Chaim Soutine, self-portrait

Music? Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)

“My problem is not to challenge the listener, no, no. To challenge myself, yes.”

“I think that they [composers] are too much oriented to the past. And they have a pain in the neck, they don't look forward, they are like this [demonstrates]. I had the first such discussion with Messiaen - that was about forty or two-hundred years ago when I went to him - because I was told (when I was in Paris the first time), I was told: "You know, there is a man [who] might understand you, why don't you go and see him?" He was not known at that time, Messiaen. So, I went to the conservatory and he saw some of the things that I had written for piano. My question was, "After you have read those, do you think that I have to start all over again, counterpoint and harmony and things like that that I had to stop because of the resistance movement in Athens?" He said, "Well, I think that you are gifted, but you don't need to start all over again these studies. You have to listen to music as much as you can and to write music." You see? Because that is the best - he didn't say so, I gathered that - the best way of learning music, by yourself.”

“I think that this part of music composition is something that is above understanding. My strategy is the following: Consciousness is like somebody that is above a hole in the ground. Under the hole, underground, there are all your kinds of ideas, intuitions, habits, and so on. It's your self. You are watching your hole and you expect some interesting ideas or things to come up: forms, shapes. Now, you have to be there very attentive, and when something comes out, you decide if it's worthwhile or not. If it's worthwhile, you try to be nice with that form. If not, you take your stick [demonstrates] [and beat it] back into the hole. This strategy is very difficult because you have to foresee what that form that you like - if it's not narcistic because it's yourself - you have to foresee if it is bearing things that could explode later on if you cultivate it. And there, nobody can help you. You are by yourself alone in a dark sky which has no galaxies, nothing.”

“Forget that, forget the evaluation of the universe, of yourself, or whatever. There are forces in man that are able to distinguish and to decide if something is worthwhile. Well, he can make a mistake, as I said before, and take it because it appears to him that it's worthwhile. But it's not worthwhile because it's what he has done already. Or, as you say, it's so general, universal, that it's necessary. No. It has to be different from the universe, otherwise it's useless. Everybody can do that, more or less.”

“About forty years ago, I did Metastaseis, which caused a scandal in Donaueschingen, in Germany, conducted by Hans Rosbaud, who was one of the greatest conductors after the war. And I went with a recording, which was a plastic record, very cheap, to the director of the French Radio and I said, "Look, you have the score," which was a large one," and the record. Would you like to listen to it?" He said, "Well, yes." And I played the recording for him. And he said, "But is that electronic sound?" I said, "No, it's orchestra." "How can it be?" You see? That was the first time and the last that I went with something I have done to a contractor. Publishers should do the same thing for you, you have an agent. But if your stuff is not interesting for people, they don't care. It's like a capitalistic system. You don't care; nothing happens. You cannot impose yourself, whatever you want, except if you have power, social power, if you are head of something. Then you can impose it on an orchestra, for instance, or if you have a friend, a conductor, or some government minister, then you might influence that, but not for a long time.”

Music? Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)

L'Oeuvre de Iannis Xenakis

Selected works

Pour orchestre…

1. Metastasis: 1953-54; orchestre (60); 7’; éd. Boosey & Hawkes.
2. Pithoprakta: 1955-56; orchestre à cordes (46), 2 tb et perc.; 10’; éd. Boosey & Hawkes.
3. Eonta: 1963-64; pf et quintette de cuivres; 18’; éd. Boosey & Hawkes.
4. Akrata: 1964-65; ensemble à vents (16); 11’; éd. Boosey & Hawkes.
5. Antikhthon: 1971; orchestre (60 ou 86); 23’.
6. Eridanos: 1972; orchestre (68); 11’.
7. Erikhthon: 1974; pf et orchestre (88); 15’.
8. Empreintes: 1975; orchestre (85); 12’.
9. Shaar: 1982; orchestre à cordes (60); 14’.
10. Ata: 1987; orchestre (89); 16’.
11. Dämmerschein: 1993-94; orchestre (89); 14’.

Pour ensemble…

1. N’Shima: 1975; 2 mezzo et quintette (2 cors, 2 tb, vc); 17’.
2. Phlegra: 1975; ensemble (11); 14’.
3. Epeï: 1976; sextuor (hb, cl, tp, 2 tb, cb); 13’.
4. Akanthos: 1977; soprano et octuor (fl, cl, pf, 2 vl, va, vc, cb); 11’.
5. Palimpsest: 1979; ensemble (11); 11’.
6. Khal Perr: 1983; quintette de cuivres et 2 perc.; 10’30.
7. Thalleïn: 1984; ensemble (14); 17’.
8. Jalons: 1986; ensemble (15); 15’.

Pour voix…

1. Nuits: 1967-68; chœur mixte (12); 12’.
2. Knephas: 1990; chœur mixte (32 minimum); 10’.
   

Pour stage…

1. Oresteïa : 1965-66; chœur d’enfants, chœur mixte (36) et ensemble (12); 46’; éd. Boosey & Hawkes.

Pour quatuor à cordes…

1. ST/4, 1-080262: 1956-62; quatuor à cordes; 11’; éd. Boosey & Hawkes.
2. Tetras: 1983; quatuor à cordes; 16’.
3. Tetora: 1990; quatuor à cordes; 17’.

Pour solo instruments…

1. Nomos alpha: 1965-66; vc; 17’; éd. Boosey & Hawkes.
2. Rebonds : 1987-88; perc.; 8’

Pour électronique…

1. Bohor: 1962; sons enregistrés; 21’30.
2. Persépolis: 1971; sons enregistrés; 56’.
3. Polytope de Cluny: 1972; sons enregistrés; 24’.
4. La légende d’Eer: 1977; sons enregistrés; 55’.
5. Mycènes alpha: 1978; sons enregistrés; 10’.

