hans
joachim
koellreutter
the musical
revolutions
of a Zen master
emanuel dimas de melo pimenta
Hans Joachim Koellreutter
the musical revolutions of a Zen master
emanuel dimas de melo pimenta
2010
first edition, 2010
www.emanuelpimenta.net
www.asa-art.com
All Rights Reserved. No text, picture, image or part of this publication may be used for commercial purposes or
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publisher. In case of permitted use, the name of the author, artist or photographer must be always included.
Philosophy is not a gala dinner, neither a guide to good manners or
an antidepressant panacea. Philosophy is a battle, a face-to-face with
our intimate and ultimate challenges: the sake of truth and of lie, the
morality test, the fire of love, the challenge to survive. In the ring, two
heavyweight of thought: Socrates, the inventor of a Western and uprooting wisdom (…) Heidegger, philosopher and nazi, and paradoxically revered in all universities all over the world, died in his bed. Two
ways to exist and to think, two irreconcilable commitments.
André Glucksmann
in memory of Roti Nielba Turin
Introduction
Oswad de Andrade’s Manifest
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3
4
5
6
7
8
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10
11
12
13
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15
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17
Aesthetics
20th Century Music
Brief Bibliography
Index of names
Brief biography of the author
copyrights
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7
38
76
110
141
170
214
239
262
298
321
341
378
405
426
459
482
524
541
593
617
619
625
629
I was barely twenty years old when I began studying
with Hans Joachim Koellreutter. Quickly we became friends
for life.
In 1983 I promised him that I would write a book
about his life – but it only should be made after his death, he
obliged me to promise.
Five years ago, Koellreutter disappeared. This year of
2010 he would be ninety-five years old.
This book starts with a manifesto by the great Brazilian
writer and thinker Oswald de Andrade, which, although
written ten years before Koellreutter’s arrival in Brazil,
illustrates the intellectual environment that fascinated him.
It ends with a thought of the Swiss philosopher René Berger,
wrote in the early twentieth first century. Nearly a century
separates the two thoughts.
Then there are two of his courses annotated by me
in 1981 – Introduction to Aesthetics and Panorama of the
Twentieth Century Music. Those courses were structured on
thoughts, punctual elements, which triggered debate and
reflection. Thus, it is not a descriptive and linear text.
This book is dedicated to the memory of Roti Nielba
Turin, genial master, important personage in the semiotic
world and beyond, my teacher and of many more, combated
by her peers, she also is always unforgettable.
This is a book written from notes and memory. So, it
also happens in leaps. It is just a small gesture of love to a
great and unforgettable teacher and friend.
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta
New York 2010
Oswald de Andrade
Anthropophagic Manifest
1928
Only anthropophagy unites us. Socially. Economically.
Philosophically.
The unique law of the world. Masked expression of
all individualisms, of all collectivisms. Of all religions. Of all
peace treaties.
Tupi, or not Tupi that is the question.
Against all catechizations. And against the mother of
the Gracchi.
I am only interested in what is not mine. Law of human.
Law of the anthropophagus.
We are tired of all the suspicious Catholic husbands
put in drama. Freud finished off the woman-enigma and
other dreads of printed psychology.
What trampled over truth was the cloth, the
impermeable between the inner and the outer world. Reaction
against the dressed human. American movie will inform.
Children of the sun, mother of the living. Fiercely met
and loved, with all the hypocrisy of nostalgia, by immigrated,
slaves and tourists. In the country of the big snake*.
That is because we never had grammars or collections
of old vegetable. And we never knew what was urban,
suburban, frontier and continental. Lazy people on the world
map of Brazil.
A participating consciousness, a religious rhythmic.
Against all importers of canned consciousness. The
palpable existence of life. And the study of pre-logical
mentality left to Mr. Levy-Bruhl study.
We want the Carahiba revolution. Bigger than the
French Revolution. The unification of all effective revolts
toward human. Without us, Europe would not even have its
poor human rights declaration.
The golden age announced by America. The golden
age. And all the girls.[2]
Filiation. The contact with Carahiban Brazil. Oú
Villegaignon print terre. Montaigne. The natural human.
Rousseau. From the French Revolution to Romanticism, to
the Bolshevist Revolution, to the Surrealist Revolution and to
the Keyserling’s technicized barbarian. We walk on.
We were never catechized. We live through a
somnambular Law. We made Christ born in Bahia. Or in
Belém do Pará.
But we never admitted the birth of logic among us.
Against Father Vieira. Who made our first loan, for a
fee. The illiterate king had told him: put this on paper, but
be not too crafty. So the loan was made. Brazilian sugar
was taxed. Vieira left the money in Portugal and brought us
craftiness.
The spirit refuses to conceive spirit without body.
Anthropomorphism. The necessity of an anthropophagic
vaccine. For the balance against meridian religions. And
exterior inquisitions.
We can only attend to the auracular world.
We had justice as codification of vengeance. Science
as codification of Magic. Anthropophagy. The permanent
transformation of Taboo into totem.
Against the reversible world and objectified ideas.
Deadened ideas. The stop of thought when it is dynamic. The
individual victim of the system. Source of classical injustices.
Of romantic injustices. And the oblivion of inner conquests.
Scripts. Scripts. Scripts. Scripts. Scripts. Scripts.
Scripts.
The Carahiban instinct.
Death and life of hypotheses. From the I-equation as
part of the Kosmos to the Kosmos-axiom as part of the self.
Subsistence. Knowledge. Anthropophagy.
Against plantlike elites. In communication with the
soil.
We were never catechized. We made Carnival instead.
The Indian dressed up as senator of the Empire. Pretending
to be Pitt. Or featuring in Alencar’s operas full of good
Portuguese feelings.
We already had communism. We already had the
surrealist language. The golden age.
Catiti Catiti.
Imara Notiá.
Notiá Imara.
Ipejú.
Magic and life. We had the roster and the distribution
of physical goods, of moral goods, of dignity goods. And we
knew how to transpose mystery and death with the aid of
some grammatical forms.
I asked a man what Law was. He answered it was the
assurance of the exercise of possibility. That man was called
Galli Matias. I ate him.
There is no determinism only where there is mystery.
But what do we have to do with that?
Against the stories of the human that start at Cape
Finisterre. The undated world. The non-rubricated world.
Without Napoleon. Without Caesar.
The fixation of progress by means of catalogues and
television sets. Only machinery. And blood transfusers.
Against antagonistic sublimations. Brought over in
caravels.
Against the truth of the missionary peoples, defined by
the sagacity of an anthropophagous, the Viscount of Cairu:
– It is a lie repeated over and over.
But who came were not crusaders. There were fugitives
from a civilization we are eating up, because we are as strong
and as vengeful as the land turtle.
If God is the consciousness of the Uncreated Universe,
Guaraci is the mother of the living. Jaci is the mother of
plants.
We had no speculation. But we had divination. We had
Politics that is the science of distribution. And a planetarysocial system.
Migrations. The escape from boring states. Against
urban scleroses. Against Conservatories, and speculative
boredom.
From William James to Voronoff. The transfiguration
of Taboo into totem. Anthropophagy.
The paterfamilias and the creation of the Stork Fable:
Actual ignorance of things + lack of imagination + authoritative
feeling before the curious progeny. It is necessary to start
from a profound atheism in order to arrive at the idea of God.
But the Carahiba did not need. Because they had Guaraci.
The created objective reacts like the Fallen Angels.
Then Moses divagates. What do we have to do with that?
Before the Portuguese had discovered Brazil, Brazil
had discovered happiness.
Against the torch-bearing Indian. The Indian son to
Mary, godson to Catherine de Medicis and son-in-law to Don
Antonio de Mariz.
Joy is the acid test.
In the matriarchy of Pindorama.
Against Memory as source of the habit. The renewed
personal experience.
We are concretists. Ideas take hold, react, burn people
in public squares. Let us suppress ideas and other paralyses.
For scripts. To believe in signs, to believe in instruments and
stars.
Against Goethe, the mother of the Gracchi, and the
Court of Don John VI.
Joy is the acid test.
The struggle between what one might call Uncreated
and the Creature – illustrated by the permanent contradiction
of human and his Taboo. The quotidian love and the capitalist
modus vivendi. Anthropophagy. Absorption of the sacred
enemy. To transform him into totem. The human adventure.
The earthly finality. However, only pure elites managed to
realize carnal anthropophagy, which carries in itself the
highest meaning of life and avoids all the ills identified
by Freud, the ills of catechism. What happens is not a
sublimation of sexual instinct. It is the thermometric scale
of anthropophagic instinct. Once carnal, it turns elective and
creates friendship. If affective, love. If speculative, science.
It deviates, it transfers itself. We reach vilification. Low
anthropophagy agglomerated into the sins of catechism
– envy, usury, calumny, murder. Plague of the so-called
cultured and Christianized peoples, it is against it we are
acting. Anthropophagi.
Against Anchieta singing the eleven thousand virgins
of heaven, in Iracema’s land – the patriarch João Ramalho
founder of São Paulo.
Our independence was not proclaimed yet. Typical
phrase of Don John VI: – Son, put the crown on thy head
before some adventurer doeth it! We expelled dynasty. It is
necessary to expel the Braganza spirit, the rule and the snuff
of Maria da Fonte.
Against the clothed and oppressive social reality,
recorded by Freud – reality without complexes, without
madness, without prostitutions, and without the penitentiaries
of the matriarchy of Pindorama.
OSWALD DE ANDRADE
In Piratininga.
Year 374 of the Swallowing of Bishop Sardinha.
In: Revista de Antropofagia [Journal of Anthropophagy], São Paulo, 1,
May 1928.
Based on the English translation by Maria do Carmo Zanini in 2006
*
Tupi is an extinct language, spoken by the Tupinamba people, which
was one of the main ethnic groups of Brazilian indigenous people. Scholars
believe they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, but 2,900 years ago they
started to spread southward and gradually occupied the Atlantic coast.
Carahiba - From Tupi “Kara ‘ib” (wise, clever), is the name of two small
trees, Cordia calocephala and C. insignis from the family Boraginaceae tuberous, that
produces small yellow flowers and is also known as For Everything.
love.
Catiti – in the Tupi teogonia it is the New Moon, and also the emergence of
Catiti Catiti. Imara Notiá. Notiá Imara. Ipejú, in Tupi, could be translated as
“New Moon, New Moon! Blow on him rememberings about me”.
Guaraci or Quaraci (from Tupi kwara’sï, “sun”) in the Guaraní mythology is
the god of the Sun, creator of all living creatures.
Jaci (from Tupi îasy “moon”), is the goddess Moon, protector of the lovers
and of reproduction. The goddess is identified with Vishnu and Isis.
Big snake (cobra grande), also known as boiúna, is a fantastic creature from
Brazilian folklore.
Aurora Street, São Paulo, Brazil
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Music only really is music when we forget the sound
Hans Joachim Koellreutter
Late 1970.
I lived in the city of São Paulo – which already was a
megacity, then with about ten million inhabitants.
Brazil still dragged on, stubbornly, its military
dictatorship. The rivers of the city were already rotten,
stinking contaminated by debris and waste of millions of
people. The feeling, when we passed near those rivers, was
to be closer to the intestines of a gigantic animal.
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That great city already was surrounded by poor
neighborhoods and slums.
There was, as always, a scenario of profound contrasts.
Wonderful people, violent people, fabulous intellectuals,
illiterate unscrupulous entrepreneurs, genius businessmen
like José Mindlin – who also was a renowned book collector
– artists and thinkers, cheap thieves, gangsters.
That world was an anthropophagic amorphous jelly,
where the figure of Macunaíma – the anti hero, the ignorant
well succeeded cheap thief personage created by the writer
Mario de Andrade – was present everywhere, from the street
vendor to the owner of a large industry.
But with that light amorphous figure of Macunaíma,
hero without character, everyone could do anything.
Everything was light and bright, like the fascination of anyone
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in front to total diversity.
Along years I often visited the house of a family of
French origin, the D’Elboux – who were like my own family.
They lived in a small but beautiful house designed by the
famous architect Carlos Milan. That house was probably his
last project.
It was a modern house, entirely built with apparent
concrete, with large sheets of glass, colored doors, gigantic
trees around, and the always-opened front door. That house
became a meeting point for intellectuals and artists.
Everything there was extremely refined. A small but
interesting contemporary artwork collection on the walls –
and even the furniture were artworks found at the Biennale
or art galleries. In that house I had my first meeting with
Claude Lévi-Strauss’ works.
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Like a paradox, urban violence had already invaded
everything with its blind animal voracity – especially in large
cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro – but it was nothing
comparable with the one erupted few years later.
In 1977 I was nineteen years old and received the
Brazilian Marketing Award, awarded by the Brazilian
Association of Marketing, together with the great poet, writer
and journalist Jorge Medauar – an unforgettable friend with
whom I have learned countless things.
Many times, one of the advantages of that world was
to have no differences in age. Medauar was about forty years
older than me, but we were the same age.
Years before, when I was fourteen, my parents told
me that, surely, I would become an artist, that practically
all artists were poor, that many among them did not like to
work and that, therefore, I was immediately obliged to start
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making money.
After some time, I started working on marketing and
communication. Thus, I would receive the Brazilian marketing
prize in 1977.
About two years before I began studying flute, history
of music, music theory and harmony among several other
disciplines with different teachers of music.
I started relatively late, because everything should
always be hidden from my family, who did not admit even
the possibility of hosting a musician, artist or intellectual in
its space.
For several months, I left work late afternoon and went
– no one noticing at home – to the downtown, to study at a
music school. It is also true that there was not great concern
about knowing where I was. This concern only happened
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when I came too late to sleep.
That music school – located at the Aurora street
– was deeply embedded inside the underground worlds of
the decrepit city center, in the back of an old house, with
cracked walls, plants everywhere, in a street made famous
because of prostitution, as if it was hidden from the planet
Earth. The vast majority of the students were old and young
jazz musicians, people of the night, poor people fighting for
something better.
People for whom the heroes were not Beethoven,
Mozart or John Cage, but Cannonball Adderley, Ornette
Coleman, Hermeto Pascoal, Egberto Gismonti, Thelonious
Monk and an ocean of musicians whose names are lost in
time.
All them were eager to learn something new every
day, a new technique, a new secret.
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There was no sign or indication that behind that small
iron gate that led us to an open corridor leading to the back
of the house, it could be a music school.
I always had the impression that it was an illegal
establishment, sinuously bypassing the bureaucratic barriers
created by authorities.
The narrow entrance that led to the back was like
an entrance to the underworld. In the street, drug dealers,
junkies, drunks, prostitutes and she males walked happily
and knew everything about the place.
The police did not exist, and in that street it was not
necessary. The place had its own law.
Contrary to what one might imagine, the level of
education in that small, marginal and hidden school, where
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only the stories guarded by its entrance could fill many books,
was one of the best I knew in different countries I have been
over the years.
There it was a unique spirit of respect, impetus,
seriousness, dedication and collaboration. Teachers or
students, all were there for pure love to music, for pure love
to knowledge.
In that place, everybody was equal, each one with his
or her instrument, each one with his or her music.
Occasionally, though rarely, an important musician
appeared. When that happened, the musician entered as an
ordinary and simple person, attending the classes with us.
Some of those teachers also worked at the best
universities in the country. But there, the program was not
established by any state. It was born from the will of the
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people.
It seems too poetic. But that’s what we felt. Being
there, it was like being in another world, free of greed, lies,
or power games.
The violence of the military in Argentina could
overcome all imaginable horrors. Hundreds of killed people.
Once, a boy from Buenos Aires appeared. His instrument was
also transversal flute. He was very skinny, very white, with
long black hair and frightened eyes. Nobody knew who were
his relatives or even his surname. He was quiet, very quiet,
as if keeping a terrible nightmare. He spent many hours
there, playing alone, away from people. As if he could finally
breathe freely. As if he had finally found a safe refuge.
No one bothered the young Argentinean. Quietly,
people pretended not to know his dramatic story and used
such deliberate ignorance to dispel any suspicion that might
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lead him to the police.
In 1979, I obtained a period of vacation in my job
and traveled with a group of people recently graduated
on geography, history, sociology and geology to the Indian
tribes Karajé and Tapirapé in southern state of Pará, in order
to understand how the aesthetic principles of space-time
happened in those societies.
As soon as I returned from that fabulous experience in
the forest, which resulted in an extensive photo essay, I went
almost directly to the United States to develop a professional
project research on marketing, in several American states.
Then, to me marketing was the knowledge of human
history, what led people to exchange, the reasons why that
action united or separated them, how brain and body worked,
the formation of ideas, communication, the chaotic order
that bundled the anthropophagic societies in large cities...
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Thus, in addition to marketing, architecture, urban
planning and the transversal flute – which also meant the
piccolo, alto and soprano flutes – I also studied tenor soprano
and alto saxophones, clarinet, violin, piano, electronic music,
concrete music, I published my first books – then on poetry
and fiction – I was an editor, art director, I took part in the
direction of a documentary film, I wrote story-boards for a
few short commercial films for television, I studied theater,
I spent a reasonable time on painting, drawings, I was a
photographer, I had my first exhibitions, I plunged inside
philosophy, I studied electronics, electricity, communication,
I adventured my soul – still touching delicately – the worlds
of physics and logic. Theory of Thought and neurology would
come later.
This frenetic madness of activities, such uncontrollable
obsession to grab whatever I could know, in its widest
diversity, would know a dramatic change some time later,
and I could not predict that.
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As soon as I returned to Brazil – I had traveled to Florida,
California, Nevada, Ohio, North Carolina and Georgia – I took
a firm and radical decision: to find the best music teacher
and, if possible, the best music teacher of the world.
Early on, certainly as genetic condition, I was a kind
of outsider, like an alien, almost an extraterrestrial. I never
liked closed groups of any kind, and this always represented
a kind of barrier that made me even more an outsider.
At that time, very fast, the world had already intensified
its glued bureaucratic structures paralyzing itself with the
appearance of an ignorant bureaucratic aristocracy and a
vast continent of non-qualified labor force.
Increasingly, everything passed to require the presence
of an intermediary.
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Curators started to be necessary for museums,
as marchands for art galleries, journalists to enable
communication with newspapers or magazines, teachers to
indicate other teachers in universities and so on.
Those who did not pertain to such a tyrannical formula,
as it was my case, usually ended up ostracized in a slow and
deep erasure.
me.
As terrible as that threat may seem, it never bothered
I have always been free; I always fought for freedom
and always paid, with pleasure, the price to be free and of
freethinking.
These so personal details, which often make people
blush, are here as part of a story and therefore are no longer
personal.
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Who would be the best teacher in the world?
I was asking around, listening to stories of musicians,
students, what other teachers said, people from other areas.
There was no Internet yet and everything had to be always
and inevitably involved in great mystery.
I began researching who had been teacher of some
important Brazilian composers.
Egberto Gismonti studied with Nadia Boulanger, but
nothing only she was too far, in Paris, as she passed away
in 1979. Hermeto Pascoal vented freely that everything he
knew had ever been learned from himself!
But gradually, step by step, the story of virtually all
other composers persistently revealed a German name:
Hans Joachim Koellreutter.
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Even older composers had been his students.
Gilberto Mendes, Júlio Medaglia, Guerra-Peixe, Claudio
Santoro, Diogo Pacheco, Edino Krieger, Clara Sverner, Isaac
Karabtchevsky, Eunice Katunda, Gilberto Tinetti, Damiano
Cozzella and Marlos Nobre among many others, had been
his students.
Beyond conductors and composers of the so-called
erudite area, there were many who were devoted to popular
music, such as Tom Jobim, Tom Zé, Nelson Aires, Paulo Moura
and a countless list of great musicians.
On the other hand, when I asked, people not always
said good things about him. Some quickly turned up their
noses, angrily, saying he was merely a deceiver, not a real
musician, but a bad teacher who mislead people, affecting
their careers.
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In one or other way, there was always an aura of great
mystery about that name.
Who was that mysterious personage? Some said he
lived in India, others in Japan, however, at that very moment, I
knew he was back to Brazil. But I did not know exactly where
or for how long.
All that was known about Hans Joachim Koellreutter
was a kind of rumor, as if the information floated volatile,
changing here and there, gossip to gossip.
That aura of mystery produced a strong wave of
intimidation in my soul.
I asked one of my teachers of history of music for help.
Although intimidated, I was determined to find a way to
contact that Professor Koellreutter, whose name few people
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could speak and hardly anyone was able to write properly.
«This guy is crazy! For him, anything is music. He is
not a musician! He is a charlatan!» – was what I heard amid
laughing of disbelief. The young professor was furious, only
because I had referred his name. Immediately, he added: «He
is a very learned man. He requires thorough training of their
students. He doesn’t accept everyone as a student. Even so,
he is not a good teacher. He has no rules, no method… I can
indicate you to another professor, with him it will be a waste
of time».
But! It was a clear contradiction. How could the German
professor be very learned, requiring a thorough training of his
students and, at the same time, to be a charlatan, a fraud?
On the other hand, when I asked how he could be a
charlatan if he had been a recognized master of so many
celebrated composers, the answer usually said that he was a
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deceiver, making only what the students wanted, for money,
that no one learned anything useful with him, because he
had no method.
According to those people, the success of some of his
students could be explained by the outcome of the work of
other teachers and to the undeniable talent of the student
that would inevitably emerge sooner or later.
Other times, his unquestionable aura was explained by
the fact that he was a “foreign”. «He is a foreigner! Brazilians
give value to people from other countries, especially those
coming from Europe or the United States... they submit
themselves to the foreign ... Here in Brazil, it is enough
to be a foreigner to be glorified» – others said, many not
disguising a good deal of disdain that came together with
those words.
Other ones preferred not even to talk about him. And
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despite all this, his name had a fabulous aura.
Of course, there were teachers that defended him,
like Maria de Lourdes Sekeff among some others, but I did
not knew her at that time, I would be her student only some
years later.
The importance of as composer and teacher was
undeniable. Nevertheless, it was extremely rare to find
articles about his work in newspapers at that time. He would
return to a more regular presence in media a few years
before his death.
In those days, late 1970, there was a remarkable
paradox: he was as famous as practically unknown.
No one could inform – or did not want – where he
taught. «He is always traveling», was another typical
response.
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When people said he was a charlatan, generally they
added: «For him everything is music, even the sound of a
pot against a wall, a scream or a car accident can be music
for him» – people commented ironically. But every time they
did, I felt he would certainly be a wonderful teacher.
Those ferocious objections reminded me those often
directed against John Cage.
Finally, I discovered where he was teaching in São
Paulo.
He taught at FAP Paulista Faculty of Arts, located in
the city center, very close to an important hospital, the
Portuguese Beneficence, relatively close to the end of the
famous Paulista Avenue and very far from where I lived.
I made a phone call to the faculty, looking for some
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information. I found that, in fact, he taught there. He came
from Rio de Janeiro, a few days a week.
The person on the other side simply added, in a laconic
and sharply way, that I should personally go to college – they
would not give any other information by phone.
I went there in the following day. At the time, my hair
was long, covering my shoulders and my beard was also
long, smooth and grew insistently down, almost never to the
sides.
When I arrived at the college, at the secretariat, the
person I met was a short black man with very shiny skin,
fast and brilliant round eyes but deeply serious as if he were
always in bad mood.
I asked to speak with Koellreutter. He asked me about
what. I told him I would like to talk to him, just that. The man
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shook negatively his head and started quick informing that
he never attended anyone.
I insisted, saying that I wanted to become his student.
The man smiled full of irony: «So, what you need is to talk to
me, not to him!» – suddenly he disappeared behind folders
and shelves full of papers.
After some large seconds, he returned bringing a big
book, black hardcover in fabric. He opened it, and I could see
the program and timetable of the teachers there, manuscript
with blue ink.
He asked for the name of the teacher who had indicated
me. I told him I had no name. No teacher had written a
recommendation letter. Exasperated, the man shook his
head again in negative tone and in sign of contempt, as if I
definitely was a lost case, and turned the pages of the book,
licking the point of the fingers, always with a very negative
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expression, as if my presence there was nothing but a big
waste of time for him.
«Professor Koellreutter has no more vacancies. He
cannot accept you as a student», he shot in a final and laconic
way.
Caput! He closed the big black book with a strong slap.
He went to the other side, quickly answered the phone, hung
up, and began to separate some papers, as if I was no longer
there.
Everything was so dry, aggressive and fast that it took
me a bit to realize that he was no longer talking to me. The
man had left me “talking alone”!
I was shocked with that attitude. «There is no vacancy?»
– I insisted, full of inconformity. «No...» – he said distantly, in
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monosyllabic way, as if talking to a ghost, and especially as if
it was a big favor, while he read in silence a newspaper article
about a football game that had happened the day before.
«So, in this case, I would like to talk personally with
him» – I replied. «Impossible» – he continued in the almost
imperceptible monotone tone that came since the beginning
– «No one talks to him». The man was now even more absent,
reading the newspaper, comfortably seated behind an old
desk.
The indifference was absolute.
That man was known as Bira, and later, over the years,
as incredible as it may seem, we had an excellent personal
relationship!
Unlike that first and so negative impression, I would
discover that he was an extremely dedicated, competent but
very informal person. In general, the students liked him very
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much.
Bira became a kind of essential reference in that
college. He was one of those personages that pass relatively
invisible and discreet through the history of the world, but
deeply marking the places where they are and those with
whom they live.
What I had interpreted as indifference and even
contempt was nothing more than the result of a nice, loose
and fluid informality.
The college was housed in an old palace built in the
late nineteenth century. It would be demolished in the late
1980s to make way for a lucrative building with dozens of
apartments.
Next to the secretariat, which operated with a counter
for general attendance, there was a flight of stairs to the
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lower floor of the old house.
I noticed that many students passed several times by
those stairs, up and down.
On the other side where I was, on the same floor, two
students – a little younger than me – were leaning against the
wall chatting as if they owned the whole time of the world.
I went to them. I asked if they knew Koellreutter. They
answered yes, of course! I asked when he would be there.
«He is here today!». I asked if they knew where he would
appear when classes ended. «The only way will be through
these stairs. He’s down there giving a class now and this is
the only way out. Everybody pass through those stairs!».
There was one more problem – I had no idea about
how he physically was.
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I asked them about how he was. «Old...» – was the
only thing they said. I insisted and I knew we were almost
the same size, I would be a little taller, thin, no beard or
mustache, and no glasses...
I asked again if they would stay there longer and if they
could show me who he was when he appeared. Laughing like
if I was a fool alien being, they finally agreed to help me.
They’d make a sign as soon as he would appear.
Disguising, I bent my thin body and sneak to pass the
balcony of the secretariat without Bira could see me.
Quietly, I walked up at the stairs and was waiting,
leaning against the wall, where I could not be seen from the
secretariat, waiting for Koellreutter.
There were about two hours patiently leaning against
the cold wall.
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As always, I had a book with me. I took to read while
waiting. Many students passed me by. Some looked curious.
At times, I came to fear being discovered by Bira.
It was not easy to be against the wall during that
endless time, which seemed even bigger with me squeezed
there, hidden from the sharp and smart looks of that young
man working at the secretariat.
Then, after more than two hours with the irritated
straight body, motionless like a fakir, when the pain of fatigue
had definitely won my legs and my soul was stirred to anxiety,
suddenly I began to hear voices and more voices.
What until then had been almost pure silence and
peace was suddenly transformed by a metallic ring and
human beings who spout out a bit from all sides like the
sound of the sea, as if a membrane had been broken and
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suddenly a sea of life took all that space like a chaotic and
uncontrollable flood.
Paradoxically, one could see that actually it was a
relatively small sea of people, whose rapid approach was
quite remarkable.
Those sounds changed everything – space, lights and
colors of the place.
Reality was changed.
Classes had finally ended.
Students and teachers poured through the stairs.
The staircase was crowded.
Everything was invaded by voices, eyes, hands and
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bodies.
I could no longer see the boys who had promised to
indicate me who was Koellreutter. Certainly they would not
even be there anymore.
At that precise moment everything became lose
important. There were too many people. Everything was a
big mess.
Behind the first and second wave of students of all
kinds and colors, smiles and jerks who were crowded to go
up, there was a small group, quieter, surrounding a man with
age-old appearance, severe appearance, with big eyebrows
with long spiky wires and very white hair.
It was him!
Koellreutter was then almost sixty-five years old, but
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looked older. I was about twenty and looked younger.
As he was climbing the stairs, I went down one step,
imposing myself in front of him in a disturbing way, like a
menacing barrier to his passage.
- Professor Koellreutter? – I asked seriously, very
directly.
- Yes?
- I need to talk to you.
- Ok. You can say what you want...
- But I need to talk to you privately. It’s about
something I cannot speak here. It is a private
matter.
When I said that he bushed. His face became
very serious, immediately revealing signs of tension and
concern.
What that private matter could be? Who was that boy
in his front, preventing his passage?
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The students around him were silent with gravity.
Everyone figured the most gee-whiz stories. What would the
avalanche of rumors that would draw the next few days?
Koellreutter was baffled. But he was a determined
man. With firm steps, some gestures revealing irritation, he
went ahead and made a signal to me with his hand saying
that I should follow him.
He asked me to wait for him in a corridor near the
staircase. He entered in the secretariat. I could ear a brief
discussion. I was able to distinguish Bira’s voice from the
confusion, he was almost begging, saying that he had not
idea about what could be.
Until that moment, that man did not realize it was me.
He thought I had given up two hours earlier.
Koellreutter came walking toward me, serious and
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energetic.
Behind Koellreutter’s footsteps the long sight of Bira
jumped out, he raised his hand to the head as if he could
predict the inevitable disaster.
We entered, only Koellreutter and me, in an empty
classroom, and he closed the door sharply behind him.
- What is? – he asked with arms crossed, visibly
angry and impatient.
- I need to be your student.
Koellreutter did not know what to do. That definitely
was something he could not foresee happening in that day.
What boldness!
Deeply surprised, he looked at me, and remained,
bewildered, in silence for several long seconds as if he was
working out the best way to deal with that situation.
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Suddenly, in a friendly tone, but still angry and dry, he
shot:
- Well... you need to talk at the secretariat... you
have to talk with people at the secretariat... I do not
handle it. You must understand that I don’t have
time for such things – he closed the conversation
with a heavy German accent.
- But! I’ve had to wait over two hours against the
wall, and even to be unkind to you because the I was
laconically informed at the secretariat that it would
be simply impossible to become your student, and
also that it was almost forbidden to talk to you. How
such a situation might be possible? Please, forgive
me, I’m sorry, but simply there was no other way
out. I couldn’t speak about this in front of other
students...
Still with crossed arms, Koellreutter shook the body
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back and forth. He judged the situation. Despite my boldness,
I had some reason. The arguments were correct. It remained
to know if I was serious.
- Well... what do you do?
- I study architecture, urban planning, I worked on
marketing for some years, I write...
- Non, no, no... do you play a musical instrument?
- Transversal flute.
- What your repertoire on flute is?
- Debussy, Bach, Mozart, something Prokovief, but I
don’t want to be a professional flutist. I play just for
love of music. I want to be a composer. Have been
working on it... I have studied...
- Who were your teachers?
I said the name of three or four teachers.
- And why they did not forwarded you to me?
I was completely lost. I had an answer. I really was an
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outsider. I was not someone who follows a carefully marked
route. None of my teachers wanted to “forward” me or even
to write a recommendation letter.
- Well... well... But now, in fact, I think that my
schedules is full.
- Wouldn’t be some way?...
Seeing my insistence, he stopped for a few more
seconds, still with crossed arms, again moving the body
slightly forward and back, looked at me seriously and said,
as if he was unsure about his decision:
- Yes, there is a way. You will start studying aesthetics
and contemporary music. You will start the courses
of introduction to the aesthetics and music of the
twentieth century. The classes are already full,
there is no vacancy, in principle you could not enter,
and we already had one lesson, but I can put you
there... We can create an exception. Let’s do this
experiment.
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He always spoke exaggerating the r’s and often
committing errors of grammar, because of his strong German
accent.
We went together to the office. Bira was visibly
upset, apologizing repeatedly, almost with reverence to
Koellreutter, who just said: «Therre is no prroblem... therre
is no prroblem...».
He put his hands on his hips, turned to me and said
firmly:
- Okay. Then we see each other next week.
He turned back and walked away.
That was our first contact, which would lead to a deep
friendship over about twenty-five years.
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If I had given up, if he had decided that it was not
possible to accept me as his student, if he had considered too
arrogant my attitude, if he had not understood my situation,
probably our great friendship would never have happened.
This is one of the major differences between great
human beings and mediocrity.
Mediocre people quickly consider themselves too
important and blindly follow strict rules that they submit
themselves. But great human beings are always open to
others and free to change, to learn at any time or place.
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To be free to learn is to maintain a permanent posture
of humility.
And humility is the key word for improvisation.
All great human being is creative and there is no
creativity without some kind of generosity.
So, humility and generosity are magically combined in
great personages.
Koellreutter was a great man.
At that time, many people accused him of arrogance,
perhaps because he was extremely serious, clear, direct,
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objective, and radically committed to his job.
With him there was never room for too much talk – he
always went directly to the question.
But in the depth of his being, he was extremely humble
and generous, a person who spent his entire life questioning
about himself, wondering about the nature of everything.
The fact he accepted me as his student, especially
considering those strange conditions of our first contact, is
the proof of his spiritual greatness.
If I was asking him to learn, the only thing he could do
was to help me.
In the following week, I began attending his courses
on aesthetics and on the music of the twentieth century
– which, indeed, could be called “history of contemporary
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music”.
I made so many questions during the classes, that it
became not easy for him to fulfill the program. However,
they were not only honest but also, in general, pertinent
questions to which he never avoided. Instead, to each
question he developed a long moment of reflection – and he
never hidden how he appreciated them.
Many times, he made questions as responses.
Both his questions and answers were an intellectual
challenge to everyone.
Each lesson was quickly transformed into a deep
brainstorming ruled by him with great mastery.
If he was demonstrating a principle of quantum physics
or whether he was talking about St. Augustine and someone
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asked why, about the reason of being or to have been,
about the reason why something was said, immediately and
excitedly he plunged himself inside a reflection that opened
other doors, illuminating other issues.
He did not hide the fact that those were the moments
he loved most.
In many occasions, classes ended up becoming vibrant
debates without, however, losing their original target.
Sometimes they became dialogues only between we
both. I was deeply amazed by the vastness of his culture,
with his wisdom. I couldn’t stop asking questions and he
encouraged them. His animation pushed me forward to
more questions.
Quickly, the students began making jokes with me,
saying I that never left him in peace. But I don’t think he liked
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very much such a kind of peace.
What had started so harsh and aggressive, with my so
unkind act, to say the least, gradually became a relationship
of reciprocity in the pursuit of understanding the roots of
things – of course, I as student and him as the master.
But, in fact – anyone at any time or place – we never
teach, we only learn.
He quickly realized how much I had been honest when
I approached him at the stairs of the college asking to be
his student. And such thing was the most important for him:
honesty.
Beyond honesty, what he appreciated most in a student
was his or her capacity of dedication and participation.
When people listened him in silence, without
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questions, without expressing doubts, without provoking
discussions and reflections, everything became tiring and
boring for a spirit like his.
When that happened, sometimes he complained to
himself, almost in silence, muttering that the lesson had not
been good in that day.
On the other hand, when someone began to ask just
for asking, without basis, without quite knowing where he
stood, without having an open mind, trying just to attend
– sometimes so flattering – to the desire of the master with
questions with no depths, no substance, he immediately
unmasked the impostor and asked why he was doing that
and what he was doing there, in that class.
With Koellreutter there were never half words.
Reactions were varied, but usually when that
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happened, the student immediately disappeared. And it was
not very rare to happen that.
So, quickly, he acquired a reputation to be a tough,
ruthless and authoritarian person.
To Koellreutter, intellectual honesty had always been a
very first and unquestionable value.
When a course started, especially when it was a class
with several students, he immediately explained, with clarity
and patience, every word and concept he would use – and
as soon as he did it, he put the subject and concepts under
discussion.
If during the course he would use the term “aesthetics”,
for example, the first thing he did was to explain what he
understood by aesthetics.
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After the explanation, he clarified the reasons that had
led him to use a so long time to explain a word or concept:
− This is what I mean by the word “aesthetics”, no
matter if you have another idea about it. If you
do, we can discuss later. What matters is you to
understand every word I use, what I mean by each
word, what that concept is for me. If we don’t use
the same concepts, we will never be able to clearly
communicate each other. This is a major problem
in the world today. It is enough to take a look at
a newscast on television or read a newspaper.
Many people use ideas and concepts with different
meanings, producing big misunderstandings and
conflicts of all kinds. So it is important to make very
clear what I mean by each word.
That
was
an
essential
point
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his
classes:
clarity
of
thought.
- If we don’t understand exactly what we say, if
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we don’t understand the precise meaning of every
concept, of every word I will use, so you will not
be able to understand what I have to say and what
we will produce will only be a Babel Tower. Many
times, I’ve read reviews, discussions, scientific or
philosophical texts, where the person simply did
not understand the meaning of the concept the
other is using. And then, my friends, there is a lot
of time lost, with no result. And it happens much
more often than we think.
Koellreutter frequently recalled the biblical image of
the Tower of Babel.
The list of words and concepts he explained in detail
before each course could be from aesthetics to entropy,
communication, knowledge, noise, intelligence, information,
monotony, redundancy, unity, totality and so on.
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In his classes on aesthetics, from time to time, he
stopped, crossed arms, turned to the class and said firmly:
-
Very well... my friends, now you have to ask.
I’m at your disposal. – he kept his arms crossed
and waited for questions and comments. Soon,
he added: – I’m in no hurry; I can wait... if there
are no questions we can stay here, looking
at each other. – And stood there, quiet, until
someone raised a question.
Koellreutter was, in fact, an enlightened person.
Someone who needed constant challenges and that
nourished himself with them, however small they could be.
Once, he invited the class to reflect profoundly about
a famous Zen koan: What is the sound of applause made
with only one hand?
