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Mixing with Mozart: Aesthetics and Tradition in Helmut Lachenmann's Accanto

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

ALASTAIR WILLIAMS
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Abstract

Accanto (1975–6), for clarinettist and orchestra, constitutes a turn towards historical reflection in the work of the distinguished German composer Helmut Lachenmann, providing a meeting point for the practitioner and the theorist. This article examines how Accanto's dialogue with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto relates to topics such as recording conventions, performance practices, and compositional trends, particularly in the 1970s. It also demonstrates how Lachenmann's conception of musical material is rooted in an understanding of the Western art music tradition, especially with regard to the issue of the ‘language-character’ of music. In doing so, it investigates Lachenmann's aesthetics of beauty in connection with performance practices, sociological models of musical subjectivity, and Adorno's understanding of tradition. In general, the article argues that compositional practice in Accanto is shaped in response to the situation of classical music, especially in the 1970s.

Type
Articles
Information
Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , March 2011 , pp. 71 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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References

Scores

Cage, John. Imaginary Landscape no. 4; or, March no. 2 (1951). EP6718. New York: Edition Peters, 1951.Google Scholar
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Discography and filmography

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