
emigrating from Azerbaijan or staying
abroad for many years.
It was a great joy for me to come to Berlin
in 1999 by invitation of the Academy of the
Arts and with the support of DAAD. For
the first time in my life, I could devote my
entire time to composition. For this reason,
my “German period” was my most fruitful
period, at least qualitatively.
02.
My work as a composer became
more intensive after leaving Baku.
In 1992 in Turkey I composed the ballet
“Boş beşik“ (The Empty Cradle). Then I
received a commission from the USA from
the Kronos Quartet and composed the
piece “Muǧam Sayaǧi“
Since I was already 45 when I moved to
Turkey (I had to begin at zero in the musical
life of Mersin), it is most likely that the
move had no influence on my style at all.
03.
Concretely, I have hardly allowed
the subject of emigration to flow into my
music, because I have not felt like an
emigrant. I have never broken off my
onnections with Baku, because all my
relatives have stayed there. I have often
returned to my home city and even continued to teach my music theory students at
the Conservatory there.
04.
Of course composing has had an
enormous influence on my life. And it was
always the main reason for all of my decisions having to do with work, moving, the
course of the day, my family life. This notwithstanding, I did not spend my most
important younger years with creative
activity, but with pedagogical work at the
Conservatory because this was my only
source of income.
05.
Azerbaijan was never a “former
homeland” for me. My musical language
was formed precisely there, where the
good old Soviet musical education on the
one hand and the national traditional music
on the other hand – the Mugam, the art of
the Aschugen and the folksong – were connected with each other in an interesting
way. Hindrances in attaining great successes
were:
a) the lack of time for composition (I had to
be pedagogically active);
b) the lack of outstanding soloists and
ensembles in Azerbaijan who can interpret
contemporary music.
06.
When a composer emigrates in
his/her younger years, the musical language is already formed in the new environment and experiences great changes. At
present, for example, one can observe a
great onrush of Asian composers in
Germany and sometimes it is difficult to
determine from which country this or that
composer comes from. This is the case
because a unified “Central European musical language” has crystallised. If a composer carries a strong “genetic” memory of
his homeland within, as does Tan Dun for
example, then the movement in geographical space does not principally change
his musical language. The subjects of his
pieces, the literary sources can change, but
the melodic and rhythmic structures of his
pieces do not depend on where the composer lives.
07.
In my family there was a Mugam
cult; my father played the tar passably well.
At the music school we got to know and
play a great deal of classical music, from
Bach to Shostakovich. During my student
years in the 1960s and early 1970s, which
coincided with the political thaw under
Khrushchev, more and more information
seeped into the Soviet Union (through
radio broadcasts, recordings, the Warsaw
Autumn Festival). One could observe a
regular dodecaphonic boom of Arnold
Schönberg. Of course I had always been
enthusiastic about this music; I performed
it and composed the dodecaphonic Sonata
No. 1 in memory of Alban Berg.
08.
It is a great honour to represent
one’s homeland to the listeners of other
countries. Especially the fact that I was
recognised as the Cultural Ambassador of
Azerbaijan was the reason that I was invited to be Composer in Residence at the
Lucerne Music Festival in 1999 and was
conferred the title “Artist for Peace” by
UNESCO in Paris in April 2008.
09.
I have always maintained contact
with my colleagues from the Azerbaijani
Composers’ Guild – Tofik Kuliyev, Gassan
Adigjosalsade, Ramis Sochrabov and
others. They are all excellent musicians and
are masters of their craft in a truly profes
sional way.
10.
The Chairman of the Azerbaijani
Composers’ Guild, Tofik Kuliyev, treated
me very warmly and even came to Mersin
for the premiere of my ballet “Boş beşik“
Basically all friendly contacts to my colleagues have remained intact to the present
day, despite my many moves.
11.
The cycle “From Japanese
Poetry” on poems of Isikava Takuboku contains passages which directly express my
homesickness.
12.
The greatest influence on my music
has been Mugam – the traditional music of
Azerbaijan which crystallised in the 15th
century – a courtly music handed down orally.
SIKORSKI magazine|5
FRANGHIZ ALI-ZADEH
LERA AUERBACH
ABOUT THE WORKS:
MUGAM-SAJAHY (1993)
for String Quartet (with percussion
and synthesizer)
The basis of numerous compositions of Franghiz
Ali-Zadeh is the work with tonal spaces, the Makamat or
Mugam, as these Arabic improvisation patterns are called
in her homeland of Azerbaijan. This is an ancient Oriental
musical tradition from the 16th century in which, originally,
feeling and depicted which were considered taboo in
Islam. All improvisations in it are always based on a given
fundamental tone, as also found in Ali-Zadeh’s composition
“Mugam-sajahy,” which, significantly, translates as
“Mugam style.” Unlike traditional Mugam pieces, however,
Ali-Zadeh composes every single note. It is her concern to
combine the musical philosophy of her homeland with the
European musical tradition.
The piece “Mugam-sajahy” of 1993 begins soloistically as
a static meditation, then builds up to a kind of explosion
when the other instruments join in. The passion, at first
hidden, breaks out in virtuoso cadenzas and a wild dance,
the melody of which is determined by the violin and the
rhythm by the percussion. After this expressive outburst,
the cello is alone again at the end and intones a kind of
sunset prayer.
FROM JAPANESE POETRY
(1990)
Vocal Cycle for Soprano, Flute,
Piano/Celesta/Vibraphone
to Texts of Ishikawa Takuboku
Sometimes sighing in lyrical legato, then softly pausing,
accompanied by the tender bell sounds of the celesta,
finally breaking out wildly in the high register – in short,
hardly to be exceeded in terms of expressiveness, the
soprano voice moves through Franghiz Ali-Zadeh’s vocal
cycle “From Japanese Poetry.” The three-part work for
soprano, flute, piano, celesta and vibraphone was written
in 1990 and quotes three five-line poems by the Japanese
poet Isikava Takuboku which are about homesickness:
“My head is so strange! It thinks and thinks all the time,
about that which nowadays remains a distant dream” –
this is the nostalgic ending of the English translation.
Bound together by flowing transitions, the music lends
expression to the moods changes of the poetic lines which
tell of silent worry, bitter desperation and resigned alienation from the world.
Franghiz Ali-Zadeh dedicated her vocal cycle to the Tatar
composer Sofia Gubaidulina. Both composers, who met in
Baku, Moscow, Heidelberg and Hamburg, share the feeling of the loss of homeland. They have often talked about
this together. During the course of the downfall of the
Soviet Union, both emigrated to the West in order to be
able to transport their musical messages freely and without censor from state institutions. “From Japanese
Poetry” was composed immediately before the
breakdown of the Soviet Union.