Catalogue raisonné from iannis-xenakis.org

Catalogue raisonné from Éditions Durand-Salabert-Eschig

Starting from scratch…

• Orchestral works & chamber music: Ata (1987), N‘Shima (1975), Metastaseis (1953–1954), Ioolkos (1996), Charisma (1971), Jonchaies (1977). Col legno.
• Oeuvres pour grand orchestre, Volumes I-IV. Timpani records.

Further reading…

• Musiques formelles = Revue Musicale n°253-254, 1963, 232 p. Available on-line at http://www.iannis-xenakis.org/MF.htm
  

L'Oeuvre de Iannis Xenakis

Xenakis dixit

“Music is not a language. Any musical piece is akin to a boulder with complex forms, with striations and engraved designs atop and within, which men can decipher in a thousand different ways without ever finding the right answer or the best one. By virtue of this multiple exegesis, music evokes all manners of phantasmagoria, as would a catalyzing crystal. Personally, I wanted to deal with the voids that surround us, and within which we live. The most formidable ones being those linked to our destiny, to life or death, and visible or invisible universes…”

Iannis Xenakis (From “La Légende d’Er (1st version)”, circa 1978)

Novel? Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999)

“I had to look for something, a substance, a form that belonged to me personally… the old novel could no longer meet modern needs, and I thought that it would be interesting… to show interior movements existing all alone, without characters, without a plot… tropisms… instinctive movements taking place on the subconscious level that are provoked like plant tropisms, which are provoked by external stimuli, by exterior objects. “

“The character, in my point of view, exists only as a deception, a facade; all that counts are the interior movements. In my later works even the facade of characters no longer exists: there are only consciousness where these tropisms are produced… The character is only a certain form… one may free oneself of the characters in order to show the movements into stinginess, in and of itself, produced in various characters. It's not always obligatory to have characters. In my work, the characters don't exist. They don't present any interest, because what we experience, we all experience, you as well as I.“

“Le réalisme se déplace. Ce que j’appelle réalisme, c’est toujours du réel qui n’est pas encore pris dans des formes convenues. Il est nécessaire que les formes se déplacent continuellement. On ne peut plus reprendre les formes anciennes sans retrouver une substance romanesque ancienne, elle aussi connue. " [“The realism moves. What I call realism, it is always reality that yet is not taken in suited forms. It is necessary that the forms move continuously. No more one can recover the old forms without finding an old fictional substance, it also well-known.”]

“Pour moi, le roman se rapproche, essaye de se rapprocher de la poésie; il tend, comme la poésie, à saisir au plus près de leur source, des sensations, quelque chose de ressenti. Les romans devraient devenir de grands poèmes. Et de même certaines oeuvres poétiques sont créées dans des formes qui jusqu’ici étaient considérées comme appartenant à la prose.” [“For me, the novel approaches, tries to approach the poetry; it tends, as the poetry, to be nearer to its source, to the sensations, to something that must be felt. The novels should become great poems. And similarly some poetic works are created in forms that so far were considered as belonging to the prose.”]

"Readers must be given what they have a right to expect of a novelist: enlargement of their experience, not in extent (which is better provided for them and more efficaciously by books of authoritative information and by reporting), but in depth."

Novel? Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999)

Nathalie Sarraute or the age of suspicion, paranoia, cruelty, violence... at the microscopic level

The substance [la sustancia de sus libros] of her books... tropisms... "movements in a state that can not be named yet and that neither have not accessed yet to the conscience" [“movimientos en un estado que todavía no pueden ser denominados y que tampoco han accedido aún a la conciencia”]... "invisible universe... of unknown elements, spread, confusing, amorphous, of potentiality and fleeting sensations and indefinable." [”universo invisible… de elementos desconocidos, esparcidos, confusos, amorfos, de virtualidades y sensaciones fugaces e indefinibles.”] (N.S. Tel Quel #9)

L’Ère du soupçon, the age of suspicion, la edad de la sospecha…


“la conversación no es para mí otra cosa que el resultado de una sub-conversación… la intriga no me sirve más que como un ligero armazón que retiene el conjunto de esos movimientos, impidiéndoles esparcirse en todas direcciones… el personaje, en tanto que tal (su carácter, su situación) no presenta para mí otro interés que el de soporte de los movimientos, el lugar donde, en un momento dado, esos movimientos se desarrollan…”

["the conversation is not for me another thing than the result of a sub-conversation... the intrigue does not serve me more that as a light frame that retains the set of those movements, preventing them to spread out in all directions... the character, (his/her psychology, his/her situation) does not present another interest for me than that of support of the movements, the place where, in a given moment, those movements are developed..."]



Anonymous characters... that apparently...
...think,
...talk
...about trivial things but that, in fact, dive in their privacy...
...in the (hidden) depths of the conscience to get to know themselves to know best each other...

...the relationship with the other one -established through a cruel paranoid and a sick game- is frequently tense, sometimes violent and always distrustful...

...their look is employed as an instrument of police research to sail wandering inside an universe dwelled for diffuse beings...
...in an atmosphere of a generalized mistrust...

...it is the age of the suspicion...

