Acquiring culture from the dark backward

[Sydney Grew]

Let us consider the String Quartette written in 1958 by Goffredo Petrassi, who having been born in 1904 lived for nine and ninety years; it was first broadcast in Great Britain in 1964. As a chorister in Rome the young Goffredo sang works of Palestrina, Josquin, Animuccia and Anerio; his background was thus quite similar to that of our own little Cornelius Cardew was it not?

One of Petrassi's greatest works is Noche oscura (1951), a cantata for mixed chorus and orchestra, which sets the poem by St. John of the Cross on the theme of the solitary path of a mystic who renounces all links with humanity to approach the Beloved, namely Christ. The desolate solitude of this interior journey is symbolized by a cell of four notes (two ascending minor seconds linked by a descending major third). For Petrassi this four-note pattern acquired the character of a mystic formula, and it reappears in later compositions – such as Beatudines (1968–9) and Orationes Christi (1974–5) – in which he developed the ideas of human responsibility and solitude.

Many of his works are characterized by the insistent use of certain key intervals and other quotations. Although these intervals and brief thematic figures become increasingly important in the writing of the eight concerti for orchestra, various chamber works dating from the end of the 1950s onwards demonstrate their full significance and mark the most important method used by Petrassi during his career. To-day's string quartette shows clearly how certain intervals (major third, minor sixth and tritone) have become the protagonists of the composition. The result is an abstract and athematic style in which the interval takes on a fully dramatic character. This laconic mode of expression, with its wealth of allusive possibilities, provided Petrassi with the language which best suited him, a language of gestures sculpted from the musical material with a graphic precision and simplicity. With this string quartette Petrassi showed that he was absolutely sure in his approach; other, strongly characterized elements were added, with a new focus on timbre.

There are many passages which recall elements of Webern's Trio are not there?

[Sydney Grew]

Franco Donatoni's Composizione in 4 movimenti was written for pianoforte in 1954, and first broadcast in Great Britain ten years later.

According to the announcer, Donatoni did not regard the act of composition as inspired invention, but held the view rather that his "material" would of its own accord virtually assemble and develop itself without his being involved. That is a most distressingly irresponsible attitude for a grown man to take is it not!

[Sydney Grew]

The Second Pianoforte Sonata of Ludwig Zenk (1900-1949) is a rarity of high order. Zenk studied under Webern, and judging by this sonata he was a far sprightlier fellow than his teacher. From the moment it begins it is clear that this is a fine work; indeed every one of its thirty-odd minutes is sheer delight. It is very curious then that the composer's name is absent from the New Grove Dictionary, from Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and from the Brockhaus-Riemann Musiklexikon! And we have been able to find neither a list of Zenk's works, nor the year of composition of the sonata.

According to the announcer the broadcast in 1965 was of the sonata's first performance ever. The excellent pianiste was Margaret Kitchen, and about her too we cannot find much information on or off the inter-net, not even so much as her date of birth and a photograph.

But after writing the foregoing, and consequent to a little further research, in particular a perusal of Herr Krellmann's book about Webern, a glimmer of the truth has appeared: poor old Ludwig Zenk has since 1965 in the best Anglo-Saxon way been made a non-person - we can guess why can we not . . .

[Cato]

Ludwig Zenk won the Emil-Hertzka Prize from Universal Edition in 1933 for his Opus 1 Piano Sonata #1.

It took some Internet digging in German to find even that: there is a constant reference to an article which uses his notes from Webern's lectures, but is obviously much more about Webern than Zenk.

The Paul Sacher Foundation in Swizterland has a Zenk archive, presumably with his manuscripts, but I could not find a list.

[snyprrr]

I'm not sure what the "thesis" of this thread is, but it sure is interesting. Where are we going with this?

[jochanaan]

I'm not sure what the "thesis" of this thread is, but it sure is interesting. Where are we going with this?