Later, he asked: how is the sound of a single clap, of
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a single strike of applause? And each one of us was taken to
listen to our own body, to draw what such sound could be, to
analyze that primitive sound.
The awareness of our human existence, the importance
of interaction and also the phenomena of perception, within
the universe in which people are immersed, was one of the
central objectives of his lessons on aesthetics.
Few weeks later, one of the students – she was a
brilliant teacher of children – came up with dozens of very
interesting drawings. She had asked children from seven to
ten years old to represented the sound of applause, the exact
moment when the hands touch.
They were surprising forms, revealing much of the
acoustic phenomenon.
- You all see? Children are always much smarter than
adults, because they are open, they are not already
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crushed by preconceptions.
One of the composers he most admired was Franz
Liszt.
Much before Arnold Schoenberg, even in the
nineteenth century, Liszt was responsible for the first atonal
composition: Bagatelle without Tonality, composed in 1875.
− Liszt correctly said that any sound could be followed
by any other sound. It is only with this thought that
we can understand Wagner, Mahler, Debussy and
Schoenberg.
Following to his statement we admired and analyzed
works by Kandinsky, Mondrian, Picasso, Bracque, but also
other ones by Monet, Cezanne or Hokusai.
Those first lessons on aesthetics definitively established
the roots of our long friendship.
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Weeks later, he started inviting me to be his private
student in several other musical disciplines.
Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, in 1999
Everything happened gradually, step by step.
In the beginning, the invitation was only for the courses
of functional harmony and composition. Some weeks later it
was for counterpoint, analysis, perception and so was going
with several other disciplines.
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At first, I shared the course with one or two students,
until, after a while, I had classes alone with him.
My integration in his courses was so gradual but at the
same time so fast and unexpected that I was surprised when
I realized I was a student of Koellreutter in many disciplines,
most of them as his private student, when shortly before
everything seemed to be impossible.
Few months earlier I had been in Indian tribes in the
southern of Amazonian forests as well as in several cities of
the United States.
Inside the forests or in the streets of San Francisco,
California, I never could imagine that shortly later I would
become student of one of the most brilliant masters of the
world.
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Some ideas marked in a very special way almost all of
his classes.
From the beginning, and always, he insisted that we
should always ask the reason of everything and also of our
own existence.
In one of the first classes of the course on aesthetics,
for example, he often said:
- Why, why, why?... You should write a big sign with
the word why? and hang it on your beds. So, every day, when
awake, it would be the first thing you could see: why?. Never
believe me or in any teacher, never believe in what you read
and, above all, never believe in yourselves. Always, through
all your existences on this planet, ask why?.
He repeated that relentlessly, in every course, in every
meeting.
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If we were there to study music, we had to know what
it was about – not just what was music, but what each one
of us were. Who we are, why we do this or that?
− What the meaning of music is? What music is? With
what purpose we do things? Why to make music?
Why?
Great part of people classifies types of music, among
those who like or dislike, what they think to be valid or not,
establishing judgments of value.
With Koellreutter, since the first lessons, students
became aware that different types of music are all equally
correct and interesting – whether it would be about pop
music, rock, jazz, folk, the so-called erudite music, from any
time, or about the most radical contemporary experiences
of the musical universe.
Any music can be interesting.
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As his student, anyone was free to take any path, with
the condition to be coherent.
Thus, for him, it didn’t matter if the student dedicated
himself to the erudite, popular or commercial music. All could
have quality, and the aesthetic principles, the principles of
composition as well as the important questions were always
the same, valid for all.
To him, the coherence of what was done should to be
found in its social function.
Everything should have a social function. Such principle
should happen with the world of classical music, commercial
compositions, works for music therapy, or even music for
fun and entertainment – all them have social functions. For
him, the important thing was to be aware about of how such
phenomenon happens. Being aware of what was the social
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function in our daily activities.
− To determine the social function is to know what
you are doing. When you know what you are doing,
the social function is automatically determined,
because the human being is a social being, we are
always integrated in a society. You can do what
you want, music for advertisement, for television,
cinema, entertainment or music therapy and so
on. Nothing is wrong and a type of music doesn’t
have less value than another one. If you chose
what we call new music, you will be dealing with
the limits of the music itself and, so, you will
have consciousness as his essential element. You
will be working with the structure of knowledge,
of discovery. But, this is the most difficult path,
because nobody pays for what doesn’t exist yet.
And this is the reason why many people doubt
that the new music can have social function. In this
path, you must be economically independent. If
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you depend on the music to survive, making new
music, it will be immediately corrupted, because
you will be obliged to make exceptions, to give up
here and there... and if you do it, everything will be
lost.
Such awareness could only exist from a continuous
questioning – why, why, why? – and a permanent exercise of
self-knowledge.
Quickly, I realized the reason why many teachers did
not tolerate him.
That posture of permanent questioning put at risk
everything and everyone all the time. A project without
coherence or someone who was not competent would
automatically and immediately be revealed.
Incessant questioning eliminates personal importance
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and condemns certainties.
The difference between those teachers and Koellreutter
in terms of competence, openness of mind and culture, was
simply astronomical.
For Koellreutter, freedom and conscience were the
two essential elements of life, which should be defended at
any cost.
Twenty-five years later, when he died, those same
teachers – who so often had mentioned him with deep
sarcasm and disdain – would praise his memory in interviews
and newspaper articles, declaring that they were always his
best friends and admirers, exactly as also happened with
John Cage when he died.
The character of that great master, by many and
for a long time considered a pervertor of young people
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by instilling a spirit of permanent questioning, was clearly
illustrated by the testimony of the composer Valério Fiel da
Costa, made in 2005 when the death of Koellreutter: «When
I first met him, I was studying musical analysis in Londrina
– a city in southern Brazil – during a holiday festival in July
of 1994. I did not know anything about Koellreutter. In the
first lesson, to a class of young composers from everywhere
in the country, which formed a large circle in the room of a
state college in Londrina, in a very cold morning, he asked,
in a very natural way: “What are you doing here?”. Our eyes
bulging, our frozen fingers, our ears in doubt. There was a
long silence, and someone eager to highlight supposed to
have the answer: “we came here to study analysis, teacher!”.
Already visibly impatient Koellreutter returned the question:
“Why did you come to study analysis? What is analysis?”.
Since no one expressed, and because the confusion was
general, Koellreutter launched a last challenge: “Go home to
think! Tomorrow you tell me what you are doing here, so we
can start with the course! Goodbye!” And left the room. We
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remained a good fifteen minutes more waiting if something
would happen. To me it had already happened».
That was Hans Joachim Koellreutter. The first class
experienced by the young composer had been summed up
in one question – what were they doing there? Who really
was each one of those people? What was life for them?
It was the fundamental question which summarized
all others and the discoveries throughout our lives. In fact, it
was an attitude of questioning face to existence itself, what
was essential not only for the course that would be done,
for what each one would study, for personal discoveries, but
also to the life path of each one of us.
In 1981, Koellreutter offered me, for the first time,
one of his books. It was titled Functional Harmony, published
three years before in Rio de Janeiro. In the introduction, he
wrote: «It is not on the obedience to traditional order rules
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and principles, but on the courage to break them that the
value of an artwork is supported».
− This is the only sense of artwork. If there is no
transgression, then... it will be something else, but
not an artwork. – he would tell me few years later,
with which I have always totally agreed.
The courses on aesthetics, in late 1970s and early
1980s, took place in a conventional and small classroom.
Koellreutter sat behind a small wooden table at the
bottom, on the left and in front of a large blackboard., He
distributed small sheets of card on the table that helped him
to guide the development of the class. Besides, a disc player
– which not always worked well.
He always carried a black briefcase, in leather, where
he brought files, notes, some books and discs.
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Those lessons had about twenty students – never
more than that – and new students were not admitted if the
course had already begun, excepting when I began studying
with him.
In fact, the courses on aesthetics – that lasted about a
half year – had the title of “Introduction to aesthetics” and
he always insisted to emphasize it.
I made this course a few times and each one was a
renewed pleasure. While the basic program was almost
always the same, Koellreutter regularly introduced new
philosophical reflections during the classes, turning
everything different.
− The program is the same. But the world is different,
I’m different and you are different. We are always
learning different things. – he justified when I
asked why every year the program of that course
was always the same.
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Is there any value in recorded music? - Someone asked
in one of the classes. Would recorded music eliminate, by its
own nature, the true musical experience that is rooted on
the discovery, on the novelty? - Someone added.
Those were the moments he enjoyed most. He looked
quiet at the class and did not respond.
− Well... What do you think?
Soon, a lively debate captured the attention of all. Here
and there, Koellreutter added small issues with just one or
two words, as if he was delicately orienting the course of a
river.
In the end, with sure words, he made a synthesis of
the entire discussion:
- Are we all different every time? I am no longer the
one who was here at the beginning of this class. How
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could we listen to “the same thing” twice? In the same
way, to listen to a recorded music will always be a
different experience.
And he told us a curious story related by Salvador Dali,
when the painter had lived in the United States between
1940 and 1948.
During those eight years, after the great success of his
exhibition in 1941 at MOMA Modern Art Museum of New
York, Dali would have been out-of-town for one year. Before
leaving, he had a lunch with friends. When he returned a
year later, he had a lunch again with the same friends. Then
he was amazed – because those people, who had lunch with
him a year earlier, were still talking about the same things.
But Dali definitely was another person.
The lesson naturally slipped into the paths of Heraclitus,
Parmenides, Zeno, projected on Epimenides’ paradox, the
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famous paradox of the liar, and we inevitably arrived to
thermodynamic systems and quantum mechanics.
To listen to him meant to be in direct contact with the
thought of the famous philosopher and art historian Jacob
Christoph Burckhardt, but also with Alois Riegl or Wilhelm
Worringer.
Koellreutter was the living expression of the tradition
that coined the ideas of Schopenhauer, Kant and Nietzsche,
while method.
Who now reads a work by the genius Jacob Burckhardt
will find in his books a very similar spirit to that we lived in
Koellreutter’s classes. Sometimes, will find even similar
expressions, other times the same logical structure, the
same thought.
In his classes and in his brilliant ideas there were alive
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the spirits that directly linked us to Palestrina, Beethoven
and Schubert, and from these to Schoenberg, Alban Berg
and Anton Webern.
Each lesson was a deeply striking and unforgettable
experience. We traveled with his words, with his thoughts
– and he had a great competence of oratory, making us really
diving inside a wide variety of worlds – from the Middle
Ages to John Cage, from Hokusai to Palestrina, from Plato
to Claude Debussy or to India and Japan – and when it was
about Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg,
the second Viennese School, then everything was even more
exciting because sometimes he passed talking about his
personal experience and it was a little as to share with us his
memory, his soul.
The lessons of the course on the Twentieth Century
Music were a real plunge into the roots of Western musical
thought, since the second half of the nineteenth century.
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Each lesson was designed by hearings, analysis of scores and
debates.
In one of the lessons, visibly moved, he told us how
at nineteenth of April 1936, when he was only twenty years
old – about our age then – just before fleeing Germany in
1938, he was present at Alban Berg’s Concert for Violin and
Orchestra world premiere.
It was Alban Berg’s last work. The world premiere took
place four months after the composer’s death, at the Palau
de Musica Catalana in Barcelona, during the 14th Festival of
the International Society of Contemporary Music.
Louis Krasner – who had commissioned the piece to
Alban Berg – played the solo violin, and Hermann Scherchen,
professor of Koellreutter, conducted the orchestra. Anton
Webern should have taken the direction of the orchestra,
but he was too moved by the death of his close friend, and
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was not able to do it.
The concert was also known as In Memory of an
Angel.
With tears in his eyes, Koellreutter told us how, in
that night of 1936, people were shocked by the news about
the love of Alban Berg, much older, to the young Manon,
daughter of Alma Mahler – who had been wife of Gustav
Mahler – and of the brilliant architect Walter Gropius,
founder of Bauhaus.
Alban Berg was exactly fifty years old and Manon
just eighteen. It was a forbidden love. A scandal. Everyone
commented. Berg was torn by a so intense love. Suddenly,
Manon died victim of polio in 1935. His death was devastating
for the composer.
Alban Berg died few weeks later, on Christmas Eve.
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Coincidences increased the rumors of the time. The
love between the old master and the young innocent girl was
a nearly silent scandal. Social barriers. Old age. The immense
and oceanic sadness of Alban Berg that had killed him.
The autopsy was inconclusive. It was presumed to
have died of poisoning produced by the bite of an insect.
Many said he had been profoundly devastated by the
overwhelming love.
− You cannot imagine. Everybody loved Alban Berg.
And, at that moment, we all were offering him an
emotional tribute. The silence was total. All were
deeply moved. At that epoch, a composer had an
important role in society. People were totally taken
by that moment. Across Europe, everybody talked
about that, always with great regret. Nobody
laughed or smiled. But, there were no scenes of
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pain or despair. Everything was quiet. Very quiet. It
was overwhelming.
When he told such stories, each one of us was
immediately aware of the great planetary transformation
that had happened since then.
Today, a composer – especially on contemporary
music – has virtually no social importance, even in Europe.
In general, people passed to not know much beyond what
is superficially established by mass communication and
entertaining media.
Through his words, through the stories he told, we
could imagine the cafes of Vienna, the narrow streets still lit
with oil lamps, the night in Barcelona, the great division that
existed between a great composer and the people – in some
sense like what would happen with actors in Hollywood
especially after the Second World War.
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Koellreutter insisted on the image of the concert hall
in deep silence. People quiet. As if the composer was still
there, living the great drama of his life. As if the scandal of
an older man in love with a teenager could still hurt with lust
the soul of every person there.
He told about the emotions, the murmurs that ran
volatile between the seats in the theater.
And he played a sublime recording of Alban Berg’s
concerto. And we all listened to him, almost paralyzed, in
the deepest silence.
When he finished, at the end of that trip, many wept,
especially the girls, and everyone – even him – was deeply
moved.
We had traveled with him through his eyes, through
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his soul, to what he had lived.
Every time the classes on aesthetics ended, there
always was a moment for hearing one or two pieces of
music – when we have not had it during the class or when
questions and debate were not so intense as to consume
those precious remaining minutes.
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But hearings were not exclusive of the Twentieth
Century Music course.
We were delighted with very rare music recordings he
brought us – Internet did not exist yet and there was no way
to have those recordings in Brazil.
They included not only fabulous concert recordings
of Ravi Shankar, but also of great masters of India such as
Hariprasad Chaurasia and Ustad Sabri Khan, who were
totally unknown in Brazil, and also a countless number of
Japanese composers like Tohru Takemitsu, Maki Ishii, beyond
rare interpretations of pieces by Beethoven, Bach, Schubert,
Guillaume de Machault, Perotin, Leonin, Palestrina, Debussy,
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Gustav Mahler, Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, John Cage,
Gyorgy Ligeti and Franz Liszt among many others.
Since the first lesson of the course on history of
twentieth-century music, I noticed that as soon as we started
a hearing, he closed his eyes to hear, and sank into the music
like a dream.
Sometimes, or in some moments, his eyes remained
open, but distant, lost in infinity. With eyes open or closed,
his body swaying slightly, especially the head, rhythmically,
sometimes the arms, a finger, as if conducting the concert.
Each hearing was a trip to a marvelous world.
The first time I saw his physical reaction to music, I
was baffled – those bodily movements steeped in blind sight
were something natural in me since childhood. I always
had to control myself to avoid being constrained by jokes
and teasing, because people did not understand what was
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happening.
The sensation is like being physically involved in the
musical discourse.
We had the same physical behavior in relation to music
– an identity that, I would discover little later, is shared by
many musicians.
But it was something I still did not know about, and
that first time was, in a certain sense, as to find in him a deep
spiritual relationship.
When, late afternoon, almost evening, each of those
classes ended, the sorrow was general. All we wanted was
to continue. But Koellreutter was irreducible. At the precise
moment that time ran out, it was the end point, not a minute
more – and usually the lesson never truly came to an end.
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Always something to say was missed, on which he
would return, attentively and rigorously in the next lesson.
There was always a student who took notes about the precise
moment when the lesson was over. And the lessons always
ended “cut”, mutilated, because as a whole they seemed
more like a continuum, a journey without end and without
scales or breaks.
When someone arrived late and apologize, he said
gravely: «My friend, the dead is always the culprit. Never
the murder!». It was a way of making each one realize the
importance of relying on the unpredictable, better planning
each step.
He said the same thing to anyone coming with an
excuse.
Nothing could serve as excuse. When he said that the
dead was always the culprit, never the murder, some laugh
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and discussion always appeared, but brief and lively. Some
surprise and laugh.
Along years that expression became one of his bestknown marks. In many places, especially among students,
that statement was always lively commented and repeated.
Such statement was used in the most diverse moments.
If someone said that had not been able to do the work
because of something happened, would immediately hear:
− The dead is always the culprit, never the murder.
If you had taken precautions, if you had thought
about what could happen, this accident would
have been avoided.
He would make maximum use of that statement until
much later, when urban violence, especially in São Paulo and
Rio de Janeiro, no longer allowed. Then he started saying,
always with his strong German accent and always in good-
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mood:
− Now is no longerrr possible. Now, the dead
almost always is the culprrrit, almost neverrr the
murrderrr...».
When a student insisted justifying the delay by adding
more and more excuses, he said, sometimes cold and dry:
− My friend, I traveled more than four hundred miles
to give this lesson and I arrived early. What do you
want me to say?
And the conversation was over.
Some students did not accept his attitude; they came
to be offended and went away forever. But he did not care.
For him, everything was the fluid of Nature, and those who
left should do so.
He was not a fatalist, someone blindly grabbed at
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the fate. On the contrary, he firmly believed on free will, on
freedom of decision and on the responsibility that freedom
implicates. But, he was not person to close his eyes to the
strange magic of certain similarities. He had a magical side
inside him, very deep, unknown and unpredictable.
Koellreutter surely was the most demanding, rigorous
and dedicated teacher of music I have ever had.
To start studying with him, one should be able to read
fluently a traditional musical score, have a good musical
culture, to know at least the basics of harmony, counterpoint
and other disciplines.
At that time, I already read with fluency, at least the
scores for my main instrument, the transversal flute, I already
had a good musical culture and a reasonable knowledge of
those disciplines – but there were gaps, as there always is.
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He could also accept a student who knew absolutely
nothing of music – but it would be for classes of composition,
as to develop principles of plastic composition, for example,
or aesthetics.
No matter who was, Koellreutter never refused a
dedicated and serious student, in any area he or she could be,
but he looked to clearly distinguish the goals and maintained
a remarkable difference in methodology of teaching.
− Composition can be in anything, an artwork, a text,
a movie or a musical piece. The important are the
principles of composition. And aesthetics is always
essential in virtually any activity. One cannot
confuse things. If someone studies music, it is a
story; if you want to study composition with other
purposes, no problem, but it will be different. In
the same way, a person may want to study music
to be a professional or just a dilettante. This does
not put him in a level below the others. There is no
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room for judgments of value or for preconceptions.
Each person should be free to study and to be what
he or she wants.
He always was very demanding. When we made
mistakes in one of the several disciplines he taught, not
infrequently he established an amount in money as penalty
and threatened to charge with a tone of such seriousness that
made the student uncomfortable and deeply concerned.
− My friend, this error was so serious that the fine will
be the double of the money I normally determine.
At the beginning we never knew if it really would keep
our money, if it was really serious or just a joke.
Several students could not stand the pressure – they
said he was too authoritarian – and simply gave up.
Of course, though threatened with firmness and
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seriousness - because it was very serious for him – he never
arrived to collect fines in cash. When we talked about it, he
said without any trace of humor:
− But! I’m not kidding. People have to understand
that the work should be taken with responsibility,
seriously. No one can charge a penalty on someone
who is working seriously. But if someone is
“dreaming”, distracted, then, what is this person
doing here? I’m not here to waste time. Also you
are not here to waste time. If someone thinks that
lost time can be lost money, then he will give more
importance to what he is doing. Time, especially
here in Brazil, like what also happens in India,
has almost no value. But everyone gives value to
money.
To Koellreutter, work was the most serious thing in the
world, a serious approach that, in fact, has never been very
common in Brazil.
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If he asked for a task to be delivered on a given day,
there could be no excuses. He gave all freedom for the
student to discuss and even set the delivery time before,
never after.
An important part of his role as teacher was to give
to the students the ability of self-management. But many
students did not meet their commitments – although they
were, often, extremely talented.
− Dolce far niente... dolce far niente... – he muttered
smiling and crossing his arms, gently moving the
body forward and backward, as if was nothing to
do.
He thought that Brazil was the country of dolce far
niente, in some sense like Italy. But he did not have this idea
as something necessarily negative.
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It simply was the natural way of people. Only this.
Over the years I have witnessed recriminations
regarding some of his students, even though he has always
been very discreet. Those recriminations were often due
to delays or to non-delivery of work. In most of the cases
students arrived smiling, joking, apologizing the whole time
and left smiling. They smiled even when he was very serious.
In those moments he was visibly upset. Sometimes times he
arrived to be tough:
− My friend, being like this what you want? What will
happen with your profession? You don’t work! So
you will never achieve anything in life. What can
we do?
When the student was no longer around, Koellreutter
did not hide his fascination with the light spirit, the sweetness
of Brazilian people and, many times, made a playful comment
in confidential tone.
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One of his greatest pleasures was to live surrounded
by students. When the students were around, he was well.
At the other end of the spectrum, something he
detested social gatherings. He never wearied a tie or suit.
− There is nothing more precious in life than time.
Being around people that talk about superficial
things, without interest, is a real suffering. You learn
nothing. Everything is superficiality. Pure waste of
time. The world is full of futile people. Sometimes
I cannot escape. What to do? It is terrible time
consumption for nothing.
Once, he was forced to not go to a diner we had booked
because he had already scheduled another appointment,
but had forgotten.
The appointment was with an important woman,
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someone from the high society, one of the people who
helped financially the college.
− I’m obliged to go. There are commitments. That’s
politics. And it’s important for the college. I will try
to survive to this situation... Tomorrow you call me
to see if I’m still alive... – he said joking.
The following day, when we were alone in the
classroom, I asked how the meeting had been the evening
before and he confessed:
− Very annoying... very unpleasant... The person was
extremely kind, but they are people from another
world, not from my world, from our world, the
world of music, the art world. She put to play in his
excellent and expensive sound equipment some
music I should listen... and she challenged me to
find out who was playing! It was like a contest, a
game. It looked like a TV show... As if I was a tamed
dog. How nasty! The husband and the other guests
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also attended. At one point, she put to play a violin
solo and asked who was playing. It was clear! Of
course it was a solo by Jacha Heifetz. It was obvious
and clear! But she was impressed, amazed, as if it
had been something extraordinary, as if I was a
witch. It was extraordinary for her, but not for a
musician. She knows the brands of clothes, which
is extraordinary to me! I cannot distinguish one
brand from another. These meetings turn out to be
a big consumption of time, very tiring...
I never arrived to know if Koellreutter really had perfect
pitch – at least he always said to me that he did not give any
value to it.
− What we call perfect pitch is the understanding
of the relations, and it is something that can be
studied, improved, trained.
When someone told him to not have hearing for music,
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he said in a very good mood:
− You do not have earrr? – and looked at the ear of
the person – But! It is therrre!
To him, anyone could be a musician, in one or another
way. Everything depended only on the commitment, on the
time dedicated with love to the work.
− There are, in fact, some people with real problems
of hearing or even musical perception at a cognitive
level, in neuronal terms. But when that happens, it
is something about a medical nature. And it is rare.
Everything else, ninety-nine percent of cases, it is
only a matter of work, of education. An aboriginal
in Australia has no “hearing” for the Western
music, but surely, we also don’t have “hearing” for
his music. When it is not about a serious physical
problem, everything else is a cultural issue.
His understanding of education was that of information.
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That is, the idea of a teacher in front of the classroom
providing large amounts of information to students seemed
something quite bizarre to him.
He had the understanding of education as the
formation of the human being, a true paideia. So, he was
open to be teacher of almost anyone, because he dealt
with the method, self-knowledge, discovery – and that can
happen in any discipline.
Some of his students were not musicians. There
were physicists, philosophers, chemists, mathematicians,
communicators and so on. Many people wanted him as a
master, and not a few went from afar, even from other cities,
to attend their classes.
Sometimes I had to wait to follow him at home, already
early evening. There were even students who appeared to
be older than him, often scientists, especially researchers
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on physics and chemistry. In those cases, there were
always private lessons. And they treated him with profound
reverence.
The classes on aesthetics were among his favorites. In
those moments, it always was the start to a journey into the
unknown, to the surprise, the unexpected.
Especially in those trips on aesthetics, but also in other
classes, he liked to emphasize the relativity of things.
− We live everything as an illusion. Maia! Everything
is relative. When we say that everything is relative,
it means that we are dealing with relations, never
with the things themselves. Recently, two scientists
argued that consciousness changes reality –
consciousness changes matter! They are Eugene
Wigner and John Archibald Wheeler.
That day, Koellreutter wrote in very big letters on the
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blackboard: the consciousness changes the matter. And he
strengthened, stressing that it is in experimental terms. And,
also in big letters, he wrote the names of both scientists.
That lesson was one of the most important moments
of my life. If the consciousness changes the matter, then
almost everything we know is inevitably condemned to a
profound revolution!
All Western culture is based on the principle that the
matter changes the consciousness, never the opposite!
It was not about the Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty
Principle, according to which the observation – through its
media – changes the state of matter on a subatomic scale; but
yes it was about the consciousness changing the matter!
And that dramatic statement posted on the blackboard
did not say about any change in the understanding of
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what was the matter, but about its change in concrete and
structural terms, about its transformation!
When some other teacher heard a statement like that,
quickly turned up the nose as if to say that the old German
master had passed the limits, and that he surely was getting
senile – and many said exactly that, though never in his
front.
Koellreutter deeply loved physics and philosophy –
were two fundamental bases of his thought, of his life.
When he referred to the fact of the consciousness
changing the matter, he was pointing to the famous
scientific event called Double Slit Experiment, conducted
at the beginning of the twentieth century by the British
mathematician and physicist Geoffrey Ingram Taylor, who
lived between 1886 and 1975.
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John Wheeler and Eugene Wigner commented on that
sensational experience in the ambit of a profound reflection
on dissipative systems and the arrow of time.
Koellreutter also discussed openly, no matter who was
the student, about dissipative processes, complex systems,
arrows of time, questions about asymmetric or symmetric
time, fundamentals of general relativity, chaos theory and
many other elements of theoretical physics – and he did it in
the late 1970s.
Ilya Prigogine was a constant reference in his reflections,
but also Niels Borg, Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer,
Richard Feynman, Erwin Schröndinger or Werner Heisenberg
and others.
In these reflections that bundled physics, philosophy
and aesthetics, the figure of aleatory, of chance, was often
present.
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− Ultimately, everything is chance. I mean, if we enter
into a subatomic scale, we will have the Heisenberg’s
Uncertainty Principle. According to it, it is impossible
to determine the position of a subatomic particle.
On the other hand, everything is causal, because
all things are interconnected. When working with
music, we will always be operating chance, in one
or other way, deterministic or non-deterministic
chance. The important thing is to give form to it,
so it can be perceived. That is, the important is to
establish causality in chance.
Sometimes, they were very abstract concepts and
often, he had to repeat several times, calmly, reasoning with
the students.
When I heard that the consciousness changes the
matter, in concrete and experimental terms, I got in touch,
in the very next day, with the United States Consulate in São
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Paulo, where I quickly had the address of the astrophysicist
scientist John Archibald Wheeler, in Princeton University,
near New York.
Although that at that epoch there were no fast
communication systems like those that would arise few years
later – everything was made through letters – there also
were no fears, no catastrophic dangers of terror, imaginary
or not, no exaggerated attention to security controls of
all kinds, and, therefore, the American Consulate sent me
almost immediately the address of the scientist without any
hesitation or restriction.
Sometimes I wonder if, paradoxically, the overwhelming
development of communication systems did not end up
making more difficult to be connected with personalities
such as John Wheeler.
Immediately, I wrote a letter to the celebrated scientist
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exposing my deep perplexity – even though I was then a boy
in his early twenties and he a recognized scientist several
times nominated for the Nobel Prize.
I did not expect to receive a reply.
But to my surprise, it arrived. I was stunned! John
Archibald Wheeler wrote very nicely thanking to my letter,
stating that he had assembled a brainstorming group to
reflect on my questions at the Princeton University!
That so generous attitude of John Wheeler made
absolutely captured by his free and open spirit.
Along the following nearly twenty years, John Wheeler
and I kept in touch through letters, but unfortunately we
never got to know each other personally.
In the 1990s, as coordinator of a major international
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meeting of art and science in Lisbon at the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation, I invite John Wheeler to give a lecture, but he
could not accept because of his advanced age.
When Koellreutter knew that I had written to John
Wheeler, that he had replied and we were in touch through
letters, he was immensely happy, really excited.
To Koellreutter that meant the success of a student, and
there could be no better reward for his work as a teacher.
For him, success was not fame or money, but discovery,
enlightenment. Being in touch with John Wheeler meant to
be near a source of knowledge, to be better integrated into
the global intelligence network.
That lesson that unchained my contact with John
Wheeler was not something isolated. There was no class
with Koellreutter where there was not some kind of amazing
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discovery and where he was not deeply committed to an
absolute professional spirit.
With him, each one of us had to daily live the reality
of discovery. But such reality should be, always, openly and
strongly committed to the reality of life, with survival, with
social issues and so on.
No one could be alienated. But to him alienation could
not be resumed to the forces and mechanisms of production.
It implied a universe closer to Michel Foucault, a kind of
microphysics of power.
It was a matter of conscience.
The students respected him almost in a religious way.
When he entered in the room, everyone stood automatically
in silence. There was no need to ask for it and it was not
something determined by him, by any law or regulation of
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the college.
There was, in relation to him, a true love for a great
and unforgettable master.
I never saw any student arguing with him, not even
talking more exalted. When thwarted for some reason,
people did not discuss – Koellreutter had reached a state
of admiration and respect that did not allowed major
uprisings.
On the other hand, his dedication to students was
total. He taught in cities hundreds of miles distant each
other. Along years he lived between Rio de Janeiro and São
Paulo. But in that same period, he regularly went to Curitiba,
Belem, Belo Horizonte, Salvador – where he lived for years
in the 1960s – and to many other cities. Sometimes, in some
periods, he arrived to travel more than two thousand miles
a week, only to teach.
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In a single week, often for several consecutive months,
he was able to travel between Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and
Belo Horizonte to be with his students. If you look the location
of these cities on a map, you will be very impressed.
The only person I knew with such a frenetic pace of
travel and dedication to students was another teacher,
another great master: Roti Nielba Turin.
To avoid compromising the time of the students,
Koellreutter traveled at night and in most cases by bus. He
tried to always stay in the front row, with the large front
window reserved to him. On every trip, he bought two seats,
to be more comfortable and, especially, to not have someone
at his side, talking to him.
He preferred to travel in silence. «Who speaks much,
thinks little», he always said. Sometimes, people saw that
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the place beside him was vacant and went closed to sit. «This
place is occupied!» – he warned with no patience.
− People don’t understand! I pay for two seats exactly
to have nobody next to me. When someone insists
on wanting to sit next to me I ask if he or she can
see that the place is already occupied, as if there
was a person there. People don’t understand
and sometimes sit. So I insist: “Now you just sit
on my friend! Stand up, please! Fast! Hurry up!”.
Sometimes they laugh, thinking that it’s a joke, so
I have to make a very serious expression and reemphasize, and sometimes they think I’m crazy
seeing ghosts... and go out quickly.
Over the years he gathered students to travel to
Madras in southern India during the dry season. They went
to attend to the famous festival of Indian music.
Unfortunately, although we agreed to go together a
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few times, I never had conditions go to these festivals. I met
some people who went and came back delighted. The trip
was not just to attend a festival of ragas, but also aimed to
understand another world and even that one with which
they were already all too familiar, numbed, insensitive. It
was, after all, a spiritual journey.
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Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, in 1999
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He always wore a shirt with turtleneck. For most of
the years that passed I never saw him with another clothe,
even when it was very hot in the summer.
I asked why he always dressed that way. The Portuguese
composer Jorge Peixinho – who was a great friend of mine
– also always dressed, religiously, turtleneck blouses. Many
composers of that era dressed in that way.
− Normally, musicians of the called classical music
use white shirts and black pants. But the left
wing musicians, socialists, began to use shirt with
turtleneck as a symbol, a way to other people
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automatically know what they think. A left wing
composer of contemporary music dresses like
that. This began in the twentieth century, after the
Second World War. I cannot use another cloth. It’s
like a uniform. When someone looks at me, he or
she already knows what I do and what I think in
social terms. But in the end, everything is costume.
You, for example, have a very romantic figure.
Romantic figure, I?!!!... – I did not know what to
say. His unexpected statement left me puzzled.
One of the classes was over, the other students had
already left and we were alone in the classroom.
Yes, you look like a romantic character of the
nineteenth century...
Why?
Because it is your image! See... your long beard,
your long hair. It looks like if I was talking to
someone from the nineteenth century. You should
cut your beard and hair. You are a contemporary
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composer! Image is also communication. But this
is your personal decision; I have nothing to do with
it.
About two or three years later I would, in fact, cut
off my beard and hair. Not because I had been or would
be “romantic”. My decision was based on the idea that it is
better to observe than to be observed, especially for those
working with art and music. So, I should become invisible in
order to better observe people, and go unnoticed – because
society is our purest raw material. It was just an idea of mine,
very intimate, personal. Even so, that smart observation of
Koellreutter was indelibly imprinted in my memory.
He had great care with personal appearance, but
pretended not to be different. He always took, like Jorge
Medauar or even my father, always a small comb in the back
pocket of his trousers. We never saw him disheveled.
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Maurício Nogueira Lima’s impressions, who was one of
my best friends over many years, were very different to the
image we had of Koellreutter – a serious person, Germanic
and austere, cold and relatively closed. Maurício was an
important concrete painter, who had decisively influenced
the career of Max Bill – according to statements by the Swiss
artist. According to Maurício Nogueira Lima, Koellreutter
always caused a real stir among women.
The concrete painter – he corrected severely who
called him concretist because he loved Dada and did not
support isms – had been many times with Koellreutter in
the past, they had been good friends and did not hide his
admiration:
− Look closely. He is an ugly man. He has a huge nose,
huge eyebrows... But women are melted with him!
How can it be?!
That impression of Maurício could be true, but – even
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so – Koellreutter was a very discreet and classic man.
When he invited me to become his student of
composition, the first thing he did was to require me to
read two books. He said they were fundamental so I could
understand the spirit of his classes.
He asked the same to all students, regardless of the
course: Letter to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke and the
Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel.
I had already read those two books – they were two
very important texts in my life. At that time, I was delighted
to know that we had another point of identity between us.
− Well, my friend ... if you’ve already read, then it
is ok... it is done – he said with a small step back,
without expressing any admiration or surprise.
He spoke almost with indifference, as if he was
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dealing with a goal that was already met, just an
accomplished requirement.
In this spirit, he suggested several books, like The
Banquet written by Mario de Andrade – which he analyzed
critically and comparatively to the celebrated work by Plato;
The Tao of Physics by Fritjof Capra, which we analyzed almost
simultaneously with its launching in the United States, among
others.
But there were books especially important to him.
Paideia by Werner Jaeger was one of them; another one
was Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg; and
also Philosophy in a New Key by the philosopher Susanne
Langer.
Another book he adopted in almost mandatory way in
the late seventies and early eighties, but not for the beginning
students, was the Essay for a New Aesthetics of the Musical
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Art, by Ferruccio Busoni.
Busoni wrote that fascinating essay in 1907. Almost
one century later it was still exciting and challenging. «...we
go to the abstract sound, to a technique without ties, to the
unlimited sound. And all efforts should lead to this, in order
to arise a new beginning of the musical art, marvelous and
virgin», wrote Busoni.
His old friend, the brilliant conductor and musicologist
Sérgio Magnani made the only Portuguese translation of this
text in 1966, when he worked for the University of Salvador,
Bahia.
Koellreutter had only one old original copy of that book.
The only photocopy, which was transiting among the students
for years, had been definitively lost. Someone had taken and
did not return it. Thus, we started making photocopies from
Koellreutter’s original copy for the students.
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A student, who was extremely careful and diligent,
carried out the mission. To lost or damage some of his books
or disks was something very serious – but that risk did not
prevent him to lend them. He did it with great care. He always
assured himself with precautions. Over the years – he said –
he had lost a true library in hands of less attentive students.
I once asked him if he was not afraid to lend disks or
books to students, if they wouldn’t be in imminent risk to
disappear. Personally, I never took any of his books or disks
out from his home.
- Yes, it is true... sometimes they disappear. When this
happens, it is very serious. But what can I do? Objects
don’t exist for me or for you, they exist for people.
We are nothing more than the trustees of the objects.
Everything is a fast transition. Soon we will not be
here. What would be the use of a book or a disk if it
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would stop with me?
In the first lesson of composition he asked me to show
something I had elaborated, any musical piece that I had
composed.
Our lessons of composition did not start from nothing,
but they were born, in some sense, from something I had
already made, from something concrete.
To Koellreutter everything had to have such objective
component. Nothing could be out of reality – out of what we
are and of what we do.
Of course, I didn’t have with me something I could
present him. So, that first lesson was devoted to better
understand what I was doing in general terms, my repertoire,
my reading level, a long reflection on principles of order, a
little history of the composition and so on.
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It was not professorial, pedantic; by contrary, were at
a table and talked like two friends.
Later, walking by the corridors, I commented about
Eugen Herrigel’s book, which had been an important book
for me. He smiled and quickly changed the subject. We both
loved that book. Its story about consciousness had captured
our spirits.