Personajes anónimos a los que aparentemente sólo se les ocurren cosas triviales pero que, en realidad, bucean en su intimidad… en las profundidades (ocultas) de la conciencia para conocerse o conocer al otro mejor… la relación con el otro –establecida a través de un juego paranoico y harto cruel– es con frecuencia tensa, a veces violenta y siempre desconfiada… se usa la mirada como instrumento de investigación policíaca para navegar errático en el interior de un universo morado por difusos seres… en un clima de una desconfianza generalizada.. es la era de la sospecha…

Nathalie Sarraute or the age of suspicion, paranoia, cruelty, violence... at the microscopic level

Sarraute, Tu ne t’aimes pas [You Don't Love Yourself, Tú no te quieres]

The title… “-Usted no se quiere. Pero y eso, ¿cómo? ¿Cómo es posible? ¿No se quiere usted?...”

The plot of the novel… (plot?) an anonymous dialogue on… self-hate –a theme highly relevant to the human condition... Many anonymous voices coexist

voices from the “others”…
voices which all belong to the same human being...
voices from the (separate) inquilines of her/his thought…

… echoing a message from those who are largely lacking in self-esteem.

Structure… "You Don't Love Yourself is very different from my other novels, because it was the first time I wrote in dialogue."

Scenes (No)

(To be completed...)

Nathalie Sarraute, Tu ne t’aimes pas [You Don't Love Yourself, Tú no te quieres]

Sarraute, Vous les entendez ? [Do You Hear Them?, ¿Los oye usted?]

The title… Do You Hear Them? The question comes from the children's father, who sits a floor below with an old friend… “De pronto se interrumpe, alza la mano con el índice en alto, agudiza los oídos… –¿los oye usted?... Un enternecimiento melancólico dulcifica los rasgos de su rostro… Parecen contentos, ¿eh? Se divierten…. !Qué quiere usted, es propio de su edad!”

“Silencio. Contemplación. Miradas atentas. Admirad. ¿Cuánto tiempo deberemos aún permanecer inmóviles? ¿Cuánto nos será dado para poder escapar? ¿Acaso no hemos respetado lo suficiente las reglas de la cortesía?...”

The plot of the novel… a dinner talk between a father and his old friend about a newly purchased statue… describing the vacillations and urges of mental states...

“Seres mediocres. Sí, eso es… se siente muy débil… un ligro vértigo… como antes de perder el conocimiento…”

Structure… Scenes? One single (and simple) scene… the owner of the house and a friend, that has come after the dinner, are sitting one in front of the other one… in the kitchen of a country house (a sculpture in stone -a boring animal of rugged stone caught by the friend of the ledge of the chimney- presides, is interposed in the conversation among them)… young people that lives there gone up to be laid down (their voices, laughter goes through the walls, the doors... cease, respring up...) [el dueño de la casa y un amigo, que ha venido después de la cena, están sentados uno frente al otro en la cocina de una casa de campo (una escultura en piedra –un pesado animal de piedra rugosa cogida por el amigo de la repisa de la chimenea– preside, se interpone en la conversación entre ambos)… La gente joven que habita la casa han subido a acostarse (sus voces, risas traspasan los muros, las puertas… cesan, rebrotan…)…]

a single scene… again and again… different angles… colours… voices… are seen, heard…

“Nada más de lo que ahora en él, a través de él, entre ellos y él, se propulsa, circula, forman un solo cuerpo, son como las anillas de una serpiente que se yergue, se balancea, repta, se encarama a los muebles, a la escalera, se enrosca, se deja caer, se desenrosca, se estira, se dirige tan pronto hacia un lado como a otro…”

conflicts between…

generations…
the past and the present…

“Las risas… sin dirección, sin blanco, se expanden libremente en el vacío, en torno a ellos… chorreteadas inocentes, estallidos infantiles… aún, y aún más… Y luego, silencio…”

continual shifting between…

anger…
understanding… among the characters.

“Y de repente… da un respingo, se pone rígido, alza la cabeza… ¿oye usted?... por fin algo intacto… es suave, cimbreante, vigoroso, vivo… es propio de ellos…”

(To be completed...)

Nathalie Sarraute, Vous les entendez ? [Do You Hear Them?, ¿Los oye usted?]

Sarraute, Les Fruits d’or [The golden fruits, Las frutas de oro]

The title… Les Fruits d'Or… it is an imaginary novel.

"La tierra se abre. Enorme grieta."

A novel of a novel…

The plot of the novel… (argumento sustentado por la reacciones que suscita un libro en medios pseudointelectuales) the rise and fall of an imaginary novel ("Les Fruits d'Or")...

...acclamation,
...critic and
...oblivion
(a presage for her own work?)

also, the novel deploys a criticism of a pseudo-intellectual minority in which the couple of protagonists moves…

“Yo, lo primero que me agarré fue a esto, esto fue lo que sirvió de guía: ese aire suyo de quererse mantener a distancia…”

Structure… from the objective setting to the subconversation and to the monologue… no chapters… only different pauses.

“Su resistencia ha sido quebrantada, hasta en sus más recónditos rincones, y el agresor avanza…”

Scenes and the invented novel… a mere pretext for the description of actions of… attraction and repulsion between characters.

“Haciendo acopio de sus fuerzas, trata de desviar las maléficas ondas emitidas por ellos..”


(To be completed...)

Nathalie Sarraute, Les Fruits d’or [The golden fruits, Las frutas de oro]

Sarraute, Le planétarium [The planetarium, El planetario]

The title… Planetarium… The overall central image… The world as a planetarium… living as though in a Planetarium (protegidos por un cielo falsamente tranquilizador de la turbulencia de la realidad)…

...a miniature solar system,
...a system of planets,
...a rarefied model of the universe

in which the cohesive force is the commonplace (whose phrases order the dialogue, whose attitudes form the motivation)…
in which is revealed the disparity between the way characters see themselves and the way others see them

Narrators…
...no single narrator in Le Planétarium…
...no character possesses the first-person singular pronoun…
...instead… there is a continuous travel from one mind to another (with few ad-hoc, foreign comments outside the characters themselves and only as a fragmentary reading guide)…
...an objective narrator has been erased from the narrative.

