Folke Rabe: What?? 1 & 2
Liner notes from the dexter's cigar CD, dex 12, which are the same as in the
original, German vinyl issue on Wergo WER 60047.
Folke Rabe: Micromusic and Macromusic
My interest in the makeup of various sound phenomena began many years ago. The
basic physical preconditions were familiar to me, but I wanted to experience
the components of the sound with my hearing. I attempted to "hear into"
the different sounds in order to grasp the components that made them up. I experienced
how the overtones in a tone sounded on the piano change slowly as they die away.
I also attempted to grasp the brittle arpeggio of formants that arises when
a vowel is slowly changed at a particular pitch. I also tried, as far as possible,
to train my hearing to tease out the complex processes that occur at the origin
of a sound.
At the same time as this listening, I was concerned with monotony. My first
feeble attempts yielded little; later, more systematic repetitions led to new
findings. I found methods by which the transitoriness of sound could to some
extent be compensated. Small details and micro-variations between the repeated
elements that would not have been noticed in a context richer in contrast then
came to the fore. Extended sounds that change and move into one another very
slowly have a similar effect.
Hobby experiments of the sort described, as I conducted them, are of course
primitive from a theoretical point of view. But this basic experience was exactly
what was important to me.
The musical field indicated here is perhaps somewhat foreign to Western musical
tradition. In other living cultures it is entirely relevant. This state of affairs
is, I believe, connected with the development of musical notation. As this method
of fixing sound developed, all the subtler qualities of pitch, sound, and time
relationships had to be leveled off. On the other hand, systems of notation
first made possible meaningful musical constructions. This fact compensated
for the loss just described, making possible the great tradition of European
music.
In Western composition, intervals, rhythms, and tone color - to the extent that
they eluded notation - were subordinated to a philosophical idea, or at least
a motivic/formal one. The sounding fact as such retreated into the background,
and the West, in ethno-centric self-idolization, erected its own cultural tradition
(be it Beethoven or Coca-Cola) as an example to the world.
But there are in the world many fields of music in which the qualitative element
grows from the immediate sound. In such music, one looks in vain for formal
elements in the Western sense; this music may thus seem primitive, senseless,
or even provocative. In reality, however, these are two different possibilities
of musical organization.
Indian musicians said to me that Western music is certainly good music, but
they found its technique of phrasing incomprehensible. "The music always
breaks off before it has begun."
What "What??" means: As you will hear, What?? is constructed from
harmonic sounds. These sounds move into one another by means of enharmonic melding
of the partials. I chose harmonic sounds because a pleasing richness results
from them, but more particularly because the partials reinforce one another
through their inner hierarchy, and can thereby produce certain illusions.
I chose the extended, seemingly endless form in order to enable peaceful journeys
of discovery in the sound, but also in order to work with this particular material.
Electronic devices have no muscles. "Breathing" expressiveness is
contrary to their nature; their characteristic quality is an enormous, tireless
endurance.
About 85 % of the material is made up of electronically generated tones, which
however are never present in their static original form. Each partial has been
specially treated in itself, which can at times yield a very rich result.
What?? was created in the late summer of 1967, and was realized by me in the
electronic music studio of the Swedish Radio. The piece was presented for the
first time in the same year as part of a collective evening performance ("Signery")
in the Stockholm Radio Hall by Jan Bark, Bo Anders Persson, and myself.
FOLKE RABE, 1970
(translation: Jeb Bishop)
The second What?? is the same as the first, but at half speed, i.e. one octave
lower. This may seem a lousy way to fill up a CD, but in fact through the years
I have been using both versions in performances. With the kind of sound material
used in What??, it does not simply sound half-speed. In a way it becomes another
piece of music - mellower, and the single events of course easier to distinguish.
FOLKE RABE, 1997
P.S. September 23, 2006:
I have sometimes been asked how the respected German record label Wergo got
the information about this piece of electroacoustic music composed by an unknown
composer far up in the remote North. As a matter of fact, György Ligeti
was the intermediary link.
Ligeti was a guest professor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in the
1960s. I enjoyed having him as a teacher through the early years of the decade.
Later I became his assistant during his lecturing sessions in Stockholm. In
1968 I had left the college but I got in touch with him on one of his visits
to Stockholm. I asked him if he would like to listen to my most recent composition
”What??”. He listened intensely during the entire 25 minutes duration.
Then he said: ”I believe this is one of the most consequent pieces among
those of its kind. I would be happy to advice Wergo to put it on disc.”
After a couple of months I received a letter from Wergo saying that they were
interested in publishing an LP with ”What??”.
I can imagine other prominent composers in the Central European establishment
who would not have been that generous, but Ligeti was different.
F R
N.B.
If you look among the texts under the menu "Articles" you will find
a detailed essay "On What??", about the piece and how it is constructed.
FR