However, there was a serious problem related to
Herrigel – like what had happened with Ezra Pound, T. S. Elliot
or Villa-Lobos, each one for different reasons, but similar in
some sense. Herrigel produced indeed a beautiful book on
Zen. But, because of mysterious and dark reasons, he joined
the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the Nazi
Party, in 1937 and became an enthusiast Nazi and obsessed
follower of Hitler – in the same time Koellreutter was forced
to flee Germany.
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- We always ask ourselves how something can happen.
Life is made of paradoxes.
In the next lesson, as he had requested, I brought
with me one of my totally graphic musical scores, made with
layers of semi transparent paper. The composition was called
Cantos.
That piece had been elaborated after conceptual
elements of chaos theory and, as what happens with my
musical compositions to be performed by other people, it
was oriented to the creativity of the musicians – however,
already establishing logical principles that aimed to break
with the traditional form of music articulation.
In that composition, everything happened as a
dynamic game where the work of the composer and that
of the performers were strongly interlaced – something that
would be characteristic of virtually all my future works.
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He observed, in cool and professional way, leaf by leaf,
not hiding some surprise in front of those layers with various
colorful drawings.
- Well... I take this with me to analyze.
A week later, again during the class of composition,
we both alone in a classroom, Koellreutter spread out my
graphical music scores on the table, crossed arms and said
very seriously:
- You did that?
- Yes, of course!... - I answered very surprised by his
question. After all, how could it have been someone
else?
- Do you know what planimetry is? Have you studied
that?
- No... – I had never heard that expression before.
Planimetry is the term used for graphic music scores
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made on two-dimensional surface.
He asked me to explain it in detail my composition,
how it worked, how the musicians should perform it, from
where its basic idea had emerged, how many songs like that
I had already elaborated and so on.
For each answer, he asked something very disturbing.
I was obliged to be extremely concentrated. The feeling was
that it was a sort of game between our two minds, and that
my composition was a kind of background, as a reference.
That truly was my first lesson of composition with
Koellreutter. An intense and challenging intellectual debate.
- Do you know my piece called Ácronon?
I did not know about it.
Composed by Koellreutter about two or three years
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before, in 1978, Ácronon is a musical piece for which its
graphic score is drawn on a large sphere of crystal. The
sphere is placed in the middle of the orchestra. Depending
on the position of each musician, its reading is different.
That is, each performer looks at the sphere and interprets
what he or she sees: the indicative elements of sounds and
their relations taken from different points of view and from
different angles. What is ahead or behind is combined by the
transparency of the sphere. But everything is structured in a
unique sense of unity.
154
Sérgio Villafranca and
Koellreutter with the Ácronon
spherical music score
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I think that the world premiere of Ácronon happened
in 1978, performed by the Orchestra of the National Theater
in Brasília, directed by Koellreutter, with Caio Pagano as piano
soloist.
Many years later, he would tell me something very
surprising. He said that in Brazil, at that epoch, sometimes the
musicians of the orchestra simply refused to play a particular
composition when they considered that “it was not music”!
I think that this also happened in Portugal. And, perhaps, it
still happens in many different places.
To perform Ácronon required a heavy preliminary work
to convince the musicians of the orchestra that at first had
refused to play. It had not been the first time the musicians
had refused to play a piece with which they did not agree.
I knew that even pieces by Arnold Schoenberg, Anton
Webern or John Cage were often rejected by the musicians
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of some orchestras there!
My piece – which showed him in the first lesson of
composition – wasn’t a sphere, but the various transparent
layers, allowing an independent, mobile, flexible and
simultaneously interdependent reading of the musical signs,
established an unequivocal relation with his work.
It was something totally different from his work, but
as if the phenomenon of serendipity emerged with all its
exuberance, showing the reality of an ideosphere, there
clearly existed a similar questioning in both compositions,
pieces that had a similar nature, which belonged to a same
world.
- Why did you make this composition like that? Why did
you choose such a strategy? – he said without hiding
curiosity and also some reluctant surprise.
- Because each person is a complete universe, each
person must be creative. The music score should be
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a kind of guide, a conducting element for the musical
experience, not a prison for the interpreter. A game, a
process of dialogue between human beings.
- You’re too young... your piece is very interesting. Last
week I showed your composition to some people. Very
interesting. In fact, it is very important. What are you
looking for with such a kind of composition?
- Subversion. I look to designate elements that establish
moments of rupture, to break with the regular way
of thinking. In each piece a challenge for those who
hear must be present. An invitation to discovery.
Establishing such elements, we are creating a shift
in the way of thinking. Changing the way we think,
we change the course of action, and we change our
natures. – I answered very sure of what I did.
- Very interesting. Everything must have a social
function. Never forget that. There is much work to do.
No time to rest.
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Dynamic virtual music score on
computer screen, using artificial
intelligence. Concert for large
ensemble, by Emanuel Pimenta,
1982
Then, he started with questions and more questions.
Usually short ones. Each question unchained a lengthy
argumentation, a long answer, which he attentively listened
to.
For someone who did not understand what was
happening, all that would surely seem very strange – because
only made very short questions and I always talked about.
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In some sense, his questions led my thought. They
oriented the construction of my thought.
Typically, teachers are who speak more. Especially in
composition classes and some other private lessons. This did
not happen with Koellreutter.
Each word of the student was carefully measured and
related to other ones. For him, no matter how simple they
were, there were no words that did not deserve to be taken
deeply seriously.
Classes were moments of great dedication.
Intuitively, I began my work on graphic music scores
in the late 1970s. I did not think it was something already
belonging to a historical line of compositions. If on one hand,
the fact that Koellreutter had situated me in the historical
context dramatically amplified the path I was still groping,
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his other teachings on techniques of composition in that
new medium turned possible the rapid improvement of my
work inside dynamic universes operating in three and four
dimensions.
Until then, great part of graphic scores – if not all –
were two-dimensional and static, with exception to Ácronon
and to some of my early work with free layers.
To achieve such degree of complexity required a high
level of concentration and seriousness.
In Brazil, as well as in the United States, it is common
for students to make jokes, puns, during class. When that
happened, he was visibly angry.
−
My friend, I’m not here to make jokes. If you do not
take it seriously, then the best will be to look for something
else to do. – he said with gravity, but without irritation.
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Repeatedly, I witnessed scenes like this with the most
different types of students. I think that such a thing never
happened between us because I was very formal and from
the beginning I realized that making jokes meant to spend
precious time for him, a time with something that was not
studying.
The great flutist Paula Robinson described a performance
with Paul Hindemith, when she was still a student, revealing
a behavior very similar to Koellreutter’s. «Paul Hindemith
came to visit the Juilliard School while I was a student there.
(…) How lucky I felt to be playing in Hindemith’s orchestra!
(…) He was intense, he was demanding, and he conducted
with relish. His countenance was stern most of the time, but
his eyes gleamed with humor and sometimes tenderness.
Well, after we young players had rehearsed and performed
in this atmosphere for almost two weeks, we started to show
some strain. We were all tired and over-excited – a dangerous
combination. Something was bound to happen. Sure enough,
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during the final performance, at a particularly intense
moment in the music, we heard a smothered snort from our
clarinetist. That did it. Suddenly, the entire woodwind section
was shaking and choking with laughter! We were horrified,
but we couldn’t stop laughing. Hindemith’s face turned dark
red; he was furious. He kept conducting, glaring at us – what
only made it worse. Somehow, this terrible moment passed.
We all collected ourselves and finished the performance.
Afterwards everyone escaped quickly, but I lagged behind.
Playing with the great composer had meant so much to me
– couldn’t I just – just go backstage to apologize for all us and
to thank him too? I approached the Green Room. Yes, he was
there, surrounded by members of the Board of Directors of
Juilliard and the Dean of the School. I drew nearer. Then he
spotted me. His eyes opened wide, his face got red again. His
mouth assumed the shape of a large square, and he started
to yell “No respect! You have no respect for the music!”».
The essential issue was the respect for the music.
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Hindemith was not concerned about himself or anything
else. He was thinking on the music.
In many places, like Brazil for example, when a
musician is playing in an open and public space, like a street,
for example, good part of people do not even consider the
possibility to be in silence. They continue talking, as if the
music was not very important.
When something like that happened – in performances
of his works or in his classes – Koellreutter simply could not
admit. It was disrespect to the music, to the work and thereby
to the civilization.
This curious identity between Paul Hindemith and
Koellreutter extended itself to a way of being in front of
European music, more formal and inflexible that the American
– north, central or south – way.
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For the old European way of thinking, music was not
a fun or something that could be taken lightly. Then, music
was what was the most serious in the world, like medicine,
physics or architecture.
It was not entertainment – like most people now
consider it, in the beginning of the twentieth first century. It
was the purest expression of civilization.
At home, he was very different – he liked jokes and
always was in a good mood.
In fact, over twenty-five years, I never saw any clear
trace of bad humor in him, even when he was in class or
when going through some serious trouble. He could be
serious, but never in a bad mood.
However, its seriousness and straightforwardness,
his practical sense and his dedication were, sometimes,
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misinterpreted as signs of bad mood.
He never distinguished students because of more
sympathy to this or that. We all were there to work, and our
work was discovery and elaboration.
It was evident through his eyes that, somehow, he liked
my work, and that caused some discomfort among some of
his senior students. But, excepting that, he always treated
everyone equally.
Among many students, there seemed to be a
competition around the master. It is about a competition in
which I was not involved and never wanted to participate.
Simply, I was not interested.
I was only worried about my new projects, how to
learn, how to dive into something new, a new process of
composition. Everything else was pure folkloric distraction
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and I did not have time for that.
When I was leaving one of the classes, in the first times,
a student confronted me. He was a little older than me but
had a far more accurate musical education than mine.
I was obliged to do everything hidden from my
family and by myself, working to pay for my own musical
education. Even if such a difficult situation had designed an
overwhelming sense of freedom, it also provoked inevitable
gaps against which I had to constantly fight.
In an arrogant and rude attitude, the student almost
pushed me into one of the empty classrooms. He wanted to
talk to me. He closed the door. He was visibly nervous. I had
met him a few weeks before, but we had never even talked
each other. He was one of the main students of Koellreutter.
He threw up a copy of a conventional music score on a small
table. Just one page.
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- Come on. I want to see who you are. Tell me, what this
composition is? Who is the composer?
He was very aggressive. The page was a fragment of a
piece for orchestra.
I did not know what to do. Deeply embarrassed and
intimidated by his aggressiveness, I got the score sheet.
I was lost. Of course, the name of the composer, the
title of the piece and anything that could identify it had been
deliberately erased.
I did not know what to say.
I was literally confused. Beyond everything, it was
profoundly ridiculous. Suddenly, the whole embarrassing
situation seemed to be something from another world. To
prove what to whom? – I asked myself, inwardly, silently.
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Noticing my confusion, even before I could say anything
– even though there was nothing to say – he pulled the sheet
from my hands:
- It’s Beethoven, a page from the middle of the third
movement of the fourth symphony. You see? You are a
farce. You cannot even recognize a page of Beethoven’s
work and you want to be a student of Koellreutter?
Shameful!
He left involved in his own laughs, as aggressive
as it came. But! How could I have recognized a page from
the middle of one of the movements of a Beethoven’s
symphony? Especially because I was much more involved
with contemporary music.
Anyway, that incident, given the violence and the
degree of absurdity, made me really upset.
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I came to wonder if I would be in the right place, if I
really should be a composer, if everything would not be just
a meaningless dream. With people of that sort, would it be a
world in which I would like to participate?!
But the disturbance did not last long. The following
day I was even more determined than before.
I knew that along all life I would meet many people
like that in any area I could act.
After a few months, that student simply disappeared,
mysteriously.
I never told about that incident to Koellreutter or to
any of my colleagues.
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5
The lessons continued. We discussed gestalt strategies,
principles of the theory of information, concepts of quantum
physics applied to the establishment and questioning of the
form, the emergence of consciousness.
All that could be discussed having a graphic score or a
conventional one as the main reference.
Sometimes, to illustrate what he was saying, he got
a score of Schubert, Palestrina, Bach or Debussy and made
a quick analysis. Everything was based on analysis, on the
comprehension of the process.
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At that time, especially in the lessons on the twentieth
century music, there was a piece of music he had a special
pleasure when analyzing it. It was Artikulation, by his friend,
the composer Gyorgy Ligeti. Composed in 1958, the piece
is entirely electronic and was the first one Ligeti composed
living in the West.
Rainer Wehinger’s graphic
music score for Gyorgy
Ligeti’s Artikulation, 1970
In 1970, Rainer Wehinger – a visual artist, friend of
the composer – created a graphic interpretation of Ligeti’s
music.
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We listened and analyzed Ligeti’s piece. Later we
confronted our analysis with Wehinger’s graphic work.
Thus we had a deep sense of the whole composition
and not just of its parts.
But, there was something that, in general and in
principle, Koellreutter did not like: glissands:
-
A musical note must be clear. Or is, or is not. You
cannot stay in the middle of the way. It must
not be something undefined. The definition
of a sound is in its relations. What is not well
defined, cannot communicate.
In the classes of composition, time passed too quickly
and they always seemed to end suddenly. When the end
arrived I realized that, practically, only I had spoken. He
heard what I said and shoot fast and very acute questions.
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I quickly realized that this was the spirit of his lessons of
composition.
Each brief question triggered a complex reasoning.
They were fundamental questions that put in question
everything I had done until then.
Each class was, indeed, a deeply self-analysis and a
process of self-knowledge. From time to time he introduced
a new concept, which triggered a revolution of ideas and an
avalanche of new reflections.
-
Without analysis, we can never have a
synthesis. - he always said.
It was the work of each one of us, our action, what
caused the discovery. And the basis of all action should
be the analysis. I could never be a teacher dictating rules,
exercises or formulas of any kind. The rules should be found,
discovered, understood while indicators of how things work
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and therefore always open to refutation.
His role was to get us to reflect with the deepest
attention to every detail of our own work, of our own
actions.
His questions were a real orientation on a journey of
knowledge, were true teachings about how to think clearly.
-
Each element of the composition must be
considered, analyzed and worked. If it is a
structural element, all its relations must be
carefully worked, not matter what nature
they are. If you adopt a sound... imagine, for
example, a sound of percussion, a large metal
plate... it must be worked. The metal plate is
not relevant in itself, it is not human. But if you
work the sound, then it is transformed into
music. You can find an interesting algorithm,
you can establish an interesting set of timbers,
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but if they are not elaborated, there is no
composition. Nothing is relevant by itself.
Then I asked how Marcel Duchamp’s work could be
considered, or – as his great friend Octavio Paz alerted – what
stones chosen and signed by Buddhist masters, along several
hundred years, turned in this way into something similar to
what we call an artwork, could be considered?
-
Conceptual work can also exist in music. But
they must be even more deeply developed.
In any case, my work as a musician is with
sounds. I work the organization of sounds.
They may involve a high conceptual level, but
while sounds they must be elaborated – this is
the role of culture, of what we call civilization.
Even if you use something intentionally crude,
without treatment, this lack of treatment must
be communicated, otherwise it will not be
perceived as such. So, everything is illusion and
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everything must be developed at its smallest
detail. This is what we call the quality of a
work. If you go to Japan, you would see how
they produce their instruments of percussion.
That is something unique. I’ve never seen
anything like that, anywhere in the world. Each
instrument receives the dedication of hours
and hours, if not months or years, of several
people. That quantity of attention gives to
those sounds an unsurpassed quality. Even
when you intentionally use something without
treatment, never forget that everything is
illusion and that, in some way, such fact must
be communicated, then it will already be
elaboration.
Many years later, studying the work of Joseph Beuys,
I would see that both had a very similar method of work,
possibly an ancient Germanic tradition.
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Many students did not view favorably that method
-which I considered fabulous. They questioned whether
such a dedication to the smallest detail of each composition
would, in some way, eliminate the lightness, the authenticity
and originality of the work.
It can seem strange, but that was a current issue, even
among some performers, who fought against what they
called excessive technique, as being something that could
somehow impoverish the artistic expression.
-
This is a big nonsense. If a person does not
know the technique, the language, how
could manifest, how could communicate?
Everything is, in some way, translation. It is
not to translate feelings or silly things alike.
The point here is to translate structural
questions, logical processes. When Picasso
painted Guernica, and presented the painting
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as political protest, this does not mean he had
painted it as political protest. He painted it,
which is in itself a major work, later he said
that it was a political protest.
He was not interested at all on those concerns against
the technique. For him, composition was only a matter of
method, a procedure of how to do, that could happen in
many different forms as music, painting, sculpture, film – no
matter what it could be, the important was the method and
the method was the way of knowing.
Everything seemed to turn in terms of a continuous
evaluation from which new concepts emerged.
In the classes of perception, for example, the notes
were not important in themselves. Since the first moment we
should be concentrated only on the relations between the
notes and how each type of relation implicated a different
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nature of sound, a different function.
Those classes generally happened with two students
– under his orientation. There were hours and hours of
exercise. One of the students was at the keyboard of the
piano; the other one was far, not being able to see what note
was played.
We always started with two notes – an isolated note
made no sense. Then, we passed to three notes and so on.
Some months later, they were sets of five, six or seven notes
– till we arrived to the challenges of simultanoids, chords
that are impossible to be classified according to the rules of
tonality.
-
Stop thinking! Be free. Make as the intuition
can be expanded. If you will continue thinking,
trying to explain what the notes are, nothing
will result. But, if you simply listen to them,
you will notice that each relation is something
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like a form. When we perceive such form,
that is, when we listen not thinking, when
we are free, all musical relations suddenly
become clear. Many times this doesn’t happen
gradually. Great part of times, it is a mutation
of the consciousness, a discovery.
In any of his classes, we were obliged to a permanent
exercise of self-knowledge.
Throughout all the disciplines I would study with him,
the statement that everything must have a social function
was always present.
At the end of the lessons on composition, often, he
made a last question, which should be answered only at the
next class.
And, in general, although short, the question was of
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such importance that it finished changing everything I had
made, the whole composition – and I saw myself impelled to
redo everything from the beginning.
The social function, without which no music could
exist, implicated permanent attention.
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People generally do not pay attention. They
do many things without realizing what they
are doing. To always ask “why” implicates to
question the reason d’etre of the existence
of everything, no matter how small it can
be. A musical note, a noise, a silence – being
the silence of expression or strong and
autonomous entity – anything must have a
reason d’etre. Not only everything should be
carefully worked, but even before, everything
must has a reason d’etre – nothing can exist
without a reason, because, even if we cannot
immediately notice, everything we do has its
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reason. The reason d’etre, its justification, is
not a symbol, content, but it is in its relations.
It is important to understand. The social
function also happens like that, while relations,
and without attention it passes unnoticed.
When this happens, everything becomes just
impoverished entertainment.
The nature of existence of each thing was something
of fundamental importance in his thought.
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You should always ask: why this music? And
even: why music? Without knowing to answer
that, why are you making music?
Another essential aspect of his teachings on
composition was the importance of the understanding of
the concept of unity.
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Without unity there is no form, and without
form there is no composition, because there is
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no consciousness, no perception. Composition
is the establishment of form. – he said almost
gruffly.
That concept also was, of course, strongly present in
the classes on aesthetics. It was something that he brought
from his learning since childhood in Germany.
During the years we were near each other, on several
occasions, we heard together magnetic tapes of young
composers who sent him their work, asking about his
impressions. Many times, the recordings showed an excellent
quality of sound, formidable timbers, but in fact there was
not a work of composition. People were delighted with the
color of the sounds, with an apparent improvisation, but it
was nothing more. When that happened, Koellreutter was
very upset:
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And now? What can I say to this person? It is
evident that is someone with talent. But he
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did not realize what a work of composition
is. It’s not something I can say in a letter. The
person needs to understand that. On the other
hand, if I say anything like that and the person
does not understand what I mean, it can be
a demotivating factor. And I cannot do such
a thing, because people need to be open to
discovery. And to complicate matters further, I
see through the letter that he already considers
himself a great composer and has a great pride
on what he sent me... A big problem...
So, Koellreutter worked on a letter attempting to
carefully measure the use of each word in order to give a
clue to the person, not a disincentive – what was difficult
and extremely stressful.
In the classroom, he drew a large circle of Heraclitus
on the blackboard, to the attentive students of aesthetics.
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The beginning of a circle is also its end –
quoted the Greek philosopher who was one
of his favorites – Total information or absence
of information doesn’t communicate. This
is the problem of communicability in many
contemporary compositions. Many composers
work with new sounds, but sometimes, the
amount of information in their structures
is so great that nothing exists. The level of
information is essential to distinguish between
what we call popular music or erudite music.
Form only exists when information is closer to
the center of the circle. When we walk in the
sense of more information we have erudite
music. If we move to less information, we
have the so-called popular music. But after a
certain point, both disappear. If we reach the
limits of the circle, form disintegrates.
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What about minimal music? – It was a general question,
and was placed as a sort of challenge. We had always been
amazed with LaMonte Young, Phill Niblock and Terry Riley.
At that time, Philip Glass lived a great success with
Koyaanisqatsi, which was also a film directed by Godfrey
Reggio, after Einstein on the Beach; and Steve Reich, who
learned so much from John Cage, although he never assumed
it, launched a beautiful composition called Tehillim.
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This is a good question. Minimal music inverted
the process. It walked to information tending
to zero. When it is about LaMonte Young,
for example, then it is zero and everything is
very conceptual. Here is an example – but this
conceptual aspect is a strong reference to a
very ancient historical framework. In any case,
do not be deceived, when we have a concert
like In C, by Terry Riley, or much before him
something by John Cage and even, in some
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sense, by Eric Satie, cultural references are
huge. It is not something out of a culture. On
the other hand, some minimal works are only
apparently simple – in fact, for who is able
to identify their structural relations, they are
quite complex. Everything depends on the
scale.
He compared the thought of Heraclitus with that of
Parmenides, setting out their conflicting points but quickly
jumping to Thales, Anaximander, or to Plato and Aristotle.
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Everything is transformation. Heraclitus said:
«Souls are transformed into water when
they die, the death of water becomes in the
land, but the earth is reborn in water, and
water in the soul». – he carefully and slowly
repeated the statement of Heraclitus, which
he enjoyed in a very special way – But in such
a metamorphosis that is everything, that is life
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transforming itself, only the search for a totality
can generate the form. A totality is produced
by the sense of unity, which is different from a
totos. Totos is all formless, full quality. Totality
is the unity of form.
And suddenly he presented a fragment of Genesis
according to John, and established similarities at the logical
level with Heraclitus.
-
Here, we also have the circle, which was the
form par excellence in the Middle Ages.
The classes did not happen only in relation to the past
or to exclusively theoretical questions. Sometimes – when
the subject justified – he told about some controversial fact,
but he never said the name of the involved people, even
if they had been profoundly unfair with him or with other
people. The students always insisted, curious, to know about
who was this or that story.
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My friends, I cannot tell you. I would never
tell the name of the people, simply because
they are not here to defend themselves and,
however I think to be correct, no one is the
owner of truth. The important is not to know
people’s names, but to learn with what
happened. Memory is fundamental.
Once, he was questioned about the fact that Karlheinz
Stockhausen had made a piece where each tone is divided
into thirteen parts, obliging the musicians to a special training
as to be able to perform it.
-
Stockhausen is a mystic, like Alban Berg was.
But what is the true importance of to divide a
tone into thirteen parts if the great majority of
people is not able to listen the difference?
We analyzed works by different composers.
-
People must to know how to listen, to pay
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attention, to identify what they listen to! – he
said, apparently a little contradicted.
Once, in some classes of music of the twentieth
century, he asked us to listen and to analyze the two books,
from 1952 and 1961, of the work Structures for Two Pianos,
by Pierre Boulez, in a recording made by the brothers Alfons
and Aloys Kontarsky – who were true idols for us.
Koellreutter has a disc and music scores, but for him
the most important was to listen.
-
Later we can dedicate ourselves to the music
scores, but the most important now is to listen
to. What do you feel when you are listening
to these two works, from 1952 and 1961,
separated each other for almost ten years?
What can you identify as differences between
them?
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For great part of the students, it was evident that the
work dated of 1961 was less rigid than that of 1952, but no
one was sure about that. It was only a sensation, a feeling.
Would be reasonable and relevant to feel something related
to that music, that is, to manifest something purely subjective
in relation to it?
-
It is exactly that! You are right. The piece of
1961 is much more soft, more human. Why?
Again, the students were lost, not knowing what to
say.
-
Because what is human, is more mysterious. The
most important are not the explanations, but
the questions. When Pierre Boulez composed
the piece of 1961 he was older, he had already
lived more experiences and, therefore, he was
less rigid, less attached to dogmas. Both pieces
were composed according to the principles
of Integral Serialism, but they are profoundly
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different.
And we passed to analyze Water-lilies, the last painting
by Claude Monet.
Few weeks after our first lessons on composition he
asked me to tell him what I was doing besides music, what
were my real goals in life.
I told him about my work on marketing, art direction,
my painting using the most diverse means, plastic art on
paper, video art, electronic art, Zen questionings, theater,
my small movie projects, various musical instruments,
drawings, industrial design, architecture, urban planning,
studies on electronics, electrical systems, poetry, literature,
photography, my love for science, philosophy – a boiling
avalanche of activities.
Crossing arms as if it was about a serious problem, he
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told me very dryly that he would like to see my work in other
areas besides music, and that he had something to say, but
that he wouldn’t tell me until know more about what I did.
He insisted that I should bring my work to him, at the
college, adding that only later he could decide whether to
continue or not being my teacher.
I did not know what to say. I had hundreds of
paintings on paper and canvas – they were an intense and
continuous Zen questioning on the artificial and the natural,
on the intention and the chance, free will and fate. I worked
tirelessly.
There also were some thousands of photos, texts, a
big quantity of drawings, films, recorded electronic music,
projects for art installations or video art. During holidays or
on weekends, while my brothers and friends went to the
beach or to the countryside, to relax, I was alone in the city,
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working feverishly. How could I show him only one or another
work?
It was important to show him the ensemble of my
work, otherwise he could not have a concrete idea about
what I really did. And there were many pieces. It was literally
impossible to take them to the college. Take one or other
work would make no sense.
Many of my photographs were made on slides and,
therefore, would be necessary a projector, a screen and a
darkened room to see them. Many pieces of music were
recorded in large rolls of magnetic tape. There were papers
with drawings everywhere.
But there was another problem. And serious. Since
always, my family was absolutely against any work of mine
related to music, to art or to any kind of cultural operation.
Thus, virtually everything I did should be hidden.
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At home, behind the garage, there was a small room,
a sort of small basement, damp and dark. It was the space
destined to me, so as not disturb the family with my activities,
which were contrary to what had been firmly established by
my parents, especially in relation to music.
That small room near the garage, was a way of keeping
me at distance, to not be bothered and to discourage as much
as possible my development as musician, artist or architect.
Being down there, they were protected from my
sounds, my images and my texts. Many times, I arrived and
immediately went there. It was my place. Sometimes days
passed without seeing my family – when I went to work
in the morning, they had already left, they traveled widely
and were not interested on what I could be doing there.
Sometimes I felt to be in that house by accident.
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Along years I was almost forbidden to talk to my family
about my work on music or art and, even later, it would make
no sense to want to share my experiences at home, simply
because no one was interested.
It is strange to say, but never anyone in my family,
throughout my entire life, attended to any of my concerts or
was present in any of my exhibitions.
How could I do? Bring the work to the college was an
impossible task.
-
I will go to your home! There is no problem.
Koellreutter said that like a thunderbolt. I froze. But I
could not deny.
How could I do?
There was no way out. Despite that embarrassing
situation, I needed to show to Koellreutter what I did and,
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indeed, the only way was to take him at that little hidden
room behind the garage.
How could I explain that he could not go to my
house?
I had no courage to tell him what was happening. We
agreed, simply, a certain night, after dinner, when I would
take him to know my works.
A few days later, on the scheduled date, I stopped
by his apartment in downtown São Paulo and we followed
together, at late evening, to my house.
Carefully and quietly I put my car in the garage and we
entered through a back door. I had to be extremely attentive
to not make any noise that might reveal our presence. If my
parents called me, it would be a disaster. Who could predict
what they could do?
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On the other hand, I should act with the utmost ease,
as Koellreutter would not realize that we were entering
hidden.
Today, I am fully convinced that, since the beginning,
he knew exactly what was happening.
For a man with his experience everything was very
clear. But he pretended to notice nothing. He acted naturally,
always in silence. He testified the family drama of a young
composer.
We entered and the small room where I had my
works was lined with books, records, equipment, paintings,
drawings and photographs.
Koellreutter sat on a small metal chair with the
seat and back made with colorful fabric. We spent some
hours watching short films I made, photos, listening to my
recordings, watching drawings, some experiments on video
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art, paintings and talking about everything.
As I predicted, no one appeared.
The halls and rooms that stretched on that small
basement were a large building and in that moment, and in
a certain sense, it looked like a large ghost house.
In the end, after midnight, we left as we arrived:
hidden, discreetly and quietly.
On the way back, always openly and without emotion,
he asked:
-
Where your parents were?
-
In the upper floors.
-
Why we had to enter and go out hidden?
One can imagine my profound embarrassment – the
legendary composer and master, Hans Joachim Koellreutter,
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who was nearly seventy years old, entering and going out
hidden from a house, in the shadows of night!
Emanuel Pimenta at his small studio near the garage, São Paulo, 1981.
I explained, very briefly – and more confused than
ever – that my parents did not accept what I did.
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He made no specific comment on that, seemed to
understand the situation much better than I could imagine.
-
My friend, I’ll tell you something very
important: you are an honest person. There
is a clear coherence in everything you do.
There is a remarkable connection between
your photographs, your music and your other
projects. When I see one of your drawings, your
photos, or I listen to your music, I am clearly
in front of the same logical structure. The
work of someone who lies, who imitates, who
pretends to be something that is not, never
has consistency. In some sense your works are
amazing. But there is much work to do. You are
honest. This is very important to me. It is even
essential. I was worried about what I would
find. We need to talk very seriously at the next
class. Do not take any composition next time.
We just need to talk, and it is something very
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serious. I have something very serious to tell
you.
I was dying of curiosity. I insisted to know what so
serious he had to tell me. But, as always dryly, with a small
smile, he just said that I should wait for the next class.
I was afraid that he would no longer wanted me as
a student, but his statement that I was honest was fairly
reassuring.
What he would have, then, of so serious to tell me?
The following week I came to the class on composition
with nothing on hands, expecting for the worst.
He asked me to sit down.
He walked to the door, locked it and put the key in his
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pocket, showing that he did.
As almost always, the classroom was empty. We were
alone, only we two. But this time he had locked the door and
put the key in his pocket – as if I was arrested.
Before closing the door, he stretched his neck out and
warned Bira that he did not want to be interrupted in any
way.
I sat. We had a table between us. He opened the black
leather folder he always carried with him.
-
My friend, what I have to tell you is very
serious. This time you will not talk. I will talk.
Today it will be different. You’ll be quiet.
During the classes, I ask and you talk. Now,
today, there will be no questions. I’ll just talk.
Nobody will interrupt us. I went to your house,
and I saw what you do. You paint, draw, do
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photography, music, architecture, urbanism,
writes, writes poetry, does illustrations,
studies philosophy and many other things.
The world is not made for people like you. In
life there are people who do not have much
interest on things. Most people simply pass
through this existence, and ultimately make
what life puts ahead them. They are people
accommodated in a job, for example, without
asking too many questions. They spend their
lives there, and are happy. They simply pass in
their lives. There are other people who want
to grab the world with all their forces. These
people are voraciously curious. Nature has a
mechanism to balance everything. It always
tries to balance all things, turning things more
equal: equalizing them. Thus, people who do
many things never have time to improve their
competence. This is simply because we do
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not have enough time. It’s not a question of
lack of talent, it’s just lack of time. We have to
sleep eight hours a day, we need to eat, and
we must live. It is very important to live. If a
person does not live, does not participate in
society, if he or she does not do things beyond
their works, they will not be able to create
something interesting. Life is our raw material,
over which we make our music, or whatever.
Thus, a person who does many things will
be automatically eliminated; he or she will
become – inevitably – mediocre, incompetent.
And that happens without he or she can notice,
because the person is permanently involved
in the pleasures of discovery. The people who
don’t have too many interests, who do not
have much curiosity, that are happy doing
only one thing, nothing in special, and always
do it, continuously and routinely, will end up
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becoming good at what they do. Also with
them such phenomenon of balance happens
without they can notice it. And also with them
is only a matter of time. Thus, Nature balances
things, making mediocre the most curious
and valuing the less interested. Culture must
play a role against this phenomenon. This was
the role of the teachers who formerly had the
task of to form the student. Today, everything
is turned into information; there is no more
the formation of the student, of the human
being. You’re still young. Until now, everything
you have done can be considered as your
general culture. It is very good, yeah, I would
say, formidable. But this is the last moment in
your life to avoid becoming mediocre. There
will not be a second time. So from today you
have to decide among three choices: you can
continue as you are; you can choose to just
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work on music, or you can choose music and
architecture. The best, I think, would be to
work on music and architecture, but it could
be music and medicine, for example, because
the music – especially that you do – will not
give money, and even if it was another kind
it is always very difficult to survive only with
music. With contemporary experimental
music is literally impossible. If you choose
the first option, continuing as you are now,
doing a thousand and one things, there is no
problem – but never more talk to me. I have
no time to lose. If you choose to make music
and architecture – an option that I consider
more correct – I will be very happy to continue
being your teacher and I assure you that you
will have a great success. You may wonder if
making just one or two things you would be
impoverished in your experiences – bur it is
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exactly the opposite. After a certain age, if you
do too many things, you impoverish. If you do
only one or two things, you improve yourself.
In the future, when you will be forty or fifty
years old, very carefully, you can gradually
get closer to other activities. But until then,
no! I repeat: If you choose to continue doing
everything you are doing now, never more talk
to me! I do not want you to open your mouth
now. Not a word. Just come back next week.
Then you will tell me what you decided. Now
you can go. – he took out the key from his
pocket, got up, walked around the room and
opened the door without saying a single word,
he just moved his arm as an invitation for me
to leave, in a dry and even aggressive way.
He had spoken continuously for fifty minutes. But,
they seemed to have been only five!
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I knew he was right.
Everything suddenly became clear in my life. But, even
so, despite my certainty, despite the clarity of everything,
that challenge was a bomb in my soul.
I loved art, cinema, poetry, literature and so many
other things. How could I leave everything from a moment
to another? How could I be restricted only to music and
architecture?
“Restricted” was the word that deeply disturbed me
at that time.
I was devastated. I called a friend, Fernando Zarif,
a colleague in the faculty of architecture, with whom I
developed several projects of art and concerts, and asked to
meet him at a restaurant in the Bixiga neighborhood, in São
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Paulo.
I needed to talk to someone. I did not know what to
say. It was so obvious but, even so, I was disturbed.
We had a dinner and talked at length at an Italian
restaurant. The clear and direct way Koellreutter had stripped
my life had been truly shocking, devastating.
I would have to change, suddenly, my entire life. I had
to abandon several projects underway. I needed to redirect
my path. I should establish a new method of life – almost as
if was born again.
The decision was immediately taken, and in a definitive
way. There was no doubt. Suddenly, my entire life had become
crystal clear.
But, it was a terrible decision.
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That moment represented a radical change in my life.
If I had not lived Koellreutter’s tough and serious words,
surely I would have never had the impulse to assume a so
dramatic attitude.
From that very moment, when I crossed the door of
the classroom, leaving behind Koellreutter’s lesson, I started
to dedicate myself exclusively to architecture and music.
I continued writing, developing theories, but always
related to those areas. I left the literature of fiction, the
poetry. On photography, I began to devote myself almost
exclusively to architecture, to spaces created or changed by
humankind.
Only about twenty-five years later, very gradually, I
come back to work in different areas. Even so, very carefully,
never with the uncontrolled voracity of when I was young.
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If by one side this change implied a certain rigor and an
abandonment of an openly holistic approach, on the other,
it made possible to rescue from different universes solutions
to specific issues of music and architecture.
Thus, in fact, I never completely abandoned the other
areas. But now they became oriented.
Years later I realized how correct that decision was,
although painful.
My knowledge on architecture, music and aesthetics
were expanded to levels I could never predict. They allowed
me to dive deeper in several disciplines. I no longer wanted
to know everything, but yes to recall from the most diverse
areas, resources for my core activities.
Over time I learned that it was exactly what John Cage
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and René Berger had done, among many other brilliant
personages.
Everything was a question of method.
In the next lesson, with only two or three words, I
announced my decision to Koellreutter. He simply crossed
his arms and gave a slight smile.
-
Okay. Very well. I knew this would be your
decision. – he said, without much conversation,
as if they really knew what I would tell him.
And we were back to work.
We never more talked about that.
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6
Months passed and I became very friendly with almost
everyone in the college.
During a period of time, almost every Friday night,
when the Koellreutter was in São Paulo, we all joined for a
pizza in a famous restaurant in Bixiga, Cantina Speranza, at
the street Treze de Maio.
He loved to made jokes and puns with the name of the
restaurant, which means “hope”.
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He always was the last one to arrive at those dinners.
Then, everything should be well organized in advance, and
he did not have to request to be like that. Otherwise, we all
considered that it could be the last time.
His presence in those dinners was a tremendous honor
for all his students. We were all very aware of how important
he was, in the deepest sense of the term.
Every time he entered in my car, he looked at the back
seat, which, not infrequently, was crammed with books and
notebooks when I had no time to organize them.
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My friend, do you see how the back seat of
your car is? It is like your head inside today.
– and laugh.
When the books and notebooks were organized, he
did the same, but said:
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Well ... today your head is much betterrr.
– laughing, always with a strong German
accent.
Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, in 1999
The lessons of aesthetics that, in some way, represented
less commitments, always unleashed magic moments. The
number of students was restricted. And the classes would
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begin strictly on time.
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When someone arrives late, he or she is
occupying the time of the other. It is an
authoritarian behavior – he said, insistently.
Nobody had the right to occupy the time of
the other. Everything should go through a
democratic criterion. – My friend, you are not
used to live in democracy? To live in democracy
you must respect the other. – he said to anyone
who arrived after hours.