6|SIKORSKI magazine
Lera
Auerbach
was born on
21 October
1973 in
Tscheljabinsk
(Ural) on the
edge of
Siberia. She
began
playing the
piano early
on and made
her firstpublic
appearance
at the
age of six.
At the age of eight she played together
with an orchestra for the first time. At the
age of twelve she composed her first
opera, which was immediately produced
and presented in many parts of the Soviet
Union. As the winner of several piano competitions, Lera Auerbach was invited to
tour the USA in 1990. She spontaneously
decided to stay in the USA, and is thus one
of the last artists to leave the former
Soviet Union. On 1 May 2002 she made
her debut in Carnegie Hall, where she
played her own Suite for Violin, Piano and
String Orchestra, Op. 60 with Gidon
Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica. Lera
Auerbach graduated from the New York
Juilliard School in the subjects of piano
and composition. At the same time, she
studied
comparative
literature
at
Columbia University. In 2002 she took final
concert examinations at the Music
Academy in Hanover.
LERA AUERBACH replies:
01.
I left Russia at the age of 17. It
was the summer of 1991, six months before the Soviet union collapsed. I was invited
to travel to the USA with concerts as a pianist. While in New York, I spontaneously
decided not to return to the Soviet Union.
At that time I felt it was an opportunity
which may not be there again.
02.
As a young musician, living in
New York, I had the opportunity to develop freely as an artist, to attend performances by the world’s best musicians, to
visit great museums, to have the vast
resources of the Juilliard School library, to
study together with the most talented
young performers. Being completely on my
own at an early age, in unfamiliar surroundings, was essential to the development of
my character. These experiences allowed
me to grow as a person and as an artist, to
experiment artistically without constraints,
to discover who I am and, most importantly, learn to be free.
03.
Direct? Probably not. Very few
things can be direct references in music.
But without this experience my works
would be very different.
04.
05.
Music is my personal fate.
One of my most recent compositions, “A Russian Requiem” for large
orchestra, mixed chorus, boys´ choir,
As only a few emigrant artists from the former Soviet Union have been able to do,
Auerbach rapidly became accustomed to
the special conditions and circumstances
of not only musical life in the West but the
American scene in particular. She intensively looks for contact to interpreters and
audience, provides information about her
works and method of working in discussion,
interviews and public appearances. In her
multi-functional role at pianist, composer
and poet, she has adapted many influences
and processed them in very different ways
in her works. Her spontaneous decision to
use the visit to America in 1991 for emigration can be evaluated as a completely
personal motive for emigration. The desire
to widen her circle of contact and work
without restrictions were the driving forces.
Political pressure or repression in her
homeland did not really drive Lera
Auerbach to take this step.
mezzo-soprano, bass and boy soprano, is a
90-minute work, which includes Russian
Orthodox liturgical texts, prayers for the
dead and prayers for the imprisoned, as
well as secular Russian poetry. It includes
texts from Pushkin, Derzhavin, Lermontov to Pasternak, Mandelshtam, Blok, Gippius,
Akhmatova - to poets of our time, including Brodsky and Ratushinskaya, all sharing the common thread of repression
under intolerant regimes during different
times throughout Russian history. This
work is a quintessentially Russian work. My
intention was to capture the Russian spirit
and to build a monument to Russia and its
history. Also, my Second Symphony uses
text by Marina Tsvetaeva and is very much
a Russian work and rooted in its tradition. I
am currently writing an opera based on an
imaginary life of Russia’s most paradoxical
writer, Nicolai Gogol. In addition I continuously write poetry and prose in the Russian
language.
ABOUT THE WORK:
“RUSSIAN REQUIEM”
for Large Orchestra,
Bass, Mezzo Soprano,
Boy Soprano, mixed
Choir and Boys’ Choir
Lera Auerbach’ s artistic activity is not
limited to the area of music. In 1996,
at the age of just 23, she was named
“Poet of the Year” by the
International Pushkin Society. Her love
of Russian literature is reflected in her
06.
work “Russian Requiem” in a special
Music is capable of translating
any emotion or concept. More importantly
- it is capable of transcending it. Music is
the most abstract form of art and not limited by words. This is its mysterious power
and its beauty.
way. Here she quotes the great
masters of worldly poetry such as
Alexander Pushkin, Boris Pasternak
and Anna Akhmatova. Thus Auerbach
connects the generations and points
out the eternal problem of repression
08.
I don't view my work in such
terms. Any creation is a private act and
should remain so. However, the world outside of Russia certainly sees my compositions, poems and performances as an act of
a cultural ambassador. After all, artists are
capable of bridging cultural gaps more
effectively than diplomats.
Recently Yefim Bronfman asked me which
country has been the best and worst for my
music. The answer was rather simple.
Germany has been the best, Russia has
been the most indifferent. This is a source
of sadness for me.
and injustice in her country. Her
“Requiem” tells of the suffering of the
people under Stalin’s rule, which is
why the composer decided to
dedicate it to the victims of the
communist regime of the former
Soviet Union. Introduced by loud bell
tolls, the orchestra begins in a dark
timbre. With this timbre, Auerbach at
times reminds the listener of the
musical language of Shostakovich.
Auerbach’s Requiem received its
world premiere in 2007 in Bremen
and was commissioned by the festival
09.
None. The only Russian composer, and a well known one, whom I met at
the Lockenhaus Festival, came to me after
a concert and told me that I must (!) stop
writing music for my own good. I politely
thanked him for his advice.
in that city, the Bremen Symphony
Orchestra and the Semana de Musica
Religiosa de Cuenca in Spain. All the
bells of the city rang at the beginning
of the world premiere. In addition,
Russian bells were recorded.
11.
So that the cruel part of Russian
My
collection
of
poems
“Hannover Notebook”, my novel “The
Mirror” and “A Russian Requiem“.
history does not repeat itself, the
12.
history and always
Discovering the world.
composer believes that the living
must continue remind us of this
commemorate the victims.
SIKORSKI magazine|7
XIAOYONG CHEN
The Chinese composer Xiaoyong Chen discovered
Germany already during his student years.
Saddled with two heavy suitcases and
following a one-week trip by Siberian railway, the then 30-year-old came to
Hamburg in 1985 in order to study with
György Ligeti at the Academy of Music and
Theatre. Chen’s musical origins, however,
lie in this city of his birth, Beijing, where he
had previously studied violin and composition between 1980 and 1985.
In his youth Chen experienced the so-called
“cultural revolution” in China at first hand.
