Mauricio Kagel
When the composer Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008) died last year, it was a great composer and a pioneer in musical theater that went away. He was born and raised in Argentina into a Jewish family of Russian and German descent who fled from Russia in the 1920s. The family was a culture interested and engaged in music and photography, and in the home kagelske talked six languages fluently.
Kagel studied music, literature and philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires, in a period of writer Jorge Luis Borges as a teacher. The renowned composer and conductor Pierre Boulez was impressed with Kagel komponisjoner and recommended him to travel to Europe to develop further. He took him at his word and went to Germany and Cologne in 1954. Here, he lived for most of his adult life. 20 years later, in 1974, he became professor of musical theater at the Music Academy in Cologne.
Kagel musical has several similarities with both the absurd theater, physical theater. The actors are instructed to use specific facial expressions and to enter the stage and interact physically with other actors in very specific ways. Often the behavior and ways of being and communication, or lack of it, which is the subject of his works. State Theater (1971) is a type of opera called “ballet for non-dancers” where arts opera and ballet, even the theme of the work.
The physical space and concrete, non-musical situations toys Kagel also with the other pieces. In Con Voce (years?) Miming a masked trio that they play instruments, while the Match (1964) is a tennis game for cellists where a percussionist acts as judge.
Whether composing Kagel said that “absolute and non-absolute music can only be distinguished from each other until a certain point. A search of infallible security here leads to confusion. While I mix all the time absolute and narrative music, and always has je provide concrete mind the impression of emotional states that are far from being absolute. Music is a real art form. “
Here he is possibly built on a core of his work as a composer. Many have noted Kagel penchant for ambiguity in their works, and some attribute this to his multi-cultural identity and the experience of being seen as a European in South America, but as a søramerikaner in Europe. In an interview with the magazine Lettre in 2000, he says, “I am interested in ambiguity. Not because I’m a fan of ambiguity, but because it is an essential feature of the world around us. “
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