One of the concepts that characterized not only the
lessons on aesthetics, but virtually all others was that according
to which only the difference produces consciousness.
It is an ancient Vedic principle, registered in the
Indian philosophical universe thousands of years ago, which
Koellreutter heard hundreds of times during the time he
lived in India.
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Beyond the time, another key element that seems
to have designed his entire life was the concern about the
consciousness.
Everything in the consciousness is formed by elements
of differentiation. These principles are fundamental both the
analysis as in the preparation of a work – musical or not.
Even more evident than what happened in the classes
on composition, his lessons on aesthetics were attended not
exclusively by people related to music. There were teachers,
scientists and professionals from the most diverse areas.
Thus, especially those classes on aesthetics quickly
became a truly transdisciplinary meeting point.
Another concept – which he repeated in different
contexts – was that the Occident is an accident, formulated
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by the French philosopher Roger Garaudy, for many years a
member of the French Communist Party and who had been
in contact with Koellreutter in the 1960s.
Koellreutter liked to repeat, with his heavy German
accent – “the Occident is an accident” and provoked a long
debate on that statement.
Why the West appeared? What are the conflicts with
the East? They exist in fact? – in addition to an endless series
on several other similar questions.
In late 1990, Garaudy assumed a political position that
would have been frontally rejected by Koellreutter. Then,
the French philosopher published the negationist book
Foundational Myths of the Politics of Israel advocating a
historical revisionism, denying the fact of the Holocaust have
actually existed and converting himself to Islam.
Koellreutter directly experienced the atrocities of
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Nazism. He was forced to flee Germany. He arrived to affront
the Nazi army with an aggressive letter when he was young.
Organized a group of protest against Hitler when he still was
living in Germany. His great master, Hermann Scherchen was
a Jew. His first wife was Jewish. He lost many friends in the
War and was a radical defender of individual liberties.
Many things have changed in the world during his
life.
After some months studying with him at the college,
the lessons on composition were transferred to his home, a
beautiful apartment at the São Luiz Avenue, in the central
zone of São Paulo, in front of the famous landmark building
Italia.
I began to regularly go to his house. And often went
out to have a lunch, just the both.
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In the beginning, we went to a small and austere
German restaurant near there – which was his preferred
at that time. I already was vegetarian. In those days he was
especially loved steaks of veal, and the lunches, always
accompanied by an austere glass of water, not rarely ran
in absolute silence. None of us said anything for several
minutes.
-
We need time to think, to observe. – he said,
without hiding the great pleasure he wad to
be in silence – People talk too much! They
become without time to think.
We went and came back from the restaurant walking,
almost all the time in silence. We crossed Praça da República.
He just looked with curiosity, without stopping, the market
of colored objects scattered on the floor.
I always left the radio on in my car. In cars, radio
equipment consumed very little electrical power and I joked
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saying that it was a way for the car to not feel too lonely
when I was not around. Later, in my homes, there was always
music from morning to night – in every room.
That habit made him surprised. Like John Cage, he
never listened to music when it not a moment for this specific
purpose.
To him, music could not happen as a continuum, as
something belonging to the world. It should be something
special. To me, music, the sounds from cities or from the
countryside always were only one thing, something like the
soundtrack of a movie.
-
To listen to music is not something unimportant.
What happens non-stop cannot be important.
Music is something very special. We need to
give attention to it. Give it time. To respect it.
It makes no sense to have music all the time. If
it is happening all the time, so it simply doesn’t
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happen! There is no consciousness.
Once, when we walked back to his home, as soon as
we had arrived at to São Luiz Avenue, he suddenly stopped
and made a curious observation:
-
Do you see this avenue? Do you see the people
who are walking? Can you remember how it
was only fifteen years ago? People were very
different. Imagine how it was fifty years ago.
But it seems like yesterday. It’s amazing. I
observe and I’m surprised. They dressed quite
differently. There were many people with suit
and tie. Today there are many races, wearing
other clothes, much more colorful. Everything
became more relaxed, less formal. People
changed. The world changed. This is not to say
that is better or worse, but only that everything
is transformed and that transformation will
continue. It is an amazing metamorphosis.
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I asked if Brazil seemed him to be closer to India after
such a metamorphosis.
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My friend, in a sense it is true. Brazil has the
same perfume of India. But they are very
different countries. India has a history of
thousands of years. This history is reflected
in people, what they are. Indians believe in
general that Brazilians are very uneducated in
general. If we compare the histories, they are
right. Moreover, there is a freedom in Brazil
that does not exist elsewhere. Sometimes,
this freedom also means less respect. But here
education should not be like it is in Europe.
Here, we have different needs. Education
must respect the place, it is a social issue. And,
after all, the metamorphosis did not end. It is
continuing.
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This conversation happened in early 1980s.
I also asked, if he thought that Brazil would live a
revolution, an armed revolt. In those days we lived the last
years of the dictatorship, then at the beginning of a transition
to a democratic regime. There was a lot of tension, corruption
seemed to be widespread – we could not even imagine the
levels it would reach in the future – and for many the only
solution seemed to be an armed revolt.
It was incomprehensible and unacceptable a rich
country like Brazil has such a quantity of miserable people.
Even I wondered if it wouldn’t be that the only way out for
the country, even considering seriously the terrible social
costs that a revolution always represents.
-
There are two ways to Brazil. It may be a
revolution, it is true... it is not impossible. But
I do not believe very much in this scenario.
Chances are that Brazil will develop, in some
sense, like India, not through revolutions but
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yes through evolutions. If so, everything will
take many generations, it will be slow, poverty
or corruption will not end quickly. That seems
me more coherent with the Brazilian spirit. If it
is good or bad? There is no good or bad in this
kind of things.
In all of his classes, whatever they were, the formation
of the human being, the social function and the relativity of
everything were always present.
In the lessons of perception he sought to make us to
understand the relations between sounds.
-
Music is not memorization, but understanding.
And understanding can be non-verbal. You have
to listen and to understand. But I cannot explain
those relationships in words, just because it is
something not verbal. Pay attention. People
give up to understand the relations between
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things because they do not pay attention, and
get quickly discouraged. Understanding is only
to be free and attentive.
John Cage, Aria, 1960
Musical analysis was something fundamental for him;
something that should be taken as an essential element not
only by composers but also by performers, teachers and,
finally, by anyone else.
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Many times, you know an interpreter for
the score, if it is annotated or not, and how
the annotation is – the musician’s musical
calligraphy. I mean, what was the energy
he spent to analyze and to understand the
process.
Another key element was the style. Typically, people
took – and many still take – the word style as something
pejorative, negative. That is, they consider that the style is
a kind of prison, hindering free expression. Nobody wanted
to play in this or that style, and when someone had a unique
style, was seen as stylized as caricature.
But for Koellreutter, the question of style was central,
without which it wouldn’t be possible to know a great
composer or a great performer.
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All serious composers, all composers with
value, honest, have a style. The style is linked
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to honesty. Sometimes there are people who
question it, but it is the reality. The style of
a person is like your handwriting, like your
fingerprint, like their way of walking. Only
when we know this kind of fingerprint identity,
we begin to understand the design of the
composer, his great work. Generally, each
composer has one work that is, in some sense,
the synthesis of his life. A work that bring in
itself all the elements of his style, of who he
is. For Beethoven, it was the Piano Concerto
No. 1 in C Major, opus 15; for Franz Schubert,
his eighth symphony in B minor, unfinished;
for Claude Debussy, his formidable Jeux; to
Gustav Mahler, the second movement his
Fourth Symphony.
When I asked him about Das Lied von der Erde, the
Song of the Earth - and I especially loved a recording with
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Kathleen Ferrier, Julius Patzak and direction by Bruno Walter
– he replied:
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It’s a great work, but it doesn’t synthesize the
life of Mahler, his genesis. You can even say
that in your point of view the Song of the Earth
is the synthesis of Gustav Mahler’s thought.
But I’m not talking about points of view. I’m
talking about analysis. When we analyze the
sequence of cadences in the disintegration
of the principle of tonality in that movement,
we have the most complete construction
of everything he did, before and after. It’s a
mystery how it happens. But in general, every
great composer has a great work, which is
present in all others, as it were, in a sense, the
image of his thought.
And when we talked about Gustav Mahler, we
spiritually traveled to Vienna, to his beautiful wife Alma,
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considered by many the most beautiful woman of her time;
to Oskar Kokoschka, the great painter and her lover; to his
despair and death.
-
Mahler knew exactly he was going to die.
Nothing else existed for him.
And we listened to the adagio of his unfinished tenth
symphony.
Hans Joachim
Koellreutter,
Tanka II, 1972
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In the classes of counterpoint, we had to dig in and
understand with deepness the method of different medieval
composers, as if our work was to decipher their logic and to
rebuild the musician. Only in this way, penetrating his soul,
we could understand his dilemmas, his anxieties, and the
questions of an epoch.
If we were writing something like Guillaume de
Mauchault, for example, we should go beyond to understand
how he thought – we should in some way to become part of
his thought.
Koellreutter dictated, patiently, line by line the rules of
composition by Machault or Palestrina, among others. We
had to understand all those relations and to compose pieces
as they did.
Then Koellreutter patiently corrected all errors,
pointing out the relationship between the notes, the system
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as a whole, always extremely challenging, along hours and
hours.
Some times I thought we were back in time, as if we
were in a medieval monastery with the master, patiently
correcting the slips of the student.
-
It is not possible for you to go back in time.
Today, we are all other human beings, different.
It is impossible to think like Machault, Josqin
des Prés or Palestrina. But they left us rules,
tracks, vestiges. From them we can imagine
that world and, in a sense, we can rebuild it
in imagination. Follow the rules, which for
them were the order of the world. With them,
understand that music. It is not easy.
Sometimes they were extremely tiring exercises, which
took hours and hours and that seemed to never end. He was
correcting, severely and strictly, up to the smallest detail.
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So it also happened the exercises of harmony.
Everything was a lot of work and action, at all the time.
When a series of lessons ended, we were all exhausted.
When the lesson had only one student, as it was my case
in composition, counterpoint as well as in other disciplines,
sometimes the lesson ended but there was still much work
to do. When this happened, I changed to another classroom
and Koellreutter started another lesson to different group
or student. When he finished, he came to check in what
point I was. This did not happen only with me but also with
other students. He put everyone to work and was extremely
dedicated to each one.
Koellreutter had been a great flautist, recognized
around the world. He had been a student of the legendary
Marcel Moyse, and classmate with Jean-Pierre Rampal.
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Like Rampal, he represented a direct line with the
genial Paul Taffanel, considered the founder of the French
school of flute, still in the nineteenth century.
I began studying flute in the second half of the 1970s
with a teacher of the Italian school. At that time and in the
conditions I had to study, I still was not able to distinguish the
profound difference between the Italian and French schools
for flute.
I believe that my first teacher – though he became
a conductor with some recognition – was also not able to
distinguish them.
In the Italian school, we block the glottis and strongly
tense the muscles of the face. Everything is tension. The flow
of air acquires pressure and speed by reducing the opening
lip.
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In a radically different way, French school works
everything naturally, by relaxing the facial muscles, releasing
the glottis and hard working the diaphragm. In the French
school, everything is distension. The airflow picks up speed
through the work of the diaphragm and the sound quality is
designed by the accuracy of the form of the opening lip.
They are totally different ways of playing the same
instrument.
In the Italian school, the sound is “small”. In the French,
the sound is full of harmonics acquiring a magnificent body,
what we call round and it can be heard over long distances,
even when it is played piano.
As a terrible and tragic accident in my life, I studied
my first two years of flute following the Italian school.
Mechanically, I arrived to develop well, but the sound was
terrible, hopelessly small.
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One day I met a great master: Demétrio Lima, who
taught according to the French school.
Demétrio essentially is a jazz musician, a great
musician. It was said by everyone that the first requirement
of important composers like Burt Bacharach was to have him
as head of the orchestra when they went to Brazil.
I studied with Demétrio before starting my lessons
with Koellreutter.
I was desperate when I met Demetrius – who was also
called, in humorous tone, in the jazz world of São Paulo as
Satanas, because he had his head shaved.
I noticed that something was going wrong.
On the first day of class, Demétrio was extremely hard
with me. He showed me the great differences between those
schools. But, I would be obliged to submit myself to a long
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process of muscular deautomatization, exercises to erase
the memory of the body.
Along an entire year, I was obliged to stop playing and
to start over again with painful daily exercises to eliminate
the vices. For several months I was forced to do strenuous
exercises in front of a mirror, using only the mouthpiece of
the instrument.
It was terrible, but I will always be grateful to him.
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7
At that time there were not many flutists who
dominated the French technique school in Brazil. Koellreutter
not only dominated as he had learned from one of its greatest
ever exponents: Marcel Moyse. When he knew that I played
according to the technique of the French school, he was a
little surprised.
When I met Koellreutter he no longer taught flute and
no longer played in public that which had been along his
whole life his main instrument.
Only few years later I had particular orientations on
flute interpretation, but they were especially directed to
analysis.
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For him, everything should be interrelated. The
classes of composition, counterpoint, analysis, functional
harmony, perception, or orientation on flute interpretation
among other disciplines should always be focused on the
understanding of music as a nonverbal language.
The rules that normally fundament musical disciplines
only made sense if they were discovered as lived reality.
Otherwise, they would always be only rules in a text, without
much value.
We all had to keep in mind that we should always to live
our work, to experience it in full. And that work, in the sense
of labor, of elaboration, was music – but that experience
depended on the reality of each one.
-
What is the meaning of the so-called European
classical music for a society like Brazil today?
That music was developed over centuries in a
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very specific reality, which was also developed
in a very specific way. Brazil is a mixture
of societies, and it has a heavily acoustic
population, very oral. European music just
does not make sense in this context. It can be
performed as something exotic, but it is not
part of the roots of most people here. Brazil,
like India, is another world. It is a different
reality. Even so, there are people who do not
seem to realize this and continue imposing the
teaching of music in schools and conservatories
as if we were in nineteenth-century Europe.
Everything changed. That music has almost
no value here. Its value is, many times, the
superficiality of the kitsch. This does not mean
to say that we don’t have method and that
such method cannot be developed here. It also
doesn’t mean to advocate a nationalist music.
Even today’s Europe is no longer that of two
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or three hundred years ago. We are talking
about consciousness and education, not about
nationalism, but about reality. – he said in a
critical tone that accompanied him until his
last days.
So, is the music of concert condemned? I asked.
-
Of course! Of course it is! People are different.
Even if symphonies, chamber music, that is,
the called old erudite music will continue
to be played in theaters, everything will be
different, people are different. Before, it was
the revolution of its time. Now it is the image
of another time.
Since the early years of our joint work, I as student and
he as teacher, we established the commitment to have lunch
together at least once a week.
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When I went to Europe in early 1986, our lunches
continued to happen, usually every time I visited Brazil.
Curiously, he never got used to the universe of
computers. In a sense, this also happened with John Cage,
although John always had a computer in his room with which
he worked. But they never managed to write extensively
with computers or synthesizers, and never developed digital
systems, like what happened with René Berger – who was a
master of the cyberworld by the end of life, then ninety-five
years old.
In fact, Koellreutter had much less involvement with
digital systems than John Cage. In the case of Koellreutter,
such involvement was practically zero.
I arrived at his apartment, in the São Luiz Avenue,
and the fear in relation to urban violence was already
widespread.
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Koellreutter himself was assaulted a few times in front
of the building where he lived.
Emanuel Pimenta,
Concert for large ensemble,
1982
In the early times, the doorman, who watched the
building, was permanently hidden behind a door in front of
the elevators – very old, made in wood – which were located
at the bottom of the entrance corridor.
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When we entered in the building – which had a
beautiful lobby – the doorman was controlling, hidden, as if
he was always ready to flee.
We entered and no one appeared. We were stopped
there, until the doorman asked, still hidden, who we were
and what we wanted. We had to give him the requested
information, he phoned the apartment of Koellreuter and
got the authorization so we could go – all done very loud.
The elevators were regularly locked to work only with
an operator. The doorman, who always made an ugly face
because of the fear, was also the operator, controlling as he
could the movement of the building.
The man was always terrified.
Every time I arrived at the floor where Koellreutter
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lived, I rang the bell and gave four or five steps back.
There were four apartments per floor, his door was at
left and, as was common in old buildings, the hall was very
large.
I always gave those four or five ritual steps back and
was waiting. It was a curious formal care that I had and that
was happening naturally.
Ritually, even having already been warned by the
doorman that I was there, he always took a long time to
open the door – the clear impression was that he expected
me to touch the bell and waited those long moments until
he opened the door, as a kind of preparation. And it always
happened in the same way.
Our relationship was characterized by great formality,
which many could even consider as a sign of coldness, but it
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was designed by a profound affection for both parties.
As soon as he opened the door we could see on the
lateral wall at the right side a big empty space reserved for
signatures of important people who entered there.
-
Margarita’s idea. - he said with pride.
More than Koellreutter, Margarita Schack, his fourth
wife, was a formidable master on public relations, in addition
to being an outstanding mezzo-soprano.
There were signatures of musicians, artists, thinkers,
scientists and artists like as Maurizio Pollini, a great friend
of Koellreutter, or Abraham Moles, for whom Margarita had
organize some international meetings and debates in Rio de
Janeiro, among many others.
The wall was full of signatures and funny messages. I
put mine there, I think in 1981 or 1982.
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The apartment was Germanic and austere. Just very
little furniture. Only a sofa at the entrance, a small round
table in the back room, a beautiful half grand piano in a
small contiguous room, a small bookshelf where it was also
the telephone, very thick and comfortable beige carpet
throughout the apartment.
Before the two rooms, there was a small living room
with red furniture, small sofa, quite hard, as that of the living
room at the entrance, some books and a tiny central table.
Later, he started to call this small room the Kremlin.
In that small room, adapted as a kind of appendix of
the home, which Koellreutter liked to use to read books or
newspapers in silence, there were dozens of plush puppets,
a little everywhere. He loved them. When some began to
disintegrate, for some reason, he profoundly regretted:
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He will die! He has cancer!... Such is life...
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Over the years, I gave him several very funny plush
puppets. I realized that those he liked most were the most
expressive, the curious, the unexpected. They were also, of
course, those most attracted my attention.
A little everywhere, I was discovering the funniest
puppets and increasing his collection.
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Emanuel, you perfectly realized the spirit of
my collection. They are great friends of mine.
– speaking full of humor.
I wondered what would be the reaction of those
serious men, important authorities, presidents of the most
diverse institutions if they saw him surrounded by those
colorful puppets. They would certainly say that he was not in
full possession of his reason. But, all the way, it would not be
new. It was something he had been accused almost all over
his life.
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The truth is that for Koellreutter everything was pure
philosophy. He surrounded himself with puppets, as it could
be anything else. For him, in certain sense, everything had
life; everything was memory and also part of the flow of
transformation that is the existence.
Emanuel Pimenta
launching his second book at
the Biennale of São Paulo,
1981
When he took a stone, he questioned himself about
the degree of consciousness, about the memory that was
there.
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We see the stone as immovable things just
because we look at them too quickly. If we
could see them over thousands of years, we
would be surprised.
One of his most dissimulated concerns was related to
health. He simply never got sick. But he was very attentive,
concerned with prevention.
Even so, one day virtually all students in one of the
classes had caught a violent cold. But he, despite the fact to
be always with us and to be much older, was always great. I
asked him, when a class had ended, what was his secret, why
he never got sick.
-
It is very simple. I simply cannot get sick. Just
this. When I was young and lived at home
with my parents, I was always catching colds
and flu... like everyone else. But when I had to
change and to assume serious compromises, I
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simply left to get sick. That is only this. When
people can get sick, they got sick. Who truly
cannot, is not.
His stoic statement would certainly blush many doctors,
but it was full of practical wisdom, of a long experience of
life.
After we had traveled throughout the entire ritual, he
opened the door, and we headed for the small reading room,
the Kremlin. There were already prepared two very small
cups, a cold bottle of whiskey and also some iced chips.
He put very little whiskey in each glass, almost nothing.
We ate one or two sheets of iced fried chips each one, no
more. That was not time to eat or to drink, but a symbolic
moment, like a ritual.
The potatoes and whiskey were not important. The
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moment was.
He had the curious habit, both in São Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro, to keep bottles of whiskey and packages of snacks
and crisps in the refrigerator.
We talked about many things, but more regularly on
behavior, politics, education and scientific discoveries.
For him, Germany and Japan were the most similar
countries in the world, in terms of social behavior.
He explained that in Japan everything happened by
consensus and therefore a small decision could take many
years to be adopted.
Discussions on behavior included politics, of course. It
is possible to exist a true anarchy? What is education? There
are, indeed, social or knowledge developments? When
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we deal with social issues, are we dealing with genetic or
behavioral questions?
I asked if he had already used drugs, and how the social
behavior in relation to drugs was in Japan.
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I do not take drugs and never took them. It is
not my case. I always had a lot of work to do.
Not much time for fun. There may be people
interested on discovery of other states of
consciousness. In my case, on music, I think
I already have plenty to work about it... and
we always work with a social function. The
Japanese are very critical in relation to drugs.
But this happens especially in relation to drugs
from other places. There they have theirs.
They do not accept drugs from other places,
because for the Japanese, the drugs are part of
rituals, part of their culture. It is not something
for fun, for entertainment. The role of drugs
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in Japan is very different from what happens
here, for example.
I asked him what he thought of people who used
drugs. I did not use, but I imagine that several of his students
had used and I was curious about whether he would make a
moral judgment.
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Well, my friend, in life everyone does what
he or she wants. But if we take drugs, would
we be able to achieve a greater complexity
of thought? I think not. At least for now. We
never know about the future. We do not know
if one day a different drug will be invented. But
everything I’ve seen about drugs until now,
seems to reduce the complexity of thought.
Koellreutter seriously suspected about the conventional
criteria of evolution, the so-called progress.
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In some cases, evolution existed; it was clear and
obvious, as what happens with technological systems in
the area of communication, for example. But they did not
summarize the human being in all his complexity and did not
necessarily mean human progress.
-
It is true that mortality rate has decreased. It is
also true that the rates of life expectancy had
increased. But would this necessarily mean
that we become more human, that is, more
civilized? I have serious doubts about that.
For him, in some aspects, a poor population could,
possibly, manifest more elements of civilizational evolution
than a materially rich society. Even so, he never presented
these questions as conditions closed in themselves. The
issues emerged as challenges for all us.
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We cannot stop questioning. – he always
argued – When we talk about civilization,
what we mean by that? Is that we are able to
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consume more? Is it just that?
Koellreutter lived near to great personalities. In our
meetings full of curiosity, I wondered how those people were.
How they were as human beings. How could he describe
what they were in the intimate relationship, being among
friends.
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Ravi Shankar is a saint in India. He is a person
with an incredible magnetism. But a simple
person ... Octavio Paz was a great friend,
a person of great culture and an excellent
human being, with an exceptional humor
and unique culture. We were always together
in India ... Luigi Dallapiccola was one of my
best friends for many years, as well as Arthur
Schnabel. Both of them were very friendly and
affectionate. I liked very much them ... Pierre
Boulez is playful, never stop making jokes, he
always has a wonderful mood. He is always
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telling jokes ... Stockhausen is very intelligent,
but he has a difficult temperament.
Of course, I did not make a list of questions and he
went on describing people. I asked at random, a lunch or a
meeting, about how those figures were while human beings,
how they behaved.
I once challenged him to write a book about his life. He
had lived in India, had been a friend of Ravi Shankar, lived in
Japan, lived closed to Tohru Takemitsu, he knew Stravinsky,
he lived with Picasso in Paris!
We were returning from a lunch, I had left my car in a
parking next to the Institute of Architects of São Paulo. We
walked to his home when I did the challenge. He laughed as
if it was a complete absurd. I insisted. He stopped, looked at
me seriously and said:
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I?! Writing a book about myself? Never!
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But why not? It would be important not only
for your students, but also for many people.
My friend, a biography is always false. When
someone writes about himself, he is writing
about he wants to be true and not about
what actually happened, for more serious
and rigorous the person is. Simply it has no
value. Even as a portrait of an era, it will be
something empty, futile. The only way anyone
can write about his own life is when he is not
thinking about it. For example, when he writes
letters. With letters, the person participates
in a dialogue with the Other and, therefore,
is honest. I’ve done this, right now, with the
publication of my correspondence with Satochi
Tanaka.
But! Even so... having you so many experiences!
Why you don not write a book? If the person
knows about such weakness, it is possible to
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avoid it.
Don’t worry, one day you will write a book
about me. But not while I’m alive...
Why? It is important that your thought expand!
To be accessible to more people. What we
think, our work, should not be considered as
merely personal things. In fact, they do not
belong to us...
It’s true. You’re right under one point of view.
But what you’re saying would not be my life,
what really I am. It would be false. It would
make no sense if written by myself. It would
not be consistent with my way of thinking
and thus, it would be impossible. I never talk
about my personal life… it doesn’t interest me.
The only thing that interests me is the work…
everything else is an illusion. But in the future,
when I will no longer be here, when I die, you
will write a book about me.
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He said that more than twenty-five years ago, in 1983,
a Saturday afternoon, when we walked quietly along São Luiz
Avenue, arriving at his apartment.
In some sense, the controversial Georges Bataille’s
phrase – «I write to erase my name» – could also have been
told by Koellreutter.
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8
In the beginning, our meetings for lunch usually took
place on Saturdays, at the German restaurant, where the
center of the city was empty. After lunch, we usually walked
in silence, side by side, for some minutes.
The book published with the letters between
Koellreutter and Satochi Tanaka, a professor of German at
the Meisei University, in Tokyo, is entitled Aesthetics - The
Pursuit of a World Without ‘vis-à-vis’. It was also released
in Japanese, in Tokyo, and clearly indicates his ideas on
aesthetics.
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Both editions were launched almost simultaneously in
Brazil and Japan in late 1983.
Very discreetly, at home, I came to review the
Portuguese version of several passages of the book. «Do
not tell to anyone I’m showing you this text before the
publication», alerted him. Koellreutter had a huge concern
with the translation. We sat in the small reading room, the
Kremlin, he showed me a sheet of paper with one sentence.
He asked me to read. Then he explained what he meant in
German. All languages have their tricks, and we spent a long
time exchanging ideas as to find the best words.
In one of the letters to Tanaka, dated of April seven
1975, Koellreutter said: «We do not know whose of the
values of the human heritage, inside a universal culture, will
be permanently integrated. This will depend on the ideals
and goals that each person will have in the future. It is certain,
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however, that a future universal culture will merge cultural
values of East and West in a dynamic game: introversion will
be compensated by extroversion and vice versa, subjectivity
by objectivity and automation by the fructification of creative
forces. In this way, we will come closer to a structure of
thought whose essence may be the Integrating Paradox».
Revealing a deep skepticism about the ideas of the
German master, Tanaka Satochi respond saying that «your
idea of a global and universal culture sounds, in fact, very
seductive. As Japanese, it seems me illusory, the illusory
thinking of a European who sees the future of the Western
culture and civilization with skepticism and demands a
solution from the East. You are of the opinion that we do not
know what values of the human heritage will be integrated
into a universal culture, and that will depend on the ideals
and objectives human will propose for the future. As for
me, I think it will again be the Western world, and not the
individual, to determine the ideals and future goals. I am
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also convinced that the Japanese, once again, will be in the
disposition to follow the Western proposals. But this culture,
ultimately, will be Western again, and not universal...».
But Koellreutter never thought about something like
“to find solutions in the East” – as he later remarked in a
conversation with me.
He was guided by the principles of thermodynamics.
On the other hand, Satochi Tanaka established a real barrier
against the possibility of the emergence of a world without
vis-a-vis, as proposed by the German composer.
While Tanaka acted as a Japanese, Koellreutter thought
like a Brazilian.
Only who lived in Brazil can understand what is to be
a Brazilian. “To be a Brazilian” means to have no nationality
and to belong to all others. Everything is incorporated. All
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cultures, all experiments. A Brazilian is, by definition, a citizen
of the world. Each person who arrives in Brazil, immediately
outside the airport, it potentially is a citizen. I say in potential
way because, of course, there will be resistance of all kinds.
But this is the principle.
When Koellreutter wrote his letters to Tanaka, he did
not think as a German, a French or even as an American. He
was Brazilian and free – and therefore he was also Japanese,
probably as Japanese as Tanaka, who was not able to see,
over all the letters, how it could be possibly.
When the book came out, I received one of the first
copies, with a dedication: «To my friend Emanuel, with a big
hug from Koellreutter». The publication was very poor, with
poor paper and cover, and I did not fail to comment with him
about that.
-
My friend. There is no money! Nobody is really
interested on such things. We are a very small
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part of the world. Moreover, a part that is
smaller and smaller.
When I came to ask him again about the intransigent
position of Tanaka, defending the impossibility of an
integrated world, he replied briefly:
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See how the world is. Very interesting. All this
is very interesting.
Saloméa Goldelman, who was also responsible for
the preface, brilliantly made the translation and the edition
of the book. The texts and proofs came and went, all the
time. Every line, every expression, everything was thought,
challenged, to not allow misunderstandings. Especially for
her, exhausting months were filled with small and subtle
changes. Koellreutter was almost seventy years old and the
book turned out to be a kind of discreet testament about his
ideas.
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At that time, in one of our lunches, I asked how
the experience of having lived at Pablo Picasso’s home in
Montmartre, Paris, had marked him.
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I was a young flutist, and traveled widely in
Europe. We had no money and no place to
stay. The life of a young musician is never easy.
At that time, in Europe, it was common to stay
at the home of artists, which yielded a room or
sometimes just a sofa so we could sleep. The
reality of the world before the Second World
War was very different from what we have
today. Everything changed with that war. I was
very young. Picasso was a great man, a master.
He did not need to speak to be a source of
knowledge for us. He was a very special person.
His eyes were very bright. One morning when I
woke up, I saw he was painting a canvas. It was
placed next to the window and was covered
with small colored rectangles. Every day in
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the morning he looked out the window, which
opened to the unforgettable scenario of Paris,
and painted just one rectangle. I realized that
he did it every day. He painted always just a
small rectangle. Each one with a different color.
I asked him what he was doing. That was very
strange to me. I did not understand what those
little colored rectangles were. He told that
he was painting the time. He explained that
he painted just one small rectangle everyday
day. Each rectangle was a tile view from that
window in Montmartre. ‘Every day the light is
different, the colors are different, each day is
different and we see everything differently’.
Picasso worked to capture the essence of time.
His work is a representation of the concept
of relativity by Hermann Minkowiski and
also, of course, by Albert Einstein. This is the
principle of the Synthetic Cubism. Sometimes,
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even today there are people who think that
“cubism” means “cubes”, something made
with “cubes”. Indeed, cubism is to work with
the fourth dimension, with time».
Time was the most precious thing for him. In his
conception of living everything could be dramatically changed
by time.
He did not drive cars. When I heard about that, it was
strange for me. Why he had never learned how to drive?
-
People have standard ideas, stereotyped, for
all things. While for you a car can be a saving of
time, for me – with this life of constant travels
from one place to another – it would be time
consuming. And I do not have time for these
things!
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Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, in 1999
In another of our lunches, he told me an interesting
story about the nature of time.
-
I was returning from abroad, I think it was a trip
to India many years ago, I think it was in 1954. I
lived in Salvador and directed the Music School
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of the Federal University of Bahia. But, you
know, academic environment is terrible. There
is always someone cheating, there are always
pitfalls, coups, politics in the worst sense of
the term. When I arrived in Salvador, as soon
as I landed, someone commented to me, in
the airport, asking if I had seen the terrible
news in the local newspaper. I was arriving
in that moment. I could not know anything. I
looked to find the newspaper. There was the
news: Koellreutter summarily dismissed by the
rector. It was very serious. I had participated
in founding the School of Music... You cannot
imagine. It was a big scandal. I thought a bit
and decided not to go home. Very discreetly,
no one could saw me, and I went hidden in a
hotel of the city. I was locked in my room for
three days. I did not leave that room. I ate
there. I was totally closed. I have not spoken
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to anyone. Nobody knew where I was. It was
clear to me. Someone had placed a false article
in the newspaper. With that news, the person
hoped that I would create another scandal,
giving no chance for the rector but obliging
him to really dismiss me. If I’d appeared at
that moment, the scandal would be amplified.
Gossips ran fast. So, I decided to disappear for
three days. They even put the police to find
me. In those three days of silence, the whole
reality has changed radically. When I left the
hotel, I talked directly with the rector, and it
quickly became clear and rebalanced again. It
was just a ‘misunderstanding’. In fact, I knew it
was not a simple ‘misunderstanding’. I had to
‘work’ the fabric of Nature with that silence.
There was no emotion. Only silence. And the
silence together with time has changed the
reality. Time changes the reality».
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That was Zen face a strong feature of their behavior.
Koellreutter was able to sit still for that time to change reality.
But that does not mean he was not a nervous person.
Over the years, I was noticing that, in fact, he had some
moments of great tension, in most cases imperceptible to
those who did not live closer to him.
One of the rare signs was the fact to insistently gnaw
half of the nail of the ring finger of his left hand. Once, I asked
if he thought himself as a nervous person.
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Well, what a question! I am a person like any
other. Everybody has nervous moments, even
a Buddhist monk! It’s the human nature, just
that.
I noticed how he lived alone. Margarita was
internationally acclaimed and often traveled in tours around
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the world. Always when we met each other for lunch,
especially on weekends, he was alone. I even asked him why
he was always so lonely.
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My friend, my home is in Rio de Janeiro!
His dedication to the students was such that we
often forgot that he did not live in São Paulo, but yes in Rio
and that he were in constant transit between São Paulo,
Belo Horizonte, Curitiba and sometimes also Salvador and
Belém.
I met two of his sons, very briefly – one who lived in
Salvador working with tourism, and the others, who lived in
Rio de Janeiro and was a journalist. But meetings were very
quick.
Along years, Koellreutter was not only my master but
also my best friend.
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In 1983, I was his assistant for courses on aesthetics
and collective composition at the Solar do Barão Cultural
Center, which had just been opened after a great restoration
work of the building.
In that epoch I no longer worked on marketing. I
studied architecture and urban planning, I was free lance
photographer, I wrote for newspapers like O Estado de São
Paulo, for the music magazine Som Três with the famous critic
Maurício Kubrusly, for the architecture magazine Projeto, I
gave lessons and was assistant at the university on Semiotics.
Excepting photography, all rest was directly related to music
or to architecture.
As always, the experience in Curitiba was unforgettable.
There were very talented students of all kinds, arriving from
the most different places.
The entire course on collective composition was based
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on the method, on how to establish principles of order,
differentiation, dynamically working in teams. To have the
consciousness of the unity, of totality, to design relations
of quality, and to deal with monotony were the essential
elements of the lessons.
Emanuel Pimenta,
Concert for Frogs and Crickets,
1984
Koellreutter believed that Brazil could be a unique
country all over the world to develop collective composition
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strategies, in several areas.
In musical terms, collective composition means
the same piece being elaborated by several composers
simultaneously – what requires great discipline, method,
team spirit and openness.
It was not very easy to find people who accept and
clearly understood the principles of collective composition.
Many simply refused outright those principles, arguing
that if the composition were collective there would not be
a composer to be positively or negatively criticized and,
therefore, a musical work would not exist.
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Do you think that is hard for people here to
understand what collective composition is
and its importance? In Europe it is much more
difficult. – Koellreutter commented excited
– The collective composition may not only
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be an interesting principle as a method of
composition in itself, but also and perhaps the
most important, it is a good way for people
to learn from each other. When people will
aware of it, the world will become richer in
experiences. Sharing is the essence of collective
composition.
In general, Koellreutter’s ideas seemed to be almost
always anchored in great universal principles.
He used with great mastery short and remarkable
sentences, as did Marshall McLuhan. And they were always
of great impact.
Statements like “only difference produces
consciousness”, “the dead man is always guilty, never the
murderer” and “the Occident is an accident” among many
others established principles around which real thesis were
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built and supported the development of thought on music.
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Napoleon Bonaparte correctly said: “Only
what is monotonous can provoke emotion”.
Without monotony, there is no emotion.
Bonaparte was not a simple military, neither a
simple politician, as many times people think
today. He was a great man, a true statesman.
In a sense, his face as philosopher, as lover of
the arts, was totally eclipsed by History. He was
a man of great culture and sensitivity. And he
was absolutely right: only monotony can truly
provokes emotion.
Napoleon Bonaparte’s statement – largely discussed
during the nineteenth century, but fallen into obscurity over
the next century – gave rise reflections and debates with
the hearing of various fragments of musical pieces and the
appreciation of paintings by some well-known painters – old
and contemporary.
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Each time he was referring to the famous statement of
Napoleon Bonaparte – whether in that course of collective
composition, in the classes on aesthetics, in lessons about
the music of the twentieth century or during the composition
classes – it immediately triggered a big discussion about the
nature of monotony and also about emotion.
In different courses, Koellreutter many times recalled
the principles of Claude Shannon’s Theory of Information,
and furnished to the students theoretical resources on how
to establish principles of communicability.
-
Communication is always essential. If there is
no communication, there is no understanding,
comprehension, and therefore there is no
work.
Claude Shannon was an American electrical engineer,
who lived between 1916 and 2001 – a contemporary
of Koellreutter, considered the father of the Theory of
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Information.
Shannon said that «information is the resolution of
uncertainty».
During those days in Curitiba, I made two exhibitions.
I was curator of an exhibition of graphic scores with works
by several composers including John Cage, Karlheinz
Stockhausen, Ferruccio Bussotti and Koellreutter among
many others, and an exhibition with a series of my graphical
scores.
The use of graphic scores began in 1950s and 1960s
especially with Earle Bown and John Cage. It is a process
of musical notation that opens new possibilities for the
organization of sounds. Sometimes graphical notations are
devalued by some musicians, more traditionalists, who
consider they less rigorous than the traditional notation,
what is a great illusion.