His parents were forced to work as farmers
during the course of the re-education campaign. Before that, Chen’s father had been
active as a theatre author and producer,
which is how Chen came into contact with
Western literature early on. Although the
Chinese state only tolerated eight musical
works with Western instruments, Chen was
fascinated by these sounds, for his father
possessed a record collection including
Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos and
Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. Chen later
played the violin and viola in the Beijing
Orchestra, where he got to know more
Western works. But it was only as a student
at the Central Music Academy in Beijing
that he found out about twelve-tone and
serial music. Of fundamental importance
for Chen was the encounter with the music
of Ligeti, with which he also first became
acquainted as a student. The gap between
Ligeti’s “Atmosphères” and simple
Chinese peasant music seemed unbridgeable to Chen. At that point he had no idea
that he himself would become an important
connection between Far Eastern musical
tradition and Western contemporary
music.
Today Chen, who settled in Hamburg,
belongs to a small established circle of
Chinese composers and conductors who
have found international recognition. He
has worked with renowned orchestras such
as the SWR and NDR Symphony
Orchestras, the London Sinfonietta and the
Silk Road Ensemble in New York. Chen’s
compositions are orientated on the subtle
melodic language and the fine pitch sense
of Chinese language and music. In terms of
form, as he vividly describes the procedure,
he pursues the idea of a “spiral circulation.”
What has been written observes itself and
develops further out of itself, with the
result that his works have an open and surprising effect.
XIAOYONG CHEN replies:
01.
In the early 1980s, China had just
opened itself up to the world politically.
The country had a great need for current
information, innovative impulses, especially in intellectual areas. My plan was to stay
in Europe for two or three years.
02.
When one personally lives in a
different culture for a longer period of
time, real confrontations take place. These,
then, have a strong influence on the person
and change that person, creating a “new
person.” The work is a reflection of my personality in musical form. Put simply, it is a
mixture… and precisely put, it is an
“unknown being,” a “new being.”
03.
One can find traces everywhere
in the music of my culture, of European culture and of other cultures. I have used titles such as “Fusion” four times and the title
“Invisible Landscapes” has just as much to
do with this subject.
8|SIKORSKI magazine
04.
Yes, one finds traces of many differences in it and sees the developmental
processes of a person and his thinking and
statements.
05.
My roots are deep in the earth of
my homeland. My most recent European
experiences grow from this. There are some
factors that can be sensed, such as formal
thinking, musical vocabulary, at times direct
applications of the instrumental ensemble.
None of this takes place intentionally, so that
the music sounds “Chinese,” but is a natural
statement in musical form.
06.
If music could “deceive” people,
then yes. In my opinion, it is of greater
significance if music helps people to liberate themselves from the personal desires
and disappointments of everyday life and
to lift themselves up to a higher level, so
that they could recognise another kind of
contentedness and happiness.
07.
08.
09.
The words.
Yes.
Many, in the same generation
and the younger generation. I travel to
China several times a year.
10.
It was accepted and even appreciated due to its openness to the world,
also in favour of the musical development
of the country. It has never had any problem.
11.
Invisible Landscapes (1998),
Speechlessness, Clearness and Ease
(2004).
12.
György Ligeti, Giacinto Scelsi,
Johann Sebastian Bach.
ELENA FIRSOVA
ABOUT THE WORKS:
„INVISIBLE LANDSCAPES“
for Zheng, Piano, Percussion
and Ensemble (1998)
With the 1998 composition “Invisible
Landscapes,” Xiaoyong Chen refers to his homeland in several respects. On the one hand, he
uses a traditional Chinese instrument, the zheng.
The zheng is a Chinese zither with 21 strings
which specially tuned for “Invisible Landscapes.”
In addition, there are two Chinese drums among
the percussion instruments. The piano and small
ensemble, on the other hand, are oriented on
Western instruments.
The work bears the title “Invisible Landscapes”
because Xiaoyong Chen was inspired by remote
memories of his childhood. On the other hand,
the composer also processes mental images
having to do with a particular place. “This music
is a mediator between my feelings and the listener – it is intended to lead him into the invisible
world of listening beyond what is concrete,
visible and clearly definable.”
„SPEECHLESSNESS,
CLEARNESS AND EASE“
for Ensemble [Di (Bamboo
Flute), Sheng, (Mouth Organ),
Pipa (Lute), Ruan (Lute),
Yangqin (Hackbrett), Erhu
(Knee Violin), Zheng (Zither
or Chinese Harp) and several
Percussion Instruments] (2004)
In this work, too, Chen combines the tone
colours of traditional Chinese instruments with
modern compositional techniques and playing
methods. In the 2004 ensemble version of the
work, ( a chamber ensemble version was made in
2006), the composer allows the bamboo flute di
and the sheng, a Chinese mouth organ, to sound
prominently, with the knee-violin called erhu
playing glissandi. Alongside several meditative
moments, the piece sizzles and scrapes quite a bit,
and two Chinese lutes called the pipa and ruan,
the trapezoid-shaped Hackbrett called yangqin, a
zheng and several instruments are used.
The title “Speechlessness, Clearness and Ease”
refers to three individual Chinese written
characters. The words have several meanings,
however, and can thus conjure up different associations. The different characters and imaginings
are thus linked together or juxtaposed next to
each other. Several brief quotations from the
book of the legendary Chinese philosopher Lao
Tse are integrated into the ensemble as sounds
and sonically distorted. The music vacillates between illusion and reality, between sounds and
noises, between real and artificial sound worlds.
“Composers –
of course
not all of them –
have much in
common with
priests and
gardeners,” says
the Russian
composer
Elena Firsova.
This is a surprisingly non-political
statement, to which Firsova
adds that composing for her
means self-deepening, touching beauty and being connected to the immaterial world.
This explains why her works,
usually short and always highly
conscious of form, always have
an intimate and thoroughly lyrical
character.
Placing the beauty of art at the
centre, also in times of political
crises and adverse living
circumstances, speaks in favour
of Firsova’s great artistic selfconfidence. Born in Leningrad
in 1950, both her parents physicists, she began composing
already at the age of twelve
and received her first instruction
in composition four years later.
In 1970 Firsova became a pupil
of Alexander Pirumov at the
Moscow Conservatory. She
came into contact with contemporary music through her private
teacher, Edison Denissov.
Through him and Philipp
Herschkowitz, a pupil of Alban
Berg and Anton Webern, she
assimilated the musical-aesthetical thinking of the Second
Viennese School which has
more or less marked her own
oeuvre up to the present day.
But the influences of French
composers such as Olivier
Messiaen and Pierre Boulez are
also found in Firsova’s musical
language.
In 1972 Elena Firsova married the composer
Dmitri Smirnov. With him and Denissov,
she
founded
the
Association
of
Contemporary Composers ASM, which
performed Russian works abroad with their
own ensemble. In 1979, works of Firsova
were performed for the first time in
Cologne, Venice and Paris with great
success. During the same year the composer
experienced a bitter setback in her Russian
homeland: the Composers’ Union attacked
her works as “not worthy of the Soviet
Union.”
