1982_04 Hye Sharzhoom Newspaper April 1982

              Page 4
Hye Sharzhoom
April 1982
Music
THE PARADOXICAL STATE OF THE
AVANT-GARDE AND CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN
By Michelle Tuck
The term avant-garde is loaded with
paradoxical premises. It is at once static
and concrete, i.e., one can point to a piece
of art and if one has an understanding of
What falls into the stylistic confines of the
avant-garde on a collective level, then one
can readily discern whether or not that
given piece of art can be catagorized as
being of the avant-garde.
Yet when considered in a thoroughly
historical perspective, the avant-garde is
anything but static and concrete. Rather,
the avant-garde becomes a term for a
concept that is firmly embedded in relativity. It is a term for which the definition
is constantly changing. It appears that
what is considered to be avant-garde one
day, becomes transformed via the absorption into the ever-changing currents of
mainstream art, into what is considered
critically to be "standard" or "normal" in
regards to artistic expression. In other
words, what is thought to be avant-garde
one day becomes in time a standard for a
new level of artistic creativity to surpass.
For example, Johann Sabastian Bach
was thought to be avant-garde by his
contempories when he developed his revolutionary concept of counterpoint. Nowadays, as anyone can quickly show, counterpoint, an avant-garde concept for the
18th century, is a fundamental part of
modern music from Stravinsky to McCoy
Tyner to the Rolling Stones.
Thisiphenomenonof the avant-garde can
be seen with the work of any artist whose
vision goes beyond the ordinary. I am
clearly implying the more extrinsic
meaning of the critical term avant-garde. I
feel, especially when interpreting genres of
music, that the term avant-garde must go
beyond being mere nomenclature for a
specific historical movement. Since musical development more than any other
artistic form is evolutionary, it is instrin-
sically fixed to the concept of a technical
continuum. One can have a completely
unprecedented school of painting or
poetry, a school that is centered around a
style that is directly tied to the social
millieu of the day; a movement that totally
exists apart from any previous movement,
yet with music it is different., I have yet to
find any type of music that does not use
some previous genre as a base for what is
trying to be achieved. Whenever an artist
(musician) utilizes his developmental background to interpret his world in new and
unfamiliar ways, he then joins the ranks of
the avant-garde.
By utilizing one's creative background,
one accepts the theory that any new
movement is born out of a sense of
antagonism against tradition. In fact, it is
precisely this sense of antagonism that is
absolutely necessary to force the artist to
look at traditional methods in a new light.
This antagonism provides the base for
creativity. Malraux in his Psychologie de
I'Art acutely perceived this: "... the artist
defines himself by breaking away from
what precedes him..."
Charles Amirkhanian is an artist whose
musical vision clearly surpasses the ordinary. He is a musician who is firmly,
implanted in the Avant-garde, his forte
being "text-sound composition."
Briefly defined, texUsound composition is a type of music where the voice is
used as a percussive instrument. This is
done through the repetition of words
chosen for their inherent rhythmic qualities. To further emphasize the fundamental rhythm of the words, a layering of
the speech patterns, creating a slight echo
effect via electronic means is used. The
end result is a cross between conversation
and song. Thus creating a state of forced
juxtapositioning of random, if not alien
elements (the choice of words themselves)
which make up afHarbitrary harmony that
is completely dependent on the interrelationship within the framework of each
piece (song).
In 1979 Charles Amirkhanian released
an album containing a collection of some
of his text-sound compositions on the
Berkeley label, 1750 ARCH RECORDS.
The album, LEXICAL MUSIC contains
six examples of text-sound composition.
With one piece titled MAHOGANY
BALLPARK (the title was chosen for its
aural quality), one sees that by repeating
what on the surface appears to be random
words like: Sparce, limit, pace, pulse,
infirmand territory, among others, over a
background of seashore sounds, children
at play, and the inside of public buildings,
the effects come together to create a
heightened awareness of both indoor and
outdoor spaces. There is no undercurrent
of harmony in the traditional sense in this
or for that matter, in any of the other
pieces in the album, yet the sense of
harmony that the listener does indeed
extract from the pieces is intrinsic to the
listener's own personal interpretation of
the text. This leads to another paradox of
the Avant-garde.
Historically, before the 1920s, the impetus was towards programmatic music
that is inspired by and in turn, suggestive
of an extra-musical idea. For example, in
pieces like Debussy's REFLECTIONS IN
WATER, the listener is basically told
what to imagine.
With the advent of the 1920s and
composers like Schonberg, came a totally
different trend. This trend was aimed at a
music that was devoid of imagery. This
was a reaction to the subjective quality of
Romantic and Impressionistic music.
Schonberg himself felt that the apex of
Romanticism had been attained by Wagner, and now it was time to venture off
into another direction, the opposite direction, towards pure and objective music.
Even more recently, in France, Richard
Pinhas the innovator of-electronic (synthetic) music, stated in a 1977 interview:
"Above all else. I want to create 'cold'
music, a music that is as cold and as
beautiful as a block of ice...a music to
which it would be impossible to stick
images."
