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In Krenek’s erstem Vortrag als Regent’s Lecturer an der UCSD, gehalten am 21. Jänner 1970, nimmt er in auto-biographischer Perspektive seine Entwicklung als Komponist in den Blick, wobei er die Stile seiner jeweiligen Schaffensperioden selbst in ihrer Beziehung zur historischen Entwicklung beziehungsweise zum selbstreflexiven Bewusstsein ihrer Historizität betrachtet.
Dazu gehört seine Phase des frei-atonalen Expressionismus, Neo-Klassizismus (insbesondere in Bezug auf seiner eigenen Schubert-Rezeption), seine Integration von Elementen der Unterhaltungsmusik in „ernste“ Musik, Annäherung Zwölftontechnik und seine Entwicklung darüber hinaus, in der er Inspiration von seiner Beschäftigung mit Musikgeschichte aufgenommen hat.
In these meetings I propose to sketch a panorama of our
musical situation as observed through the windows of my
personality and delineated by the positions that were as-
signed to me in the changing scenes. Obviously the picture
will be subjective, which I hope shall not impair is relative
validity, especially since I will try to show that objectivity
is intrinsically impossible, and where it is attempted, illusionary.
It I thus limit the perspectives of my design to my own
field of vision, I hope that this will not be interpreted as
an expression of egotism, or vanity. Much as I have from
time to time desired to occupy the vantage point of a de-
tached observer who would faithfully register the sum
total of the phenomena offered to his view, it was my fate
to become always actively involved in the processes that
would come under the consideration of comprehensive
criticism. This my ruminations are inevitably conditioned
by the changing positions of my creative personality. It
would seem to me insincere if I should pretend that
I am able to disregard these limitations, and therefore
I have to accept them for better or worse.
My presentation will be articulated in four chapters.
The first, which is the subject matter of today's meeting, will
be concerned with the position in history of the contem-
porary
ical consciousness and the ways in which his work is
influenced by these factors. In the second meeting
I plan to discuss
volvement in the problems of the society of which he is a member.
This subject matter I shall mainly illustrate by referring
to my operas (of which I have written twenty),
works have very outspoken political implications.
In the third session I should like to talk about the sociological
and economic background of the composer's work as it has un-
folded in our century. To conclude this series of informal
communications I wish to focus the particular situation of
composition at the present time, discussing the concept of
serialism and investigating how it developed und what became
of it. At the end of each session I shall play the tape
recording of one of my works, such as would seem appro-
priate to illustrate some of the points made.
To turn to the object of today's deliberation, which is
history and historical consciousness, let us consider first the
nature of history. It we define history as the sum total of things
past, we have to realize that it exists only to the extent of our
knowledge of it. We may experience the consequences of
something that has happened in the past, but this in itself
does not suffice to make us know that it happened, and
before
never have happened. The nearly unique source of our histor-
ical knowledge is the report that was somebody who
resolution to
actly as it happened, or as it has become fastionable to say:
to "tell it like it is", this resolution must remain wishful
thinking to a high degree, for he depends on reports
that were drawn up by human beings who were biassed in
hundreds of different ways. And the historian sifting those
reports is himself prejudiced even if he should not be
aware of it, his prejudice being generated by the sequence
of the very events he is planning to explicate.
Insight of this kind became available to me only when
I immersed myself into the mysteries of Charles V.
to say
as a composer, around
as our century, my historical consciousness was at a very
elementary level. In the composition classes of my teacher
musicological studies that went on at the
the
to abstract descriptions of styles and endless lists of com-
there were no records or tapes to listen to, and no micro-
films of ancient music to look at. Thas the composition stu-
dents knew hardly any music before
teenth century counterpoint for
hours weekly according to a watered-down nineteenth century
version of the eighteenth century interpretation by
The purpose of this training was to endow the students
with a sense of discipline and to make them aware of the im-
portance of technique, meaning that they should understand
that one can not rely on inspiration alone, but must also
have enough skill
of a certain stylistic image.
know how was supposed to be indispensable when we were turned
loose as "free" composers.