In 1990 Firsova participated in the new
founding of the Russian Society for New
Music. But the fear of a political putsch and
of not being able to feed her two children
led to the decision of the couple to emigrate to England. From 1997 until 2001
Firsova taught in Manchester. She has so
far composed well over one hundred
works. In her vocal works she often uses
texts by the Russian poet Ossip
Mandelstam, who was arrested by the
Russian regime in 1937 and died one year
later on the way to a labour camp. Her
instrumental works are also almost always
connected with Mandelstam’s poetry, with
his relationship to art and to death.
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ELENA FIRSOVA replies:
ABOUT THE WORKS:
01.
It was for many different reasons.
The first one is connected with our family
history - the parents of my father tried to
emigrate to Germany just after the revolution of 1917, but died on the train from
typhus on the way to Caucasus
(Novorossijsk), from where they had intended to go to Turkey first and then to
Germany (my grandmother was half
German).
To move to the west – it had been my
dream from my very early age, because my
parents (especially my father) explained to
me when I was still a child that Russia was
not a very good country to be born and to
live in, and I was convinced of this more
and more during my own life experience.
April 1991 was a time when we (me, my
husband and my children) finally had the
opportunity to emigrate. Also, the political
situation was very dangerous at that
moment and music life very poor in
Moscow. My father said to us: do it before
it will be too late (as it had been too late
for his parents).
We went to England because at that time
we had very important commissions there
(among them my ”Augury” for the
”Proms” festival and a big cantata ”Songs
of Liberty” by my husband, Dmitri Smirnov,
for a concert in Leeds) and many forthcoming performances of our music. We both
were invited for the performances of our
music during the Southbank festival in
London and it was for the first time we
were allowed to take our children with us.
We had a friend, Gerard McBurney, who
organised a kind of research grant for us in
Cambridge for 3 months from January 1992
and promised to help with accommodation
before that. So we decided to try (at that
time you could easily go back to Russia)
and this try was very successful – we have
been happily in England for 18 years already.
02.
I began to write more music per
year. In the beginning – because it was
many commissions, then, when it was
already not so many commissions, just
because it became normal for me. I think
also because I have more time for composing because my life became much more
isolated. This is both sad and good.
03.
Maybe it partly was in four of my
compositions - ”Seven Haiku” for soprano
and lyre op. 47, ”Far Away” for saxophone
10|SIKORSKI magazine
quartet op.48, ”Distance” op.53 for voice,
clarinet
and
string
quartet
and
”Cassandra” for orchestra op. 60.
04.
05.
Music is my personal fate.
When my parents were alive, I
used to visit them almost every year, but I
did it only for them. When they died I stoped to go to Russia (since 2004 year).
When I went to Russia I always felt myself
as a bird who returned to its cage with an
opened door, but this, too, could be shut
down at any moment. And although I
understood that this shut down is almost
unrealistic I never could get rid of this feeling. Russia has changed a lot since I emigrated, to the good and to the bad and I
don't feel at home there anymore.
06.
Music can speak about everything, but music is always pure music too.
07.
All means of music are capable of
this.
08.
No, I don't feel like an ambassador of any kind for any country. Sometimes
I think I am a composer from Europe, but
usually I don't think about that at all.
09.
With Alexander Vustin, Vladimir
Tarnopolski, Alexander Knaifel, Victor
Ekimovsky and Leonid Bobyliov. But there
is only little communication between us.
10.
I think they were very happy for
us and regarded as absolutely right what
we did.
11.
”Distance” op. 53. It mainly
expresses my longing for all our friends
whom we had associated with in Russia.
But this circle of friends does not exist anymore - most of our friends have left Russia,
too and live in different countries. My
music is about this phenomen.
12.
I can't say. Life. Reading
Mandelstam, as it had always done before.
”FAR AWAY”
for Saxophone Quartet,
Op. 48 (1991)
A melancholy cantilena played by the
soprano saxophone opens the onemovement composition, in order to
subject itself to the ensemble in exceptionally interesting colour mixtures.
Dazzling, episode-like passages within
unstable metric structures are opposed
to canonically entering chord layering,
whereby the alto saxophone receives
another soloistic task shortly before the
end as a pendant to the introductory
solo. The title “Far away” is meant programmatically and symbolically. “Being
remote” or “far away” stands like a
poetical motto above the animatedexpressive course of the brief movement which illuminates the sonic variety
of the saxophone family to the ultimate
degree. Elena Firsova comments: “I
wrote the piece `Far away' during the
spring of 1991, shortly after my arrival
from Moscow, when I felt very far away
from my homeland, far from friends and
relatives.”
“CASSANDRA”
for Orchestra,
Op. 60 (1994)
In the middle of preliminary considerations for a new orchestral work, Elena
Firsova received a commission from the
BBC Welsh Symphony Orchestra in
autumn 1992. This commission proved
an incredibly strong motivation for
Firsova’s work as a whole. The composer
was able to present the composition in
fully sketched form at the end of 1992,
just a few months after receiving the
commission. “I called it ‘Cassandra’,”
Firsova explains, “whereby I was not
only thinking of the prophet of Troy, but
also about the situation in present-day
Russia, where the gloomy future prospects give cause for worry concerning
the fate of the world.”
In Firsova’s orchestral work, also dedicated to her Russian homeland in an
extended sense, the ancient figure of
Cassandra is represented by a solo
cello, whilst the inescapability of fate
finds expression in the bass drum.
SOFIA GUBAIDULINA
Sofia Gubaidulina
was born in 1931
in Tschistopol and
often accompanied her
father, a Tatar
surveying engineer,
on his excursions.
01.
IN REPLY TO OUR QUESTIONS:
02.
Sofia Gubaidulina requested not to have to answer the
03.
questions in this issue, since she is intensively at work
04.
on her new Bayan Concerto. She emphasised in this
05.
connection that she does not fell like an emigrant.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.
11.
12.
It has always been for her to able to retain her Russian
passport, since she continues to belong to Russia in her
thinking, feelings and actions. At any rate, she is
infinitely grateful to Germany for being able to live
here, not only that but in a living environment which is
almost ideal for her, even like a paradise, and which
has been extremely fruitful for her production.
Her mother was Russian and worked as an
elementary school teacher. Gubaidulina
experienced religious influences through
her grandfather, a Mufti in Kazan. From
1936 until 1949 Gubaidulina attended the
music college in Kazan, where she wrote
her first vocal works. Then followed her
pianistic training and, from 1954 until
1959, studies in composition at the
Moscow Conservatory with Nikolay Peyko,
an assistant of Shostakovich.
Gubaidulina’s music grows out of deep
meditation; composing becomes a kind of
sacred act. The music points to something
beyond itself. In addition, she often uses
quotation and processes symbols of numerology and the cross.