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Graphic music scores have been regularly used by
major composers such as Tohru Takemitsu, Stockhausen,
John Cage, Ligeti, Koellreutter, Bussotti or even Herbert Brün,
whose work - unfortunately - I only knew years later. That is,
contrarily to what some people think, graphic scores are part
of the history of music.
Koellreutter, sketch for
planimetric score,
1983
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In 1968 John Cage published a beautiful book called
Notations, containing graphic scores by many composers
and artists from around the world.
Emanuel Pimenta, VAC, 1994
Since the early 1980s my work has been not only to
amplify the universe to four dimensions, producing music in
virtual worlds - which in the beginning was quite unexpected.
I remember, once, a journalist who wrote that I was “crazy
for the virtual world”, without knowing exactly what he was
saying.
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But such a work could not be reduced to the
development of virtual worlds and scores. It is also the
development of logical traps - that were already present at
that time.
In any case, in that year of 1983 I was already aware of
the importance of establishing an overview of graphic scores
from many different composers. It was probably the first
exhibition of the kind in Brazil.
But, an unexpected incident occurred at that public
exhibition with works created by several composers from all
over the world.
The person who made the small plates on cardboard
with captions for the scores set wrong, unintentionally, the
spelling of Koellreutter’s name, writing it with only one “t”
– as so often happened.
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Similar misunderstandings were common not only
in relation to the spelling of his name. In many places
people were not able even to speak properly Koellreutter.
In northeastern Brazil, for example, he was affectionately
known as Korroté.
In those days, I divided myself between being an
assistant in the courses of aesthetics, collective composition
and music of the twentieth century, and also being curator
of both exhibitions.
They were two of my first exhibitions – I had made a few
ones until then – and all my energy was absorbed. Beyond all
this, I was practically the driver to Koellreutter. When I came
to my room at night, I was more than exhausted and had to
get up very early.
My inexperience made that I had not noticed that error
in his name. When he entered in the exhibition – before the
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opening – and saw that his name was misspelled, he became
furious.
I think I have never seen him so upset, so nervous. He
called me in a room and asked with great irony and aggression
if I had realized the disaster I had committed.
When he spoke in that way, I was perplexed and totally
lost. I did not know what he was talking about! The exhibition
was very well made, I had succeeded with the framing, the
lighting, the contacts with the press – and there was no
money. Everything was very well organized.
On parallel with the collective composition course and
the exhibitions of graphic scores, there were other courses
and concerts related to the Renaissance music and to viola
de gamba. Some musicians from other courses witnessed
that terrible reaction and were clearly impressed with his
aggressiveness.
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My friend, it is over! Our relationship is over!
Ended. You made a big mistake!
I was stunned. I insisted several times inquiring about
what he was talking about. He refused, clearly offended.
-
Well, if you’re competent, you should know
what I’m talking about. – he said with irony.
I was sincerely lost. I had no idea about what he was
saying. I imagined being something really serious. I kept
insisting, worried about what I could have done.
Long minutes later, finally, he asked if I knew how to
write his name. Asked me to do it. I thought it was a joke.
I could not imagine that his request would be related to
exhibition. Without knowing what it was about, I took a sheet
of paper and wrote his name. He saw that it was correct and
said:
-
Do you think it is admissible to have my name
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spelled incorrectly? Well, see how the caption
is aside one of my scores. It is missing a “t”!
I was shocked. That thunderous reaction by something
so simple! I explained that a person had made the small
cardboards but I assumed, as it could not be different, the
entire responsibility. I tried to show him how much I had
devoted myself for those exhibitions were a success. We did
not have any help. There was no money. We did not have
support even for the framing! Everything had been achieved
with great effort and collaboration.
-
But you know what your responsibility is?
If you do this in Europe or in the United
States, your career will be definitely over. You
cannot afford not to think, not to check, not
to observe, not to be very careful. This was a
serious oversight! Good.. my friend. I’ll give
you one more chance. I hope you are not one
of those people who are floating in life. – he
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turned and walked away.
That was really a shock. At that moment, I was deeply
annoyed with him. In the heat of the moment, his reaction
seemed a storm on a teacup. The small cardboard was
immediately substituted and the exhibition was opened with
great success.
Despite his overwhelming aggression, he was
absolutely right. Many times we make a huge effort to
carry out a project – an effort that often never comes to be
understood by the people – and in a single instant, a small
detail can knock you out.
After the “storm”, one of the evenings we all went to
dinner with Jaime Leirner, then mayor of Curitiba, a close
friend of Koellreutter. There were only four or five people
at that dinner. I was thoroughly charmed by his personality.
One of my dreams, as an urban planner, was to design new
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towns and I feverishly researched Paolo Soleri’s megaestructures, studying with Eduardo Kneese de Mello and
Eduardo Corona. Jaime Leirner was a simple person, open,
very friendly, always with an excellent mood.
On the last day of the events Koellreutter gave a brief
lecture. The room was filled with people. Everyone wanted
to hear the great master.
Koellreutter’s lecture was very brief, but it captivated
everyone. It was brilliant, as always. He spoke about the
importance of subversion.
In the end, a man who appeared to be about sixty years
old, at the back of the room, rose to make a question. In fact,
that was not a question but a long and tiresome monologue.
With great pomp and pretension, that person started making
absurd assertions as if they were the most sensational
discoveries of all times, which could be summarized in a central
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idea: for him all art and all music were nothing but imitation
of nature, and therefore, degenerated demonstrations. «The
spider web and a beehive are perfect artworks, much more
perfect than any human endeavor. So, human beings should
simply abandon the arts. Art, whatever, is a big silly thing,
and an alienation compared to Nature». – he defended.
There was no answer, because it was not a question.
Koellreutter remained silent, with a smile, neutral, and the
host of the table, very diplomatically asked if there was
someone in the room who wanted to comment on those
assertions.
What that person had said – and especially the way he
had done, in a tone of mockery and irony – placed Koellreutter
in a relatively embarrassing position. The way he had done,
he gave a clear understanding of the vehement denial of the
value of everything the German master made along his life,
treating his ideas like degenerate art, because it was not
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something of the people - reminding the Nazi attacks on the
art of its time, but now with another ideological cover. It had
been a gesture very rude and crude.
Koellreutter could not initiate a defense of his ideas,
because he would be talking about himself and this would
surely trigger a discussion without end. A discussion that
certainly had been the intention of that person.
But no one reacted! People were simply paralyzed.
The man smiled like a king full of pride on himself.
The room was taken by a profoundly awkward silence.
The students looked at one another. Nobody had the courage
to defend Koellreutter. It was shameful!
Why people don’t have the courage to defend what
they believe? But, did they really believe? How could
they fail to defend a master who, minutes before, they
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had enthusiastically applauded for diametrically opposed
reasons?
Someone had to do something, to take action.
I got up and made brief references to Thomas
Aquinas and to Aristotle, to the questions about imitation
of nature as content and as process, in its modus operandi.
I concluded, simply, that if the corpus of the imitation was
not independent, in what we call language or culture, what
we were doing there? In other words, nothing could be the
thing itself and everything was, after all, metalanguage!
I reinforced the absurdity of his argument – because in its
content it contradicted, by its own existence as language,
the use of his own words.
The man, much older than I, made a witty and ironic
compliment to what I had said, adding a sloppy statement
on the energy of youth, “the irreverence of youth”, “I am
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happy to see the impetus for young people”, or something
alike. And the lecture was immediately ended.
When we left the room, Koellreutter said, not without
some irony:
-
My friend, you’re burned. You just won a
powerful enemy.
Later I would know that the man was a very important
personage in the cultural scene of Curitiba. Whoever he
was, I felt myself obliged to intervene. His words had set
up a scenario so ridiculous and absurd as of low level. The
statements of that man, who was then an important figure
in the academic world, were simply ridiculous.
-
But, in fact, he was not making those
statements. You did not notice. He was just
teasing. It had no value. Not even for him. It
was only a silly thing. For him everything was
going in the according to second and third
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intentions. Thus, the silence would have been
adequate.
There was one thing that was definitely clear to me:
I had never had and never would have second or third
intentions. Each one of my actions, over my lifetime, was just
itself, in an open and clear way, to everyone.
But, even so, Koellreutter was right. The silence would
have been the best attitude. None of that mattered and I had
used the time of all with an unimportant consideration in
response to a silly provocation.
I was very young and that moment made me think
how it would be difficult to live full time in an academic
environment. Why people acted that way?
-
For you, everything is knowledge, music and
architecture. For people like him, everything
is politics, and only after it the love for
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knowledge comes. Knowledge is there, but
often as content. It’s not like a true artist who
is, in himself, a work of art, but someone who
imitates. Although it was a cheap provocation
with no value, at heart he was being sincere.
He was coherent with what he is. He doesn’t
know other way of being. And you should
better preserve yourself.
Everything for Koellreutter was cause for reflection
and discovery.
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9
That same year, weeks after the courses and the
exhibitions in Curitiba, he invited me to take a course in
Petropolis, on upgrading and enhancing on counterpoint of
the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, functional harmony
and musical analysis on Josqin des Prés, Johann Sebastian
Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert.
It was an intensive course restricted to six students.
Firstly I should go to Rio de Janeiro, where I would live
for a few days with the Koellreutter, in his apartment at the
neighborhood of Laranjeiras, studying intensively under his
guidance. Then, we would go together to Petropolis where
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we would meet the other students.
The first thing he did, as soon as I entered in his
apartment, was to bring me to the kitchen. He opened the
refrigerator and said:
- Now, this is your home. You can take and use
anything you want.
Those days living with Koellreutter were not just
devoted to intensively study composition, but also the music
of northern India, Japanese music in No theater and Zen
aesthetic principles.
Koellreutter had lived for four years in India, where
he founded the School of Music of New Delhi in 1966, and
six years in Japan, where he met great personages of the
traditional Japanese music.
That apartment of Koellreutter in Rio de Janeiro
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was not very large. There was a comfortable living room, a
balcony, three bedrooms and a relatively small kitchen.
From the balcony you could see the magnificent
Corcovado, and that view was had no price for him.
The beautiful Yamaha parlor grand piano placed in
the living room had been offered by the people from the
neighborhood where they went to live and by the parents of
students, in Japan.
- It was a great surprise for us. As soon as Margarita
and I arrived in Tokyo, we received, in the morning
of the next day, a gift: a grand piano! It was a way
for people to give thanks for our presence. It was
a gift from the community. This generous spirit
deeply touched us. How could we fail to give even
more dedication intensively, in body and soul, to
our work there?
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He explained that several people had bought the
piano, as a collective manifestation of welcome – and such
gesture would never be forgotten over a lifetime.
- Sometimes there were parents of future students.
Other times, there were just ordinary people who
had no children. However, they believed that we
would be taking some knowledge to the place and
that, therefore, would be something important for
everyone.
In the room there was a television set, not too big.
Everything was very austere. Simple. Margarita was traveling.
In front of the television, in the back of the living room, as if a
small contiguous room was formed, there was a chaise long
with a modern design, straight lines, intense orange color, as
if made in a single block of foam. Its appearance gave no idea
of comfort. But, surprisingly, it was extremely pleasant.
Near the chaise long, beside it, there were the sitars he
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and Margarita had brought from India and loved so much.
On the other side, near the door which open to the
kitchen, there was a disc player and a fabulous collection of
very rare recordings – such as the legendary Indian sitarist
Ustad Vilayat Khan and Nikhil Banerjee, Koellreutter’s
friends, about whom I had never heard until then; the singers
of ragas Ustad Hafeez Ahmed Khan and Neela Bhagwat;
the genial Indian flautist Hariprasad Chaurasia; recordings
the percussion ensemble Ondekoza, from Japan; or rare
recordings of the Japanese composer Maki Ishii, also a friend
of Koellreutter.
In those days, he asked me to make copies of books on
Indian music – books long sold out. Among them it was The
Ragas of North India by Walter Kaufmann, and I was studying
the northern India music under his guidance.
Weeks before, at the classes of composition but also, in
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a lighter way, at the classes on aesthetics, we devoted some
time to understand the alap, the articulation of floating and
interchangeable rhythmic cells, the series that characterized
each raga, and various aspects of the Indian music.
Those days of intense study at his home in Rio de
Janeiro worked as a true and deep diving in that universe,
full of hearings. I got up early and quickly started studying,
stopping only in the early evening. I did not even get out to
the street.
We also studied Zen aesthetics – which in this case
was the development of complex structures based on the
principle of ten, chi, jin – heaven, earth, man. Everything
happened as the establishment of games, where triadic
relations aimed at triggering other ones in a process similar
to the fractal universe.
I made long exercises of analysis on those relations
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inside complex structures. In those exercises, everything was
perception and analysis.
It was about relations also present in ikebana, in haiku
and in tanka – traditional Japanese poetic form especially
important to Koellreutter. But, those structures were
also present in the old music as well as in the traditional
architecture of Japan – which, at that time, I was studying
with my masters of architecture and urbanism with Eduardo
Kneese de Mello and Eduardo Corona.
According to this Zen aesthetic principle, all things
immediately become mantras and yantras, everything being
object of permanent meditation.
- All Zen aesthetics is based on symmetry breaking,
because only with the symmetry breaking we have
the consciousness. – he said.
Later I would realize that Zen nothing more is than the
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consciousness, and because of this, paradoxically, it has no
possible explanation. This is the nature of koans.
What we call the consciousness is like the present,
yet free from the work of reason, of the explanation, but
incorporated in it, being pure relation of quality.
- Traditionally, the Occident aspires to the symmetry,
and the Orient aspires to the asymmetry. But in
the twentieth century, the evolution of science
has implicated a change in aesthetics. We live
this paradox between Occident and Orient, the
integrating paradox. – he defended his thesis.
Often Koellreutter left in the morning to teach, and
only returned in the middle of afternoon.
In addition to the studies, he allowed me to copy
several of his noted scores for transversal flute, which also
had been sold out, as well as some of those rare recordings
he had at home.
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His house was like a temple for me.
He offered me copies of the scores of his two
compositions for solo transversal flute. They were an
Improvisation and a Study, both published in Manaus,
Amazonas, dating respectively July twenty-six and twentyseven, 1938 – certainly his first two compositions in Brazil.
Koellreutter,
Improviso,
1938
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In one of those days, one afternoon when he came back
sooner, not hiding a certain trace of bitterness, he showed
me a sheet of the nationalist Brazilian composer Camargo
Guarnieri, with a nice dedication printed on him. Then he
showed me the exact same score with a black rectangle
printed on the dedication.
- Guarnieri wanted me to become a member of the
Communist Party. But I cannot belong to any party!
He never understood that. When I told him that I
could not accept the invitation, he was revolted.
He started an open war. He began saying that I was
a fascist! He suggested the absurdity that I would
have been collaborator of the Nazis! He tried to
destroy my life. He withdrew the dedication. He
printed the black band on the dedication. Or I
did what he wanted, or I was condemned. Now
you see how people are. I tried to explain several
times, but the fact that I was not able to enter in
the Communist Party made him to consider myself
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an enemy for life! Before, we were great friends.
He did not understand that music is something
higher than party divisions. When we are dealing
with music, we are dealing with freedom.
We had lunches at his apartment – when he showed up
for lunch – and they were always very simple. There was an
old black lady, very friendly and extremely attentive working
at his home, taking care of cleaning and cooking.
I already was vegetarian at that time and that lovely
lady always cooked something special for me. She laughed
a lot because I did not eat meat, fried foods, white sugar
or sodas. She was very sweet and attentive; she worked for
many years for him and Margarita.
Koellreutter and I spoke relatively little. When there
was not something related the lessons on composition, to
Indian music, to philosophy or transversal flute, often we
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stayed silent.
Even son, we always had time to talk about politics.
And he enjoyed the silence.
In the early evenings, with that wonderful view of the
Corcovado, we always had some time for a drink. And, as
what happened at his home in São Paulo, there always was a
bottle of whiskey and snacks in the fridge. In Rio de Janeiro,
in addition to the whiskey he also regularly had Campari and
dry Martini.
- Music is not something one can explain. If you
understand Bach’s music, for example, you will be
able to play it. But if you do not understand the
music, you can read very well the score you want,
and nothing will work. You can correctly and quickly
read the score, but music will not really happen.
Music is beyond what is written. The fundamental
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is to understand that music can happen as melody,
rhythm, and harmony or just while noise, like
clouds of sounds, like anything. In any sound can
be music. But not all sounds are music. Music is
inside people and it is organization.
Apparently, with that statement made in a beautiful
summer afternoon in Rio, he contradicted John Cage. But
in fact, they said the same thing – as I also listened from
Ornette Coleman many years later.
When John Cage said that everything could be music,
that a noise became music in the moment we were aware of
it, was exactly what Koellreutter argued.
But what apparently was strictly subjective to John
Cage, for Koellreutter it could be operated objectively – and
it was what we witnessed with the performance of a great
performer, for example, in any kind of music.
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It was in one of those days that he told me, sounding
very emotional and confidential, about his tragic escape
from Germany.
Koellreutter had been a student of Kurt Thomas, on
composition and conducting, and of the legendary and
brilliant conductor Hermann Sherchen.
Born in 1915 in Freiburg, a small German town located
in the Black Forest, a few kilometers from the border with
Switzerland and the city of Basel.
In 1987, I visited Freiburg, going to Basel and was
bristly to cross the border in the same train line he had fled
about forty years before.
Koellreutter was a promising young flutist, formed
in Geneva, Switzerland. He had studied with the fabulous
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Marcel Moyse – who, with Paul Taffanel, is considered one of
the fathers of the French school of transversal flute. Marcel
Moyse was a student of Paul Taffanel and Philippe Gaubert.
Freiburg (wikipedia)
Studying with Moyse, Koellreutter was colleague of
Jean-Pierre Rampal, seven years younger. He studied also at
the Academy of Music in Berlin – where he was eventually
expelled for refusing to integrate a group of Nazi youth.
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The life of a flutist was never easy. He constantly
traveled throughout Europe giving concerts associated with
various musicians, like the composer Darius Milhaud. It was
in one of those occasions that he ended up staying at Pablo
Picasso’s home.
He studied, in summer courses, with Paul Hindemith,
from whom he retained the strongest impressions.
- Paul Hindemith was great, even if we have had
different paths in life. He played wonderfully well
all instruments. I’ve never seen someone like him.
He was a true genius. A virtuoso on all instruments!
Even the transversal flute, when he played, it was
perfect. He was a man who lived for the music. He
devoted himself entirely to music but did not leave a
single follower! However, he left many teachers. He
was a generous person, but extremely demanding.
We surrounded and revered him as the great master
he was. People from everywhere frequented his
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courses. It was always a great experience.
Between 1934 and 1936 he went to Berlin, to study at
the Staatliche Akademische Hochschule für Musik. There, he
was student of Kurt Thomas on composition and conducting;
of Gustav Scheck, on transversal flute – Scheck was one of
the pioneers on the French school; of Carl Aldolf Martiessen
on piano – who taught great pianists and conductors like
Sergiu Celibidache; of Georg Shuenemann and also of the
legendary musicologist Max Seiffert, among others.
At that time, only twenty years old, he created the
Circle of Work for the New Music – Arbeitskreis für Neue
Musik – that was an anti Nazi group. And he had to flee.
He went to live for a while with Hermann Scherchen,
his great master, in Neuchatel, Switzerland.
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Many times, before the Second World War, teachers
invited students to live for some time in their homes. So,
they could give an intensive training. At the end of his life,
Koellreutter said in an interview with Carlos and Adriano
Bernardo Vorobow in São Paulo: «... Hermann Scherchen
was undoubtedly the person who most influenced me, also
in my character, the way I work, to intensify things. He really
opened everything, he taught me to avoid preconceptions,
to be open to all trends».
315
Hermann Scherchen
in Maxence Caron
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In 2009, when I performed my concert Microcosmos –
in memory of my dear friend Daniel Charles – at the theater
of the Marc Chagall Museum in Nice, France, I met the
great composer and visual artist Tona Scherchen, daughter
of Koellreutter’s teacher. We became immediately friends
and, through her, I could feel even with more energy the
brightness of the great German master.
In a sense, my presence there, in his home, living those
days with him, was what Hermann Scherchen had made him
almost fifty years earlier. A tradition that would disappear
with the war.
In 1937, back to Freiburg, Koellreutter fell in love with
a Jewish girl. At that time, in Germany, almost all families
were, in one or other way, linked to Nazism. And Koellreutter’s
family was no exception.
He was telling me everything he lived, without hiding
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a profound emotion. We were sitting on the balcony with
the beautiful sunsets and the Corcovado in the background.
His mother had died in 1918, with the Spanish flu. The
father, an otorhinolaringologist doctor, married again.
When the father and stepmother knew, they prohibited
his relationship with the Jewish girl.
- In the beginning we started to meet each other
in secret. But soon we were discovered. It was a
very small place. Everybody knew each other. My
parents were very involved with the Nazis, especially
my stepmother. I had an uncle who was from the
Gestapo. He was from the police, but also from the
Gestapo. One day, I called me at the police. He had
warned me several times. I knew the situation was
becoming increasingly dangerous. Then he asked
me if I was still flirting with a Jewish girl. I said yes.
It was very serious. He told me: «Do you know that
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your parents denounced you? Now, I have no choice
but to arrest you. You know what that means. Now,
go away. Do not tell anyone. Tomorrow morning
we will arrest you». I would be taken to a prison
and then I would be transferred to a concentration
camp. With that warning he gave us a chance to
escape. We immediately packed up and in that same
night, I fled by train to Basel, Switzerland, where she
lived and had relatives. We decided to get married
and to go to Brazil. I got letters of recommendation
from Paul Hindemith and Hermann Sherchen. It
took a lot of time to go from Switzerland to Brazil.
First, we had to go to England. I was only twentytwo years old. We were very young. When, months
later, we got off the ship in Rio de Janeiro, I did not
have a penny. Absolutely nothing. I only had the
letters of recommendation that were addressed to
Villa-Lobos. We got a taxi and I couldn’t even speak
Portuguese. The only thing I could do was to show
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the envelope with the name of Heitor Villa-Lobos
to the taxi driver. At that time, the world was totally
different. It was enough to show a name and the
driver knew what to do. He took us directly to Villa
Lobos’s home. It was a huge mansion. He certainly
knew that we would appear, but he could not know
exactly when. There was no communication. The
employees of your home paid the taxi and we were
there, waiting. We expect a whole day. Everyone
was very kind. Villa-Lobos arrived late afternoon;
he read the letter in silence. He helped us in the
beginning. But I never had closer personal contact
with him.
Koellreutter would have fled that night, from Freiburg.
He would have immediately followed to Basel and from
there to Geneva, where Hermann Scherchen received him.
After that, he would have followed to Berlin, as to obtain
his passport. There he was officially informed that his own
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family accused him of “crime of racial dishonor”.
Koellreutter had tears in his eyes.
It is not easy someone tell freely that was forced to
flee because his own parents had sentenced him to death in
a concentration camp.
There were rumors that Koellreutter have never
received war reparations from Germany. We never talked
about it. I never asked, because I always considered it an
extremely intimate question.
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10
The arrival in Rio de Janeiro, on the sixteenth of
November 1937, a Tuesday – fleeing the horrors that emerged
rapidly in Europe with Hitler – was a dramatic change in his
life.
But Rio de Janeiro did not live very quiet times. In
that same month, Getúlio Vargas had commanded the coup
d’etat and established the Estado Novo. Few months earlier
in July, Nazi Germany had sent a new ambassador, Karl Ritter,
who would cause all sorts of diplomatic conflicts trying to
get from Brazil a formal alignment with the axis.
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It was the persecution of Luiz Carlos Prestes, of
Campos da Paz and of all members of the Communist Party.
Although Getúlio Vargas government has resisted taking a
formal alignment with Nazi Germany, there was a declared
sympathy with the German government, clearly visible in the
text of the new constitution of ten of November 1937, one
week before the arrival of Koellreutter.
Like a paradox, Brazil – and especially Rio de Janeiro –
already lived a technological change: in 1927, all over Brazil,
there were only six hundred forty-three air travelers. That
number quickly jumped to more than thirty-five thousand
people in 1937!
When he arrived in Brazil, Koellreutter could not read
or speak Portuguese. The entire social convulsion passed
practically unnoticed to him. Despite the political climate,
there was no violence in the streets.
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The first times? My friend, I had arrived at the
paradise! Rio de Janeiro was the most beautiful
place I had ever seen. It was something no one
could imagine. You have no idea. There were
relatively few people in the city. Nature was
everywhere. Invaded everything. Everything
was exuberantly beautiful. Everything was
so beautiful that I almost could not work
for a year! During the first year I was totally
entranced by so much beauty.
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Rio de Janeiro, 1938
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Koellreutter escaped from the terror of Kristallnacht,
which happened exactly one year later, in November 1938,
and the heavier and bloody horrors of Nazism.
Fred Jordan, another dear friend, graphic artist, surely
one of the foremost experts on color all over the world, was
twelve years younger than Koellreutter, and arrived in Brazil
a year before him in 1936, when he was nine years old – he
also fled the horrors that few were already able to predict.
Fred Jordan’s father was the first violinist of the Berlin
Symphony Orchestra. He was expelled and banned from
working, because he was a Jew, by an express command
signed by Richard Strauss in his passport. Richard Strauss
knew personally him very well! They had worked together
for years and the attitude of the composer would never
be understood or accepted by the father and even by the
graphic artist.
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Fred Jordan died in 2001 in São Paulo. Many times,
during our meetings in the 1980s and 1990s, he commented
about the fascination that the figure of Koellreutter exerted
on all, even in those early days of his childhood. «It was
something magical. I was very young. Later, I arrived to know
Koellreutter personally. I was about eighteen years old. He
could never remember. He has always been an important
figure. But there also was a lot of political controversy around
his figure».
Indeed, Koellreutter did not remember Fred – but he
knew him by name, because of his work, and he was delighted
to know that they had been together many years before.
One year after his arrival in Rio de Janeiro in
1938, Koellreutter finally began to teach at the National
Conservatory of Music.
Some years later, in the 1940s, with Villa-Lobos, he
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helped to found the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, where
he was the first flutist.
In 1939, from meetings with musicians and intellectuals
at the music store Pinguim, in the rua do Ouvidor, in Rio de
Janeiro, he would create the movement Live Music, from a
concept coined by his former teacher, Hermann Sherchen in
1933.
Live Music essentially meant music as social function.
Three years later, in 1942, together with Francisco Curt
Lange, Koellreutter created the magazine Live Music, and
only in 1944, he would launch the first Live Music manifest,
not by chance on the first of May.
One night at his home in Laranjeiras, he commented
about that movement:
-
Even in our days there are people asking me if
Live Music is something about contemporary
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music, about the so-called New Music. It is
not. The movement Live Music was about
everything we do not know, anything that is
new for each one of us. That was the thought
of Hermann Scherchen. It can be a medieval
music, Indian, a piece by Bach or John
Cage, it doesn’t matter. We must not have
preconceptions. What is new can be in any
place.
In that manifesto, Koellreutter wrote that «music must
be the expression of its time, of a new state of intelligence»
through «a new world, believing on the creative power of
the human spirit and in the art of the future».
The movement Live Music, which counted with Heitor
Villa-Lobos as honorary president, represented the final
integration of the principles of atonality, dodecaphonic and
integral serialism in Brazilian culture.
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Claudio Santoro, who was also his student, had some
dodecaphonic compositions before had knew Koellreutter,
but the old master had a very precise opinion on what
happened in Brazil in relation to the techniques developed
by the Second Viennese School.
-
There were some efforts, some attempts. But
people did not understand the true spirit of
Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton
Webern. People had heard about something...
but they did not really know the technique,
they did not understand with clarity the
concept.
In the moment when Brazil joined the Allies and
declared war against Germany, in August 1942, Koellreutter
was arrested in São Paulo, along with many other Germans,
on suspicion of espionage. He spent three months in jail,
until his innocence was proved. Inside the prison, where in
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fact there were many Nazis, he was accused of being “the
Jewish Communist”.
This was the fact that still marked Fred Jordan’s
memory many years later.
In 1948, he traveled to Europe and taught at the
International Institute of Music of Darmstadt, in Germany,
where Luciano Berio, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre
Boulez studied, among many others, and at the Centro
Internazionale di Musica Contemporanea di Milano, in Italy,
where Luigi Nono was his student.
Karlheinz Stockhausen was twenty years old.
In the following year, Koellreutter personally know
John Cage, in Geneva, Switzerland, at the International
Meeting of Dodecaphonic Composers, in 1949.
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The climate lived in Rio de Janeiro dramatically changed
after the end of the Second World War. If before a composer
like Heitor Villa-Lobos, then openly connected with Getúlio
Vargas, pro-fascist, dictator and fundamentalist could
support a young flutist and composer of left and even accept
to be president of a movement like the Live Music, later such
flexibility would prove to be increasingly impossible.
In 1950, disgusted by the fact that Koellreutter refused
to become a member of the Communist Party, the composer
Camargo Guarnieri launched his fury against him, accusing
him of corrupting the youth – the fame that would follow
him by the end of life.
That year, seven of November, Guarnieri launched his
famous Open Letter to Musicians and Critics in Brazil where
he shouted, without mincing words: «Considering my major
responsibilities as Brazilian composer, before my people and
the new generations of creators in musical art, and deeply
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concerned about the current orientation of the music of
young composers who, influenced by erroneous ideas, are
affiliated to the dodecaphonic – formalist movement that
leads to the degeneration of the national character of our
music – I took the resolution to write this open letter to the
musicians and critics of Brazil. (...) It is time to raise a scream
to stop the formalist and anti-Brazilian harmful infiltration
(...) Like monkeys, like vulgar imitators, like creatures
without principles, they prefer to import and to copy noxious
foreign novelties, simulating, in this way, that are ‘original’,
‘modern’ and ‘advanced’ and deliberating and criminally
forgetting that we have an entire Amazon of folk music – a
living expression of our national character – waiting to be
studied and divulged for the aggrandizement of the Brazilian
culture (...) It is necessary to tell to these young composers
that dodecaphonic, in music, corresponds to abstraction
in painting, to hermetic in literature, to existentialism in
philosophy; and to charlatanism in science».
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Oswald de Andrade and Patricia Galvão, Pagu, were
furious with Guarnieri. Koellreutter suggested a public debate
on December seven. Guarnieri simply did not appear.
In December twenty-eighth, Koellreutter published
his answer in the form of a new open letter: «... the twelvetone is not a style, not an aesthetic tendency, but yes the
use of a compositional technique designed to structure the
atonality, musical language in formation, logical consequence
of evolution and of the conversion of quantitative changes of
chromaticism in qualitative, through mode and tonality. (...)
It is no more nor less ‘formal’, ‘cerebral’, ‘anti-national’ or
‘anti-people’ than any other technique based on traditional
counterpoint and harmony. (...) Contrarily to what Mr.
Guarnieri said, which seems me alarming is the situation of
mental stagnation in which the Brazilian musical scene lives,
from which educational institutions, with its retarded and
ineffective program, has knew no representative value in
recent years. (...) The exalted and exasperated nationalism
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which blindly and in hateful way condemns the contribution
that a group of young composers tries to give to this country’s
musical culture, leads only to the stirring up of passions that
give rise to disruptive forces and separate human beings. The
fight against those forces that represent the backwardness
and reaction, the sincere and honest struggle for the sake
of human progress in art is the only worthy attitude of an
artist».
With a highly ideological speech, Camargo Guarnieri,
whose first name was Mozart, the son of an Italian immigrant,
represented São Paulo that quickly emerged as a future
cultural center in Brazil, against Rio de Janeiro, still very
characterized by the dominance of French culture.
Guarnieri’s father, Italian, was barber and flutist. His
mother, daughter of a traditional family in São Paulo, played
piano.
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Two years before, in 1948, Koellreutter received the
Brazilian citizenship – but he was still regarded as foreign by
the musician of São Paulo.
In some sense, it was as if Guarnieri represent the
poor people of São Paulo against the rich bourgeoisie of Rio
de Janeiro. In this type of fight there is always plenty of room
for the emergence of unfair and absurd situations.
-
It was terrible. It was a real war. There were
places where I could not go. Everything was
very serious. You cannot imagine. People
cannot imagine today what all that was.
Guarnieri wanted to impose a dictatorship. For
him, who was not fighting for the Communist
Party was automatically an enemy! Before,
we were good friends. Once I got sick and he
was the only person who visited me almost
every day. – Koellreutter commented on those
events with an air of profound seriousness.
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But Koellreutter never was a person to be intimidated.
Less than two years after Guarnieri’s violent attack, he would
participate in the foundation of the Free School of Music,
in São Paulo, where the architect and urban planner Jorge
Wilhelm participated as student, who I would also meet in
the early 1980s when he collaborated in drafting the first
Integrated Master Plan of the city of São Paulo and who I
would meet again years later in Lisbon.
In 1954, he created the International Music Seminars
in Salvador, Bahia, which would become the School of Music
of the Federal University of Salvador. Three years later, he
would invite Walter Smetak – the brilliant Swiss musician,
born in Zürich, based in Brazil – to be a teacher and researcher
at the University of Salvador. Smetak would develop a work
that profoundly influenced many of the most outstanding
Brazilian musicians.
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They were already old stories. Thirty years had passed.
Koellreutter had his eyes lost and full of emotion, admiring
the beautiful Corcovado.
It was hot, and everything was very wet, as always.
In 1960, he composed Concretion 1960. Since then, he
stopped calling his compositions “works” and started using
the term “essays” – «Concretion 1960 is my first essay of
planimetric structure», he wrote years later.
In 1962, then forty-seven years old, Koellreutter
received a prestigious award by the Ford Foundation “for
twenty-five years of services to Brazil” – for which he received
even more critics, because it was a prize of North American
origin. But that award enabled him to live one year in Berlin.
There he was asked to organize the international programs
of the Goethe Institute in Munich.
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Two years later, in 1964, it happened the coup d’etat
and the military dictatorship in Brazil – and anyone who really
knew him know how it would be practically impossible for
him to survive in the heavy environment of totalitarianism,
whatever its nature. Freedom was something fundamental
in his mind.
Thus, between 1965 and 1969, he became director of
the Goethe Institute in New Delhi, India, where he lived near
Octavio Paz – who was then ambassador to Mexico. They
became great friends.
Then, he invites Karlheinz Stockhausen to visit, for the
first time, India. A trip that would profoundly influence his
career.
He met and lived near Ravi Shankar.
Many years later, already in the 1990s, I personally
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met Ravi Shankar in Lisbon. I told him that Koellreutter had
sent him greetings. The Indian musician was very touched to
hear from a friend of many years.
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It was a very special time for us. Ravi Shankar
is a saint in India. But there are others. There
are fabulous musicians. Margarita and I really
enjoyed those times. Margarita studied singing
and sitar. I also studied a bit of sitar.
Immersed in my youthful naiveté, I asked why Margarita
did not study singing since she was a world-renowned mezzo
soprano, and he – recognized flutist – did not studied the
Indian techniques for transversal flute.
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But Emanuel! This would be impossible. The
techniques of singing and flute in India are
diametrically opposed to those in Europe! In
India one almost doesn’t use the diaphragm.
If we did what you suggest we would probably
destroy our techniques and never learn theirs
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correctly.
From India, Koellreutter was transferred to the
direction of the Goethe Institute in Tokyo, where he lived
until 1974. In Japan, he met and lived near many writers and
intellectuals.
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similar people, among the many I have known
throughout my life. – Koellreutter had a great
esteem and deep identity with the way of
being in Japan, though his restless questioning
spirit, even when young, would be something
strange to the Japanese culture.
In 1975, after thirteen years between Europe, India
and Japan, Koellreutter finally returned to Brazil to direct the
Goethe Institute in Rio de Janeiro, until 1980.
In the last years as director of the Goethe Institute in
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Rio de Janeiro, in late 1970s, Koellreutter gradually intensified
his presence in São Paulo – and it was when we met each
other.
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He enjoyed the silence like no other. After telling story
after story, he liked to spend a long time in silence, smoking
his pipe, as if he could relive, dreaming, every instants
of life. In those moments, when he was in another world,
sometimes he went back to reality with a very serious look
and said only:
- Well, my friend. This is the life...
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Alone or not, I was almost all the time studying in his
apartment at Laranjeiras.
But one day we went out for a very special lunch. It
was a meeting with a large and lively group of students of
music, his students.
We went to a restaurant by the sea, I think it was in
Copacabana, at Atlantica Avenue.
When we reached the front of the sea, he stopped
meditating for a moment and said:
- Yes... my friend... life is like the waves of the sea...
everything appears and disappears quickly.
My father always said the same thing. Since I was a
child, my father always repeated: «Life is like the sea waves...
they repeat, all the times, but they are always different.
We are just that, like the foam of the sea, everything is
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ephemeral».
Many years later, the conductor José Antônio Pereira
would remind me about this poetic vision of Koellreutter:
«He said that we were like the waves at sea. We could see
when they were formed and quickly disappeared».
As always, the rule at the lunch was: each one paid his
own bill. All very casual and colorful. We were about thirty
people and the students were around twenty years old,
slightly younger than me.
Koellreutter was the only older, then nearly seventy
years old.
He sat at the end of the long table. I was at his left side.
It was twelve thirty when we ordered the meals. Half hour
after later the meals had not arrived. The minutes passed
slowly and, despite repeated requests, at one thirty nothing
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had yet been served beyond a few drinks.
The service, which was terribly bad, was compensated
by our alive conversation, which made us to lose track of
time.
But, when it was a quarter to three, nothing had been
served yet and the service was virtually nonexistent.
Quietly, the Koellreutter asked what I thought we
should do. I was very sincere and said that I thought the best
would be to go, all at once. He agreed. We agreed to wait
another ten minutes, precisely. We adjusted all our watches.
Most students thought it was a joke.
Except for Koellreutter, a few more and me, no one
seriously thought of leaving without paying.