The characters… all the characters bear names… Aunt Berthe, Alain Guimiez (her nephew), Gisèle Guimiez (Alain’s wife), Germaine Lemaire (a renowned writer), Pierre (Alain’s father),…

The plot of the novel… Aunt Berthe lives in an apartment that the newly married Alain -a young writer working on a PhD thesis- and his wife desire… Some conflicts, tensions, anxieties arise between the young couple and their surrounding context (Alain’s aunt and father, Gisèle’s parents, the tasteful embodied in Lemaire’s select circle) in order to establish themselves… his elderly aunt's apartment is merely the first (but necessary) step in their ascension…

Structure… based on 19 scenes…

Scene one (filtered through a Aunt Berthe’s particular consciousness): beginning... banal interior monologue about some curtains… she goes up the stairs… she arrives to her flat… the workers (outside for a while) have already placed the curtains but (“horror”) a small crisis rises when contemplating the door knocker and the hubcap of one of the doors... "brutes, animal, nor bit of initiative, of interest for what they do"… when going back these... "only survivor of a world brought down, alone among strange, enemies, is crossed of arms, she looked at them"… she confronted them... {Inicio… monólogo interior banal acerca de unas cortinas (mientras sube las escaleras que dan a su piso)… llega a su apartamento… los operarios (fuera momentáneamente) ya las han colocado pero surge una pequeña crisis al contemplar el picaporte y el embellecedor de una de las puertas… “brutos, animales, ni pizca de iniciativa, de interés por lo que hacen”… al regresar estos… “única superviviente de un mundo derrumbado, sola entre extraños, enemigos, se cruza de brazos, los mira”… les hace frente…}

Scene two: a gathering at the home of Gisèle Guimiez' parents… consecutive narrators… Alain’s conversation point outs the ridicule of his aunt… Gisèle mother's thoughts reveal that the young couple rejected the gift of a pair of leather simple chairs since they want a Louis XV bergère…

Scenes 16 and 17: A crucial dialogue Aunt Berthe and her brother Pierre, Alain’s father, is repeated twice … (subject: Pierre is forced by his son to talk about the cession of her sister’s flat)… Scene 16: Aunt Berthe’s viewpoint… Scene 17: her brother’s… details given in both scenes are complementary since viewpoints are not just the same…


Objects… come into direct conflict with the characters. [e.g. Aunt Berthe’s interior monologue… (al inicio de la novela) sobre el “horroroso picaporte de níquel” y “el horrible embellecedor de metal blanco”]

Objects…

…are part of the action itself
…are the very substance of many obsessions, e.g. Aunt Berthe’s obsession about curtains starts the novel: “No, la verdad, por mucho que se mire, no se puede encontrar nada criticable, queda estupendo… una verdadera sorpresa, una suerte… una armonía exquisita, esta cortina de terciopelo, un terciopelo de mucho cuerpo, terciopelo de lana de primera calidad, de un verde profundo, sobrio y discreto"...
…act directly upon the characters
…are the pretext for one


What matters… "No hay forma de cambiar la auténtica manera de ser de las personas, lo que de verdad hay en el fondo acaba por salir..."


(To be completed…)

Sarraute, Le planétarium [The planetarium, El planetario]

Sarraute, Martereau [Martereau, el señor Martereau]

The title… Martereau=Marteau(Martillo, Hammer)+Martyr? unlikely combination?

The (first-person) narrator…

{first person: «le lecteur est d'un coup à l'intérieur, à la place même où l'auteur se trouve, à une profondeur où rien ne subsiste de ces points de repère commodes à l'aide desquels il construit les personnages. Il est plongé et maintenu jusqu'au bout dans une matière anonyme comme le sang, dans un magma sans nom, sans contours" ["el lector es situado de un golpe al interior, al lugar mismo donde el autor se encuentra, a una profundidad donde nada subsiste de estos puntos de indicación fáciles con ayuda de los cuales construye los personajes. Es sumergido y mantenido hasta el final en una materia anónima como la sangre, en un magma sin nombre, sin contornos."] (L'Ère du soupçon)}

a hyper-sensitive (tubercular) young man with a highly attenuated grasp on his reality as an individual, obsessed in finding out what lies behind façades

(fascinated by the movements of the subterranean world that surrounds him… he enjoys observing them)…

His field of observation… the field in which he is himself a participant (people around him):

1. (as an actual member of a family he lives with) an aunt, uncle and their daughter –all four participate in a aggressive game of continually changing liaisons-; {“la mala suerte, mi enfermedad, la que me ha llevado a su casa, la que me ha forzado a aceptar vivir con ellos, a dejarme domesticar por ellos, la que me impide que me evada”}
2. but also, and specially interested in Martereau (the only named "character" in the book) -his uncle's friend and business partner: Martereau is to buy the country house in uncle’s name.


The action of the novel… an unceasing repetitive movement of the sub-conversation.

The minimal -and unimportant- "plot" of the novel…

(the buying of a villa and the subsequent policy in order to avoid inquiries from the tax authorities regarding to the money employed for its acquisition)

supports a detailed study of the anonymous world of tropistic (and progressive) disturbance -one of a series of tropistic waves- propagated through the medium…


The narrator notices... a real character in Martereau… a strongly defined outline… a fixed solidity. Nevertheless, gradually, Martereau's solidness begins to be questioned… Doubts surround him (Martereau's suspect behavior)… Accordingly…

The dissolution of Martereau is the essence of the novel…

«se désagrègent les traits de caractère, les sentiments et les conduites bien connus, recensés et catalogués qui faisaient apparaître Martereau comme un personnage type du roman traditionnel. » {“…se disgregan los rasgos de carácter, los sentimientos y las conductas muy conocidas, contadas y catalogadas que hacían aparecer Martereau como un personaje tipo de la novela tradicional.”} (Nathalie Sarraute, « Ce que je cherche à faire » -«Lo que intento hacer»-, 1972)

… dando paso entonces a un estudio profundamente realista de la vida impersonal [study of the impersonal life].

