7:00 pm Lecture by Dr. Dunn
I. Adagio
II. Presto
III. Langsamer Walzer
When the Argentine composer Mauricio Kagel (1931-
2008) arrived in West Germany in 1957, the European
avant-garde was in its heyday. It was the presence of
Karlheinz Stockhausen, quickly becoming the leader
among German avant-gardists, which had drawn Kagel to
Cologne, as it had also drawn György Ligeti and Cornelius
Cardew that same year. Indeed Stockhausen had just
completed his celebrated electronic piece, Gesang der
Jünglinge, which would eventually win him a spot on the
cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper album, and, throughout
1957, he was busily finishing his next groundbreaking
work, Gruppen for three orchestras. Kagel immediately
plunged himself into this circle of innovators by writing
articles for Stockhausen’s journal Die Reihe and
contributing to the new music broadcasts of WDR radio.
Most significantly though, from 1958, he would attend the
Darmstadt summer courses where the international
avant-garde annually convened and, within a few years,
began lecturing there himself. Ultimately, throughout his
life, his compositions would be featured regularly at
Darmstadt as well as at the equally important
Donaueschingen Festival and at other new music venues
worldwide. Yet, as far as aesthetics were concerned, Kagel
refused to blindly accept integral serialism, the idiom
which Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, and their colleagues
had established in the early 1950s. They of course had
been intrigued by the philosophy of American
experimentalist John Cage—had even invited him to
lecture at their Darmstadt stronghold—but they remained
hesitant to borrow too much from him. In other words,
Stockhausen and Boulez never became “experimental”
composers themselves. They always worked within a
conventional definition of music as something concerned
with sound and the structuring of sound, no matter how
much they expanded this definition from within.
Kagel, however, might be considered a true
experimentalist, regardless of his acceptance into the
European avant-garde. For Kagel, music was action, and
the entire activities of composition and performance were
the music, not merely the sounds created through these
activities. Performers, for example, might comment
verbally or visually on the difficulty of playing particular
lines; moreover, anything which happens, either on-stage
or off, within the time allotted for the piece, is considered
part of the piece. Performance essentially becomes a kind
of theatre where sounds can occur, but also might not.
Kagel’s opera Staatstheater, which premiered in 1971, is a
summation of this music theatre. Although Staatstheater
includes all the traditional performers of opera (i.e.
soloists, a chorus, dancers, and instrumentalists), it denies
them any of the conventions to which they are
accustomed. Soloists are forced to sing in ensembles;
chorus members must sing solos; a ballet is performed by
non-dancers; and there is no pit in which to segregate
instrumentalists. The opera also lacks a libretto, a proper
score, and stage décor, so that what actually happens on
stage is what happens and not a representation of
something else. In effect, the suspension of disbelief that
has always been the very essence of theatre is no longer
necessary nor even possible. It would be as if we accepted
Wagner’s valkyries to be the average women,
masquerading in horned helmets and armor whom we
know them to be and ignored the fiction unfolding on
stage which we are taught from childhood to accept. Or,
more accurately, if this fiction were to vanish altogether.
(As a side note, Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre and Philip
Glass’s Einstein on the Beach, operas composed in the mid1970s,
each adapt some aspects of Kagel’s Staatstheater.)
Staatstheater also demonstrates another important
aspect of Kagel’s idiom: how he engages with music
history, or, we might say, how the activity of composition
becomes part of the music. In Staatstheater, Kagelsets out
to create an opera which at once can really be called an
opera, but which also denies nearly all the conventions
accumulated by opera. Something similar happens in
Kagel’s Exotica when musicians trained in the Western
tradition are instructed to take up unfamiliar,
nonWestern instruments and create sounds with them. Or,
when in Variationen ohne Fuge, the corpse of Brahms
appears and interrogates the musicians as they play an
unknown version of his music. Kagel, unlike so many avant
gardists who were dismissive of the musical past,
acknowledges the past, but also calls it into question. The
music then becomes referential as the activity of
composition extends beyond the musical sounds notated
on paper to the overall situation which Kagel outlines. To
this end, Kagel commented in a 2004 interview with Paul
Steenhuisen, “The past is a very important dimension of
the present, but it’s not the present. You can’t neglect the
past. We are composers today because there is a lot of
music written before us, and we have to be aware of this.”