Exactly ten minutes later, without having been served,
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or even attended, everyone suddenly got up and walked
quickly to the street.
Koellreutter and I went forward in very fast steps.
As soon as we turned the first corner, the manager of the
restaurant came running, desperate.
The man wanted we back. He was threatening.
Quietly, Koellreutter suggested to call the police. When he
heard the word police, the manager was immediately calm
and suggested a solution. We agreed to pay only for the
consumed drinks and we left.
The students were delighted with the energy, spirit
and forthright of Koellreutter’s decision. At that moment, we
all had the same age.
I returned to the apartment at Laranjeiras and
continued studying.
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After dinner, we always watched the news on television
– I think they were almost the only moments I saw him
watching television. To each news about war, violence, theft or
crime – and it was practically only this what the news showed
– he gave a little jump, a small smile of incomprehension, as
if he was talking to himself, said: «stupid!».
For him, in a certain sense, it was incomprehensible
that a so beautiful world, with a so exuberant nature, so
generous, with music, art and science could be so dramatically
designed by human conflicts. It really was a stupidity.
We almost did not talk in those moments. After the
television news, he loved to watch a very cheap televisions
series.
- This is the fair portrait of the country. It is like a
letter, it cannot deceive. If you really want to know
what Brazil is, pay attention to this cheap television
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series.
After that, the television was off and we read each one
his book. He was always very kind and attentively asked if I
would like to watch something special, even knowing that I
preferred to read. He insisted always saying that I could do
whatever I wanted in his home – that it was my home.
About ten o’clock at night he retired to sleep. I kept
reading – because it would not be polite to go to the guest
room at the same time. There was only one bathroom in the
apartment, and I did not want to risk the trouble of using it
at the time the Koellreutter wished to.
So, I expect to be sure that he had finally retired to his
room. Only when he closed the door, I headed to the guest
room.
And I tried to do everything very silently.
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Koellreutter woke up at seven o’clock in the morning.
Around six thirty I was awake. I remained in bed, quiet,
waiting for him to get up, go to the bathroom and retire to
the living room.
When he walked to the living room, only then I got
up quickly and quietly, arranged everything in the room,
followed on tiptoe to the bathroom, took a shower and then
arranged everything, very carefully.
When we met in the living room, it was virtually
impossible for anyone to realize that I had slept there or even
used the bathroom. I left everything exactly as I had found.
It was a formal ritual, every day.
On the last day, when we were leaving to Petropolis,
at breakfast, he turned to me and said:
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- Emanuel, you are the most Japanese western I have
ever met in my entire life!
The trip to Petrópolis was calm.
When we arrived, I was completely amazed with the
place. It was a very beautiful house, in a sense similar to a
Japanese one, placed in the midst of a stunning rain forest
with towering ancient trees, incredibly beautiful trunks and
a little lake.
It was such a beauty that I did not know what to say
when we arrived. The entrance was a small and almost
hidden road on land.
At times that place looked like a magical scenario, those
which enchanted Albert Eckhout, Johann Moritz Rugendas
or Jean Baptiste Debret.
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Johann Moritz Rugendas
19th century
The height and majesty of the trees resembled old
engravings on the Brazilian forests.
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The owner of the property was a Frenchman. An
arrogant, aggressive and closed person. He rented the place
for millionaires or, especially at a better price for Koellreutter
– because, in some sense, his presence made the history
of the place and helped to enhance the property. For him
everything seemed to be openly based on some personal
interest.
The rent that wonderful place was equally shared by
all students, so that it was not even too expensive.
But the Frenchman had a terribly difficult temperament.
He treated everyone, and we were not exception, as ignorant,
uncivilized.
He seemed to be less hysterical only when, for his
surprise, I began speaking in French with him. It was as if
speaking French was a passport to civilization!
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We, the students, slept in a small house, hundreds
of feet below, near the entrance gate. It was a very simple
construction, with several rooms. It should be an old cottage
for the staff.
Koellreutter had a very nice cottage near the lake. It
was a small house that looked like something taken from a
tale by the brothers Grimm.
Every day we should be punctually at seven o’clock in
the morning for the breakfast, which was served in a small
room next to the kitchen, in the big house.
The days were spent in private and intensive lessons
with Koellreutter, especially analyzing in detail the Symphony
No. 8 in B minor, D 759, by Franz Schubert and the Piano
Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Opus 15, by Beethoven – two
key works to better understand the works of those fabulous
composers.
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We also profoundly analyzed works by Palestrina and
some pieces by Guillaume de Machault.
Everything was worked up to the last detail, bar after
bar, sets of bars, sections of movement, movements, internal
relations and relations between pieces, as well as countless
other factors.
It was a deep dive in that magical universe.
When everything ended, at six or seven in the
afternoon, often there still was much work to do, we went to
our rooms, waiting for dinner, with the sun dying for a new
day.
The pace was passionately frantic.
In the woods surrounding the beautiful house, old
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centenary trees had tens of feet in height, fabulous trunks,
animals, birds, vines and music could be heard through a great
sound system camouflaged in the middle of the vegetation.
The Frenchman never more appeared. After the first
day, we never saw him again. He was a man who had lost
the love for life. He had become bitter, angry, without hope,
without dreams, without passion.
In one of those days, in a moment of pause, a sonata
for violin and piano in A major by César Franck could be
heard in the middle of the woods. I wandered lonely by small
paths between the giant trees and the small and sinuous
lake – which reminded the lake at Claude Monet’s garden
in Gyverny, in France, as if it was almost a replica of it – and
unexpectedly I met Koellreutter.
He also walked alone, without any purpose, meditating,
with his hands behind him.
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The music of César Franck and the small lake with
swans, was seemingly so far from the tropical reality of Brazil
that, in a joking way, without thinking, I said him that all that
seemed me a bit kitsch.
Koellreutter turned and looked into my eyes, with
deep seriousness:
- Music has no horizons, no frontiers, neither in
gender nor in race or creed. Music is free. César
Franck was a great composer. Listen carefully to this
music, not as something strange, like something
stuck to a scenario, but as a process, listen to
the music. Now let’s not talk anymore. Continue
to walk, just that. César Franck belonged to the
romantic world of the nineteenth century.
Each one in his path, we continued lost in the twilight,
with César Franck’s music mixed with the sounds of birds
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and insects.
That was one of the greatest lessons of music I had. It
was then that really understood the music of César Franck.
Many times we had no electricity. The giant tropical
storms meant that the electricity supply could be suddenly
cut.
So, generally, we dined with candlelight and kerosene
lamps.
There was a small Baroque church in that forest, part
of the Frenchman’s property. In it, there was a formidable
harmonium. But the church was always closed, very
well locked. There were strict orders that no one should
enter there, never ever! It was one of the many and strict
prohibitions.
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One night, a violent storm was approaching. I was
walking near the church with a friend, my colleague. She was
a sweet and very sensitive person.
It was very hot.
I had an idea! We would enter the church and in the
midst of the terrible storm, I would do an improvisation on
the harmonium.
It was said, among the oldest employees of the
property, that ghosts wandered near the chapel.
It would be perfect! Ghosts and a harmonium being
performed in the prohibited church, in the middle of the
storm!
But! How could we enter there? The front door was
heavily bolted with a big padlock. The back door also. We
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could not force to entry. I noticed that at the top, in the
sidewall, there was a rectangular window. A body could
certainly pass there, especially a body of someone younger,
like mine or hers.
We dragged a small table, which was providentially
abandoned at corner, in the middle of vegetation, along the
trees. I went up and discovered that the window could be
opened with the aid of a wire. The storm approached. We
already felt thick raindrops on our bodies.
Practically there was no light. It was difficult to
distinguish anything in that dense darkness. But like an act
of magic, there was a bit of wire near the front door.
I managed to open the window, which was high and
difficult to pass through. In silence and carefully, we both
entered in the small church.
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The storm began with violence. I opened the
magnificent harmonium and began a long improvisation.
It was fabulous! The violent storm and the sounds of
the harmonium!
When the heavy rain gave signs of its end, I carefully
closed the harmonium. In silence, we jumped back through
the window, paying attention to lock again, leaving as if it had
never been opened. We dragged the small table to the place
where it originally was, erasing the traces on the ground. We
put back the piece of wire in its original place and quickly
come back to our rooms in the house near the entrance of
the property.
In the next morning, we all were punctually at
seven o’clock for the breakfast. Only we both knew what
had happened in the church. We did not tell even to our
colleagues.
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In a kind of small winter garden near the kitchen,
where the breakfast was served, the lady who worked at the
house asked if we had heard something strange during the
night. We all said no. She trembled. We asked why she was
asking about it. She said, with some distrust and fear, that it
was heard had music inside the church during the storm. At
first, they thought that it had been one of us. But the church
was tightly closed. When the storm passed, the employees
went to the church to check and surprised found that no one
had entered there, because everything was exactly as before
and the church continued very well locked.
I think that that night entered in the history of the
place as another event with ghosts.
Koellreutter heard everything without changing his
movements, as if nothing had happened. He simply continued
his breakfast, calmly – and finished before everyone. It
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seemed me, in his total lack of expression that he knew what
had happened.
- My friends, it is time to work! – and the breakfast
suddenly ended.
All my colleagues – formidable and talented musicians
– were very involved with the traditional notation and
conventional techniques. I was not. To me, the most interesting
were the cognitive processes, the intertwined concepts
of space time, the formation of complex mathematical
archetypes in full metamorphosis.
One afternoon, when we analyzed a medieval piece,
I decided to change the strategy of analysis – leaving the
traditional models and establishing a kind of graphic binary
map with black and white fields.
The result was a diagram that looked like a whirlwind in
a chess table. But we could clearly see the patterns of sounds
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determined by the composers, unveiling an interesting part
of their strategies of composition.
The other students laughed of what I had done. It
certainly would cause a strong and very negative reaction of
Koellreutter, they thought.
But when Koellreutter saw what I had done, he was
delighted. For the incomprehension of the other students,
he asked me to explain in detail how that method worked.
I told him that there were elements of rhythm and modal
combinations that were not clear, unless we create other
resources to show them, something like intermedia
transcreations, that is, passing from one medium to another,
in this case for the visual.
I was asked to develop that technique of analysis, which
allowed a more complete understanding of the composition,
revealing the composer’s strategic choices.
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The next day we had the morning free – finally! – and
we all went to visit Petropolis with Koellreutter, which is a
lovely city.
Petropolis was the home of the Brazilian Emperors
during the summer time. I still did not know the imperial city
that was right under our feet.
We followed two cars – one of them, which was of one
of the students, and mine.
We parked and walked by the streets. We went to a
small supermarket to buy supplies necessary for the next
few days and decided to eat at a nice Italian restaurant, very
simple, well ahead of the river channel that runs through the
city.
As soon as we finished our lunch, surrounded by bags
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from the supermarket, we heard deafening thunder struck
and the beginning of a new storm.
It was very violent. Our cars were relatively distant. We
decided, as a matter of courtesy, to go – only the two owners
of the cars – and take Koellreutter and the other students, as
they would not get wet with the heavy rain.
So we did. We ran and reached the cars completely
soaked. The rain was warm and generous. We were able to
put the cars, one at a time, very close at the door of the
restaurant, so the people could get in without getting wet.
The storm seemed to have no end.
With the car complete, all rescued without getting
wet, outside still under intense rain, we went back to the
magical property of Frenchman, on the mountain.
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But as soon as we arrived there, we discovered that two
bags of the supermarket were missed – the bags belonging
to me and to the student who drove the second car.
I asked why they had not taken our bags! Koellreutter
answered without hiding some irony:
- Well, because you do not pay attention. The bags
were your responsibility, of you two, bringing or not
the cars. Many times it will happen in life. There
is something unexpected and one forgets what is
really important, which in this case is the food. Your
bags are kept safe in the restaurant. But will must
go back to pick up them.
While controlled, I was furious! If what Koellreutter
had said was true, it was also true that we were part of a
team, and each one had the obligation to think for the other
ones, to cooperate in establishing a synergistic chain, which
had not happened in that case.
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We both returned alone, fully wet, to get the bags.
In any case, that incident has not only marked forever
in our souls the importance of having careful attention to the
smallest things – that would be of fundamental importance
throughout our lives – but also to reveal how everything was
education to Koellreutter, at all moments.
We had forgotten the bags of the supermarket, but he
had not forgot to teach us, even under a terrible storm and
even having to be rude.
The classes in that magical place happened around the
beautiful grand piano in the marvelous house under those
giant trees.
Every day, in the late afternoon, a violent storm
conquered all attentions.
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In the small and very simple house where we, the
students, were, the owner demanded that we should sleep
on mattresses covered with plastic bags!
Everything was extremely simple in the house for
the students. When we entered there in the first time, an
employee of the property came forward and went ahead to
tell how many lamps were there. On the last day, everything
would be subjected to a new verification. If one lamp was
missed, one fork or any other thing, however small or less
important it could be, the value of the object would be
charged and to it also added a heavy fine.
It was an absolute nonsense. Contrary to the draconian
rules, we took out the plastic bags at night – it was impossible
to sleep on them – and put them back in the morning, and
the employees thought we had slept on the plastic. Every
morning, an employee came to check if the mattresses were
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covered with plastic. If they were not, they said we would be
charged a penalty in money.
Everything in that place seemed to be about fines and
threats.
No one else supported the owner of that place –
that, even absent, always was represented by some of his
employees who seemed to surely be worse than him.
The breakfast was served at seven o’clock rigidly. Who
was delayed more than ten minutes lost the right to it. It was
the fine... They were express orders of the Frenchman, who
acted as if he were the dictator king of the place. And all
this happened despite we – the students – were who were
paying for everything.
I talked to Koellreutter about that very embarrassing
situation.
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- Yes... my friend. People change. Everything changes.
If you had known this person a few years ago you
would not believe. It seems that suddenly he lost all
money, or almost all money, and became like that.
Isolated from the world. With these conditions it
will not be possible to be here again. It is a pity,
because the place is unforgettable.
On the first morning in that heavenly place, punctually
at seven o’clock, we were all gathered in the small winter
garden for the breakfast and waited for Koellreutter, who
never appeared. It was very strange, because he was always
very punctual.
Of course, we refuse, all us, to take the breakfast
before he arrived. And the delay was becoming increasingly
worrying.
We asked to one of the musicians with us, and who I
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had already knew since a long time, to go to the little cottage
where he was sleeping and knew if he was in trouble, if he
needed something from us.
We arrive to think, full of fear, that he might be dead
in the cottage!
A few minutes later she came back very nervous and
worried. «He looks very bad. He said he had bad moments
during the night. That he did not sleep. He not even opened
the door for me! He asked us to take the breakfast without
him. The only person he wants to see is Emanuel. He asked
for Emmanuel to be there immediately».
It was a worrying sign that he could be seriously ill. But
why only I could go there? No one understood. The other
students made some jokes... what could it be? If it was a
serious situation, what we should do? To call a hospital?
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When I arrived at the cottage and knocked the door,
he opened it immediately and pulled me in, very nervous. He
closed the door quickly, managing to make sure that I was
alone.
- Emanuel, you do not know what happened. A
disaster! I forgot my razor in my apartment in Rio
de Janeiro!
- But what is the problem? Why you do not come to
take the breakfast with us? You could shave later...
or let your beard grow these days...
- My friend! A man like me cannot come up not
shaved! Never! It’s my image! Impossible! How can
we solve this? It is a very serious problem for me.
- If you want, I can, very discreetly, or rather, secretly,
go to the town and buy a razor for you. It will be
easy if the commerce is open. Now it is too early...
- Are you sure that you are able to go without anyone
seeing, that no one knows what’s is going on?
- Yes… I think so... I can leave in silence, hidden...
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- Pay attention, you must to do this without anyone
noticing what is happening. Go back to the
breakfast. Say that I have not slept well at night,
that I’ll rest for a while, but that is not anything
serious. Tell them that the classes of this morning
are all suspended, and that we will compensate at
evening. Then, just after the breakfast, when each
one will be at his or her place, you should go in
secret to the city and buy a new razor for me. But
no one can know!
Koellreutter was extremely disturbed with that
situation. It was then that I had a clear notion of how his
self-image was very important for him.
He took care of his appearance in detail.
Certainly, this element of his personality contributed
for his deep emotional relationship with Japan.
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In Japan, the personal image – in positive or negative
terms – is something of great social importance.
Two key concepts in Japanese culture are a clear
illustration of this phenomenon: wabi sabi.
In one of the first times I was in Japan, I was invited to
have a tea at the home of a leading scientist of the Institute
of Technology in Tsukuba.
Immediately as I entered in his home, I noticed that
there were no pictures on the walls, the wall painting was
old and everything was extremely simple, so simple that
could be considered a poor house.
I noticed that he always wore apparently old and
frayed shirts. His glasses were old, as his car also was – but
he was a leading scientist!
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He lived the principle of wabi – which is the simplicity,
the material detachment, the removal of exuberance in all its
senses. It is a principle followed by a lot of people in Japan.
When someone expresses wabi he or she is also expressing
spiritual integrity, credibility, respect for the community and
freedom among many other values.
Originally, the word wabi indicated the idea of
withdrawal from society, a kind of monadic attitude, of
solitary life. Later, after the fourteenth century, it became in
another type of retirement – distance from material values
and, thus, an approximation of the human values, of the
relations with the community.
The word sabi means serenity attained with the
experience of life, spiritual peace reached with age.
Wabi and sabi are concepts that often go together and
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are manifested in the person’s appearance, in his behavior.
Both are aesthetic ideals and illustrate how the selfimage is fundamental in Japanese culture.
Wabi and sabi launch their conceptual origins in Zen,
which is the free essence of Buddhism.
In the wabi sabi universe, all existence is structured by
three key conditions: anicca, which means the impermanence
of everything; dukkha, which indicates the idea of continual
change and the consequent emergence of conflicts, the
essence of consciousness; and anatta, which indicates the
idea of non-existence, namely the idea according to which
everything is only an illusion.
Koellreutter had a deep spiritual connection with
Japan. These values were deep printed in his soul.
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When I returned to the breakfast, I told my colleagues
that he was not feeling well, he wanted to rest, but they did
not need to worry, because it was not anything serious.
However, they did not want to believe. If so, why
he had said nothing to our colleague who had been there
minutes before? I did not know what to say. I was phlegmatic,
concise, and tacit. I said nothing more. He had not slept well
at night, just that.
That history has created an embarrassing climate for
me, because people did not believe in what I said, but I could
not tell what really happened, no matter how simple it was.
Once everyone finished the breakfast, very discreetly,
I walked to my car and pushed it with the engine off until a
descent to the street, so no one could hear any noise and
realize my escape.
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I arrived at the center of Petropolis and waited until a
small shop opened. I bought a shaving cream, a brush and
a mechanical device with blades – he never used electrical
appliances – and went back quickly.
The topography of the place allowed me to enter in the
property also with the engine off. So I did. Without anyone
noticing, I ran to the cottage.
Visibly relieved, Koellreutter opened the door. He was
studying at a small table near the window, protected by the
curtain.
- Thanks! Thank you very much! Now, go back and
say that I’m better. Ask everybody to be ready, near
the piano, in ten minutes.
And the classes started normally, without anyone had
realized what had really happened. Koellreutter said, without
details, laconically, that he had not slept well, but that he
was already good again.
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In one the following days, we went to the city of
Teresopolis – which is not far from Petropolis. Then, there
was happening the famous Curso Internacional de Férias, a
kind of summertime camp – created by him in 1952 – where
Music 1941 would be performed. Koellreutter had composed
that piece more than forty years before when Juan Carlos
Paz had premiered it in 1942, in Buenos Aires.
It was then I met Beatriz Roman for the first time,
who was the performer. She was very kind. Koellreutter liked
Beatriz very much – he had a sincere esteem and admiration
for her.
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We were only we three in a small room with an upright
piano. Beatriz played several fragments of the piece, so he
could make his comments, suggesting minor changes here
and there.
Koellreutter had virtually no changes to suggest, the
interpretation was exactly as he thought it was right.
Beatrice and I met again only years later, in São Paulo
during one of the Festivals of New Music, also with Jocy de
Oliveira, whom I always had a great esteem and admiration,
despite we had met each other only a few times along the
years.
Ironically, Beatrice and I would never find met in New
York City, although we both have lived very near each other,
almost neighbors, and she had also been a close friend of
John Cage, who was not only a great friend of mine but also
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a person with whom I have worked for several years!
After the course in Petropolis, each one returned to
his place, some coming from Rio de Janeiro, others from
São Paulo or Minas Gerais, and life returned to its normal
rhythm.
Months later, I received an unexpected phone call from
Koellreutter. He asked me to urgently go to his home. He
wished to have a brief meeting with me outside the schedule
of classes. So, we scheduled a lunch.
Then, he also was director of the Conservatory of Tatuí
– what required him an additional trip, as the City of Tatuí is
about an eighty miles from the city of São Paulo.
The Dramatic and Musical Conservatory Dr. Carlos de
Campos, also known as Conservatory of Tatuí – located in
the city of Tatuí, São Paulo State – is the largest institution of
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musical education in all Latin America and one of the largest
all over the world.
When I arrived at his apartment, we immediately went
to the small meeting room – the Kremlin – and there already
was cold whiskey and also cold snacks.
He served the usual dose, which did not exceed an
inch in the bottom of the cup. I noticed how he was excited.
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Emanuel, I have very important news.
What I have to tell you may be something
revolutionary, fabulous. Even in international
terms. But for that, I will be forced to take a
very serious decision, a truly radical change in
my life. And I would like to know what your
opinion is.
There was a state of suspense, a tension present in his
words, in his movements. Koellreutter was excited, but very
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I was invited to direct a profound renovation of
the Conservatory Tatuí. It is a great institution.
I do not know if you know, but they have even
a symphony orchestra, which can become a
good orchestra in the world scenario. The goal
is to make the Conservatory of Tatuí an entity
of musical education of the highest standard in
worldwide terms, if possible rival to Vienna or
Salzburg. It will be a huge challenge for me. It
is the challenge of a lifetime. It will certainly be
the last work of my life. If everything goes well,
I want you and some other of my students as
my assistants. But I cannot promise anything
for now. For now it’s secret. Absolute secrecy!
I need to know if you would be at my side.
Of course, I immediately agreed to work with him
in this new project – a total renewal of a large educational
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institution and its transformation into a planetary center was
challenging and impressive.
Koellreutter was very excited, he talked a lot, but he
could not hide certain nervousness.
-
The problem ... the big problem, very serious,
is that to do so, I definitely have to leave
my job at Paulista Faculty of Arts and all my
other commitments. I have to resign from my
position and the many activities that have been
involved. At my age, very few people would
accept such a challenge. It is a very difficult
step, because it is about an important work
that can be done there. But, if we will have no
success, it could represent my destruction in
financial and professional terms. I would be
without work, which is very difficult at my age.
I’ll have given up all the appointments I have
today. It can be a disaster. But I need to take
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a decision. Whatever it will be, it will change
the course of my life. First of all, Tatuí must
ensure that this project of remodeling will
really be done, that it is a concrete proposal.
I cannot go ahead with the next steps without
that certainty. And I will have to have a carte
blanche to direct the changes. At my age, I
have to pay much attention to each step. For
me, there is little time of life ahead.
I told him that, in my opinion, he should embrace
the project of Tatuí – if he was very safe in legal terms, of
course.
We met again in the following week and he said that,
with some sadness, he had submitted his resignation to
the general director of the then Paulista Faculty of Arts, for
whom he had a great personal esteem, and had accepted
the challenge of the Conservatory and Orchestra of Tatuí.
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A few days later, we traveled together to Tatuí.
We would be there, along with other of his students, for
two or three days, just to finalize the details, establish a
comprehensive strategy and sign all documents.
I was impressed. Though I had already heard about, I
could never imagine that the Conservatory of Tatuí was a so
large institution!
As soon as we arrived, in the first afternoon, after the
preliminary meetings with the directors and teachers, in
which I didn’t participate, I met alone with Koellreutter. He
had a shadowy expression, of the deepest concern.
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Emanuel, we have a very serious problem. The
Conservatory Tatuí is completely anachronistic,
old, outdated. As we had talk, I was called to
transform it into a center of global importance.
What I could see is that the average level of
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the teachers is awful. There are some good,
but they are exception. I am now leaving for a
meeting with some of them. In great part, they
are housewives who teach music as it was did
in the nineteenth century, at best. They have
no idea about what the contemporary world is,
even in relation to the interpretation of ancient
music. But I had an idea. This idea is the only
way to solve this problem... because we cannot
simply put on the road all these ladies and
those teachers who seem more as retirees…
and many of them really are. They have no
guilt. They are victims of themselves. But on
the other hand, we cannot keep them as they
are. They paralyze everything, they sclerosis
everything. They are jeopardizing the future
of the musicians here, in international terms.
With them, how could we do our remodeling
work? At the meeting we had, they were
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explaining me how they work and it seemed
me that they believe that I will be like the
previous directors, someone accommodated,
enjoying a good salary. But for me, being here
is a great challenge! I cannot act differently. I’m
not here for money. So, I thought the following
idea...
Koellreutter spoke without hiding nervousness and
big worries. He had changed his whole life in function of that
project! And, in fact, I even witnessed something unexpected
– in one of the meetings with teachers, I could see through
the open door, that one of the teachers made crochet while
Koellreutter talked!
But he was not a person to be depressed and stop or
to be involved in such kind of situation.
Koellreutter was deeply practical and pragmatic. For
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him, every thing that happened was an indicator of how
reality manifested and, therefore, anything could be very
useful evidence to establish new strategies of action.
-
Pay attention. My idea is this: these teachers
may have a much more important function, in
social terms, than they realize. They will never
be able to form students to be at the level of
musicians from Paris, New York or Vienna,
for example. On the other hand, only few
people are able to give their own existence to
a life like this, sacrificing life in family, privacy,
consumption, and in some cases, wealth.
Most people want to play an instrument or
be a musician, but they cannot, don’t want
and cannot live only with music. Thus, we
must separate the Conservatory in two large
groups. One group, the largest, with all these
almost retired ladies and gentlemen, should
be devoted to dilettantism. Dilettantism is very
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important in society. It is actually already the
case today – the students here are educated
as amateurs, without knowing it. The few
students who could give themselves to this life,
are educated like the others. Thus, the other
group, much smaller, would be dedicated to
the formation of great professionals, then with
an international level.
That idea seemed me very interesting. I believe that
it was never tried something alike in any institution of
music education. In general, everyone considers himself the
greatest in the world. That idea was a way to not destroy
the Conservatory as it was organized and to create concrete
conditions for a formidable revolution in its educational
structure.
When Koellreutter announced his idea to the teachers
– dividing the structure into dilettantism and professionals
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– the reaction was brutal.
Outside the meeting room, we could hear the most
exalted. No one admitted to work for dilettantism – although
that was what in fact was happening. All of them considered
themselves too important for that!
Thus, for the teachers it was an insult to admit the
possibility to be dedicated to dilettantes!
Each one is considered the best teacher in the world.
Koellreutter took about three hours to convince them
to at least think about it.
I waited for Koellreutter outside, in the waiting room,
and I could see when the teachers came out foaming with
hatred.
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When we left the building, he had his hands behind
him, heavy eyes and whispered disconsolately:
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Very difficult... it will be very difficult.
A meeting of Koellreutter with all students and teachers
of the Conservatory at the Procópio Ferreira theatre marked
the next day – at his request, of course.
The auditorium, which had a reasonable size, was
small with so many students. Some had to be seated even
on the floor.
Several of the teachers did not hide their displeasure.
They looked at the sides, as if all that was ridiculous.
The situation was very tense.
Koellreutter took the microphone and started speaking,
walking in their middle of people.
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- My friends, I was invited to come here, to run this
institution and to do a thorough renovation in teaching
methods. But to be able to do that, I ask all you three
things. We can stay here as long as you want. You have
any time you want to think and to give us the answers.
We can even sleep here; it would be no problem for
me... But I need to get out of here with answers.
Without them, I cannot do my job.
The students were clearly intrigued with that
situation.
Koellreutter continued talking, always with great
firmness, no matter the giggling of some teachers, who were
at his side:
- I want to know what are you doing here, for what are
you here and what you want in your lives. But to reply
to any of these three questions you cannot ask anyone.
You cannot hear your friend, your parents, and even
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less the teachers... absolutely no one ... you should
just listen only to yourselves. And should not believe
in anyone, not even in you. Even when you think to
already have the answer, you should ask again: “why?”.
Then you will be able to answer: what are you doing
here, for what are you here and what you want in your
lives.
Koellreutter crossed his arms and waited in front of
a stunned audience. An overwhelming silence invaded the
auditorium.
Suddenly a student stood up and asked him to repeat
the questions.
- What are you doing here; for what are you here; and
what you want in your lives... – He repeated patiently.
The student replied with a certain irony, as if the
question had been obvious – «But! We are here to listen to
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you, we are here to learn what you have to teach us and we
want to be musicians».
- Very well, very well. But you did not answer to the
most important: are you here to listen what? What my
function is? What do you expect me to say? Why could I do
something here? Apart from that I could say, what is the true
function of what I could do? And what do you want from
your lives? Of course I know you all want to be musicians.
After all, we’re in a conservatory! But what kind of musician
do you have in your mind? Do you want to travel during all
your lives? Are you willing to sacrifice your personal life,
having financial difficulties? Do you want to give your lives
to a profession as that of the musician? The life is yours, not
mine. I cannot come here and impose what I think. I must
understand what you think. If what you think coincides with
what I think, even if not completely, good... then we can
do something together. But if you believe in very different
things... then, my presence here has no sense.
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One of the teachers stood up and, trembling, very
nervous, started arguing that the Conservatory already had
an established program, that it had been used for many
years and that it always was considered as a kind of sacred
convention of that institution, and which should be peacefully
accepted as it happened every year and full stop...
But, very politely, Koellreutter asked to continue
listening to the students.
Quickly, the students began to speak, each one with
a different answer. Everything became a huge chaos. The
teachers looked at one another with even more disdain and
sarcastic smiles.
Koellreutter patiently took a step back, but he did not
interrupt the general discussion. His arms were crossed and
he calmly waited for time to change reality.
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Many thought that such chaos represented the end
of everything, the end of that meeting, the end of that
challenge. They thought that everything was out of control.
Some teachers were visibly happy with such a
possibility. One of them once remarked: «You see? It is what
happens...» – freedom for students inevitably degenerates
into confusion, he would have completed.
Koellreutter seemed very calm; he smiled and remained
in silence.
Suddenly, one of the students asked for silence and
suggested to organize a group of contact with other groups,
so they could organize the different ideas and establish
common answers to those questions.
Immediately, very well organized, it was made a
suggestion to form small groups to reflect on those questions
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and to bring the answers to that student who had proposed
to organize the contact group. That student would be in
permanent contact with Koellreutter.
Everything started to be developed very fast and
dynamically. Right there, polls started to be organized, and
the previous chaos turned into something very civilized.
Many teachers began to withdraw in protest.
Some students of the Conservatory of Tatuí were
also students of Koellreutter in São Paulo. A great wave of
sympathy and admiration was created around him.
It was decided that the working group would develop
the questions with the students and that a new meeting
would be scheduled in a near future. The students set a
deadline of three days, so that the responses could reflect a
general opinion.
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In the following moments, teachers commented in the
corridors, very excited, that Koellreutter was an anarchist
who wanted to destroy everything created by them, that
his attitude would disintegrate the institution, that he was a
madman... and things alike.
In the early evening of that same day, we received
dramatic news: rumors said that some teachers, deeply
angry about Koellreutter’s ideas, had called the police. They
accused him of deviating and subverting teenagers and even
that the German master made use of narcotic drugs together
with the students!
The charges were absurd and unclassifiable. They
happened in the form of anonymous rumors. Even considering
the most profound absurdity, we had to leave Tatuí and
immediately return to São Paulo.
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That great conflict in the Conservatory of Tatuí created
a profound division between students and teachers, between
who were in favor of Koellreutter and those who were against
him.
Several students and teachers supported his ideas,
but they were not sufficient to surpass those who abhorred
them.
Emanuel Pimenta,
concert with dancers,
and musicians of
Tatui orchestra,
MASP, São Paulo, 1983
399
I continued friend of several members of the orchestra
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of Tatuí with whom I made some interesting concerts at the
large auditorium of the MASP Modern Art Museum of São
Paulo Assis Chateaubriand.
Not all teachers in Tatuí had that attitude against
Koellreutter. There were some, though few, true heroes who
understood what was going on and always defended him.
Like the conductor José Antônio Pereira, who was his
friend forever. But not many, and Koellreutter was eventually
expelled.
At the end of 2009, José Antônio Pereira wrote me
about Koellreutter: «his methodology at the lessons of
harmony was the best I’ve ever witnessed. Each harmonic
law was practiced, analyzed, understood, valued. It was
surely this the difference that permitted Isaac Karabtchesvky
and Benito Juarez to have had an so excellent performance...
The Choir of the University of São Paulo, headed by Benito
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was based on hearing. Although the master had a profound
knowledge on the subject to offer to the students, he initially
put knowledge in practice and only later he presented the
theory, working on the practice. (...) I remember that he asked
the students to close their eyes, even when they formed a
group. He believed that there was a kind of synchronicity,
of coincidence, linking all. (...) I remember how he loved so
much the owls...».
Until his death – although he had been director of
that institution for some time – almost all references to his
presence in the Conservatory seem to have been erased.
However, in 2010, the web site of the Conservatory
of Tatuí registered, in a text by Camila Frésca, those difficult
moments: «When José Coelho de Almeida left the institution,
Hans Joachim Koellreutter assumed it, he was already famous
in Brazil both as teacher and musical personality. When he
moved to Tatuí, Koellreutter and some teachers who arrived
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with him tried to establish a methodology that was being
applied in other institutions such as the Music School of
Bahia and the Free School of Music in São Paulo. This had
as a starting point a humanistic and wide musical education,
which was not limited to technical information. In practice,
one of the changes proposed by Koellreutter was the abolition
of pre-established curriculum. The program of education
should take into account the social, professional, intellectual
and mental situation of the students. Thus, it would be more
individualized, specially made for each class. It would be
maintained, however, a “minimum curriculum” comprising,
according to Koellreutter’s words, “composition, aesthetics
and analysis as main disciplines, and other basic ones:
elementary theory, that is, musical semiotics. Composition
should be individual, not in group, unlike improvisation”.
Another change would be the elimination of regular tests. Yara
Caznok, who during the period of six months was teaching in
Tatuí, tells that the receptivity of the students was great, but
the old teachers saw those changes with fear. “Koellreutter’s
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idea was to modernize the Conservatory Tatuí, take it
out from the idea of the traditional for traditional’s sake.
According to him the tradition is made up of innovations, so
to be new is nothing more than follow the tradition”, she says.
However, Koellreutter himself said that the abolition of the
academic curriculum has brought many problems under the
administrative point of view. Thus, the experience, although
rich and exciting, was not well accepted by a large portion of
the community at the Conservatory. In fact, the opposition
surpassed the limits of the institution and generated strong
protests that eventually condemned the permanence of the
composer in the direction of the institution».
That was extremely extenuating for Koellreutter. It
was a hard impact. He had fed dreams of great works in Tatuí
and everything had been destroyed by an authoritarian and
reactionary group of teachers! Or, at that moment, had the
dream exceeded his usual pragmatic view?
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In any case, after what happened, he had lost his job.
He had given up of all his contracts and it would take some
time to redo them.
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A few days later, when the souls were less exalted, we
talked about what had happened and about his delicate and
fragile situation.
-
Very difficult... very difficult... Now, I am in
a very difficult financial situation. I have my
duties, my compromises. How can I do? I no
longer have a job. At my age it is not easy... It
will be very difficult... My friend, possibly I am
destroyed.
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He was really worried and frankly discouraged.
I had an idea that could save him.
I was a close friend of the poets Augusto and Haroldo
de Campos – I always had a deep admiration for both of
them. Apart of our friendship, I also was a student of Décio
Pignatari at PUC Catholic University in São Paulo for post
graduation courses on semiotics. We had a very nice group
of students, together with the critic Luiz Antônio Giron, the
poet Philadelpho Menezes and the musicologist J. Jota de
Moraes among others.
Décio and I had a weekly program dedicated to
contemporary music, at USP FM Radio of the University of
São Paulo.
In the beginning, the program – called CODA and that
lasted for five consecutive years – also had the participation
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of the visual artist Fernando Zarif. For several months, our
speaker was William Bonner, who would become famous
later.
Holger Czukai and
Emanuel Pimenta, at
programme Coda, Radio
USP, São Paulo, 1984
(photo by Ennio Brauns)
In those days I was responsible for the graphic design
and editing of Décio Pignatari’s visual poem Vocogramas,
made for the Octavio Paz’s magazine Plural, in Mexico City,
among others. Along five years, religiously every Thursday,
we had a long brainstorming at my atelier of architecture in
São Paulo. Thus, there were many links between us.
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Follower of Ezra Pound and Roman Jakobson, Décio
Pignatari was considered one of the most important masters
on Semiotics all over the world. Haroldo de Campos was a
great poet and philosopher, several times indicated to the
Nobel Prize.
I found that if Koellreutter could give a post-graduate
course at PUC Catholic University of São Paulo, he would
be able to survive for several months, until things be
rebalanced.
But, all steps should be taken with utmost discretion
and speed.
I spoke to Décio, who entered in contact with Haroldo.
Later, I also met Haroldo – I liked him immensely. Once, at
that epoch, we did together an improvisation at the Cultura
TV, in national network, he with his poems and I at the piano
with one of my pieces.
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I suggested to Haroldo that Koellreutter could make a
more developed version of his basic course of introduction
to aesthetics as a post-graduate course at PUC. But he felt
that it would be virtually impossible due to the rigid doctoral
program of the university.
There was no time to lose. Koellreutter’s financial
situation was serious and rapidly degenerating. He was not
young, already almost seventy years old and Brazil lived a
devastating hyperinflation crisis.