While in the regimented field of strict counterpoint
every note was scrutinized for its correctness according to
the rules, in counter
to our own devices - criticism was vague, perfunctory and
capricious. The general idea was that the music to be written
by the young composers
interpreted mainly to mean that it should not be obvious or
commonplace - and modern, that is fitting into the
generally accepted concept of progress, but not shocking
or absurd.
The concept of progress, of course, implies some sort of
historical consciousness. It is based on the assumption that the
events of history follow each other as a chain of causes and ef-
fects
lyzed by man so that he may control
effects in such a way that the
better than the previous one - whatever he may set up as the ulti-
mate ideal goal of this wonderful process.
In terms of the musical situation in which I found myself as I
described it before progress meant that the musical idiom of
was better than that of
more dissonant chords and delay their resolutions more ingeniously,
that songs by
reasons, which made them more communicative for the "modern
mind", and so forth. From all this it followed that had
go on in the same spirit, discover new dissonances and disguise the
facts of tonality more cleverly. Thus we moved about in a territory
vaguely delineated by the landmarks set up by
accepted image of modernism.
in that territory was considered
was looked upon as a dangerons lunatic.
In fact, the difference between the more moderate conventions
in which
the
more one of degree than of essence.
in progress moving along a one-way street toward higher and
more valuable achievements. was
intellect than to
from his view on history. But at the time I am speaking of, in
the first quarter of the century he
revolutionary prophet who cleared away the useless rubble of
the past,
the venerable conventions established by a glorious past.
When my teacher,
around
I followed him there ostensibly to complete my formal
studies in music. Actually I received
made me a sort of a licensed composer - whatever that may
have meant - more or less on sufferance, for I had drifted
away from the
More than ever I was convinced that a young composer had
to serve the cause of progress, but now to be progressive
meant to break away from traditional concepts with
much more daring and to mevery little known and rather
more attracted by the elemental features of
and began to write music disposed
with
polyphony and rhythmic insistence on protracted ostinatos.
At that time I which that
unable to figure out how it was possible only mechanically
to write down so many notes in so short a time, not to mention
the creative effort that had to go with, or before the desk
work. In addition to the sheer number of compositions,
many of them were rather bulky, long works. Today I
dont see a contradiction here, for it seems to me that the
habit of writing fast promotes the production of long,
possibly repetitious and loquacious pieces while a pro-
pensity for writing slowly
und economy.
My main interest was devoted to the form of the
Symphony, and in this I can see a certain symptom
of being conscious of historical continuity. I remember
that
that I used to keep off and on at times) that I had
decided to try to become the successor of
the Symphony. Thus I wrote no less than three symphonies
at the age of 23, and each one of them has, in my opinion,
retained to
The fact that I did not approach the problem of the symphony
for another twenty years should, however, indicate that I was
not quite convinced of
project. When I took it up again in the
results rather disappointing. My only comfort is that nobody
else has succeeded any better in continuing the great sym-
phonic tradition.
A considerable number of modernistic compositions
of mine originated in those years of the early twenties. In
looking back at them I notice that their generally atonal
idiom here and there includes isolated fragments of the
language of tradition, usually evoking memories of a
very early stage of the musical material, not yet touched
by the late-romantic mannerisms of chromatics. Such en-
capsulated remnants of another age evoke frequently a feeling
of nostalgia and melancholy. The procedure as such is re-
lated to the principles of surrealism, of which at that time
I had not the slightest idea.
Elements of surrealism also characterized the move-
ment of neo classicism became
and was to become the dominant musical style for more
than two decades. In terms of of history
leading onward and upward, neo-classicism evidently was an
anti-progressive, contrary movement in that it professed the
wish to restore ancient manners expression musical design.
As I remember it, the first manifestation of this trend was
Pulcinella, in which he transcribed, re-wrote and
remodeled materials fished out from the work of the early
eighteenth century Italian composer Pergolesi.
This set the tone for most of the retrospective efforts to come.
