Composer in Interview: Helmut Lachenmann

Abstract

This interview was conducted in November 1998 in connexion with a concert in the ‘dal niente’ series at King's College, London. The questions were faxed to Mr Lachenmann in English and he responded with written answers in German. A German-language version of the interview was published in the May 1999 issue of the Swiss contemporary music magazine Dissonanz, with however an important omission in the text of Lachenmann's first answer which is rectified here. I wish to acknowledge David Alberman's assistance with the translation of this English version.

Dramatic Sounds: Composing Perspective of Comparison Between Händel and Lachenmann

“…Occasionally, at bar 73, the percussive airs of the three trumpets are broken into short bursts; the double-spitted, pitchless, rapid airs of the three trombones are played simultaneously, and here, although the pitch positions of the three trombones are recorded in three lines, Lachmann also uses the text as an aside to remind him that the pitch is determined only to control any intonation that may accidentally arise, that is "Die Bestimmung der Tonhöhen dient nur der Kontrolle evtl. Doch versehentlich entstehender Töne" [9,10]. The double exhalation sound of the winds is a dotted sound, but the frequency of the double exhalation cannot be fully unified by the multiple voices playing at the same time, creating a flat background of a web of bursting air sounds when played in uneven multivocal dotted sound.…”

Mapping the Klangdom Live: Cartographies for Piano with Two Performers and Electronics

“…Unlike Lachenmann, for whom the physicality of sonic gestures relates back to their "mechanical origins" (Ryan 1999), the sound world of Cartographies focuses on nearly invisible actions that belie their sources. Bent over the instrument, the performers produce microscopic gestures that are obscured from the public's view; the results are transmitted through microphones and projected into the concert space to reproduce a larger-than-life map of the piano interior.…”

บาดแผลและความทรงจำ: เรื่องเล่าเหตุการณ์ 228 และ ไวต์ เทอร์เรอร์ (White Terror) ในไต้หวัน

“…(Ryan Green Island, 2016: 81) believe himself guilty, but he wrote himself so.My father confessed it all." (Ryan Green Island, 2016: To Baba, the name had a history, memory, intimacy. In a way that I could not imagine, the name was a person."…”

“…This was betrayal by heart and body." (Ryan Green Island, 2016: มี ส่ วนร่ วมในแผนการทางการเมื องที ่ เว่ ยเข้ าไปเกี ่ ยวข้ องนี ้ ผู ้ เล่ าถึ งได้ เข้ าใจและรั บรู ้ ความรู ้ สึ กเสี ้ ยวหนึ ่ งของพ่ อ "I felt linked through the years to Baba by this moon, which had witnessed it all. Had he stood here too, under its gaze, thinking of his sleeping children?…”