In 1975 Gubaidulina founded the improvisation group “Astreya” together with
Viktor Suslin and Vyacheslav Artyomov.
During this period a state sanctioned performance ban was imposed on her compositions. In the West, however, she became
ever better-known, also through the commitment of the violinist Gidon Kremer. He
gave the premiere of Gubaidulina’s violin
concerto “Offertorium” in Vienna in 1981
and thus achieved an international breakthrough for the composer. After a long
struggle with the Soviet music bureaucracy,
Gubaidulina was finally allowed to travel to
the West in 1986 as a result of perestroika.
In 1989 she received a one-year stipend
from the Lower Saxon provincial government and lived at the Barkenhoff for a summer, where Rilke had also stayed. In 1991
the Paul Sacher Foundation bought her
manuscripts, upon which the composer
decided to settle in Germany. Since then,
the 2002 Polar Music Prize winner has lived
in Appen near Hamburg. Concerning her
life decision, the composer once said:
“Time and again, the motto ‘We are one
people!’ resounds in the historical life of a
people. But each individual person is searching, too. When he/she comes up against
limits or goes beyond the limits, he/she
looks for leitmotive, principles, his (her
own life melody – in short, for anything that
can help her/him to survive as a person. In
such ‘moments of truth’ arises a soft, inner
sound: ‘I am a human being.’”
SIKORSKI magazine|11
GIYA KANCHELI
GIYA KANCHELI
replies:
Giya Kancheli
is the best
-known and most
successful
Georgian
composer of the
present day.
At the centre of
his production
are the
orchestral works.
01.
I left the Soviet Union in 1991 for
one year on receiving a DAAD stipend.
Due to later negative developments in my
homeland I decided to prolong my stay
first in Berlin and later in Antwerp, where in
1995 I was nominated a composer–inresidence of the Royal Flanders Symphony
Orchestra
02.
In general positive, but as I never
changed my citizenship, I still feel like I am
in some retreat. I usually go to Georgia for
long periods of time and work there in
peace. So, even if I am physically far away
from my homeland, mentally I am still
where I spent 56 years of my life.
03.
I don’t think there are any direct
references in my music.
The symphonies, composed between 1967
and 1986 brought him the reputation of an
avant-gardist during the communist period.
It seems to him that he is working on a single
work, begun during his youth and which will
end with his death, as Kancheli has said
about his work as a composer.
Kancheli’s music develops out of silence
and is often determined by a tragic-melancholy mood. Through the linking of the
polyphonic melos of traditional singing of
Georgia with modern components of
Western contemporary music, Kancheli
creates unique sound worlds which shake
up the listener to the quick. Far removed
from the currents of serial music, his compositions reflect life experiences dominated
by sadness and farewell. Kancheli himself
traces his artistic development back to a
kind of genetic code “which is given to one
at birth.” It is a question of individuality
and many different conditions which go
way back to childhood, he continues.
Giya Kancheli was born in 1935 in Tiflis, the
capital of Georgia. His father went to war
as a physician and his mother remained
with the children. In 1953, upon the death
of Stalin and his first compositional
attempts, Kancheli’s first criticisms of the
system of the Soviet Union became manifest. The problem of not being understood
and the certainty that the politic situation
in Georgia was hopeless became a part of
Kancheli’s thought-world. Still isolated
from the influences of Western contemporary music, Kancheli imitated the radio-jazz
12|SIKORSKI magazine
of Duke Ellington and Glenn Miller on the
piano. His studies in composition began in
1959 at the State Conservatory in Tiflis; he
completed his studies in 1963 without ever
having heard of the Western avant-garde,
e.g. of Paul Hindemith. He earned his living
with music for films and theatre, which was
not as strictly censored by the aesthetic
commissaries. Kancheli became music
director of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tiflis in
1971. His collaboration with the producer
Robert Sturua, who put on works by
Shakespeare and Brecht, amongst others,
also made Kancheli’s music known abroad.
From 1984 until 1988 Kancheli occupied
the office of First Secretary of the
Georgian Composers’ Union.
The, in 1991, Giya Kancheli received a
DAAD Stipend which made it possible for
him to travel to Berlin and develop his
compositional ideas freely. In 1995 he
became composer in residence at the
Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Antwerp.
Although Kancheli never planned to move
to the West, he has since lived in Belgium
with his wife and two children. His fame has
grown steadily thanks to commissions from
renowned institutions such as the Berlin
Festival and the International Music
Festival in Lucerne. However, he does not
regard himself as a musician in exile, for “I
was always of the opinion that the problem
of individuality in art is much more important and fundamental than the specific characteristics which belong to a given national
culture.”
05.
First of all I don’t think that my
homeland may be called former. I visit
Georgia very often and as a result have
maintained all the contacts I had had before.
06.
I think in general it is, but not in
my case.
07.
Every author has his own means
and there are as many means as there are
authors.
08.
Sometimes, when a performance
is extremely successful.
09.
As I had already noted above I
have kept all my contacts. Unfortunately a
great number of my colleagues have
departed this life, but if we consider the
former USSR as my homeland I still have
close contacts with Arvo Pärt and Valentin
Silvestrov.
10.
Positively. I was supposed to
leave just for one year.
11.
12.
STYX
A big range of contacts with
numerous superb orchestras and musicians.
MILKO KELEMEN
ABOUT THE WORK:
„STYX”
for Viola (Violin), Choir
and Orchestra (1999)
Styx is the name of an underground
river in Greek mythology, travelled by
Charon, the ferryman of the underworld, with his boat, in order to bring
the souls of the dead into Hades’
realm of darkness.
In 1999 Giya Kancheli wrote a concerto for viola, choir and orchestra
bearing the gloomy title “Styx.” The
occasion for this was the death of his
friend Alfred Schnittke in 1998 and
the composer’s need to remain in
contact with people close to him who
were no longer amongst the living.
The holy river from Greek mythology
is for Kancheli a symbol for the last
connection between the living and the
dead. Through travelling this flowing
river, the contact to the dead is not
broken off, but the spiritual bond
becomes still closer.
Kancheli allows the choir in “Styx” to
sing the names of Georgian churches
and folksongs, and of spiritual songs
and names of deceased friends.
Different singing groups thus arise
which also resemble and are connected to each other on the phonetic
level. Each group of words thus formed embodies eternal values. As the
quintessence in the Finale, Kancheli
quotes a line from Shakespeare’s
Winter’s Tale. The composer has
meanwhile transcribed the “Styx” for
violin as well. Here, too, the dark,
almost desperate mood of the composition has been retained.
Milko Kelemen was
born in Podrawska
Slatina, Croatia. In
1945 he studied composition and conducting at the Music
Academy in Zagreb.