The late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were the primary targets
of the restaurative activities of neo-classicism. Of course the
reactionary aspect of this movement made it highly popular
with a public frightened by the progressive attitude of the
expressionism.
The situation was not really as simple as all that, for the
neo-classicists, especially
models to imitate them in their new creations, they treated them
rather as pleasing and attractive relics of a better age - I shall
have to say more about this when I will consider the sociological
aspects - and they presented the models with all the damage
and scars inflicted upon them by time. by hin
state that in this respect neo-classicism was progressive after
all, for the concept of fragmentation, of the broken-up whole,
inherit
classicism. But at the time one could not know this, and
actually
aspects of neo-classicism was based on entirely different
premises, as we shall see.
Another
interesting even for the followers of the atonal-expressionistic
tendencies was the emphasis on objectivity. The public, which
was repelled by the sharp dissonances of the atonal idiom, did
not recognize that they were the inevitable result of carrying
late romanticism. The emotional exuberance that had
made
diences wallowing in soulfulness as long as it was con-
tained within the boundaries of an ever so expanded tonality
had eventually
brought about the ly
cutting dissonances and improbable melodic jumps of the
expressionistic idiom. Some of the younger
35
a little tired of the overheated emotionalism of the style and began
to dream of a cool, detached objective music that would rely
on perfect construction rather communication of
ment. The concept of the autonomy of music as a law unto itself
began to take powerful roots. For such composers neo-classicism
seemed to carry a significant message, even if they would
not agree with its reactionary
Personally I have not conscientiously or consistently
followed the line of neo-classicism. In Germany, under the in-
fluence of sociological considerations which I shall discuss
later, it took on a distinctly restaurative shape when com-
posers such as
style of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.
The busy contrapuntal texture of
model of these compositional endeavors. To my taste the
results often were academic, betraying too obviously the histor-
ical consciousness of the authors, and pedantic in displaying
a fatiguing sameness of color and texture.
I
classiciom as represented by
and others. The occasional touches of surrealistic irony
lend
ness. The
wrong notes in the harmony, by rhythmic distortion, or ana-
chronistic instrumental color, is quoted in a surprising
context rather than reconstructed with resources brought
up to date. element
covered province of music highly interesting was the intro-
duction of jazz elements.
At that time in Central Europe very little was known
about American jazz which began to penetrate the con-
tinent only after the conclusion of World War I. The little
we knew about fitted in
clean,
all European of
menon by incorporating some of its characteristics into their
so-called "serious" music. As far as I know, only the members
of the
too thoroughly steeped in the idea of incompatibility of serious und
entertainment music, which had been regarded for nearly a
hunded years as an unshakable axiom.
My own private was
different from everybody else's reactionary spree, of which I probably
might
to the seventeenth century, but to the early romanticism of
explained as owing to personal circumstances. When I arrived
in
and composer
to be an enthusiastic devotee of
had the temperament of a forceful evangelist and I was at a
highly impressionable age, I was easily swayed to share his
admiration for the Viennese master. complic
nations would probably take into account that my hailing
from the same
finity when I, under the influence of the general tendency
to look backward, searched for a model at the time of
my rising doubts about the validity of my atonal exploits.
Historical research might hit more motivations.
I am using this very small, marginal detail of my private
curriculum vital to illustrate what I mentioned about
the relativity of historical material.
My neo-romantic period lastet about five years. The main pro-
duct of my occasional preoccupation with jazz is the opera
Jonny spielt auf, which became so successful and famous that it
even infiltrated the
ags. It created a tremendous sensation for reasons that I found
entirely wrong, a fact that irritated me a great deal. It was
labeled "jazz opera", which I felt to be a misnomer, for whatever
Jazz there occurs is brought in
sphere of the protagonist, The bulk of
The music attached to the other characters, which to me were at
least as important as
idiom I had chosen as my model, occasionally touched up with
dissonant spices and Italianizing
uberance.