I explained to Haroldo, asking for all confidentiality, the
situation in which Koellreutter was. They knew each other
since a long time, but had never become friends. The deep
admiration was mutual.
Harold had the brilliant idea of changing the name of
Koellreutter’s course – originally Introduction to Aesthetics
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– to Intersemiotic Systems. It was perfect because, in fact,
the course was about intersemiotic systems!
The letter of invitation was sent and the timetable was
scheduled, everything very quickly.
But I received a phone call from Koellreutter, very
depressed, asking to meet him. I went to his house.
Koellreutter was deeply discouraged. He was prohibited from
teaching that course at PUC University because he did not
have academic background consistent with the university’s
exigencies for post graduation courses!
I was stunned. He was one of the great masters all
over the world. He had formed great musicians in diverse
countries and in the most different areas for decades. He
was the alive connection to the universe of great German
thinkers. He represented a revolution in musical education
and even in Brazilian music. But he was prevented from
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teaching at the postgraduate department because he had no
adequate academic training; he did not have a bureaucratic
certificate attesting his competence!
People often forget that his enlightenment influenced
even the birth of bossa nova!
411
Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, in 1999
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I was shocked when I knew that. I ran to talk again
to Haroldo and suggested that the university should give
him an honorary degree, honoris causa. It would surely be a
matter of great honor for the university. Koellreutter was a
personage with international recognition. And so, he would
automatically be qualified to teach at the post graduation
department.
Haroldo de Campos moved mountains and quickly the
title was given to the German master.
That course, lasting six months, would give Koellreutter
enough time to restructure his life.
Later he also received the title of doctor honoris causa
from the Federal Universities of the States of Bahia and
Ceara.
Haroldo de Campos, who not only was of the greatest
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intellectual luminaries of the twentieth century, was a deeply
generous soul and was more than happy to have helped
Koellreutter.
In a few days all the vacancies for the course were
met.
The course was a great success!
Very interesting facts happened in those classes.
Many of the students were there to complete credits for a
PhD on Semiotics and, more specifically, about the thought
of Charles Sanders Peirce whose ideas were the basis of the
course on Theory of Thought, internationally recognized as
one of the best, if not the best at that time.
Even so, Charles Sanders Peirce’s brilliant ideas,
which should be understood in their dynamics, are usually
structured in rigid closed classifications and departments
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systems, contrary to its original conception.
When Peirce established categories, he always did in
relational and relative terms, inside a paradoxical and nonlinear strategy.
Koellreutter had never studied Peirce’s Semiotics. He
knew only superficially the ideas of the American thinker.
He was a musician, a composer and a master of
fundamental importance – but belonged to a different
“world”.
Not that that his “other world” did not justify a
program dedicated to Peirce – on the contrary. It was a
unique opportunity for the students to expand their ideas
and confront key issues of semiotics, recalling elements from
another universe.
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But sometimes, less enlightened students, more
oriented to rigid classification tables, did not understand
that difference.
In one of the lessons, Koellreutter pondered about
what was the understanding of the symbol in India. His
explanation departed from the etymological analysis of the
word symbol, which means co-incidence.
He added that in Indian music, for example, a morning
raga, was the morning itself, while pure quality. In this case,
the music – he explained – was the symbol of the morning.
Both music and morning coincided; they fell together as
a single phenomenon. That music simply could not even
exist in another moment of day. If performed at a different
moment of the day, it would be another music.
In Peirce’s conceptual universe, such phenomenon
would be more consistent with the concept of icon, being
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a firstness. To Charles Sanders Peirce the designation of the
symbol implies reason, that is: a thirdness.
In any case, in last instance, from the moment we
understand something, everything implies reason.
Suddenly, as soon as he finished the explanation, a
small group of students, very arrogant in the certainty of
their vast knowledge, seemed to be outraged. In a sudden
way and with a tone of clear superiority, they launched an
aggressive interrogation against Koellreutter, paralyzing the
class and trying to ridicule him.
But what was the importance of that intervention,
massacring the old German master only to feed the ego of
beardless aspiring philosophers?
Koellreutter was visibly intimidated by that aggression.
The inquisitors intentionally used technical terms that
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escaped from the composer’s repertoire.
That time, I studied semiotics not only with Décio
Pignatari but also with the genial Roti Nielba Turin, who was
master of my dear friend, the brilliant poet Paulo Leminsky.
So, I knew very well that repertoire. Charles Sanders
Peirce was always a central reference in my life.
At a given moment, when the arrogance exceeded
the limits of the acceptable, I intervened and politely asked
those students to understand something beyond the rigid
departmentalization process they were so involved. I asked
them to be more aware of the paradoxical conditions of the
dynamic established by Peirce, to the fact that a sign always
implies its relations... and so on.
Quickly, the discussion shifted to my side and I assumed
the clear defense of Koellreutter – rapidly being supported
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by the entire class.
I think I ended up not being very friendly with them, but
they were deliberately putting Koellreutter in an extremely
difficult situation without any need or serious justification.
When this aggressive and sterile debate started, one
of the students, Alberto Marsicano, sitarist who lived in India
and was a disciple of Ravi Shankar in London, just got up and
left the room.
Then, it was the time of those boring students
of semiotics to go out, they considered themselves too
important to remain there. In that way, finally, they left all
us in peace.
Marsicano deeply suffered to witness such kind of
discussions. During the classes – he always sat in the first row
just in front of Koellreutter. Once the class began, his eyes
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turned up, he was paralyzed with open arms, half opened
mouth, and sometimes drooling.
Students jostled each other asking if he was drugged.
Never! He entered in trance, in order to absorb the
best possible each one of Koellreutter’s words.
Koellreutter himself was surprised with the states of
trance of Marsicano.
- My friends, you do not know what is this. Very
interesting! He goes into deep trance. He is totally focused
during class. In India this is common. But in Brazil, it is the first
time I see something alike! Remarkable! – he commented
later.
Our classes of composition continued normally, each
time with increasing depth, now in his apartment at Avenida
Luiz Antônio.
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Sometimes I met other students. The composer Chico
Mello was one of them. How many times we walked to the
same sides in the city, not infrequently we went together
and always stopped in the way for a coffee.
Chico was also studying medicine and had a great
doubt about what he would do in the future. He lived in
Curitiba and often went to São Paulo, especially to study
with Koellreutter. Later, we lost contact. Many years later, I
knew that he had moved to Germany.
At that time, Koellreutter was not interested in any
music that was not erudite and contemporary. He was
focused on the metamorphosis of music as complex systems
– and that meant high repertoire.
I had an old and great admiration for Hermeto Pascoal.
I always considered him a genial musician. One of the reasons
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why I chose the transversal flute as my main instrument
was to have heard, as a child, one of his unforgettable
interpretations.
I asked if Koellreutter had ever attended to a concert
by him. Never! – it was the short answer. I asked why the
reason for a so radical refusal?
- Because in the end it is always the same thing. They
play always the same. I’m not interested. He can be very
good, but it is another world. I do not have time to hear
everything!
I asked if he liked the Indian music. It clearly was a
provocative and absurd question. The answer was, of course,
yes!
Hermeto Pascoal is one of the great improvisers of all
times. Indian music is pure improvisation. If he would attend
to the concert, but being aware of the awesome Hermeto’s
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talent of improviser, his impressions on the Brazilian musician
would radically change – I suggested.
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I will think on it, I think...
Few months later, in one of our lunches, he told me
how the experience to attend to a concert by Hermeto
Pascoal had been. I think it was at a jazz festival. Koellreutter
went there with another of his students.
- Emanuel, yesterday I attended to a concert of
Hermeto Pascoal. I went with one of my students who,
like you, also loves his music. You were right; he really
is a great musician, a great improviser. He is fabulous.
He reminded me, in fact, some Indian musicians. And
the musicians who work with him are also very good.
Very interesting. It was a very interesting experience.
It was not necessary too much time until the situation
was reversed. There was a concert by a famous Brazilian
composer who performed himself, his compositions for
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piano.
We were both invited and decided to go together.
On the invitation was written that the musician was one of
the greatest exponents of contemporary music all over the
world.
For my surprise – until then I’d never listened anything
about that musician – it was a terrible spectacle.
The composer tried to reconstruct the romantic music
of the nineteenth century, taking it as contemporary and
sorting of post-modern. He believed he was a new Franz
Liszt.
The reasoning was simple: only ancient music could
be true music, a fact before which all should be submitted
as the only way out for the music of the future... as if music
would need way outs.
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There, everything was profoundly reactionary. Each
piece intended to be a replica of other times and, of course,
those ideas were diametrically opposed to everything we
believed.
In the world, all relations had been transformed; the
whole planetary reality was morphed. Everything changed.
Practically, we no longer had monarchies. People were linked
by telephones, by television – they no longer rode a horse.
But that composer, so nostalgic of imperial times, was
a true athlete on his instrument ... His music simply did not
exist as rupture, as he proposed it. But it also did not exist
while past.
It was an accidental and painful kitsch exercise.
At the end of the show, we left the theater and I
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firmly commented him what he thought. For my surprise,
Koellreutter did not criticize him.
- You’re right. But each has his or her own life. He is
not proposing to do something different. He proposes to do
what he does and he does well. He thinks that this is rupture.
It is the judgment of value it does. It may be something
you do not like, I do not like, but these opinions, likes and
dislikes, they are only judgments of value – and, therefore,
they don’t mean that it’s good or bad. It may be that we are
not interested in that kind of music, as I’m not. But that is
another matter. In any case, I had to come. We must not be
engaged too much in too passionate issues.
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My concerts became more and more frequent. Many
times I performed at the large auditorium of the MASP
Modern Art Museum Assis Chateaubriand of São Paulo, the
Museum of Image and Sound, the legendary Lira Paulistana
theater, but there were also hearings in Japan, Portugal or
Canada.
Since the late 1970s my musical work as composer,
was oriented to what I called logical traps.
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Emanuel Pimenta,
concert at MASP
Modern Art Museum of
São Paulo, 1982
The key issue that always designed my work was to
know how knowledge happens and how we can subvert it,
because only difference produces the consciousness, as so
often said Koellreutter.
So, the natural sequence was to study Peirce’s
semiotics, neurology and logics.
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Gradually Koellreutter and I started having serious
discussions, especially during the class of composition. They
were passionate debates.
He argued that any composition should have a form, a
beginning, a middle and an end. I argued that this could not
be the objective when one has in mind rupture, subversion,
because the logical environment of literature was exactly
that and we were diving inside another universe, of hyper
media, in a highly interactive planet.
But! For him, without form perception simply could
not exist!
Then, I argued saying that if the musical structure
obeys to a different logic, without beginning, middle or end;
if we no longer worked with harmony, melody and rhythm,
but with clouds of complex sounds or elements established
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according to different principles of order, then we would
have subversion, we would have change and the emergence
of the consciousness.
The establishment of form, as he understood it,
had been a revolution of other world, o a different epoch.
Now, everything became more subtle and a rupture, a
metamorphosis in music, would implicate a new conception
of form.
−
But! Perception is not possible without form!
- he insisted - How could exist subversion without
perception?
−
What if the form would no longer as we know
it, but that could be established by each person in his
or her own cognitive act, as a kind of environment? - I
answered him.
I used the concept of environment as the artificial
intelligence universe understands it. In this way, we passed
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to discuss the construction of cellular automata I’d built.
At that time, my concerts could last four hours or
sometimes even more.
− After a certain point there is no more communication!
- he claimed - You should not make so long pieces.
But under the long duration of my compositions another
question was present. When music passes to be environment,
it becomes what we call intelligence, producing a
transformation, a metamorphosis in all our values, including
time itself. - I insisted.
− So, my friend, you’re not a musician, but a
designer of sounds! - he shot, and I automatically
remembered the famous statement of Schoenberg
about John Cage, according to which John was not
a musician, but a philosopher. He knew very well
that story and his provocation was so ambiguous
as clearly intentional.
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Koellreutter started refusing to attend to any of my
concerts. I left tickets at his home, I sent invitations... but he
never showed up.
But one day I spoke with him very seriously about
that, saying that it was a shame his refusal to attend to my
performances. After all, I was his student and friend! Then
he promised to be present in the next one, but ensuring me
that it would be a disaster, due to my ideas.
However I had always admired him and profoundly
respected him, I could not go against what we both defended
as principle. Thus, I did not care with what he predicted – the
important to me was the result.
The day arrived and the concert happened.
It was a concerto for eight violins, singing, radio, paper
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and computers. It was in 1983. Through the curtains I saw he
was not in the public for the beginning. I thought that, once
again, he would not appear.
But in the middle of the concert there was a moment
when I could withdraw for few minutes because there was a
long solo on paper made by other musicians.
Quietly, I left the stage, went behind the stage, entered
the backstage, to the room and, in the darkness, I saw that
Koellreutter was there. He had arrived in the dark just after
the start of the concert. He was alone, sitting on one of the
last chairs in the back. The theater was occupied by about
two-thirds.
Quickly, so discreetly as I went there, I returned to the
stage. At the end of the concert, when the lights were turned
on, we were lucky, everything went well, and we received an
ovation for several minutes, but he was not longer there.
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He had left before the end!
I was deeply outraged. I called him and, very gently, I
asked if something had happened, saying that I was worried
because I had seen him in the theater and when the concert
ended he was no longer there.
− Yes my friend ... take the direction you want. I
left before the performed ended to not need to tell
you what I think about it... Come to talk to me.
So I did. I went to his home to talk to him. Koellreutter
was very nervous. He said I was a waste of time, that I did
not understand anything about music, that everything I had
made there, in the theater, simply “was not”, “did not exist”.
He added that he would never accept my concept of musical
form!
That approach was unacceptable. He wanted to
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impose, at all costs, his own principles of composition. But
he had defended himself, throughout his entire life, that we
should never believe anyone, much less the teacher!
It was him who always argued, with all his determination,
the permanent questioning spirit!
I wrote him a long letter saying very clearly that
it was absurd that situation, denouncing his remarkable
inconsistency.
It was the end of 1983. I had a lesson class of the year
with him, but I did not go. I simply did not appear. He wrote
a letter and a message saying that he had been waiting for
me.
His paradoxical attitude had been shocking to me. I
decided to let time change reality - I had learned from him.
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Finally, he called. We had a meeting and a long
conversation. We talked at length about many technical and
philosophical issues.
After this meeting, our friendship became even
stronger.
The classes went on as usual in the next year, along a
few weeks, always with discussions that were more and more
animated. But now, they were peaceful. They were profound
reflections on the nature of music, on communication, on
the human being.
To me, those discussions were delicious, because it
was a way to keep me in deep and dynamic questioning.
They were a permanent exercise of logics.
His main argument was that only within certain
parameters we can create the shock, the difference.
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By my side, I was convinced that our entire sensorial
palette is inevitably interlaced inside a large logical network,
that is, inside a large network of principles of order,
principles of differentiation. Changing part of such network,
we generate a wave of turbulence and we change states of
consciousness. But for that it is necessary to trap our own
minds.
Not only, I argued that creative participation of people
was an essential thing – and even if they did everything
wrong, the most important was the experience because we
are always changing, every moment and, in fact, there are
no errors, but experiences.
I realized that some things I said made him be intimately
disturbed, as if part of his world had collapsed. But it could
be a false impression. His expression almost did not change.
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He had elaborated the concept of integrating paradox
– that was equivalent to the principle known as the logic of
the third included established by the famous mathematician
Stephanne Lupasco.
Sometimes it was as if I was coming from another
planet. What I advocated seemed to be, in some sense,
unacceptable to him.
On the other hand, that situation of permanent
tension obliged me to study more and more, to go deeper in
the roots of the questions. The level of our classes became
more and more complex.
− You are a positivist! - he provoked me once, at the
end of a class.
But, how could I be a positivist? The structure of what
he was apparently determined to defend – founded on the
beginning, middle and end, in predication – was what had
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generated, in logical terms, the positivism!
For me, at that epoch, his attitudes were deeply
strange. I had the feeling that, even with sympathy, he acted
intentionally to provoke my reactions, each time deeper and
more aggressive, as the great master he was.
− You must go out from Brazil. At least for a while.
What are you doing here?
In a certain sense, would not be his pieces Tanka, or
even Acronon, free of predication, free from the principlemiddle-and-end domination?
When I argued that, he patiently passed to explain
again the formal fundamentals of his compositions.
On another occasion, during a class of composition,
he did not contain himself:
− You are an idealist!
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− Why?
− Well, because you want to change the world.
− But I do not want to change the world! I do not
intend to change anything. The only thing is what I
am. And I am change in a changing world.
Koellreutter listened to my words and let out a small
laugh.
− Okay. You can call it as you want. The truth is that
there are things in your own mind that you are not
able to notice. And these things are the reason why in
India is often said that the most dangerous enemy of
a human being is his intelligence, like an accident that
happens in our life. Because everything is illusion.
They were roots for a new reflection, which would
continue in the next class.
That situation made me to study each day more and
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more, and to structure each time more clearly my own
aesthetic principles.
That happened in 1984.
Unexpectedly, in one of the classes of composition,
on a Saturday at eleven o’clock in the morning, as soon as I
entered in his apartment, he said, just at the entrance, coldly,
that he would no longer be my teacher.
-
I don’t have anything more that I can teach you.
- he said crossing arms and without showing a
hint of emotion in his voice. Then, immediately
invited me to lunch.
I was shocked, deeply shocked. But I kept calm. We
had our usual drink and went to lunch.
In that lunch we talked about almost everything. We
discussed the ideas of Douglas Hofstadter, who had recently
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launched the famous book Gödel, Escher and Bach - An
Eternal Golden Braid. We plunged into the enigmatic ideas
of Kurt Gödel, who fascinated we both.
I accompanied him back home. When we said goodbye,
it was the first time I hugged. It was a long, tight and warm
hug.
Koellreutter almost never shacked hands. To everyone,
without distinction, his compliment was made simply joining
hands in front of his face, as always happens both in India
and Japan.
− It’s more hygienic. - he said joking.
That day he said goodbye with a long hug. An attitude
that would be always repeated in all our future meetings,
until his disappearance.
That day was very confused to me. I loved his classes.
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With their end, a great void appeared. In fact, his decision
was a great compliment. But he ended our relationship as
master and student. On the other hand, he inaugurated a
new phase of a long friendship relation.
With that period of tension, he had led me to a process
of permanent questioning and to an each time deeper
dedication to the studies.
We replaced the classes by lunches.
Every time he was in São Paulo, we scheduled at least
one lunch.
Our friendship was quickly expanded. When Margarita
was present, she always was very helpful, friendly and
vibrant.
Margarita Schack was one of the greatest mezzo
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sopranos of the twentieth century. Because of her exquisite
technique and versatility she was compared by many to
Cathy Berberian, also mezzo soprano, wife of the composer
Luciano Berio.
Despite she immensely loved Brazil, the country
was not profound enough to absorb a so great talent. To
sing was her life and for that it became necessary to travel
continuously.
It was not easy for her, because if in the beginning, to
constantly travel is often funny, over the years it can become
extremely stressful and painful.
In addition, the life of a permanent traveler is deeply
lonely.
Even so, despite the intense travels, the heavy agenda,
the Margarita has never ceased to be a happy, dynamic and
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exuberant person. When she arrived in any place, it was
impossible not to look immediately at her.
Continued travels as well as living in India and Japan
had amplified even more her musical universe.
They got married in June 8 1963. A year before,
Koellreutter had won the Ford Foundation Prize and lived for
some time in Berlin.
Two years after marriage, they went together to
India.
Margarita was not only Koellreutter’s dream, but also
a tremendous explosion of energy.
In 1985, Luciana and I traveled to Rio de Janeiro
especially to know the new home of Koellreutter and
Margarita, which was located in the neighborhood of Urca.
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To arrive there it was necessary to enter in a closed
street with gates and security. A few yards away, it seemed
that we were in another country. It was a kind of island,
protected from everything.
The house was very comfortable and had a fabulous
view. The long piano, which before was in the apartment of
Laranjeiras, was now as if it would be floating over the sea.
Margarita was extremely happy. In the moment
Luciana and I entered in that magnificent hall, she had
already opened a bottle of champagne waiting for us.
It was very hot, the day was sunny and the sky was
completely blue. We talked at length. It was the first time
I really talked to her. In between our words, I could see a
person of culture full of love for life exploding in her brilliant
eyes and in her fast thinking. At that time she was especially
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interested on philosophy.
She told that her greatest desire was to buy a dog
for the new home and, especially, an akita, the dog of the
Imperial Palace in Japan. She asked me if I could help her.
Although I love animals, none of the dogs I had during
life had been purchased. They were always given or found
– which was not possible in the case of a rare akita.
Despite my remarkable ignorance on that subject, I
did not hide, I propose to ask some people in São Paulo and
considered that, very possibly, it would not be difficult to
discover where to find an akita.
When I arrived in São Paulo I called a dear friend, Magali
Mussi, who then was in her early career as mezzo soprano.
We had become friends in the 1970s, at the preparatory
school for the university admission tests. We had done
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some concerts together, especially at the MASP Modern Art
Museum of São Paulo. Besides being a great singer, Magali is
a wonderful human being.
I knew that she knew many people and I had the
intuition that she could help.
Magali has always been very sweet, gentle and open
to help anybody.
Two or three days later she called back me saying she
had managed to find a seller of akita dogs in São Paulo – it
seems that it was the only one at the time.
I immediately called Margarita, who took the first
plane to São Paulo. The breeder lived in a very luxurious
home in the neighborhood known as Jardins, made by a
British company called City in the nineteenth century, very
near the classic Paulistano club.
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Margarita was thrilled and overwhelmingly in love with
the beautiful dog – which, I think, surely was very expensive.
It was a really beautiful animal, with a strong personality.
The meeting between Magali and Margarita was
magical, as if they already were great friends for centuries.
A few days later, Magali – always very shy – told me
how much she would love to study with Margarita. She was
afraid to ask her directly because she knew Margarita was
one of the greatest singers in the world and had virtually no
available time for new students.
I talked to Margarita and she immediately became
teacher of Magali, with great enthusiasm – «But! Magali could
have told me! She is a wonderful person, a great friend!».
I think that later Magali was also a student of
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Koellreutter. Her talent did not stop to expand. In addition to
a remarkable mezzo soprano, she became a great teacher.
Months passed and I no longer met Margarita. Times
later, I called Rio de Janeiro, to speak to Koellreutter, but he
was not at home. She attended the phone. I noticed how her
voice was somber, sad, empty and devastated.
I asked, almost automatically, about the akita dog and
for a black nail she did not cry. «Something terrible happened.
The dog no longer exists. I do not want to talk more about
this. It’s a closed case».
I did not insist. I never got to know the tragedy that had
befallen to the poor animal. Margarita was visibly shaken for
several weeks.
Such was the relationship between Koellreutter and
Margarita Schack – lots of travels, lots of music, a profound
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admiration and mutual complicity combined with a state of
independence that was not common in Brazil. Often, due to
frequent travels and consequent separations, people did not
understand that relationship.
To him, she was a goddess. But he never showed
publicly such feelings. Koellreutter never showed any sign of
his private life. When he did, very rarely, it was inserted into
a strict framework of a friendship relation, deeply personal.
When he spoke about her to me, it always was with great
admiration.
− Margarita is a great artist. She is very important.
Koellreutter almost never spoke about his feelings.
Even so, he was a deeply emotional person, but only
those who had shared his friendship for a long time were
able to see how much sensitive he was.
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When he spoke about someone, it obligatorily
was because of practical and objective questions, never
subjective.
− My friend, gossips are not my world. - he always
said with humor.
In 1985 I performed my composition The Sea, at the
th
18 Biennale of São Paulo. It was not easy. The project was
very audacious. It was a concert for four orchestral ensembles
sprout out through the building of the Biennale.
Several weeks after have being officially invited, having
everything agreed, and only three months before the date of
the concert, I was laconically informed that there would no
longer be any money for it, but only for the other ones!
From one day to another there was no money to hire
musicians. But everything was since long scheduled!
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I talked with Sigrido Leventhal – one of the most
fascinating persons I met. Koellreutter had called him. Sigrido
put at my disposal all students in his conservatory, with the
condition that I could convince them, of course.
I visited class by class, explaining the project in details,
and in a single day I had the four orchestras assembled.
But it would still be necessary almost three months of very
intensive rehearsals ahead.
Throughout the entire concert, The Sea, only one
musical note is played. For this composition I made an
analysis of the spectral formation of harmonics in each
musical instrument. I designed a score taking as its basis
underwater surveys of the Pacific Ocean, more specifically
on a region near the Mariana Trench. Deepest the place, the
greater mass of harmonics would be.
I designed another map of subtle pitch fluctuations.
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This made that the shock of the overtones in the air generated
more resultant sounds and from that single musical note
people could listen to a large number of other ones.
That piece was inspired on Stockhausen’s Stimmung,
but it is structured and operates in a quite different way.
Emanuel Pimenta
The Sea, Biennale of São Paulo,
1985
The Sea was a great success. It was awarded with the
APCA Prize by the São Paulo Art Critics Association, AICA
Section, of received several articles published in various
newspapers and magazines.
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Koellreutter never appeared in any of the presentations,
which happened twice in the Biennale of São Paulo and one
at the large auditorium of the MASP Modern Art Museum of
São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand.
His strange attitude caused my perplexity. On one
hand, it was as if he wanted to be distant. On the other, it
was as if he wanted to strengthen our ties of friendship. It
was deeply paradoxical.
Now, our meetings, always in lunchtime, were long
and full of reflections. Many times, the lunches lasted over
four or even five hours.
We had “our” Japanese restaurant. We were always
there. It was a restaurant I often went with friends long
before I met Koellreutter and, coincidentally, he also went
there regularly.
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Once I took him to a Japanese restaurant specialized
on cuisine from northern Japan, which had just been opened
in the neighborhood of Liberdade.
Liberdade is a neighborhood of São Paulo where the
Japanese colony is concentrated. It is the largest population
of Japanese people outside Japan all over the world. In the
streets many things are written in Japanese. It is as if it was a
part of Tokyo.
Koellreutter and I always appreciated Japanese cuisine,
but especially sashimis and makis, which are made with raw
fish. In the early 1980 still were not many fans of raw fish in
Brazil.
− You are one of my only students who like raw fish, as
I like. - he told me in one of the first times we went out
for lunch at a Japanese restaurant. The truth is that,
over time, the number of people who started enjoying
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raw fish in Brazil increased significantly. Koellreutter
knew very well the rituals of the Japanese table. We
drank sake, always hot – but sakes of good quality.
This time, the new restaurant, with typical dishes from
the interior of Japan, not from Tokyo or Kyoto, promised a
surprise – which finished to be not very pleasant.
Our lunch went well and I returned there two days
later for a dinner with a friend. I had a violent intoxication.
Koellreutter called my home repeatedly, several times a day.
He thought I had been poisoned by fugu and that I would
die.
Also known as blowfish, fugu is a fish with a terribly
deadly poison – which is released when the cut is not well
done, and it has no taste.
I was unconscious along almost two days, with high
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fever and delirium.
Fortunately, it was not a fugu poisoning, and I survived.
Even so, that experience was not enough to get me away
from the delicious Japanese delicacies.
We both enjoyed very much the Japanese cuisine. Once
we arrived to a restaurant, he began to speak in Japanese
with the waiters.
He spoke nine languages at ease – including Hindi and
Japanese.
The attitude of sincere friendship, our lively
discussions during the long lunches, the exchange of ideas
about strategies of composition, about aesthetics, about the
planetary metamorphosis and his preoccupation with me
were totally opposed to his cold distance in relation to my
concerts.
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I asked him what was the reason for a so strange
behavior: warm when we were together and so far at the
point to keep not going to my concerts.
− My dear friend, now you have to fly. I cannot be
around.
I immediately understood the reason of his behavior
– he continued always being a great master.
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15
John Cage also participated in that great event of
the Biennale of São Paulo. The filmmaker Rodolfo Nani had
introduced us very briefly.
On the last day, when I was convinced that there
would be no opportunity to talk with John Cage, Augusto
de Campos realized what was happening and provided me,
by his purely personal initiative, a brief moment alone with
him.
A few months later, John Cage invited me to collaborate
with him, with David Tudor and with Merce Cunningham in
New York City.
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Then, Luciana and I moved to Europe, first to Portugal,
and in another few months I was collaborating with René
Berger in Switzerland – he also became a great friend for
life.
In Locarno, where I would fix residence in 2003, I
collaborated with René Berger and Rinaldo Bianda at the
celebrated Locarno Video Art Festival, together with Nan
June Paik, Francis Ford Coppola, Edgar Morin, Daniel Charles
and Basarab Nicolescu among many others in 1980s and
1990s.
In 1990 I started collaborating with the Baroness
Durini, in Italy, in several projects for the Triennale of Milan
and the Biennale of Venice, but also at the art and culture
magazine RISK Arte Oggi.
In 1989 I participated in the parallel launching of
the www world wide web by Tim Berns-Lee in Locarno. In
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1993, always together with René Berger, we made the first
television transmission through Internet and in that same
year, still with René, but also with Edgar Morin, I participated
in the formation of the first university in Internet. With John
Cage and Merce Cunningham there were concerts around
the world, but also other musical events with my works, and
lectures, exhibitions... In that period various of my audio
compact discs and books were launched in diverse countries
and different languages.
Those novelties seemed to encourage even more
Koellreutter in each one of our meetings. With my move to
Europe, they began to happen every time I went to Brazil.
− You will be one of the only among my students who
will continue living outside of Brazil. Not because there
or here are better or worse places. They are different
places, just that. But is the way you are. When a person
moves, changing his place, his music also changes - he
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becomes another person. If you are living in New York,
for example, your music will reflect your experiences.
The same will happen if you stay in Europe...
To him change was something essential for
everybody.
− Moving to a different country gives another
dimension to the musician. He is forced to live
different realities. He is obliged to question himself
more frequently.
We started regularly talking by phone, but in general
they were short conversations – we both never had the habit
of talking for long minutes on the telephone.
I always called him, and over many times at least once
a month, to see how he was.
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Koellreutter smoke pipe, but never ever cigars. I also
smoked pipe, even before to have known him – I was very
young and sometimes I was criticized for smoking pipe at
that age.
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Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, 1999
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Influenced by friends at school I started smoking
cigarettes when he was very young, at nine years old. I
smoked hidden. When I was eighteen, I arrived to smoke four
packs a day, which amounted eighty cigarettes! That would
be my destruction! I swam and was a flutist – incompatible
activities with the cigarette.
The best friend of my father, right hand in his company
for decades, and a very good friend of mine, also a German,
like Koellreutter, but born in Heidelberg – his name is Alfred
Gerard Schwarz – was also flutist and has always been a lover
of the pipes.
To smoke a pipe requires a special knowledge, a few
steps without which the person may even cause serious
injury in the tongue. In relation to health, pipe has many
advantages over cigarettes – because you cannot take the
smoke to the lungs and the smoke usually doesn’t have so
many chemicals.
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Thus, Alfred Gerard Schwarz was a big influence on
me to start playing transversal flute and he was my master in
the art of pipe, teaching me even how to cure them with the
most varied flagrances.
Pipe smokers have their secrets, which range from the
form of the pipes to the types of tobacco.
Like Alfred Gerard Schwarz and me, also Koellreutter
only smoked straight pipes – the so-called Italian ones.
But while I especially enjoyed black Cavendish tobaccos,
his preferred tobacco also was his personal trademark:
Revelation.
However, apparently because it contained some
substance condemned by health services, the tobacco
Revelation stopped to be marketed in several countries. Only
in Switzerland I could find it. I passed to regularly bring that
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tobacco to Koellreutter, who waited anxiously.
When we met and I gave him the packet of tobacco he
said, laughing:
− Thank you! It’s my salvation!
Later, already living in Europe, I also started smoking
cigars. Once, still in the early 1990s, in one of my trips to
Brazil, I asked why he refused to smoke cigars.
− Because it destroys the lips. A flautist should never
smoke cigars. They soften the lips. On the other hand,
pipe is supported by teeth, leaving free the lips, and
so they are not affected.
− But, Tom Jobim smokes cigars! And he is an excellent
flutist.
− There is a big difference between an excellent flutist
who doesn’t live from concerts and other one living
from them. If he were a flutist of concerts, he should
not smoke cigars. In any case, do not forget that Tom
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uses a special mouthpiece for cigars. With it, he can
hold the cigar in his teeth and not with his lips.
In fact, the mouthpiece used by Tom was owned by
Villa-Lobos before, it was a gift from the violinist Arminda
D’Almeida, Dona Mindinha, widow of the composer.
Again, I asked him how Tom Jobim was, how he was
as a person, in what only the intimacy of friends permits to
know. Like Chico Buarque de Hollanda, Tom had also studied
architecture.
Koellreutter was the first professor of Tom Jobim,
when he was only fourteen years old.
Tom studied with Koellreutter during the years 1939
and 1940, who gave him many of the principles that would
coin the bossa nova, twenty years later. When one could
imagine that Germany is, in some way, present in the roots
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of bossa nova?!
Many times he told me that he wanted to introduce we
both, and also to one of his students in India, who regularly
wrote him. Unfortunately, I did not personally know any of
them.
Koellreutter replied, smiling:
− Tom Jobim is a different man. He likes to drink
whiskey and to play piano. He loves to be with people.
He is not a closed musician, a composer who goes to
his desk to work, who closes himself inside a room
and is separated from other people. He enjoys to be
with people, playing all the time, like an amusement.
He is a very interesting person. A friend of his friends.
You personally know him. I have always spoken about
you to him. We have met many times in Rio.
In all those years, each time I was in Brazil, I took
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Koellreutter for lunch.
Our lunches regularly happened even before I moved
to Europe. In early 1980 one of our favorite places was a
restaurant called Fiorella, in the neighborhood of Brooklin,
in São Paulo, coincidently where I was born.
It was very far from his home, but the restaurant was
spectacular.
In fact, Fiorella was a restaurant installed in a very
comfortable ancient house, with excellent vegetarian cuisine.
In all its spaces there were many plants and artworks. It was
a magical place. There were several rooms, each one very
different from the others, giving the feeling like we’re in our
homes. Everyone who worked there were college students.
There was no sign or any kind of indication on the street.
Actually, only who knew went there.
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Many years later, when I already lived part of my life
in New York City, I would know there the person who had
created that magical place: Martin Penrose, a visual artist,
with very interesting works. I told him about our frequent
lunches at his restaurant. He was delighted to know that
Koellreutter loved so much to be there.
To be at Fiorella was like being in another world.
Everything was covered by contemporary art, plants, flowers,
with very comfortable chairs and an excellent cuisine.
Were always had least one bottle of cold white wine,
frascati, from Italy.
We passed hours talking about the most varied
subjects. Once, we spoke for many minutes about the state
of memory beyond the Schwarzchild boundary in direction
to a black hole singularity. How would memory be in such
a condition? Would it be disintegrated by gravity force?
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Or would it maintain its integrity, despite the so powerful
asymmetric forces of that environment.
We did not have answers, neither specialized education
to have them. But, the reflections were very interesting and
they launched us to considerations about the nature of time
and order.
Many years later, when Stephen Hawkings demonstrated
that, surprisingly, memory would be preserved in those
conditions, I spoke with René Berger, in Switzerland, about
the same subject. We were amazed with the revelation that,
after all, the Universe seems to be a formidable accumulator
of memory.
Both Koellreutter and René Berger loved science. In a
certain sense, everything turned around it.
With Koellreutter, however, the conversations were
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many times focused on the different approaches of East and
West to reality.
But beyond Fiorella and the Japanese restaurants in
the neighborhood of Liberdade, we passed, already in the
1990, to be at the Japanese restaurant that was on the top
floor of the Hotel Caesar Park, at Augusta Street.
In August 1994, when I was in Brazil, we went to have
a lunch there. I had no time to say anything and Koellreutter
asked me:
− Emanuel, when you will visit us again in Rio de
Janeiro? Next time, I will invite you and Tom Jobim for
a lunch. You need to know him personally. It is done:
in your next visit to Brazil we will go all together for a
lunch.
The meeting was scheduled for December, when I
would be back again to Brazil. But Tom Jobim died few days
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before, on December eight of that year and, unfortunately,
we did not get to know each other.
The death of Tom Jobim deeply touched Koellreutter,
who had a true esteem for him.
As people died, he expressed more and more concern
about how and where to live the end of his life.
That lunch at the Caesar Park hotel was a big surprise.
When I asked him about the Margarita, to know how she
was, Koellreutter wide opened his eyes and asked:
− But! You don’t know?
− No! Did something happen? Is she well?
− Margarita became a witch!
− A witch? - I was not able to stop laughing, I thought
it was a joke.
− It is serious. I’m not kidding. It is not a witch in
the folkloric sense. We recently arrived from an
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international meeting of people who deal with these
questions, in an island in Pacific. She is very serious.
And this is a serious matter. Many people do just not
take it seriously. Do you think we know everything?
These meetings are about what the sciences, with
which we are already used, cannot explain. Before,
I was married to a famous opera singer, now I’m
married to a specialist on the unexplained. It is very
interesting.
I was stunned. I could not expect that. I never had any
preconception in relation to the supernatural world, which
I always considered natural. In a humble and Socratic way I
always were very aware that I know nothing.
But I could never imagine that one day the great singer
Margarita Schack would devote herself to the supernatural.
I asked him about how the meeting in the Pacific Islands
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had been and Koellreutter said with great seriousness:
− Very interesting. They discussed some very
interesting things that make us be aware of how
deeply we know nothing.
In that same year, Margarita opened in the city of
Tiradentes, in the State of Minas Gerais, an institution called
Aura Soma Center, dedicated to the use of oils and colors for
triggering a process of self knowledge.
In that epoch, my daughter was about four years old
and I was looking for the best way I could give her some basic
musical formation. Koellreutter was around eighty years
old. In one of our lunches, I asked him if he could give me
an orientation about what I could do about it. Then, I was
especially attentive to microtones and, consequently, to not
format her so young mind according to rigid tonal formats.