"No por casualidad encontré a Martereau. No creo en los encuentros fortuitos... Siempre busqué a Martereau. Siempre lo llamé. Es su imagen -ahora lo sé- la que siempre me ha atormentado bajo diversas formas..."

(To be completed...)

Sarraute, Martereau [Martereau, el señor Martereau]

Sarraute, Portrait d’un Inconnu [Portrait of a Man Unknown, Retrato de un desconocido]

(an "anti-roman"... tiene la virtud de deshacer la forma de la novela tradicional: few people are given names... there is an absolute minimum of action)

The title… refers to a Flemish painting by an unknown painter (citado por el narrador en una conversación mantenida en un museo con ella -la hija- casi al final de la novela): The Man in the Doublet [El hombre del chaleco]. {"hay algo en ese retrato... una angustia... como un llamamiento..."}

A (first-person) narrator… also the main character [protagonista]… a neurotic, fragile –nameless and vague himself, of indefinite age, appearance and social class- narrator who is himself a character in his novel…

{already introduced in Tropism no. XXII: “when he noticed their looks behind himself observing him [...] gave some crossings with three fingers of the right hand, three times three, the real effective gesture of the spell […] The objects also mistrusted a lot of him [...] had the erased face, anonymous [...] Only from time to time [...] he was allowed to go out [...] and there he looked through a clear glass a room [...] where warm, full, plenty of a mysterious density, there were objects that threw him some lots -also to him, although he was unknown and foreign- of their shine... (quand… regards en l'observant… des objets se méfiaient… avaient le visage effacé, anonyme… de temps en temps… il regardait à travers un cristal…où chargés d'une mystérieuse densité, il y avait des objets que lui lançaient parcelles -aussi à lui, bien que dehors ignoré et étranger- de leur éclat…)}

The narrator slowly…

unravels the minimal plot (investigando a -tras las huellas de-…)
presents the nameless characters (un padre y su hija)
describes the inaction
quotes conversation and sub-conversation: stereotyped words or phrases (speak in cliché) that cloak their solitude and their individuality

The novel employs…

repetitive imaginary -serialization of places and names-:

fragmentary phases and gestures of the earlies pages are repeated
(aunque cuando reaparecen más adelante sirven como detonantes de monólogos interiores o de escenas narrativas)

repetitive also means:

-multiple references to a “shell”;

-numerous uses of descriptive adjectives as “hard”, “smooth”, “solid”, “bottom”, “hole”, “void”;

-many instances of verbs denoting the idea of clinging to, holding on to;

-use of lists of spare parts (animal attributes, alone or in conjunction with a specific animal reference)

Sarraute, Portrait d’un Inconnu [Portrait of a Man Unknown, Retrato de un desconocido]

Sarraute’s aesthetics

1. No existen historias que contar, hay que evitarlo. Focus on presenting precise, objective narratives… episodic in nature.


2. No importa la acción concreta, sólo los preliminares que la preceden.


3. Use of anonymous types; Uso perpetuo de un microscopio psicológico para mostrar de forma aumentada una realidad tensa, torpe y trivial; to abandon the traditional building blocks of storytelling for reconfiguring fiction at the microscopic level.


4. Texts driven by dynamics between tropism and the commonplace; búsqueda de un tema básico: tropismos (amalgam of fiction, prose poem, essay and diary): movimientos subterráneos, impulsos, vibraciones imperceptibles, que subyacen a la conversación, inconfesados y apenas conscientes, impresiones innombrables que constituyen la realidad interior de los humanos y que modifican las relaciones entre estos.

Sarraute’s aesthetics

L'Oeuvre de Nathalie Sarraute

1. Tropismes, roman (Denoël, 1939 ; nouvelle version, revue et augmentée, Minuit, 1957).


2. Portrait d’un inconnu, préface de Jean-Paul Sartre, roman (Robert Marin, 1949 ; Gallimard, 1956 et « Folio » n°942, 1977).


3. Martereau, roman (Gallimard, 1953 et « Folio » n°136, 1972).


4. L’Ère du soupçon. Essai sur le roman (Gallimard, 1956 et « Folio essais » n°76, 1987).


5. Le Planétarium, roman (Gallimard, 1959 et « Folio » n°92, 1972).


6. Les Fruits d’or, roman (Gallimard, 1963 et « Folio » n°390, 1973).


7. Problèmes d’une sociologie du roman, Lucien Goldmann, Georges Lukàcs, Nathalie Sarraute et al. (Presses de l’université de Bruxelles, 1963).


8. Le Silence, suivi de Le Mensonge, théâtre (Gallimard, 1967).


9. Entre la vie et la mort, roman (Gallimard, 1968 et « Folio » n°409, 1973).


10. Isma - Le Silence - Le Mensonge, théâtre (Gallimard, 1970).


11. Vous les entendez ?, roman (Gallimard, 1972 et « Folio » n°839, 1976).


12. « Disent les imbéciles », roman (Gallimard, 1976 et « Folio » n°333, 1978).