He also taught there until 1965.
Following completion of his studies, he
received a stipend in 1953 and studied
for one year with Olivier Messiaen at the
Paris Conservatory. Already during his
student years he was conscious of the
fact that, in any kind of music, “that certain something” cannot be analytically
grasped. It has thus always been his
concern to come to terms with the
unconscious in his music. He designates
his main concerns as preserving the ageold principle of communicating through
music and recognising oneself in the
music, as well as preventing new music
from leading an existence in the notorious ivory tower. A lasting connection
with the new music scene in Germany
arose as a result of Kelemen’s student
period in Paris: in 1955 he participated
for the first time at the Darmstadt
Holiday Courses for New Music, where
he then became a constant employee
during the time thereafter. Between
1958 and 1960 he was a pupil of
Wolfgang Fortner at the Academy of
Music in Freiburg. In addition, Kelemen
worked at the Siemens Studio for
Electronic Music in Munich. He nonetheless remained rooted in his homeland,
which he strengthened by founding the
Biennale for New Music in Zagreb in
1961. As its President, he arranged
numerous encounters between the
Eastern and Western avant-garde. This
was an extremely important activity in
terms of cultural politics, for it allowed
the Iron Curtain to be ventilated in the
area of new music. Over the course of
over 20 years, over 3000 works by over
400 composers were premiered,
amongst them all the trailblazing representatives of the American music scene.
In 1969 Kelemen took on a teaching
position at the Robert Schumann
Conservatory in Düsseldorf. Four years
later he went to Stuttgart, where he still
lives today, and took over a composition
class at the Academy of Music there
until 1989.
MILKO KELEMEN
replies:
“Since I have lived in
many different countries
during the course of my
career, I have become a
true cosmopolitan. Any
idea of being an emigrant
is foreign to me.
In 1961 I organised the
Zagreb Music Biennale
and also became its president. It was the most difficult period of communism
– every kind of avantgarde was forbidden. I
had to fight very hard.
The most important thing
for me was to bring
German music to the fore
– the work of the
Hamburg State Opera, the
Deutsche Oper Berlin, the
Berlin Philharmonic, the
Deutsche Oper am Rhein
and many others. The
cosmopolitan tendency
with a strong accent on
Germany will continue to
be a strong characteristic
of the music festival.”
SIKORSKI magazine|13
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
08.
09.
10.
11.
12.
KRZYSZTOF MEYER
Krzysztof Meyer, born in 1943, is, alongside Witold
Lutoslawski, Krzysztof Penderecki and Henryk
Mikolaj Górecki, one of the most important
representatives of present-day Polish music.
Today the composer lives in NordrheinWestfalen, where he taught composition at
the Music Academy in Cologne for many
years. As the most influential pillars of his
musical aesthetic, Meyer names the
composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Witold
Lutoslawski. Meyer’s compositions do not
avoid the incorporation of conventional
forms and techniques, but they search for a
new structural expressive means. The
clarity of the musical course of events and
careful, consciously introduced change of
impulse are typical of Meyer’s approach.
The listener should be “led” without his
receptivity being overtaxed. The supposed
transparency of his works hides a highly
differentiated and precisely fixed compositional will to formulate. For example,
Meyer speaks of a sound-centralisation, a
previously fixed arrangement of sound
progressions which he always interposes
with surprising effects such as irregular
rhythms, metric changes and layering of
metrically different material.
After completing his studies at the Chopin
Music School in Krakow, he studied at the
Music Academy there. In 1965 he received
his diploma in composition as a pupil of
Krzysztof Penderecki and in 1966 his diploma in music theory. In the years 1964, 1966
and 1968 he studied for several months in
France with Nadia Boulanger. From 1965
until 1967 he performed as a pianist in the
“Ensemble for Contemporary Music MW2”
and gave concerts in Poland and in most
other European countries. In addition, he
was the soloist in performances of his own
compositions.
From 1966 until 1987 Krzysztof Meyer
taught music-theoretical subjects at the
State Music Academy in Krakow and then
went to Cologne. Meyer gave numerous
lectures on new music in Germany and
abroad (including the Soviet Union, Austria
and Brazil). He was Chairman of the Polish
Composers’ Union from 1985 until 1989.
KRZYSZTOF MEYER replies:
01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06.
07.
Krzysztof Meyer, too, did not directly respond to the questions of this issue on the subject of
“Music and Emigration.” Instead he wrote the following:
“The question of the ‘emigration of an artist’ is
European at the same time.
both very exciting and important.
It doesn’t matter to me at all if I live in Poland
As for myself, I have never felt like an emigrant.
or anywhere else. I can live and work in the
When I applied in Cologne, I was still President
West just as well as in Poland if I can just find
of the Polish Composers’ Union. I kept this
friends and interpreters of my music. But if I
position until 1989, although I was already
live in Germany I feel enriched because German
teaching at the Cologne Academy in 1987.
musical life is so unbelievably extensive and it
After that, my contacts to Poland and my col-
gives me all kinds of impulses.
leagues there were just as close as before my
08.
The question of where I am at home is easy to
move. For years I organised the Festival ‘Posen
answer. I am namely at home wherever my
09.
Spring,’ for example, and was uninterruptedly
family lives – my wife Danuta, my daughter
active in various committees and societies.
Maria (in Koblenz) – where I work (I still work at
10.
And now I have founded a new festival (for
the Academy), where most of my friends are
11.
classical chamber music) in Kashubia, Poland.
(and that is in Germany) and, to put it banally,
By nature and conviction
wherever I have a certain security. But I was
12.
I am of course a Polish composer, but I am a
never an emigrant.”
14|SIKORSKI magazine
SLAVA ULANOVSKI
SLAVA ULANOVSKI replies:
01.
This question is not at all difficult
to answer. Imagine several tanks driving
back and forth under your window and then
they start shooting and running over people.
That was how it was at the time when I left
Moscow with my family (my daughter was
nine years old at the time).
02.
I must honestly admit that I compose far less than in Russia. There are several reasons for this. First of all, I need a lot of
time in order to teach (I must feed my family,
after all). Secondly, several of my compositions in Russia were inspired by interpreters,
conductors and producers. My music needs
mediators on the way to the listeners, and
these mediators are music theatre and
orchestra. I came to Germany at the age of
41 and had to form all my contacts and relationships anew.
03.
I don’t think there are any direct
references, although it seems to me that
emigration changed my musical language a
little bit.
04.
05.
Despite the overwhelming success of a musical in
1987, the Jewish composer Slava Ulanovski did
not feel safe in Russia, which is why he emigrated
to Germany with his family in 1993; since then he
has continued to live there.