Simultaneously, as Kagel deconstructs the musical world
around him, he constructs his own bizarre reality where
contradictions are perfectly acceptable, even the norm.
This is possible because Kagel does not spew dogma, like
so many avant-gardists, but approaches each composition
with his peculiar sense of humor, less interested in
expounding a system than in seeing where a profound
experiment might lead.
Tonight we encounter four compositions by Mauricio
Kagel. The first, Mirum for solo tuba, dates from 1965. Its
score consists of a series of disconnected musical staves
which Björn Heile in his biography of Kagel likens to “a
compendium of the possibilities of monody.” In his view,
the score is essentially a catalog of musical phrases which
a solo, monophonic instrument like the tuba can play. That
the phrases are disconnected visually is reinforced aurally
by the large amounts of silence between motives which
are also notated, although imprecisely. Critic Andrew
Clements gives a less neutral take than Heile in an article
for The Guardian. Clements outlines the theatrical
scenario of Mirum as follows: “A soloist tries desperately
to turn his elephantine instrument into something that can
sing and assert itself. Eventually he gives up, delivers a
poem to the audience about the beauties of the tuba, and
stalks out of the hall.” While Heile also comments on the
theatrical element, he describes no plight by the frustrated
musician who evidently made an unfortunate choice of
instruments somewhere along the way. The poem
mentioned by Clements integrates the familiar Latin text
that Kagel puns in the title of his piece. Tuba mirum
spargens sonum and the several lines which follow belong
to the Roman Catholic Requiem, or Mass for the Dead, and
specifically its Dies irae sequence. They translate as, “The
horn will send its wondrous sound throughout the Earth’s
sepulchers and gather all before the throne.” Clearly
Mirum conjures a different result, especially if we accept
Clements’ interpretation, as even the tubist gets frustrated
with his sound and marches offstage.
After Mirum, we hear General Bass, a work composed
from 1971 to 1972 and described as suitable for any
instrument capable of producing continuous sounds in the
prescribed range. That range is low, as the title implies, but
this does not mean that instruments must produce sounds
in this range exclusively. Indeed the score mentions organ,
cello, and bandoneon, an instrument similar to the
accordion, as ideal; and all of these instruments can also
player higher than the notated music. Emphasis is also on
continuity, and the score advises against woodwind and
brass instruments like the bassoon and trombone whose
players would have to take breaths and interrupt the long,
slow phrases which Kagel seeks. Although General Bass
can be played by one solo instrument, the score indicates
that two or more instruments can play in alternation,
switching with each other at rests. If played by one
instrument, however, the performer should occasionally
adjust his own timbre so as to create the feeling of
polyphony all by itself. Although Kagel leaves these
largescale elements for the players to determine, he is
more insistent on the mood and content of the piece. No
pathos is to be added while pitches and dynamics are also
to be followed to the letter. The content is mostly slow and
mood unexpressive, but this gives the performers and
listeners alike the chance to really focus and experience
the nuances of the sounds created. The theatrical aspect
arises from this forced listening space which, like Cage’s
infamous “silent” piece, 4’33”, is actually much livelier
than one would expect from the sparse notation.
The next work on our program was the latest to have been
composed. Schattenklänge, three pieces for bass clarinet,
was written in 1995 and dedicated to the composer
Luciano Berio, another fixture of the European avantgarde
at mid-century and a close friend to Kagel. In his
preface to the score, Kagel offers two options for
performing this composition: either plainly, without
theatre, as a concert piece, or with the performer
standing, behind a white screen. In this second, more
elaborate setup, spotlights are to illuminate the player, so
that his movements are cast on the screen. This scenario
helps explain the title of the composition, which means
“shadow sounds,” but so does the nocturnal timbre of the
bass clarinet itself. Kagel also instructs that the intensity of
the spotlights should change, but gradually and without
reference to the faster actions of the music. Each of the
three pieces addresses different kinds of sounds. The first
contrasts sustained notes colored by trills, flutter tongue,
or breathy playing with rapid chains of notes. The second
focuses on fast, very breathy arpeggios where the
resulting mechanical noises of the instrument, avoided in
more traditional music, are here given emphasis; the close
of the second piece, in fact, obscures pitched sound
altogether as percussive key clicks and air noises take over.