The opera Life of Orestes", which
I shall discuss the next time. Here the jazzy flavor permeates one
clearly defined sector of the stage action to create a sort of col-
loquial musical language, a musical lingua franca of our
Later that
primitive specimen. This is true enough, and hardly worth
pointing out. What I brought into play was not a replica of the
real thing, which I might not even have done if I had known the
real thing, but I tried to project
the
my very scanty knowledge the thing - just
in Jonny spielt auf an idealistic wish dream of
manticists. Of the real
it was the land of gangsters and prohibition, and neither
aspect was inviting.
For my
a little theory to the effect that the newly discovered means
of musical expression, that is the atonal vocabulary, should not
sible to restore the old vocabulary to its original power and
freshness through something vaguely mystical, which I called
"Urerlebnis", or primordial experience. In this I hoped so dif-
ferentiate myself constructively from my fellow modernists of the
had superseded the old made
impossible. Only
cordance with his conciliatory, warm hearted temperament, but
he arrived at different results. I don't know how successful the
application of my Urerlebnis has been. Some of the works that
originated in this frame of mind, especially groups and cycles of
songs, have retained a great deal of vitality. Nonetheless
I noticed that after a while I had run out
that it was time to
going at all.
The alternative was between giving up composing entirely
(or at least for an indefinite period), or returning to modernism.
While I considered the former seriously and concentrated for
some time on literary work, the latter won out
gingerly approach to the twelve-tone technique, which in the mean-
time had been developed by
high-brow musical magazines abound with analyses and de-
tailed descriptions of compositional procedure, it is hardly
believable that for years the only source of information on the
twelve-tone technique was a rather vague and not entirely
correct
the technique whom I knew,
quite reticent about what they were doing, and it seemed in-
delicate to
to rely on my own research, which was slow and laborious,
although the basic principles of this technique were simple
enough. But it was a completely new and unaccustomed way of musical
thinking.
Among musicians at large and laymen as well the twelve-
tone technique was regarded as an aggravated case of atonality,
or worse, as splenetic idea group of composer
run out of inspiration. During my romantic excursion I had
shared this view, and even incurred
a few g remarks into a lecture. The traces of the
master's anguish may be found in the preface of his
for chorus where he deposited a not too brilliant pun on my
name. Later I apologized for my immature dig, and we
lived in peace everafter.
It is nowadays easy to interpret the inauguration of
the twelve-tone technique historically as a part of the general
tendency of restoration prevailing during the nineteentwenties.
At that time it appeared to be a radically new departure, and
the dialectical truth probably is that it was both. This tech-
was could
it imposed a strict discipline onto the chaotic world of atonality.
The rationalization that given
structive order only short pieces of music could be written, and
that the revived desive of
the invention of a new discipline. Another explanation was
that in order to
idiom it was necessary to prevent any tone becomming
through repetition too much weight and becoming a tonal center
in the old sense,
to systematize the order of succession the pitches before
entering the process of actual composition so that none would
reappear before the other eleven had been sounded. Be that
as it may, a trend toward restoration of law and order
certainly promoted the invention of the twelve-tone technique.
This conjecture is correborated by the
of the classical Sonata form. They are different from the exercises
of neo-classicism in they try
forms while neo-classicism presented replicas of their façade
with interesting cracks added.
ality was
of the twelve-tone method caused hardly a ripple - just slightly
raised eye-brows among tradition-minded experts, although
it would have been logical had it
For atonality had been foreshadowed, as the evolutionist would
say, ever since
of tonality, while the idea of pre-organizing the musical material
according to abstract serial patterns was something radically
new. It did not register that way, because the character of
the musical idiom, the sound material that was perceived, re-
mained roughly the same, regardless of whether it was ordered serially
or freely piled up in atonal clusters. On the other hand, the
earlier transition
to those seemingly unrelated dissonant clusters was shockingly con-
spicuous.
one. It was the full-length historical opera Charles V. About its extra-
musical implications I shall talk the next time, which I hope will
make clear that I considered the project one of utmost importance
in every respect. This attitude prompted me to make it also
the point of departure for a completely new phase of my musical
development. After this opera I wrote two works, a set of in-stinctively was exploring
twelve-tone technique, at least I see it today in this light.