13. Théâtre. Elle est là - C’est beau - Isma - Le Mensonge - Le Silence (Gallimard, 1978 ; Le Silence, « Folio théâtre » n°5, 1993 ; C’est beau, « Folio théâtre » n°63, 2000 ; Elle est là, « Folio théâtre » n°66, 2000 ; Le Mensonge, « Folio théâtre » n°95, 2005).


14. L’Usage de la parole, nouvelles (Gallimard, 1980 et « Folio » n°1435, 1983).


15. Pour un oui pour un non, théâtre (Gallimard, 1982 et « Folio théâtre » n°60, 1999).


16. Enfance, mémoires (Gallimard, 1983 et « Folio » n°1684, 1985).


17. Paul Valéry et l’enfant d’éléphant - Flaubert le précurseur, essais (Gallimard, 1986).


18. Tu ne m’aimes pas, roman (Gallimard, 1989 et « Folio » n°2302, 1991).


19. Ici, roman (Gallimard, 1995 et « Folio » n°2994, 1997).


20. ŒUVRES COMPLÈTES: Tropismes - Portrait d'un inconnu - Martereau - Le Planétarium - Les Fruits d'or - Entre la vie et la mort - Vous les entendez ? - « Disent les imbéciles » - L'Usage de la parole - Enfance - Tu ne t'aimes pas - Ici. Théâtre : Le Silence - Le Mensonge - Isma ou Ce qui s'appelle rien - C'est beau - Elle est là - Pour un oui ou pour un non. Critique : Paul Valéry et l'Enfant d'Éléphant - L'Ère du soupçon - Flaubert le précurseur - Conférences et textes divers [1996] . Collection Bibliothèque de la Pléiade (No 432), Gallimard


21. Ouvrez, roman (Gallimard, 1997 et « Folio » n°3294, 1999).


22. Lecture, CD audio (Gallimard, « À voix haute », 1998).

L'Oeuvre de Nathalie Sarraute

Sarraute dixit

They seemed to rise up from everywhere, born in the airborne a little humid lukewarmness, they flowed slowly as if they resweated of the walls, of the trees among fences, of the benches, of the dirty sidewalks, of the small squares.

[…]

They looked long while without being moved, remained there, offered, in front of the shop windows, they always postponed the moment of moving away. And the calm children who shook hands with them, tired to look, distracted, patiently, beside them, waited.

TROPISM #1

[Automatic translation from another translation]

Nathalie Sarraute, Tropismes [Tropisms, Tropismos]

Hauer, Varèse and Wyschnegradsky: a triptych of misconceptions and refusals in contemporary music

Josef Matthias Hauer (1883, Wiener Neustadt- 1959, Wien)
Edgard Varèse (1883, Paris- 1965, New York)
Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893, Saint-Petersburg- 1979, Paris)

Hauer, Varèse and Wyschnegradsky...

three European masters of 20th century classical music (… and still very little known),

three uncompromising (re-)thinkers of music,

three true innovators in serial, electronic and quarter-tone music respectively...

who suffer rejection, indifference and isolation.

Rethinking music…

Hauer introduced twelve-note composition –and conceived two different methods for constructing dodecaphonic pieces: the technique of tropes and the twelve-note piece… compositional techniques extraordinarily various… from building-block techniques to methods using a chord series…– as a way to “regulate the psycho-physical pre-conditions for pure intuition” for “hearing the unchangeable, absolute (cosmic) music as a revelation of world order” …as a revelation of God.
Varèse’s organized sound develop the idea that certain timbres and rhythms can be grouped together for achieving a new world of sound… discovery of new sounds and methods to create them… extensive use of: unconventional instruments (Ondes Martenot, Theremins, sirens); unpitched (percussion) instruments; electronic music recorded in tapes; and, also, the 'Idée Fixe' (a recurring theme repeated certain times in his late works)... for creating a sound world of mistery and loneliness.
Wyschnegradsky saw microtonality as a way of transcendence… a mystical inclination… based on a philosophic ideal of pansonority; an unquestionable innovative… working towards a sound continuum… (i.e. the sound of an infinite number of tones, sounding simultaneously in an infinite sound continuum) rhythmical ultrachromaticism… attempting to find a correspondence between music and colors...


Problematic premières…

Some remarks from critics (1913-4) for Nomos op.1 and Apocalyptic Fantasy, op.5: "And then the symphony by Josef Hauer! That was something nobody understood; it was not music but savage mockery, a deception and a lie. Such music is in our opinion something totally unnatural, consequently it is our duty to fend it off."; "His creative activitiy deserves our attention mainly from a pathological point of view - no doubt he is a mental case"

Commotions and fights in Varèse's premières [trifulcas y peleas en los estrenos]: "a formidable fight was started in the room.. they were shaken to punches. From the beginning a terrible booing... the battle continued in the street." (Hyperprism); "I saw the end [of the work] to be synchronized with such a riot of attackers and defenders, that an improvised beauty emerged from the general blare” (Amériques); "when the first organized sounds started to play someone howled and whistle while others applaud; in the room a voice was heard: "release it!, release it!" to which another answered "catch it!, catch it!"; it was organized a riot greater to the one caused by the debut of La Sacre du Printemps in 1913" (Deserts). Some words of the critics about his works: "infernal noise", music of cats" (Bourgogne); "four minutes of noise", "roars of lion", "musical bolshevism", "noise of a house of wild animals or the accident of a factory" (Hyperprism); [Críticas de sus obras: “ruido infernal”, música de gatos” (Bourgogne); “cuatro minutos de ruido”, “rugidos de león”, “bolchevismo musical”, “ruido de una casa de fieras o el accidente de una fábrica” (Hyperprism); ]

In 21 janvier 1978, Alexandre Myrat, at the head of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, performs the world premiere of La Journée de l’Existence (1916-1939), one of Wyschnegradsky’s major works.