I'm not sure either, but the mention of Noche oscura makes me think of this passage:

Music is no daytime art; it does not yield its secret roots or its ultimate depths to the unshadowed soul.  It comes out of the dark, and must be understood and felt in the dark; it is akin to the somber heave of the ocean, not to the clear blue of the Mediterranean. --from Gustav Mahler, "The Conductor"

[Cato]

I'm not sure what the "thesis" of this thread is, but it sure is interesting. Where are we going with this?

Mr. Grew implies - I think - in his cryptic last lines about Zenk becoming a "non-person" "since 1965" (remember that Zenk died in 1949) that certain information coming out then about Zenk's political affiliations might have buried him permanently in footnote Purgatory.

[karlhenning]

Unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in those quiet footnotes

[Sydney Grew]

We thank Mr. Cato for the information; the second sonata is full of exciting twelve-notery so we suspect it was written after 1945.

Now how about a little Hauer:

His Divertimento opus 61 was composed for chamber ensemble in 1930 by Josef Hauer, and broadcast by the Third Programme in 1965.

In 1937 Hauer wrote this spiritual manifesto or testament:

"Twelve-tone music is the highest art - the essence of music.
Twelve-tone music is the highest science - the essence of mathematics.
Twelve-tone music is the holiest, most spiritual, and most valuable entity in the world.
Twelve-tone music is the revelation of world-order, religion in the truest sense, the only one there is and can be.
Twelve-tone music permits the most profound insight into the history of the world.
Twelve-tone music can never dissemble or lie.
Twelve-tone music is the unalterable holy record, the eternal language of the universe.
Twelve-tone music is spiritual reality.
Twelve-tone music is the starting-point of twelve-tone culture, which will extend over the whole earth and control all the necessities of human life."

It is good and inspiring isn't it. Mr. Lebrecht describes this music very well does he not when he says that it "has a spherical, mystic character."

[Sydney Grew]

In 1946 Michel Philippot (1925-1996) put out his First Pianoforte Sonata. The broadcast from 1965 was its first in Britain. Members will at once see the similarity: Boulez is another Frenchman born in 1925, and his notorious first pianoforte sonata also came out in 1946!

Philippot was a radio engineer and prominent in the early days of experimentation with musique concrète. His music was born of a controlling passion for rigour. Marked from the first by the discipline of dodecaphony, renouncing literary titles and even the resources of the human voice, Philippot's music is nonetheless not ungrateful to the ear. An attractive description of an excellent work!

As well as music he wrote a number of books which we would like to look at if we ever get the opportunity, especially the last: "Liberté sous condition" (Paris, 1954), "Igor Stravinsky" (Paris, 1965), "La lucidité de René Leibowitz" (Paris, 1973), "Diabelli diabolico" (São Paulo, 1979), and "Défense et illustration du langage musical" (Paris, 1982).

[Leo K.]

Ludwig Zenk won the Emil-Hertzka Prize from Universal Edition in 1933 for his Opus 1 Piano Sonata #1.

It took some Internet digging in German to find even that: there is a constant reference to an article which uses his notes from Webern's lectures, but is obviously much more about Webern than Zenk.

The Paul Sacher Foundation in Swizterland has a Zenk archive, presumably with his manuscripts, but I could not find a list.

I have been listening to Ludwig Zenk's second pianoforte sonata lately, what a fascinating work, epic in scope. I was looking for discussion and was pleased to find this thread!


It appears there is finally more info out there in the internet world on Ludwig Zenk.

http://memory.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/2010/mu010011.pdf

Austrian composer and conductor Ludwig Zenk was born Nov. 18, 1900, in Vienna. Beginning in
1920, he studied musicology at the University of Vienna, where he participated in a
Kapellmeister course given by Anton Webern under the auspices of Arnold Schönberg's seminar
for composition. Between 1921 and 1925, Zenk studied theory and composition with Webern and
became one of his first students after settling in Mödling after World War I. From 1925 to 1931,
he served as Kapellmeister in Iglau, Znaim, and Meissen. Zenk renewed his studies with Webern
in 1930 and later studied conducting with Hermann Scherchen from 1932-1933. He became
secretary of the Austrian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (of which
Webern was president) in 1933, a position he held until 1938.