The paradoxical element in modern
music, be it the twelve-tone system of
Schonberg, or the synthetic music of
Pinhas or even the text-sound composition of Amirkhanian, is that whenever the
goal is to create a pure state of abstraction, one ends up creating the complete
opposite; the music becomes fixed to a
much more subjective state than any programmatic composer could ever dream of attaining.
Amirkhanian does this with his compositions like SEATBELT SEATBELT. Only
the phrase "seatbelt seatbelt" is repeated
over and over. What could be more objective, on the surface anyway? Yet after the
listener starts to listen to the same words
in repetition, the listener loses consciousness of the words themselves, only catching the rhythmic quality. What happens is
that the listener's private imagery comes
to the forefront.
In another piece on thealbum. M UCH-
ROOMS, the phrase: "Bad "n bad 'n too
bad" is repeated, creating, once the listener has made the leap of consciousness
away from the meaning of the words
themselves, an extremely soothing, melodic atmosphere, almost akin to a lullaby.
The phrase keeps coming back, wave-like,
sweeping over the listener's perceptions.
As for the subjective quality of each
piece, it is very intense. It seems that the
more abstract the piece, the more atavistic
it becomes. The more abstract, the closer
it comes to primitive forms. In a piece
titled MUG1C (the title coming from the
joining of the words 'magic' and 'music'),
no words are used, only a series of grunt
and groan-like sounds along with the aid
of a synthesizer. At first, the listener may
feel lost, but soon after the initial shock
has abated, the listener becomes conscious
of the primitive quality of the piece, very
much in pace with a lot of non-western
music, especially that of certain African
tribes. In fact, one could say. that taken as
a whole, the text-sound composition music
of Amirkhanian has peeled back all the
different layers of music to get to the
organically atavistic core at the center that
all music shares..
It is rare indeed to find a composer like
Amirkhanian whose influence includes
not only fellow composers like (ieorge
Antheil and Steve Reich, but poets like
(iertrude Stein, the Dadaists poets led of
course, by Tristan Tzara, and the founder
of Merze Poetry, Kurt Schwitters to name
but a few. After listening to Amirkhan-
ian's work, this should come as no great
surprise. As a percussionist with a degree
*in English, Amirkhanian has been successful in bringing out the emphasis of the
link between rhythm and language. This
emphasis is underscored in the works of
all of the poets listed; it isn't so much
language that is important, but rather, the
sound of language.
For example, in the poetry of Kurt
Schwitters, the process of reduction is car
ried to the extreme. He placed all his
energy in showing that the primary construction units of poetry arc not words,
but letters and syllables. What counted
was how each unit interacted with each
other unit in the work. i.e.. how the units
sound with each other.
This line of thinking can be seen in
Amirkhanian's piece DL III IU DUCKS.
Perhaps the most fantastic piece on the
album, phrases like "Dutiful, the draino
ducks collide—and mercy—gather collide
like—fancy tension—scoundrel—beautiful
dutiful ducks." The relationship of the
sounds of the words, the alliteration, and
the rhythm is where one derives their
value.
Another source of influence lor Charles
Amirkhanian can be found where lie
works. Since 1969 he has been the Music
Director of KPFA(Paeifica) In Berkeley.
When he first started editing his announce
tapes at the station he was really attracted
to making recorded pieces. Before working at KPFA. while still living in Fresno,
he had done some speech quartet pieces in
which four speakers read texts in rhythmic coordination. It was the sophisticated
level of the technology at KPFA that led
him to create more developed extensions
of his earlier works.
Even the artist does not escape the,
paradoxical quality of the Avant-garde.
When asked whether or not he views his
work with text-sound composition as a
reaction against more traditional forms of
music. Amirkhanian replied that he does
not. Rather, it is a personal extension of
traditional music with elements from non-
traditional works. The paradoxical quality of this relates back to the element of
relativity. At the start, movements like
Dadaism. Mer/e Poetry, or the poetics of
Gertrude Stein were direct reactions
against what was then perceived as "bourgeois art." and not as extensions of traditional form.
Like all modern art forms. LEXICAL
MUSIC does prove to be very approachable, all that is needed from the listener is
a bit ol 'effort. Music or poetry or anything
of the Avant-garde requires that the listener (viewer or reader) abandon his passive state for an active role in the art itself,
lor example, anyone can see the exquisite
beauty in a painting by Kcmhrant. yet to
look at a painting by Picasso, the viewer
must become a part of the painting, the
viewer must actively seek the beauty. I he
spectator must give himself to the art in
order to get anything in return. I he same
holds true for LEXICAL MUSIC.
For those with enough sense ol the aesthetics and perhaps more important,
enough of a sense of courage to give themselves to this art. the reward will indeed, be
manifest. To quote from the I I RON
I OU manifesto (I UUOCK V.2N.6 //I4):
"The manner ol existence... deter mines the
music."
Michelle Chantal Tuck translates for EUROCh.
the magazine that^ is centered directly around
European and American progressive music forms.
She also translates for a collective of A vant-garde
musicians in France.