Late recognition? Disciples?…
Hauer… In his seventies, he received some official honours (an honorary membership of the Vienna Konzerthausgesellschaf and the major Austrian State Prize). However, history seems to relegate him to a minor, secondary position to that held by Schöenberg, Berg and Webern. His extremely individual compositions and theoretical writings have exerted little influence: Othmar Steinbauer was briefly Hauer's pupil and his own chamber concerto op.1 -dedicated to Hauer- became the starting-point for his serial music (other pupils: Victor Sokolowski, Nikolaus Fheodoroff and Johannes Schwieger); John Cage and Morton Feldman were interested in Hauer’s chance operations since he also considered the twelve-note system as an oracle as it is recorded in the I Ching… His music is strange –simple but simultaneously very complex- belonging to a rarefied, self-ordered, unimpassioned cosmos… Ses compositions orchestrales jamais ne sont accomplies (never performed); chambre compositions est considérée en concert programmes comme curiosité (regarded in programmes as a curiosity)… Beaucoup de son oeuvre reste inédit (unpublished) et attend étude sérieuse (awaits serious study)

Varèse and his works, whose tragic conception evokes a world of mystery and loneliness, have finally been recognized as one of the most remarkable contributions in the music of the 20th century. After many years of uneasiness, depression and oversight -it is enough to remember that at his 53 years he seriously thought in suicide, or when he arrived Paris in 1954 was a complete stranger: without any available recordings to the public, only Arcane available in the conservatoire and only a professor, Olivier Messiaen, commenting on his works- history has now recognized what was not given to him in life: the enormous value of an immensely original musical language. [Varèse y sus obras, cuya trágica concepción evocan un mundo de misterio y soledad, han sido finalmente reconocidas como una de las aportaciones más notables en la música del siglo XX. Tras muchos años de malestar, depresión y olvido –baste recordar que a sus 53 años y sin encontrar los cauces de su trabajo creador pensó seriamente en el suicidio, o cuando en 1954 llegó a Paris era un completo desconocido: sin grabaciones disponibles al público, sólo Arcana disponible en el conservatorio y únicamente un profesor, Olivier Messiaen, comentando su obra– la posteridad ha reconocido aquello que no le fue dado en vida: la enorme valía de un lenguaje musical inmensamente original. ] Unlike Messiaen, a Varèse's counterpoint in many things, he had very few disciples: André Jolivet (in the 30’s) and Chou Wen-chung (in the 50’s), to whom revealed only some fragmentary secrets of his highly personal way of composing.

Unlike his compatriot, and contemporary, Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) that he harvested honours, fame and money throughout his life, Wyschnegradsky, plunged in a practically total obscurantism, lived in an almost anonymous way and suffering some very modest economic conditions. His only public commission was in 1978, the year of his death (Radio-France commissioned him a String trio). At present he is a perfect stranger, and only mentioned in the books only in passing. Wyschnegradsky’s oeuvre only deserved some intermittent (and scarce) attention in the concert halls during his life, e.g. Yvonne Loriod, Pierre Boulez, Serge Nigg and Claude Helffer (among others) gave performances of some of his works in the 40’s and 50’s.
Most of his work was performed for the first time in a posthumous way and the majority remains without publishing. At present, as happens with Hauer, there are very few available recordings of his work. Disciples? Messiaen, Dutilleux and very few others were somewhat inspired by his ideas.

Start with them from scratching…

Hauer: Zwölftonspiele [HA1]

Varèse: Deserts
Chailly’s version [VAR1] (use of the definitive version of electronic tapes done at Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Centre under the supervision of Robert Craft)
Nagano’s version [VAR2] (use of the first version of electronic tapes done at Pierre Schaeffer’s Club d’Essai with the help of Pierre Henry)
Boulez’s versions [VAR3] [VAR4] (no electronic interpolations are enclosed)

Wyschnegradsky: Etude sur les mouvements rotatoires [WYS1]

[HA1] Hauer: Zwölftonspiele; Ensemble Avantgarde; MDG (Dabringhaus & Grimm)
[VAR1] Varèse: The Complete Works; Chailly, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Asko Ensemble; Decca. (Edition under the assistance of Professor Chou Wen-chung)
[VAR2] (L'Oeuvre de Edgar Varèse, Vol. 2: 1925-1961) Varèse: Densité 21.5 (For Solo Flute), Ionisation, Ecuatorial, Nocturnal, Intégrales, Déserts; Kent Nagano, Orchestre National de France, Nicholas Isherwood, Phyllis Bryn-Julson; Erato; see also: (L'Oeuvre de Edgar Varèse, Vol. 1: 1920-1927) Varèse: Ameriques, Offrandes, Hyperprism, Octandre, Arcana ; Kent Nagano, Orchestre National de France, Phyllis Bryn-Julson; Erato
[VAR3] Elliott Carter: A Symphony of Three Orchestras, Varèse: Deserts; Ecuatorial; Hyperprism; Pierre Boulez, Ensemble InterContemporain, French Radio Choir, et al.; Sony.
[VAR4] (Boulez Conducts Varèse) Varèse: Ameriques, Arcana, Deserts, Ionisation; Pierre Boulez,Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Deutsche Grammophon.
[Wys1] Ivan Wyschnegradsky: Etude sur les mouvements rotatoires, Sonate, Dialogue, Etudes sur les densités et les volumes I et II, Deux chants sur Nietzsche; Paul Méfano, Ensemble 2e2m, Sylvaine Billier, Martine Joste, Gérard Frémy, Yves Rault, Teodor Coman, Jacques Bona; 2e2m collection 1001

