Mauricio Kagel
MAURICIO KAGEL (1931, Buenos Aires) studied music (mainly privately), literature and philosophy at the university in Buenos Aires. In 1949 he became an artistic adviser of Agrupación Nueva Musica. Between 1952 – 1956 he wrote film reviews for Gente de Cine and Nueva Vision magazines. In 1955 he took the post of rehearsal pianist and conductor in Teatro Colón. With the DAAD scholarship he moved in 1957 to West Germany and has been living here since. In 1960 he started lecturing at Darmstadter Ferienkurse, between 1964 – 1965 he worked at New York State University in Buffalo and in 1967 at the Academy of Film and Television in West Berlin. He led New Music courses in Cologne and Scandinavian New Music Courses in Goteborg. Starting from 1974 he lectured on new music theatre at the Academy of Music in Cologne. Between 1988 – 1989 he was composer-in-residence at Cologne Philharmonic. As a lecturer and performer he traveled extensively. Kagel’s work comprises drama, chamber, vocal, orchestral music, films and radio plays. Around 1960 Kagel created the “instrumental theatre“, staging for instance a complete music performance or prescribing a game of dice for the cello player, etc. He worked on discovering new sound spaces and enjoyed using new instruments or unusual sound sources. Since Ludwig van (1969) he focused on the role of the composer in transforming classical music, which meant decomposing it (the opera itself is the subject of Staatstheater). Kagel’s interest in historic collages led to Sankt-Bach-Passion, which tells the story of Bach’s life in music. Occasionally he aboarded political topics (Der Tribun) and touched also “acoustic theology“ (Die Erschöpfung der Welt). In the 1980s Kagel was even more involved in joining tradition with collage, as if checking the past for its capability to merge with the present, not excluding the rule of introducing specific details into rich contexts: this results in deliberate estrangement, playing with habits, expectations, illusions. Kagel aims at activating the mind and concentration of the listener, viewer: nothing is certain. Scepsis and paradox, as the basic rule of creation.
Works (selection): String Sextet (1953 – 1957), Pas de cinq (1965), Himmelsmechanik (1965), Staatstheater (1967), Acustica (1968 – 1970), Heterophonie (1959 – 1961), Die Erschöpfung der Welt (1982), Ludwig van (1969), Händelvariationen (1971 – 1972), Aus Deutschland (1977 – 1980), Sankt-Bach-Passion (1984 – 1985), String Quartet No.3 (1988), Quodlibet for female voice and orchestra (1989), Les idérs fixes, rondo for orchestra (1989), Fragmente Ode for double chorus, wind instruments and percussion (1989), Liturgien for solo voices, two choruses and large orchestra (1990), Die Stücke der Windrose pre salon orchestra (1989 – 1991), Konzertstück for timpani and orchestra (1992), Südwesten aus: Die Stücke der Windrose for salon orchestra (1993), Nah und Fern, acoustic piece to listening, for bells a trumpets in background (1993 – 1994), Interview avec D. pour Monsieur Croche et orchestre – Texts of Claude Debussy (1994), Serenade for 3 players (1995), L’art bruit, solo for two (1995), Orchestrion-Straat for chamber orchestra (1996), Playback. Hörspiel (1997), Duodramen for voices and orchestra (1999).