Later, when I had come to live in
myself move toward
Sonata form. It would be easy to say that this happened
atmosphere, or perhaps prompted by the hope to become
somewhat more acceptable to a musical community
that by the critical experts was told that the twelve-tone
technique was a freakish conceit of a small Viennese group
of neurotics and that American
far behind. When I in the
the structures of the old twelve-tone technique by introducing
peared to be a dubious attempt at compromise. In fact,
however, this does not seem to have been the true motivation,
because the first work in which I applied the rotational tech-
turned out to be of
to wait for sixteen years before it was produced in its
entirety.
technique was my first tentative step into
serialism, for
a progressive switching
tone series according to premeditated patterns in order
to obtain additional derivative forms of the basic set.
It was only in
cognizant of music incidentally
so happened that the place of my first teaching
loved to browse. Obviously I was ready for this new
experience,for
to study more and more seriously. Probably subconsciously
I losked for prototypes I cen-
attracted by the design of Gregorian chant,
to my dismay I noticed that the majority of musicologists.
whose work I greatly admired and appreciated because it had
provided me with otherwisse inaccessible material of historical
studies - that these scholars almost resented the composer's inter-
est in their work, and I regretted that they did not reciprocate
this interest at all.
The tension thus created led to the termination of my
tenure at
ment at now
continue my historical studies undisturbed, for I was my
own boss. There was a
library. When this obstacle was extent
through the extensive use of microfilms I was able with the
aid of a group of outstanding graduate students to achieve some
results that gave at least us a great deal of satisfaction, if to
nobody else. My own particular object of study was the music of
It has been critized dewoted so much labor to
to search for historical prototypes in order to justify modern
compositional method. I feel that such objections are based
on a misunderstanding. The fact that the
gorian Chant displayed inversion and retrogression, or the fact that
some medieval composers like
as basic melodic patterns from which they derived individual
motivic shapes for their polyphonic design, such facts did not
in my opinion justify the application of such procedure in the
twelve-tone technique. Obviously the only justification of any
technique is the accomplishment of viable results. What I was
interested in was observing and experiencing the permanency
of certain ways of musical thinking, the existence of archetypes
that seemed to run through the known history of occidental music
and from time to time to
of stylistic
In my teaching I
thorough training in sixteenth century counterpoint the rules
of which I derived as far as possible from the practice of the
old masters directly, not because I wanted them to revive
the style of
the function of strict technical discipline in relation to a
be able
to their excursions into new, so far unknown and not yet con-
trolled territory.
Today I am not any longer so convinced that this historical
orientation is as necessary or useful as I thought under the
impact of my own historical studies. The nineteenth century
entertained the enviably naive notion that all that had happ-
ened before it was progress the
excellence or deplorable detour and delay. I remember having
read in the commentary of an
a work by
century composer for not yet knowing how to modulate properly from
d minor to c sharp. It did not occur to him that
thought of modulating anywhere, but worked on entirely different
assumptions. But in the eyes of the modern critic it was just that
which made his
It may be true that strong do
admiration of history because they are too occupied with
creating and building their own things. The Baroque era was
one of those periods. The artists of that time had no qualms about
tearing down or disfiguring the most venerable monuments
of the Gothic because they found them obsolete and unsightly
and were convinced that they had something far superior
to substitute for the ancient stuff. It is fortunate that in
music to assert itself a new generation does not need to destroy
the works of its ancestors. It is sufficient to let them gather dust
on the shelves of the library. Whether ignorance, or even contempt of
history reveals strength, or weakness, or just laziness and
self indulgence, can be ascertained only by evaluating the products
of such mentality. But this evaluation is in turn a function of
historical processes. If we feel that history takes it course according
to some inexorable interal necessity it would not seem to matter
very much
If we feel that we are making history as free agents we may
not pay much attention
wards that our action was a logical consequence of all that
went before.
To be or not to be historically oriented is a question that
can not be answered any better than the question: to be or not
to be, period. Or rather, question mark.