Further listening…

Other Hauer’s works: Apokalypti Fantasie for orchestra op.5, Romantic Fantasie for orchestra op.7, Orchestersuite Nr.7 op.48, Music film for piano op.51, Violinkonzert op.54, Piano concert op.55; available at Hauer-Homepage mit einigen sehr seltenen Aufnahmen
An interview with Wyschnegradsky: Wyschnegradsky discusses in 1976 with Charles Amirkhanian his approach to writing microtonal music, and his desire for a "chromatic revolution"; available at: archieve.org
Recent releases: 1) Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Quarter-Tone Pieces, Josef Christof & Steffen Schleiermacher, hat(now)ART 143 [Total time 59:20, DDD, Barcode: 752156014324], 2) Ivan Wyschnegradsky: Étude sur les Mouvements rotatoires (1961), 24 Préludes dans l‘échelle chromatique diatonisée à 13 sons (1934/rév. 1960/70) ; S. Billier, M. Joste, G. Frémy, F. Tanada (pianos), Fernand Vandenbogaerde (direction); Col.legno

Further reading…

Ivan Wyschnegradsky. La loi de la pansonorité. Éditions Contrechamps, Genève, 1996, 331 pages.

Réflexion sur... life and work of outsiders

Life forever [pour la vie] focused on (which implies: concentration, dedication, insistence, persistence, intention, passion) in processes (diverse, varied, multiple).


Which processes? [¿Qué procesos?] Internal ones. Always inwards. Never external. Processes which only concerns [que no le conciernen más que] to them.


Processes especially for one-self expression: dan algo a entender, explicitan algo, algo suyo [say, state explicitly something about them; il indique explicitement quelque chose sur eux] pero sólo –en primera instancia– para ellos [but only meaningful for them], because if they are real, authentic, they have to serve for explaining them who they are (and nothing more that that).

Así [Hence], se generan desde dentro per se, no para exhibirse ante nadie, tampoco para perseguir desesperadamente el aplauso o la comprensión de nadie [to not be exhibited before anybody, either to intend desperately the applause or the understanding of anybody; non pour s'exhiber devant quelqu'un, non plus pour poursuivre désespérément l'applaudissement ou la compréhension de quelqu'un], aunque a veces (y paradójicamente) pareciera que los buscaran.

Outsider artist (in modern societies), who not have or refuse formal training (autodidact-as)

(s)he who falls between all stools –nada entre dos aguas–and outside all trends –al margen de todas las tendencias–

(s)he who is immediately considered to be dealt with a psychiatrist rather than critics [ser tratado por un psiquiatra más que por los críticos; être traité par un psychiatre de plus que par les critiques].

(s)he who suffers (knowing that it is just the obverse of genius;
sachant que c'est simplement la face du génie) the struggle of solitary careers, suspicion, refusal, indifference, loneliness, instability.

(s)he who create delicate, complex (sound, visual, narrative) worlds which are (almost) always rejected, misunderstood.

…isolated, visionaries… capaces de intuir, de desvelar caminos a la postre frecuentados [chemins en fin de compte fréquentés]

...nacidos del conflicto interno (nés du conflit; born out of internal conflict)

…[lonely] francotiradores

…iconoclasts(who destroyed icons=any well established form)
…outside history

…with the courage of doing (of living) alone and destitute [en la indigencia, miseria]

…considered as undisciplined, almost crazy people when the reality is just the opposite: they are highly focused, deliberated artists/thinkers channeled into complex formal structures (universal models) which serve them as a way to constrain their unlimited spontaneity, fierce instinct, primal [primaire]
(or even primitive) quality, violence and torment [et tourment].

…escape from luxury traps

Works, highly personal to be continued by anyone, to form a school or movement, to have disciples and followers; obras, fruto de una aguda [fruit of an acute] interiorización de sus experiencias [of their experiences], sin posibilidad de ulterior desarrollo [without
possibility of further development].

Réflexion sur... life and work of outsiders

Outsider?

Outsider, one who is either on the periphery of social norms (el que está fuera, celui qui est en dehors, a person who does not belong to a particular group) or an observer peering with independence in character and thought;

also… il désigne une personne dont les opportunités de victoire sont très minces (i.e. a contender not expected to win);

also… a person who is not native to or known to a community (un desconocido, un étranger).

20th century outsiders: post-mortem digressions

A bi-monthly rarafilia multilingual bulletin

“All interpretation... not only must be able to extract of the text the thing which one is, but without insisting on it, inadvertently, it has to be able to add something own originating of his own thing. This adding is what the profane one, measuring it respect to which, without interpretation, considers the content of the text, necessarily censures like a strange intervention and an abuse.”/“Toda interpretación… no sólo tiene que poder extraer del texto la cosa de que se trata, sino que, sin insistir en ello, inadvertidamente, tiene que poder agregar algo propio proveniente de su propia cosa. Este añadido es lo que el profano, midiéndolo respecto de lo que, sin interpretación, considera el contenido del texto, censura necesariamente como una intervención extraña y una arbitrariedad.” Martin Heidegger, Nietzsches Metaphysik (1940)

Vol. I Year 2007

Question marks, interrogantes, interrogations

No.1 (Jan-Feb) Novel? Nathalie Sarraute (1900-1999)
No.2 (March-April) Music? Iannis Xenakis (1922-2001)
No.3 (May-June) Painting? Chaim Soutine (1894-1943)
No.4 (July-Aug) Philosophy? Émile Michel Cioran (1911-1995)
No.5 (Sep-Oct) Movie? John Cassavettes (1929 -1989)
No.6 (Nov-Dec) Sculpture? Alberto Giacometti (1901- 1966)