The third piece shifts its attention to melodic fragments
which contain large leaps and, consequently, seem to run
haphazardly from one fragment to another. Evidently the
purely musical exchanges of Schattenklänge create their
own kind of theatre; its optional staging, however, grants
this composition a more pervasive theatricality.
Last we witness Dressur, a percussion trio completed in
1977 as part of Kagel’s instrumental theatre cycle, Quatre
degrés. In his biography, Heile comments that this cycle is
more concerned with popular culture than many of Kagel’s
other works, noting that “he seems enthralled by the
vitality of popular culture, but satirizes its often hackneyed
sentiments, commodified clichés, and cheap sleaziness.”
The title of Dressur, indeed, means dressage, the style of
strict horse training. In Dressur, the three percussionists
play on wooden instruments ranging from the
conventional—a marimba, claves, castanets, and rattles—
to the absurd. The preface to the score makes for
entertaining reading as Kagel insistently lists-off that each
of these found instruments are made of wood: a (wooden)
chair, (wooden) tables, multiple wooden balls, bamboo
rattle (wooden wind chimes), elephant bell (block of
wood), wooden whistle, nutcracker made of wood, and
two pairs of wooden shoes all figure on his list.
Throughout, Kagel notates theatrical actions as closely as
he does staved notes, creating a whole scenario in which
each percussionist becomes a character. This scenario
begins with the second percussionist who plays on the
marimba a circus gallop, Erinnerung an Zirkus Renz, by
Gustav Peter. The first percussionist seems irritated and,
after only a few measures, begins picking up his chair and
smashing it on the ground as if to interrupt. Later, Kagel’s
instructions read, “lift chair above player two’s head with
strong impulse—as if to attack.” The antics continue
without the circus gallop, or its progenitor, ever meeting
their demise and reach a climax with a mock fandango
dance in the wooden shoes and shouts of “olé.”
© Jackson Harmeyer 2022
BIOGRAPHIES
Born and raised in Huntington, Texas, Taylor Carrell is currently a Senior Music Education
major at Northwestern State University, and he is also a member of the Spring 2022 NSU Wind
Symphony. Taylor Carrell currently studies tuba with Dr. Masahito Kuroda who serves as
Associate Professor of Euphonium/Tuba/Sound Technology at NSU.
Paul Christopher received his Bachelor of Music Education from the New England
Conservatory of Music and his Master of Music in Cello Performance from the University of
Memphis. In 2005 Mr. Christopher joined the string faculty at Northwestern State University of
Louisiana (NSU) where he currently serves as Associate Professor of Violoncello and Music
Theory. He has appeared as clinician, adjudicator, and guest artist throughout the United States
and internationally. Christopher’s articles have been published in American String Teacher, Bass
World, the Jacques Offenbach Society Newsletter and Strings. In 2017 he was awarded the
Mildred Hart Bailey Research Award in recognition of his exceptional scholarship as a faculty
member at NSU. In the summers of 1991-2014 Mr. Christopher performed as Assistant Principal
Cello with the Peter Britt Festival Orchestra in Jacksonville, Oregon.
Trevor Davis is Assistant Professor of Single Reeds and Director of Jazz Activities at Louisiana
Tech University. He is a Silverstein Artist and is an active clinician, adjudicator, and performer.
Since moving to Louisiana, he subs often in the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, the Shreveport
Symphony Orchestra, and the South Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. In the summers, he is a
clarinet and saxophone performer for the New Music on the Bayou new music festival.
Originally from Delaware, Trevor has a BA from Kutztown University, a MM in Jazz Studies
from Indiana University, and a MM in Multiple Woodwinds from UNC Greensboro. He
continued at UNC-G and completed the DMA in Clarinet Performance where he studied with
Anthony Taylor. Former teachers include Kelly Burke, Jeremy Justeson, Tom Walsh, and James
Campbell. Trevor currently lives in Ruston, LA with his wife, Joann.