Zenk worked as a private teacher and taught in the Arbeiterkonservatorium until its dissolution,
alongside the Social Democratic Party of Austria, in 1934. From 1938-1948, he was musical
director of the Theater in Josefstadt, where he conducted and composed incidental music for
plays. With the closing of Vienna's theaters in 1944, Zenk registered for the Army (where
previously he had been refused due to a heart condition) to work for a munitions plant. A nervous
ailment that had paralyzed his left hand, however, led to his conscription with the specialized
Volkssturm in 1945, a corps that consisted of men unsuitable for traditional military service.
Though considered by Anton Webern to be his most gifted pupil, Ludwig Zenk has received little
recognition for his work as a composer. Zenk and Webern became life-long friends due in part to
their mutual love for mountaineering and gardening. Zenk was also a fine amateur photographer
and captured numerous shots of Webern on hikes and expeditions. The composers' friendship
was further strengthened when the encroaching Nazi regime forced many of Webern's friends to
flee the country or go into hiding. Zenk was one of the few who could remain relatively
unscathed. Despite his former reputation as a radical leftist, Zenk became an ardent National
Socialist and tried to convert Webern to the party's cause. Realizing his indebtedness to Jewish
musicians, including Eduard Steuermann and David Josef Bach, Zenk adopted a more tempered
outlook, declaring men such as Arnold Schoenberg, Karl Kraus, and Gustav Mahler "exempt by
virtue of their art." He passed away just years after the collapse of the Nazi regime at the age of
49.

Throughout his career, Zenk's music achieved comparatively little popular success. In 1933, he
won the Emil-Hertzka Prize for his Klaviersonate, op. 1, a work dedicated to his teacher Anton
Webern and later published by Universal Edition, the organizer of the competition. The judges
included Webern, Gustav Scheu, Alban Berg, Ernst Krenek, Franz Schmidt, Erwin Stein, and
Egon Wellesz. So many of the 267 compositions entered that year were of such high quality that
the jury divided the prize money equally among five winners. Among them were Schoenberg
pupils Roberto Gerhard and Norbert von Hannenheim, Berg's disciple Julius Schloss, Pisk's
student Leopold Spinner, and Zenk himself. In 1947, Zenk won second prize in the Lied-
Komposition category of the Österreichischer Musikwettbewerb, organized by the Gesellschaft
der Musikfreunde in Wien, for his Trakl Lieder, op. 9, of which nos. 1-5 were submitted for the
competition.

[Cato]

I have been listening to Ludwig Zenk's second pianoforte sonata lately, what a fascinating work, epic in scope. I was looking for discussion and was pleased to find this thread!


It appears there is finally more info out there in the internet world on Ludwig Zenk.

http://memory.loc.gov/service/music/eadxmlmusic/eadpdfmusic/2010/mu010011.pdf

Wow!  From 2009!

I am not sure how many here have plunged into Zenk: certainly Mr. Grew was charmed.

The article you provided does indeed give much more information on Zenk, and his affiliation with the Nazi Party.  Interesting that Webern (one assumes from the articles) did not cut him off because of it: apparently the association was not so deep to prevent him from being in the 1947 competition.

[mjwal]

I'm not sure what the "thesis" of this thread is, but it sure is interesting. Where are we going with this?

My guess is that the title refers to the completion of that quote: "How is it/That this lives in thy mind? What seest thou else/In the dark backward and abysm of time?", suggesting that certain works seem sunk in the abyss of oblivion but for the few who rescue them through memory. My candidate would be Bernard van Dieren; though I've only heard a few intriguing works by him (and read part of his wonderfully entitled Down Among the Dead Men), I would dearly love to hear the "Chinese Symphony".

[Karl Henning]

I've hung out in the abysm of Time.

[mjwal]

The dark backward too, Karl?

[Karl Henning]

No, I changed the bulb.