cultural clashes_
thoughts on the Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2006_
"Are you sure that this is going to get any better?" whispered my Canadian colleague in my left ear. The concert was clearly boring him.
"Well two years ago I enjoyed the course..." I replied, a little impatiently."...who choses these pieces anyway?" he interjected.
"I'm not sure. But I know that the direc—"
Suddenly the music lost its intensity and became extremely soft. My answer was left hanging. I was in the middle of another Darmstadt—two or three concerts a day, lectures at 9.30am until 4.30pm, listening, talking, eating, drinking, dreaming experimental new music. I knew what I was in for. One of the most respected and longstanding new music festivals had once again taken root in the minds of the future generation of composers, whether for serious contemplation or rejection.
These days, however, the Darmstädter Summer Courses are coming to terms with their current status: the blade is still sharp but it is a far cry from their high impact of the Stockhausen/Boulez/Ligeti "golden" years.
Darmstadt became the textbook examplar for the 1950s-70s "cutting edge" or avant-garde style. The program was immense: the course would run for three weeks, lectures continually went overtime, composers from afar would drop in for just a few days, Schenkerian, Musique concrète and twelve-tone analysis was in excess—it was a fitting representation of post-war musical intellectualism, devoid of the overt expressiveness associated with the old world order.
With these thoughts in mind, the younger generation of composers and musicians descended on Darmstadt.
Half-expecting to be wooed by avantgarde sensationalism but deep down knowing that postmodernism has killed the radio-song, from Japan to Mexico, Spain to New Zealand, came over 300 professional composers/musicians and (mainly) postgraduate students. Some were there to listen; others to take notes. Musicians took tutorials with the resident ensembles (amongst others, the Aeolian Trio, Klangforum Wien and Arditti Quartet), and healthy new-music discussion abounded in restaurants, coffee shops and beer halls.
With this concentrated influx of new-music fanatics in a town just under 140,000, I felt for the locals.
But Darmstadt 2006 did not set out to disappoint. It had its token invitees of star-studded "experienced" composers. Marc André, Georges Aperghis, Beat Furrer, Adriana Hölszky and Toshio Hosokawa were present, joined by Helmut Lachenmann, Dieter Mack and Michael Reudenbach—even Klaus Huber, Klaus Lang and Manos Tsangaris poked around for days at a time. Their differing contributions to the lectures made for engaging listening. Darmstadt, harkening to the cries of postmodernity, no longer forces a common aesthetic down the proverbial throat.
Mack told us about his experiences with Balinese culture, André about composing spectral music with help of the IRCAM-developed software program AudioSculpt, and Furrer about the inner workings of his new opera "Fama". Furrer was a hit: his fast-paced, multi-faceted and effect-based music showed why he is "flavour of the month" in contemporary Central Europe. All of the composers had their story to tell, their view on making music, their version of the "cutting-edge".