John T. Dunn is an Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Northwestern State University of
Louisiana, where he also serves as the course steward for the core curriculum Fine Arts courses.
At NSU, he has taught Fine Arts Survey, Music History, Music for Stage and Screen, A History
of Opera, a seminar on Music and Disability Studies, and several Music Theory courses. He is
currently the President of the Faculty Senate and has been the faculty sponsor of the NSU
Gamers’ Guild. He recently completed his doctorate at Louisiana State University in
Musicology; his dissertation explored the representation of disability in the music of Alfred
Hitchcock films. His emphasis of study is film music, Romantic and 20 th century music history,
music and disability studies, and music in popular culture, presenting papers on WandaVision,
music, trauma, and nostalgia and also Magical Realism and Encanto at recent Popular Culture
Association National Conferences. Dr. Dunn is affiliated with the Film Music Society, the
Society for Disability Studies, the American Musicological Society, and the Popular Culture
Society.
Gregory Lyons teaches Applied Percussion, Percussion Ensemble, Percussion
Methods, Secondary Instrumental Methods, and Introduction to Non-Western Music at Louisiana
Tech University where he is Associate Professor and Assistant Director of Bands. Recently, he
was awarded the James Alvey Smith Endowed Professorship with support funds from the
Louisiana Board of Regents. He earned the BME from the Wheaton College Conservatory, the
MM from Central Michigan University, and the DMA from The Ohio State University.
Formerly, he served as an Assistant Band Director in the Missouri public schools. Lyons is an
active solo/chamber/orchestral performer as well as the co-founder and co-coordinator of New
Music on the Bayou, an annual summer festival that spotlights contemporary classical music. He
is a past president and past treasurer of the Louisiana Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society and
is a proud endorser of the Vic Firth Company, SABIAN cymbals, Grover Pro Percussion, and
Majestic Percussion.
Named the 2019 Performing Artist of the Year by the Northeast Louisiana Arts Council, Mel
Mobley currently resides and teaches in Monroe, Louisiana. As composer, conductor, performer,
and advocate of new music, he has been part of numerous premieres and festivals around the
country. Serving as principal percussionist of the Monroe Symphony Orchestra and frequent
performer with the Shreveport, South Arkansas, and Rapides Symphonies, Mel also performs
with many chamber groups including the Implosion Percussion Group, the NMB Percussion
Group, and M2. He has performed with the 2X2 Percussion Quartet with performances at the
Sugarmill Festival and at the National Percussion Pedagogy Conference. His most recent work
centers on the combination of spoken text and music involving the creation of both text and
music through a combination of chance and intuitive processes. Dr. Mobley teaches at the
University of Louisiana at Monroe and at several camps throughout Haiti in the summers. He is
a founder and coordinator of the New Music on the Bayou Festival that connects composers
from around the world with the communities of north Louisiana. He is a member of the
Percussive Arts Society (PAS), the National Composers’ Association, USA (NACUSA), and the
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). More information can be
found at melmobley.com and soundcloud.com/melmobley.
Dr. Oliver Molina is an Associate Professor of Music and Assistant Director of Bands at
Northwestern State University of Louisiana. As an active percussion performer, educator,
arranger, adjudicator, and clinician, Dr. Molina has presented and performed at various state Day
of Percussion events, PASIC, NCPP, and other music conferences and festivals. He earned his
Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance and Pedagogy at the University of
Iowa under Dr. Dan Moore. Additionally, he has is a founding member of the Omojo Percussion
Duo and the Ninkasi Percussion Group. Dr. Molina currently serves as Chair for PAS Education
Committee and as Vice President of the Louisiana PAS Chapter. He is a Yamaha Performing
Artist and an education endorser of Vic Firth Sticks and Mallets, Remo Drum Heads, Sabian
Cymbals, and Black Swamp Percussion. His professional affiliations include the Percussive Arts
Society, National Association for Music Education, National Society for Steel Band Educators,
and the College Music Society.
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