Ulanovski was born in Moscow in 1951, and
his musical education also took place
there. He studied clarinet at the
Tchaikovsky Conservatory from 1969 until
1973. After that, Ulanovski earned his living
as an orchestral musician, also playing in the
Moscow Philharmonic. In 1978 he studied
composition with Tikhon Khrennikov at the
Moscow Conservatory. The music of
Shostakovich had a particularly strong
influence on him. In 1993 Ulanovski decided
to emigrate to Germany; he had meanwhile made a name for himself as a composer
a symphonic works, chamber music and
music theatrical pieces.
Alongside his work as a composer and
arranger, Ulanovski is also active as a teacher,
at the Music School of the City of Essen,
amongst other institutions. In his composi-
tions, too, he places special value on work
for the up-and-coming generation. In the
year 2000 his children’s ballet “Snow White
and the Russian Prince” was premiered
with great success at the 2nd European
Fairytale Festival in Tampere. Ulanovski’s
best-known symphonic work is the adaptation of Beethoven’s “Rage over a Lost
Penny” for percussion and orchestra, a cleverly orchestrated adaptation of the classic
work that is a great pleasure to audiences
and orchestral musician far removed from
any old clichés.
Alongside these entertaining works,
Ulanovski has also composed works which
commemorate the history of suffering of
the Jewish people. “Memories” for violoncello solo, for example, is dedicated to the
victims of the Holocaust.
No.
Since 1993, when I came to
Germany, I have been to Moscow thrice and
during the last visit I was very sad to see that
the city had become completely different. I
don’t want to say better or worse, but different. It is not the city of my youth.
What could I retain? Musical intonations of
the Russian-speaking world, or rather the
former Soviet Union, including all republics,
e.g. Armenian and Georgian music, which I
always liked. And of course – Russian literature.
06.
If I understand the question correctly, we could talk about compositions like
the
Seventh
Symphony
of
Dmitri
Shostakovich or the Concerto for Orchestra
of Béla Bartók. Both works have something
to do with resistance against National
Socialism.
As for myself, I have written the “Memories”
for violoncello solo dedicated to the victims
of the Holocaust. This is also that kind of
work, if one can designate Holocaust as a
political, social and personal problem. Only I
have not translated this problem but was
very strongly impressed and inspired by the
atmosphere of the museum during my visit
to the Holocaust Memorial Yad Vashem in
Jerusalem.
SIKORSKI magazine|15
SLAVA ULANOVSKI
replies:
07.
In my opinion, all means are
alright, but the music has to sound very
natural afterwards. I mean, when the
bass drum drums and the cymbals crash,
it doesn’t automatically mean that it’s
about a big battle. Music can become
ridiculous very fast in this way.
08.
09.
Probably not.
There aren’t very many.
Mikhail Bronner, Alexander Tchaikovsky.
10.
We have never talked
about it.
11.
There isn’t any such direct
expression in my works, I don’t think.
12.
I was and remain a great fan of
Dmitri Shostakovich and, perhaps
modern ballet has made my music more
meditative in recent years.
ABOUT THE WORK:
“MEMORIES”
for violoncello solo (1990)
The impulse for the work “Memories”
was an influential experience in Slava
Ulanovski’s life: “The year 1990.
Jerusalem. The Holocaust Memorial Yad
Vashem. There was profound darkness in
the main hall; only a single candle reflected
millions of small lights in the walls, a symbol for the destroyed human lives.
Chamber music of unbelievable beauty
softly sounded, with a male and a female
voice naming the names of the Holocaust
victims, the complete naming of which
will require several years.
“I only found this out later, however; at
that time I stood in the middle of the hall
in profound shock. This image burned in
my memory for a long time. When the
Israeli cellist Carmen Schiff one day
asked me for a composition dedicated to
the Holocaust victims, I had this image
before my eyes again, which touched my
soul with new power and served as the
impulse fort he composition of this
piece, the leitmotif of which is the heartbeat of the destroyed lives.”
16|SIKORSKI magazine
LIN YANG
LIN YANG replies:
“To go far away,
completely alone into a
darkness from which not
only you would be
excluded, but other
shadows as well.
Only I alone shall sink
into this darkness.
That world will belong to
me alone.”
These poetic lines by Lu Xun, the founder of
modern Chinese literature, precede the
score of composer Lin Yang’s work “The
Shadow Bids Farewell” for flute, violin,
violoncello, vibraphone and piano. Written
in 2004, this composition is concerned
with the effect of the most minimal pitches
changes, sensitively lyrical harmonies and
richly accented rhythmic sections. Lin Yang
confronts the idea of disappearance or
departure with the help of these musical
means. The work was composed already in
2004, three years before Lin Yang actually
left her homeland in order to study in
Germany and establish herself there.
Lin Yang was born in Beijing in 1982.
Following intensive musical furtherance at
the Beijing Music Middle School, she
studied composition and music analysis
from 2001 until 2006 at the conservatory in
her home city with Guoping Jia. In was
meanwhile possible there to occupy oneself
with the major international figures in contemporary music, which strongly motivated
Lin Yang. At the centre of her compositional
work is the search for the origin and transformability of sound. In this, she is also concerned with the “noise behind the sound, the
noise before the sound arises, the transition
between the two, the connection between
articulation and timbre, a movement
towards a tone and away from it.”
Lin Yang moved to Germany in 2007 and
became a pupil of Cornelius Schwehr at
the Music Academy in Freiburg. In the
meantime, groups including the Dresden
„Ensemble Courage“ and the chamber
ensemble Neue Musik Berlin have performed her compositions. In May 2009,
moreover, Lin Yang received a furtherance
prize of the Ernst von Siemens Music
Foundation.
01.
I had the opportunity to become
acquainted with European music and
culture already at a very young age. Since
then my curiosity was awakened and an
inner urge moved me to want to experience real life as a musician in Europe. This
was a big dream for me.
And I believe that when one does not
experience another culture “live,” one
annot understand one’s own any better.
In addition, it would have seemed like
imprisonment to me to stay in the same
environment. That is why I wanted to get
out.
dent of political social or personal messages
and are not concerned with these. Thus music
has its own pure meaning and be a matter of
course. It possesses a certain dynamic of its
own.
02.
Not only, of course. Beyond that, I
regard myself far more as an independent,
creative individual who wanders between
cultures, crossing borders between them.
In each of my pieces one can
recognise a trace of my life’s path and further development, from my way of
thinking to my manner of expression.
But I have only been living in Germany for
a short period of time, just two years. I
don’t feel like an emigrant but identify
more with a wanderer, a guest. As a
wanderer with a great interest in other
cultures, I see Germany as a first station on
a long journey which I shall continue to
pursue.
03.
I can only answer this question
with difficulty from the point of view of an
emigrant. As a wanderer abroad, however,
direct references are obvious.
In each new piece, I have incorporated new
sounds and techniques which I have learned. Thus references in my pieces are very
visible and real.
04.
Of course. Music and emotions
form an indivisible unity for me. Music constantly accompanies my life. Each life
consists of ups and downs and music is a
special form of expression which makes it
easier to come to terms with what one has
experienced.
05.
Emotionally I always maintain the
connection to my parents and friends.
Externally I always remain connected with
the good Chinese cuisine.
06.
I believe that music as a form of
expression can also transmit messages which
can translate the problems named above. In
addition, there are yet other essences in
music which are inherent to it and indepen-
07.
There are many different means
which are concretely suitable for this. There
are many examples of this in music history. A
very good one would be the pieces of Hanns
Eisler or “A Survivor from Warsaw” of Arnold
Schönberg.
08.
09.
Jia Guoping, my professor and
spiritual mentor at the Beijing Central
Music Academy.
10.
Jia Guoping was one of the most
important supporters of my decision to
come to Germany. He was himself a pupil of
Helmut Lachenmann at the Music Academy
in Stuttgart. In his view, too, it seemed to be
the better way to get to know new music.
There is an old Chinese proverb concerning
this: “Walk a thousand miles, read ten thousand books.” Travelling is a learning process.
11.
Due to today’s possibilities of communication and travel, I hardly have
the feeling of distance and homesickness.
For that reason, I have not yet written a
piece that expressed a longing for my homeland. I express a connection to my homeland
in a different way. In the piece that I am now
writing, for example, I would like to
communicate the spirit of the Chinese art of
calligraphy. With this I would also like to pay
respect to my father, who is himself a
calligrapher and whose work I personally like
very much. Deriving from that, one could
speak of a kind of longing fort he culture of
my homeland.
12.
First of all, the professional and
diligent work organisation of German academics. The radiance and character of several
people have influenced me, people who
have greatly enriched my life support me
both morally-spiritually as well as materially.
SIKORSKI magazine|17
BENJAMIN YUSUPOV
“I firmly believe that
music should
move the hearts of
people.
Benjamin Yusupov’s music has this effect
on me. ”That is why I look forward to playing
his Cello Concerto as often as possible.”
This is the euphoric statement of the
Latvian cellist Mischa Maisky referring to
the composer Benjamin Yusupov, resident
in Israel, who wrote the Cello Concerto
especially for him. Yusupov wants not
merely to write music, but find an utterly
original language for it. In so doing, he
brings together all kinds of styles without
compromise. from classical to rock – and
also connects the most different cultures
with each other. East European, African,
Central Asian and South American
elements are found in Yusupov’s pieces.
Thus arise, on the one hand, impressive
musical-folkloristic images of a certain
culture which the composer, on the other
hand, realises through the application of
post-modern Western compositional techniques and places in a global context. This
concern is also reflected in his instrumentation, since he integrates exotic instruments
into the symphonic orchestral sound. His
main attention, however, is directed
towards the development of a new
“Israeli” musical style based on the different musical styles existing in Israel.
Benjamin Yusupov was born on 22
November 1962 in Duschanbe, the capital
of the Russian colonial state Tadzhikistan.
Between 1981 and 1990 he studied piano,
composition, music theory and conducting
at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in
Moscow. Already in 1989, at the age of 27,
Yusupov became Music Director of the
Philharmonic Orchestra of Duschanbe. In
the position of director, the young musician
seized the opportunity to perform compositions of different genres, especially
contemporary pieces by composers of the
former Soviet Union. His own compositions
were frequently performed at music festivals
of the Soviet Union, in Moscow and
Dushanbe, among other places, and later
at the Biennale in Zagreb. In 1990 Yusupov
emigrated to Israel.
18|SIKORSKI magazine
BENJAMIN YUSUPOV replies:
01.
The Moscow Conservatory, where
I completed my training as a composer and
conductor, is the worldwide centre of musical culture. We had the opportunity to meet
with the most important musicians, which is
why I did not want to restrict myself to the
territory of the Soviet Union after completing my studies, but try my luck in the West.
I believe that an artist must have complete
freedom in such a choice.
02.
world and our fate. The artist of today strives to reproduce this with the utmost precision and authenticity.
05.
The world of eastern music –
Makam – lives most deeply in my consciousness. I use this musical language frequently
in my works. And even if this is not directly
connected with the concrete material, I am
convinced that it is always present.
06.
The subsidy of music in the Soviet
Union had the result that music of lesser
quality was not eliminated, as it would have
been under the conditions of the free market. After I came to the West, I was forced to
find my own public and fight for my survival,
which made my music more interesting from
a professional standpoint.
Without question, composing
means transforming our world in all its forms of
appearance into music by means of tones.
Sometimes this is expressed directly, sometimes very indirectly. The inner world does not
exist without the outer, constant interaction.
03.
In my music, I prefer a non-programmatic and indirect reflection of political
and social problems.
The emigration made me a part of
Israeli culture. Two cultural streams are united in my production: the culture of my
“past” and of my “present” life.
04.
Music reflects our emotional
07.
08.
Absolutely. Feelings which made
an impression during childhood have a lifelong influence on us. I am a person who
loves his past. I have the responsibility to
realise and continue the culture of which I
am a child.
09.
Professionally speaking, I have far
more intensive contacts to interpreters.
10.
Many composers and musicians
left the Soviet Union during the early 1990s.
That was not exactly easy for those who did so.
11.
“Nostalgia,” “Tanovor” and,
generally, this feeling is more or less present
in all of my works.
12.
Today I see myself as part of a
large world; I unite different musical cultures
and stylistics directions in my works. For
example, I have five different compositions
which bear the same title, “Crossroads.” I
use rock, jazz, tango and ethnic music of different peoples. Global communication has
made us part of a large world and I try very
hard to find a worthy place in it.
ABOUT THE WORK:
„TANOVOR“
for Flute and
Chamber Orchestra
(1994)
Decisive for the great public acclaim that
into dialogue with its song of mourning.
“Tanovor” already found at its world
Benjamin Yusupov enriches this with
premiere was the consistent and transparent
modern playing techniques and intensifies
application
harmonic
the sound through rough, abrasive chord
language of a mourning character which
layers in the strings and brass. The connection
permeates the entire work. The title
of traditional rules and melodies with the
“Tanavor” is of Persian origin and refers to
playing techniques of the modern orchestral
traditional Makam music. The flute rises up
apparatus and contemporary compositional
in a melancholy manner, executing whirring,
means is an aesthetic concern of Benjamin
exulting figures, then singing of suffering
Yusupov’s and runs through his oeuvre like
in an almost simplistic and thus so authen-
a red thread.
of
an
Oriental
tically moving melodic line. The first viola
frequently accompanies the flute and entering
SIKORSKI magazine|19