Intuitively, she already was very oriented to piano, I am a
flutist, and there is almost no microtonal freedom in the
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traditional piano or flute.
− String musicians are more sensitive to small changes
of pitch, to work with them. When you consider a
flute, for example, or even worse, a piano, all sounds
are “closed” in a rigid system of pitch. You should not
put her to study piano before five or six years of age.
On the other hand, you should make music, that is, to
organize sounds with her, using the most varied objects.
You can use anything you want, toys, bells, pieces of
wood, forks, paper... The sounds of the objects never
follow to the classic tonal system. When she will work
the dynamics, varying the intensity of the sounds, and
its distribution in time, then she will be aware of the
essential nature of music, that is everywhere. But it
must exist an order behind. You should pass her some
principles of order. And they must be very simple in
the beginning.
I did what he suggested with Laura, and I believe it
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gave her an initial formation that opened her different
possibilities in different fields.
Koellreutter always asked about Laura. Once I gave
him some pictures of her, and he put them in his apartment
in São Paulo, revealing a great sensitivity.
Several times, with increasing insistence, after 1990,
Koellreutter began asking my opinions about to where he
should move again. To what country he should go, where he
should live his last years of life.
He was, then, about seventy-five years old.
-
You know, I will not live much longer. It’s time
to think about my withdraw, to go to a distant
place. I want to go to a place far away from
everything. Just disappear. What do you think
if I go to live in Portugal? I would like to live
closer to you.
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For months I searched to him information about all
conditions, including legal, for a possible move to Lisbon. But
everything seemed to be blocked. After all, it is not easy to
make a change of this magnitude at seventy-five years old.
Not only, even before the Aura Soma Center, Margarita
and Koellreutter had created an interesting cultural center in
the city of Tiradentes, Minas Gerais. They loved Tiradentes.
How could him distanced himself from all that?
At the same time, we also agreed to make together a
musical composition.
Months passed, but he continued with the idea of
moving to some distant place.
− It’s true. This project of mine to move is very
difficult. I don’t know if I will be able to do it. But I feel
that I should die somewhere else. I would like to spend
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my last days on an island... to live my last years on an
island. What do you think about Madeira? Margarita
and I really enjoy the island of Madeira. The weather
is good and there is no violence.
In the following months, I tried to gather as much
information as I could about Madeira Island and especially
about the city of Funchal.
I know well the island of Madeira, where I have gone
since my childhood. But, knowing the conditions for a move of
an important composer, already at an advanced age, requires
a different type of information, much more specific.
During the first years of the 1990s, he often insisted
that he wanted simply to disappear, and move to an island
was a strategy that seemed him appropriate, as if he could
just evaporate, without people noticing.
−
I will not live forever. Neither you. These things
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related to death are too dramatic... too romantic. I’m
not a dramatic person. In my case, I would like simply
to disappear. Living on an island would be a good
solution. A simple solution.
It reminded me what had happened in Petropolis,
when he had forgotten the razor in his apartment in Rio de
Janeiro.
Koellreutter was a person extremely attentive to his
personal image. Even when he was over eighty years old
I never saw him unshaved, unkempt, or dressing a dirty
cloth.
After the 1990s he started wearing very colorful
clothes. Always the same kind of shirt with turtleneck, but
now in very strong turquoise blue, for example.
One of his great pleasures was to live surrounded by
young people. In the 1990s, he started to frequently make
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references to one of his students, Mauro Muszkat, and to
the young visual artist Saulo di Tarso.
He had a deep esteem for Saul, for Mauro, but also for
Regina Porto and many others. There are many names and
it is impossible to list all them. Saulo never was his student,
but he was always very close to him in the last years.
It was as if he was automatically rejuvenated by the
new generations. All aged, except him. In fact, his great love
never was to teach, but always to learn. He was well aware
that we never taught, we only learn.
Already in late 2010s I met the pianist Marcelo Bratke
in New York City. He had also been his student and reminded
him with emotion.
The students around never felt him as an old person.
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16
In 1994, I called on the first of September, Thursday,
a day before his seventy-nine birthday, to invite him for a
lunch. I asked if he would be free in the next day. He told me
so. I was in Brazil for a few days. We schedule a time and in
the next days I went to pick up him.
We went to lunch, as we did at that epoch, at the
Japanese restaurant in the Caesar Park Hotel, in the Augusta
street.
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He did not know that I had remembered his birthday,
or pretended not to know. I never forgot his birthdays. If I
was not in the city, I always called him, from where I could
be.
But that day was special. He completed seventy-nine
years of life.
I offered him another plush puppet and a book. He
was very touched.
− You’re the first person to greet me on this
anniversary. - he said with some emotion in his voice,
which was not common in his behavior.
He was seventy-nine years old and was alone. But it
was not something unusual – he was always alone.
− I have a great necessity for silence and to be alone.
They are essential conditions of my life. I need time to
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study, to think – he said.
I decided to organize a dinner for him, few days later,
inviting some important artists. Of course, I assured that no
one would know that it was about his birthday. He would be
so embarrassed if people knew about his birthday, that he
surely would refuse to go. But, going discreetly, as if it was a
simple meeting among friends, that would be a real gift for
him.
But there was a serious problem. I no longer lived in
Brazil already about ten years and it was very difficult to find
a place where we could hold that meeting.
No one was willing to help. Until suddenly a lady I knew
since many years, typically bourgeois with a home decorated
in a very pretentious and very kitsch way, full of decorative
canvases on the walls, not to mention the books and bottles
of whiskey to decorate the environment, very kindly offered
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us to have the meeting there. That was the appearance of
the place.
At first, I vacillated. But the lady was very friendly and
fairly generous. That was her world. Who could be us to judge
the personal world where people live? Why are people always
fighting among themselves and full of preconceptions? After
all, wouldn’t be the real world our essential very first raw
material? Don’t we work for the people? We don’t make our
work for artists, but for the world, for the people, not matter
who they are!
To Koellreutter – who fought all live against
preconceptions of any nature – that house would represent
no problem.
I remember that among the artists there were Cláudio
Tozzi, who was a great friend of mine, Maurício Nogueira
Lima, who for years was a brother to me, unfortunately
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disappeared some time later, along with many other good
friends.
Koellreutter and
Emanuel Pimenta,
São Paulo, 1999
Koellreutter dressed a fabulous red Indian jacket
embroidered with color figures. He was visibly happy that
eveniing. There were almost eighty years of age.
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But the kitsch appearance of the house strongly
affected at least one of the artists, a friend of Claudio, who
was not able to be stay for a long time. He tolerated only
about half hour and left in despair.
When, more than midnight, I brought Koellreutter to
his house, he told me how much he had enjoyed to have
met some old friends, and to have talked so animatedly with
those people.
− You know Emanuel... Over time, we become more
and more isolated. It is the life, my friend... it is the
life... Now rarely I go out. I have no one to talk, no one
with whom I can exchange ideas... To speak interesting
things. Next year I will be eighty years old... time
passed to fast!
At that time, he was working to finalize the opera Café,
which had libretto written by the legendary writer Mario de
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Andrade. It was a work that consumed a long time. Mario
de Andrade finished the libretto in 1942, Koellreutter began
writing the music when he lived in Tokyo between 1974 and
1975. He would finish it only in 1996. Twenty-two years of
elaboration!
Throughout the year of 1996, we talked many times
about that opera. It was a remarkably lively period for him.
Koellreutter seemed to be very happy, always in contact with
many people.
He seemed not age. He seemed simply to have stopped
in time. He was becoming more vegetarian and, at least
when he was with me, he never exaggerated in alcoholic
beverages.
In early 1998, I composed the concerto Difesa della
Natura, for a film about Joseph Beuys, directed by Marco
Agostinelli and produced by Lucrezia De Domizio, Baroness
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Durini, in Italy. This concert was dedicated to Koellreutter.
I had dedicated another concert to him fifteen years
earlier, in 1983. Then, it was an electro acoustic concert also
using digital systems, synthesizers, magnetic tapes, metallic
pieces, small ensemble of metals, dwarfs, speakers and
a computer controlled by heartbeats. The world premiere
happened at the theater SESC Pompéia, in São Paulo.
Emanuel Pimenta,
score of the concert
dedicated to Koellreutter
1983
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In that same year of 1998, a compact disc with the
concert Difesa della Natura was published in England, and I
immediately sent it to Koellreutter. Once received, he called
me, saying that he was very touched.
Some common friends wrote or telephoned me telling
about how much Koellreutter had enjoyed that music.
Emanuel Pimenta
concert Difesa della Natura (1998),
dedicated to Koellreutter,
performance at the Swiss mountains,
2004
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It was a strange feeling to me, because during all
those years he had always remained extremely distant of
judgments about my works.
Even when I studied with him, specially at classes of
composition, he never stated that a determined work was
good or bad. The most he was able was to ask how I had
considered what I had done.
− My friend, we all know what is happening. We ask
the next because we are not able to listen to ourselves.
And sometimes we cannot listen because we talk too
much. So, it is you who must answer about what you
do. You must learn to know how to answer to yourself.
- he had said this many years before, in one of our
classes.
Now, he said – even if never directly to me – that he
liked my works. And that sounded like an interesting surprise,
as something unexpected.
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A few weeks after I have sent him Difesa della Natura,
I visited the city of São Paulo. I found him very excited, in
excellent shape.
Although he had never spoke about his feelings and
had avoided judgments of value, when I entered in his
apartment I realized that two of the compact discs I had sent
with the music dedicated to him, were intentionally placed
on the piano and another on the table at the Kremlin – the
small room full of colorful plush puppets – as if they were in
an exhibition.
It was a timid way of saying how much he had enjoyed
that homage.
While we were at his apartment, he did not say a single
word about the composition or about the compact disc – and
I did not ask.
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Only later, when we had lunch, he said, very shortly,
that he enjoyed the composition and thanked again for the
dedication.
That was a year full of news for Koellreutter. Three
years earlier he had celebrated eighty years of age. In a few
months Funarte, the Brazilian National Foundation of Arts,
would launch in compact disc format a disk that had been
released in 1985, with works dedicated to him by several
composers.
The compact disc included a piece by Koellreutter,
It was Constellations, composed between 1982 and 1983,
when I studied with him. It was a concert for voice, seven
solo instruments and magnetic tape. His composition
was based on a work by the concrete German poet Eugen
Gomringer, born in 1925, an admiror of the pioneer and
celebrated Brazilian group of concrete poetry Noigrandes.
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His poem said: Your time my poem / Your time my silence /
Your time my dream. Gomringer’s Constellations is a work
with a transnational and transcultural design, merging words
from many different languages around the world - as always
Koellreutter believed.
I attended at the world premiere of Constellations
in 1985. It was a concert that had Koellreutter as regent.
It caused all kinds of discussions in public. It was a true
polemic.
The compact disc also had works by Willy Corrêa de
Oliveira, Jorge Peixinho, Cláudio Santoro, Ricardo Tacuchian,
Rodolfo Coelho de Souza and Gilberto Mendes with the
concert My Friend Koellreutter. The sound engineering was
up to the composer Conrado Silva.
I returned to Europe.
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Few months later, still in 1998, I went back to São
Paulo. As always, we arranged to have lunch together – and
again at the Japanese restaurant of the hotel Caesar Park, at
Augusta street, in São Paulo.
But this time he asked me not pick up him at his
apartment. We would go independently and meet in the
restaurant.
− Tomorrow I’ll have a very important meeting in the
morning. But I believe that it will not take a long time.
It is something very serious. I will tell you at lunch. I
hope everything will go well. Please, think positively
for me.
I asked about what was of so serious, if I could be
useful in some way.
− Tomorrow we will talk. There is nothing you can
do. - it was the only thing he said.
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I was unquiet. His voice was serious. What could be
so serious? Would be some new invitation for an important
work? Some unexpected new challenge? Despite his age,
everything was possible with him. I suggested once again to
pick up him, not matter where. He did not accept. I insisted
again. And again he refused.
− We will talk tomorrow. - and he ended the
conversation.
In the next day I arrived at the restaurant fifteen
minutes before the scheduled time, as I always did when we
agreed a place to meet. For the first time, he was late. I was a
little worried. About twenty minutes late he finally appeared.
He was firm and resolute as ever, but with a serious look,
very worried.
I asked, very gently, if the meeting had gone well. He
turned the face to the window, with a lost sight, and moved
the head.
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− Later we will talk about this... - and I, of course, I
decided to not insist.
He was visibly depressed and I started animating him
with a variety of issues.
We talked about Brazilian politics, on planetary macroeconomic questions, on philosophy, scientific discoveries,
technological revolutions. We lunched and, gradually, his
lively and alert mood was going back to normal.
But I could clearly see that something very serious was
troubling him.
At the end of the lunch, he looked at me with a very
serious expression and revealed what was happening.
− Emanuel, I have a secret to tell you. But it is
extremely confidential. Nobody knows and for now
nobody should know. You have to keep secret. It’s
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about the meeting I had this morning. - he spoke
heavily and with long pauses as if he was measuring
his own words – I’m just returning from the doctor...
few minutes ago. I came directly to the restaurant.
Because of this I was late. You’re the first person that
will know and I don’t know yet to how many more I
will tell. I did some tests and the doctor found that I
have Alzheimer.
His words were like a large meteor falling on Earth.
Everything changed, all reality, immediately. Suddenly
I was pale. He had tears in his eyes. But still tacit and
phlegmatic as ever.
I asked if he was absolutely sure about the diagnosis.
His appearance was completely normal. During the lunch
we had talked on the most diverse and complex themes. In
no moment he had any leak of memory. In fact, I had more
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trouble remembering names than he. I asked how he had
discovered something so serious.
− All exams clearly indicates that. Unfortunately,
there is no margin for doubt. Suddenly I started to
forget things. It started relatively quickly. Sometimes I
left my home and did not remember where I was, what
I was doing there or why I had gone to a particular
location. These oblivion moments began to be more
frequent and began happening also with smaller
things. I decided to go to a doctor, my friend. We
made all examinations. I’m coming from there now.
Yes... my dear friend... such is life... I never expected
for something like this... But, how can we expect such
a kind of things? We never think that it can happen to
us.
I asked if there was any way out. What could be done?
If there was any solution. He laughed and discreetly sighed.
− Way out? No... There is no way out. It is what I will
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have ahead. And is not good... not good... it will be
very difficult. Very difficult times ahead. A very difficult
end, very sad...
Suddenly he was paralyzed and stood with lost staring
for long seconds, as if the world had stopped at that exact
moment.
Everything became silence.
I could not say a single word, my soul was strangled.
He turned to me and said as firmly as ever:
− Yes... my friend... so it is life. There is nothing I can
do. It’s terrible.
We remained still for several minutes in the restaurant,
until everyone had gone. We talked at length about life and
death, about the metamorphoses of life, about dharma,
karma, about science and religion.
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From there, we went to his apartment. But I did not
enter. I stopped the car illegally in front of the door of the
building. I went out to say goodbye and he hugged me for
long seconds.
The news about the disease had been devastating.
In the following months, we continued talking on the
phone. I did not immediately return to Brazil.
In those several telephone calls he seemed to be very
well, the same as always. Those conversations became more
and more longer, as if we looked, somehow, to compensate
the inevitable physical distance.
We avoided talking about the disease. I just insisted
that he should verify with his doctor about the benefits of
gincko biloba and also of phosphatidylserine, which then he
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did not know yet.
The weeks passed and he seemed me so well that I
arrived to imagine that some revolution in medicine in the
treatment of the disease had happened.
We started to put into practice the plans for our joint
composition. There were some difficulties in the beginning.
He found difficult to do a job together being so far away. I
suggested that we should make two separate compositions
to be joined later – as I always worked, inspired by Antonin
Artaud, but, of course, also by John Cage and Merce
Cunningham. He challenged me to find another solution. We
imagined to make the composition in fragments, sending it
by fax or post services, each one filling with a new element
at each step. But the human contact, the discussion, the
brainstorming was something fundamental for him.
In this epoch he was guest professor at the Advanced
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Studies Institute of the University of São Paulo.
In October 1999 I was cooking in my house in Lisbon,
waiting for some friends. They promised to bring a very
special friend who had arrived in that same day, coming from
Brazil.
Surprisingly, the architect and urban planner Jorge
Wilhelm entered in the kitchen of our home! I had known
him many years before, in early 1980, when I was a student
of architecture. Our meeting had been at Emplasa, which
was a company dedicated to develop the first master plan
for the city of São Paulo – with which Jorge collaborated.
It was a great surprise to meet him almost twenty
years later, in Lisbon, in my kitchen!
Jorge Wilhelm had been a student of Koellreutter at
the Free School of Music, created in 1952.
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We talked at length about the political situation in
Brazil, about the problems of urban violence, the widespread
corruption, on education.
Then he commented to have met Koellreutter by
chance, days before, walking at São Luiz avenue, in São Paulo.
They talked about Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Jorge said that he
found him very aged, but that he was with a good memory.
Of course, I did not tell him about the Alzheimer. But, I
was relieved to know that Jorge Wilhelm’s impressions were
so positive. Koellreutter was eighty-five years old, and it was
natural that he appeared to be old.
In November of that year, I visited São Paulo and I had
lunch with Koellreutter, as our tradition was.
He seemed to be fine. Áurea – who worked at his
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home in São Paulo for many years – was always present.
During our lunch he did not show any problem of
memory.
− Yes... my friend... I’m feeling very well. In fact, I
always felt very well. When I had those “oblivions”, I
was not aware of them, of course. Thus, even when
I had memory problems, I felt good. But now I have
to take medication for life and I cannot do certain
things. All my food has changed. Alcoholic drinks
are completely prohibited for me. Many things have
changed in my life... many things... I had a small
cerebral ischemia. The doctor told me that now the
decadence will begin. He told me that it is inevitable.
I’m living my last moments of normalcy. I’ll have tough
times ahead... and they are close. The best is to forget,
by now, our plans for a musical composition together.
From now on, everything will be very difficult for me.
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Of course I agreed. I knew that if the decline began,
our joint composition would never exist.
I noticed that since then, about 1999, his public
statements and interviews began to change rapidly, becoming
more spirited. Not only, they have become much more
frequent and he began to speak more intensely about his
personal life – something very different from what he was.
It was as if, suddenly, he had become more expansive
and contradictory with much of what had always characterized
him and what he had always defended throughout life.
His statements and interviews became colorful
with images that arrived, at a certain point, to be childish,
sometimes denying historical facts, sometimes exaggerating
family scenes, including tactile elements like jerks or kicks.
It was as if his personality before direct, philosophically
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precise, challenging, radical, impassive and apparently
non emotional, had given place to the figure of an old
playful man, full of inaccuracies, contradictions, superficial
in philosophical terms, with soft behavior, using slang and
popular figures of expression.
In some moments he started showing even a nationalist
feeling in relation to Brazil – something totally opposite to
what he had expressed along his entire life.
− All countries, all cultures, all religions and all sacred
books are interesting and have important values,
lessons we can learn. Religions, as institutions, as well
as States, only divide people. When you go to a different
country, try to observe what more characterizes it.
In Brazil, they are the television series. In the United
States they are the movies. Each country has its typical
form of intercommunication. If you observe at these
media as if you were an extraterrestrial, you would be
able to better understand the values of that society.
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We should, all us, be citizens of the world, free from
inter-social or inter-cultural conflicts. There is no place
for nationalism or preconception. - Koellreutter had
told me that about twenty years before.
Now, after the late 1990s, people with whom he
chatted and even some experienced interviewers seemed
not to notice his new boundaries between fantasy and
reality – even because until then he rarely gave interviews,
especially when they target at his personal history.
In January 2000 I called him in São Paulo, from Lisbon,
where I was living. He seemed to be well. But it was a very
short talk.
I had spent several days in December and January,
at the Seychelles islands, writing the book John Cage – The
Silence of Music, and after a brief passage in Lisbon, I was
constantly traveling between Italy and Switzerland for
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concerts and exhibitions.
That large quantity of trips made me not talk to
Koellreutter until the month of April of 2000, when I went
back to São Paulo.
I called him to schedule a lunch, as usual. But he seemed
lost, very vacillating. In the middle of our conversation by
phone, he forgot who I was. He asked with whom he was
talking. Then he knew again who I was, like if a wave had
rescued his memory. It made me very sad. Even so, we
arranged our lunch for two days later, on a Thursday.
I knew that Jorge Wilhelm would love to be with
Koellreutter again. I called Jorge and we arranged lunch for
all together.
Dulce Cabrita, dear friend, great Portuguese mezzo
soprano, who worked very closely with the composer
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Fernando Lopes Graça throughout the entire life, was also in
São Paulo. Joanna, Jorge’s wife, very gently insisted that we
were all invited for lunch at their home.
Confidentially, I told Jorge that Koellreutter suffered of
Alzheimer. It was my duty to tell him. He was very attentive
and insisted that we should keep everything as we had
planned.
On Thursday, twentieth of April, I went to pick up
Koellreutter at his apartment, as I’d done along many years.
As always, I rang the bell and took a few steps back. But
now, for the first time, the door was quickly open and who
appeared was not he. Áurea was who opened the door.
When the door opened, I could see him in the other
side of the room fixed staring out the window, seated at the
table, where for many years I’d studied with him.
His eyes were lost. He wore a turquoise blue shirt, and
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a kind of smock made of silk. He rose, walked toward me,
grabbed my shoulders and looked at me long and intently.
It was a shaky look. His lips were no longer straight
and rigid as before. They were softer, more flaccid.
− It’s so good to see you... it is good to see you. - he
repeated - How long we do not see each other? Two
years? Two years already passed?!
I was deeply embarrassed, not knowing what to say.
«Yes, two years!» - Áurea summarized, as to put an end
to the matter. Maternally, she seemed to be very attentive
about him. She verified if he was well dressed, if he had not
forgotten anything, if his clothes were neat.
Koellreutter showed a vacillating smile and I could see
that he had already lost some teeth. He staggered a little.
Áurea was euphoric – she told he was closed at home for
weeks. Virtually no one called him.
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However, his general appearance was very good. And
soon, his memory seemed to return and he was the same
Koellreutter of ever.
− How your wife and your daughter are? You should
come here more often! - he spoke with the firm
determination so characteristic before.
We went down by the elevator and I could see that
one of his eyes were dull, as if it was slightly stained of white.
My look did not pass unnoticed to him. He explained me that
he had cataracts in both eyes and that he had already been
operated on one of them.
That quick response, the presence of mind and his
ability to understand what I was thinking, eased my fears
that he would have been definitively and deeply isolated by
the disease.
I had left the car in a parking lot near there, a few
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streets away. Luciana preferred to stay closed inside the
car, fearing assaults, which were many and violent in that
region.
On the way to the parking lot, Koellreutter walked
normally, with relatively safe steps, like in other times.
Before, he ran ahead – and it was difficult to follow his steps,
which were full of energy. Now, we were side by side, I always
paying a lot of attention to all his movements.
When we reached the parking, Luciana – always
wonderful – left the car and I realized that Koellreutter was
very touched. They had not met each other in about fifteen
years! It was like to meet again a loved friend, someone of
the family.
On the way to Jorge and Joanna Wilhelm’s home, he
said very excited that one of his sons was living in England.
Margarita would have definitely moved to Tiradentes, Minas
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Gerais, where they had created a foundation. As he was telling
his news he also asked, from time to time and repetitively,
how long we have lived outside Brazil.
- How long ago you were my student?
- About twenty years ago. - I answered.
- It is not possible! It seems like yesterday!
- It’s true... - I answered smiling. In fact, also to me it
seemed to have been yesterday.
- Where are we going now? - his question was
baffling...
- We are going to lunch with Jorge Wilhelm. Do
you remember him? - I asked. The day before we
had talked about that lunch and Jorge for several
minutes.
- Yes, of course. He was my student.
- His wife, Joanna, is a brilliant psychoanalyst. - I
added.
- So she is very dangerous! - he joked opening his
eyes and laughing heartily.
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We stopped at a traffic light for long moments.
Alongside it was a small improvised stand of a street vendor,
surrounded by colorful toys, and plastic balloons.
Koellreutter admired amazed, almost hypnotized, that
exuberance of colors and shapes that passed unnoticed to
people walking on the sidewalk.
Unexpectedly, a very dirty woman, with matted hair,
hands black of grease and gray, scars on the arms and face,
wearing old and torn clothes, almost toothless, approached
by pasting his face to the glass of the car, right next to
Koellreutter, asking for money. The window was closed. He
looked surprised at her as if he was a child, naively smiling.
The woman made all kinds of gestures and he found very
funny and innocent that dramatic scene.
Jorge Wilheim was waiting at the gate of his home.
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The meeting was clearly an emotion for Koellreutter. Jorge
had been his student about forty years before.
Dulce Cabrita had already arrived. Initially all us sat
in the living room and talked about amenities on Brazil and
Portugal.
I looked at Koellreutter and, in some moments, it
seemed me that he was not understanding what we were
talking. But suddenly, he seemed to tune in and made a joke,
with some very keen and witty observation.
Joanna carefully watched him.
How much he had changed in so few weeks!
However impressive and tragic, it was fascinating to
see how his shutdown from the world was not linear and
gradual. It happened in leaps. He was turned off and came
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back. When he returned, it was not by half. When was
reconnected to the world, he was able of insights, of very
clever and complex interventions.
Though we could see those ‘disappearances’, everyone
treated him with great warmth, affection and attention - as if
nothing of strange was happening.
Koellreutter was immensely happy. And we were all
deeply moved by his visible happiness.
Koellreutter and
Jorge Wilheim,
São Paulo, 2000
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The lunch was simply wonderful. Joanna had prepared
a veritable babette’s feast. We started with a fine souffle of
haddock and figs. Followed by bittersweet beets, caramelized
onions, manioc flour with walnuts, wild rice and meat – that
surely was delicious, but as a vegetarian, I did not have
tried.
Not only a brilliant psychoanalyst, Joanna also is a
great artist of the cuisine.
Without we had planned or said a without a single
word, we felt in the air the feeling that such formidable lunch
was a farewell meeting, the celebration of a lifetime.
In his moments of lucidity, Koellreutter was brilliant,
as always. In the moments he was turned off, it was as if he
was alone, in another world, in an island.
The lunch went over wonderfully, in peace and joy.
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On leaving, Jorge asked him a few questions about the
past. I noticed that this time, that the oblivion was partial.
Koellreutter was able to remember some things but not
others. Thus, the fluctuation was not linear in all senses.
It was also interesting to observe that at a given time,
Koellreutter himself practically justified his absences of
memory as if he was fully aware of them and as they were a
natural process.
− I am not able. I’m sorry. It is as it happens. Sometimes
I lose my memory. Sometimes I’m not here. But then I
come back... - he said joking, with great sympathy.
− I understand... I understand. - said Jorge.
That dialogue was very unexpected for me. Despite
his “oblivions” there was an interaction and a framework for
mutual identity.
Finally, there were the farewells and entered into the
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car – Luciana, Koellreutter and I – because we would take
him back home. In the way, he was asking me repeatedly if I
really knew where he lived.
− Can you do me a favor? - he asked.
− Of course!
− Could give a big hug to Augusto de Campos for
me?
− Of course, with pleasure.
− Do you know where I live? Because recently I
moved. Now I live at São Luiz Avenue...
He had moved to the apartment at São Luiz Avenue
about thirty years before!
− Did you make your homework?
− But! I am no longer your student...
− You are not?!
And I had to explain him, calmly and carefully, that time
had passed, that he did not remember, but that everything
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was okay... At such moments, he seemed to be very insecure
and lost.
He floated between consciousness, unconsciousness
and moments in the past.
Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, 2000
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We could not park the car in front of the entrance of
the building where he lived. It was not allowed. I stopped,
again illegally. I went out to say goodbye. We hugged. But
when I told him I would not leave him until he came in and I
saw it being accompanied by the doorman, Koellreutter was
again lost. At that very moment, he no longer knew where
he lived, which was the building where his apartment was
- even though it was exactly in front of him.
With all care, as if it was something natural, I picked
up him by his arm and took him to the building. I asked to
the doorman to accompany him to the apartment.
Suddenly, he was plunged into an emptiness – which
did not happen at any moment before during our long
lunch.
Later I called Áurea asking about how he was. I knew
that everything had gone well and that he was calm and very
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happy.
They were very impressive moments. I was very sad.
Deeply sad.
The following Saturday I received a call from Saulo Di
Tarso – who I had never met before. He was concerned about
Koellreutter’s health.
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17
About a month later, already back in Lisbon, I called to
know how Koellreutter was. I spoke to Áurea. She was very
nervous, almost losing her mind. I asked to speak to him.
We talked a little. He seemed me to be more lucid, but
without identity with the world.
− I no longer have projects. I’m always here, closed.
It is a pity that I can no longer travel. And it’s a pity
that we are so far each other. When will you come
here again?
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My visits to Brazil became increasingly unpredictable.
In any case, he seemed to be better.
I was regularly calling him until his birthday of eightyfive years in September 2000. I was in Lisbon and we had a
long and pleasant conversation.
He was completely lucid! We talk about the world,
about politics, economy, and also about future projects. He
said he made plans to spend a few days in Portugal with us!
Of course, I told him that it would be more than a pleasure
and an honor, both for Luciana as for me, to receive him at
our home.
That was absolutely unexpected! He was totally
transformed. Much better! Quite different from the moments
when we had been together at Jorge Wilheim’s home months
before!
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Again, I imagined that a revolution had happened in
medicine.
In that year, the composer Sérgio Villafranca - one of his
students, about who Koellreutter always referred with care
- launched a compact disc with several of his compositions,
including Ácronon.
Hans Joachim Koellreutter - photo by
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta in São
Paulo, 2000
That was a true gift to Koellreutter, he was really happy
because of it.
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Months passed and every in phone call he seemed to
be better. In April 2001, we had a long talk and it seemed me
that he had not changed since we had met each other more
than twenty years earlier.
He commented about the serious situation of insecurity
in the streets of São Paulo, the degeneration of standards of
education, the widespread corruption. He told he had been
assaulted while walking along São Luiz Avenue. He talked
about how he would love to be with us in Portugal. That
for years his greatest dream was to live in Funchal, Madeira
Island.
The dream of living his last years on an island still was
very present.
Very gently I told him that those dreams probably
would no longer be possible due to his advanced age and his
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health problems. He showed a perfect state of lucidity.
− Yes... my friend... you’re right. Things have
changed. Time passes and everything changes. The
reality changes. Sometimes it is terrible to think about
it. What I wanted was to spend my last years on an
island. I have told you many times about this. To not
die, but simply disappear. Because nothing is really
important. Everything is maya.
He asked about Luciana, about our daughter Laura. He
commented, not hiding some sadness, that Margarita had
permanently moved to Tiradentes.
That conversation was impressive. He was again
excellent, lucid, with quick thinking, and excellent memory!
Luciana and I even seriously considered the possibility
of receiving him at our home, despite the difficulties we
knew he should face, because of age and the long trip. He
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was eighty-six years old.
In that year of 2001, Teca Alencar de Brito launched
the book Koellreutter educator: the human as the aim of
music education, with a foreword by Carlos Kater. That book
touched very much Koellreutter, it was very important to
him. It certainly was the first book written about his work.
Months before, we had talked about the book and he was
very happy with the Teca’s work.
In that year, Carlos Kater launched the book Live Music
and H. J. Koellreutter - movements toward modernity.
In the twentieth of June of 2001, Saulo Di Tarso called
me again saying that Koellreutter had asked him to send me
a message: «I am living in a social prison in Brazil. I should go
to Lisbon to be with Emanuel».
I tried to call to find out what was happening, but
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no one answered at Koellreutter’s home. This happened
repeatedly for weeks.
In December 2001, finally, I successful talked to
someone at his home. Áurea answered the phone. She was
again very nervous. «He no longer knows who he is, he
doesn’t remember even Margarita. He is definitely alone.
The disease came back» - she said with excited voice.
She told that it was very difficult to explain him
what fireworks were. His memory had faded suddenly and
permanently. He no longer knew what was music or sound,
year, month, time, cinema, photography, art or science.
He became completely lost with the sounds of exploding
fireworks in the holiday season. He ate all day, almost without
stopping, he had fattened, and was paralyzed in front of the
television. He was physically strong and happy, he just did
not exist anymore.
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After that, I called again in January 2002. I spoke
another time with Áurea, who was looking after him, but
little or nothing was added.
I had no way to help, there were no news, everything
was unchanged. It was no use to continue calling. He no
longer knew who I was or even what was a phone.
As I did every time, I assured that my phone numbers
were properly recorded in the agenda of his home, for any
need.
Each time you call, thereafter, it was only to find that
nothing had changed. He had disappeared forever.
In June, I called from Lisbon, worried, to know updates
about his health. I spoke to Margarita. She answered the
phone. It was eight of June. Her voice was of a sad and
devastated person. That day, they celebrated thirty-nine
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years of marriage.
She told me, full of sadness but also with love, that
Koellreutter was getting worse, and that the only pleasure
he still had was watching television.
When he saw a recorded movie, he could watch always
the same thing without noticing that it was the same film.
That day, Cecilia Bartoli, the great soprano, Margarita’s
friend, was there and offered him a DVD equipment. But he
no longer knew who she was or what was an opera.
Koellreutter had spent the entire previous week in a
hospital for a series of exams. He had a mild infection and
would be subjected to a surgery without great risk in a few
days.
Very hurt, Margarita said how she deeply suffered
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with criticism of people who condemned her for having
isolated Koellreutter. But what could she have done? «When
someone appears, it gets terribly nervous. He doesn’t know
what is happening... he gets lost and confused with the
simplest things».
I reminded, once again, of how Koellreutter had
always been extremely careful with his personal image. He
hid himself in the small cottage in Petrópolis as no one could
see him unshaved!
Now, with Alzheimer, if he were to decide, surely he
would have done exactly what was Margarita did. He would
isolate himself, get away.
He would have gone to an island.
Many years before, in one of our lunches, we talked
at length about the death. Also as the writer and poet
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Jorge Medauar defended in a different situation, he firmly
embraced Epicurus’ ideas – according to which everyone
should protect dignity in life, but also dignity in death.
Margarita was deeply sad, but she always was a strong
and determined woman.
In December of that year of 2002, I called again to
know how he was. I talked to Áurea. She said he was in good
health, but completely disconnected from reality. He did
not even know who he was. That day I knew that Áurea had
shown him a video that he had recorded two years earlier.
He did not recognize anything. Nothing else made sense to
him.
But he was happy, deeply happy.
In 2003 I moved to Locarno, Switzerland.
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In February of that year, I received an email from a
dear friend, Valdemar Jorge who then was director of Cultura
Television Network. He sent me a lamentable article about
Koellreutter written by a journalist from Londrina, south of
Brazil.
The journalist wrote that the master «today vegetates
at home, recognizing no one, unable to speak, not even to
eat without someone to give him food in the mouth, making
his physiological needs in geriatric diapers». He accused the
friends of the composer to have abandoned him. He accused
Germany of not paying him a pension.
That was exactly what Margarita wanted to avoid
– and what, I am absolutely sure, Koellreutter also would
want to: speculation of unqualified people looking for selfpromotion.
If that unfortunate journalist knew a little bit of reality
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and was acting in good faith, he would never have written that
article. But he seemed to be someone delivered to his own
ignorance, fascinated by it – judging himself so important at
the point to judge what it was strange to him.
We all will die, but the dignity with which we will leave
the stage of life is something to be respected, as Epicurus
taught.
Many people started calling me from Brazil, outraged
and shocked by the article.
I called some times more to the house of Koellreutter,
but it made no sense to call insistently. I could do nothing.
I lived in Europe. Margarita had all my contacts and I was
always available for whatever was needed.
But even she could not do very much. He was isolated
in another world.
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Koellreutter was well treated, happy and freely
immersed inside a world of continuous discovery, in another
planet, in an island.
In the tenth day of November 2003 – when I received
the news of the death of Mario Merz, who was a good friend
– I called again to know about Koellreutter, but the phone
number no longer existed.
I knew, then, by Saulo Di Tarso, that Margarita had
sold the apartment at São Luiz Avenue and that had secretly
moved him, without telling anyone.
Saulo Di Tarso was deeply concerned by not knowing
where Koellreutter was living. But surely, this disappearance
was exactly what Koellreutter himself would wish.
Suddenly, I no longer had any contact of him. Phone
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numbers in Rio de Janeiro had since long disappeared.
Margarita never called me.
In the fourteenth day of September 2005, I received
a message sent by Saulo Di Tarso: Koellreutter had died at
ninety years of age.
In that same day I received a message from René
Berger, another dear friend of many years: «On the death of
your master Koellreutter: I am very close to you».
The following year, I heard from others that Margarita
Schack had created a foundation dedicated to the memory
of Koellreutter.
The Koellreutter Foundation was created thanks to
the donation of his belongings made by Margarita – books
and music scores – and to the Federal University of São João
del-Rei, in Minas Gerais.
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There it is the Space Koellreutter, at the University’s
Cultural Center, whose trustees are Regina Porto and Carlos
Kater.
It is estimated that Koellreutter have left seventyseven compositions.
He died as had always wished – in an island, far from
everything and everyone.
He just reintegrated himself with Nature, like a wave
at sea.
To the alive being, the event of consciousness means at
same time detachment and proximity. The object I look for always
is, by definition, distant (ob-ject, etymologically throw ahead),
but, simultaneously, I establish with it a relation that allows me to
integrate it (con-science, to know with). To be conscious then becomes
both to left and to reconnect, a doubly complex process.
René Berger, 2007
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Aesthetics
Notes on the course Introduction to Aesthetics
by Hans Joachim Koellreutter
São Paulo, 1981
Aesthetics is the ideology – the philosophy – of the
artist. Its function is to take society to a higher level of
consciousness.
Conscience: the human capacity to apprehend systems
of relations that determine him: the relations of a given
object to be cognized with the environment and with the
self that apprehends it.
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I am not referring to the consciousness as formal
knowledge; neither as mere knowledge or any process of
thought, but rather to a form of constant inter-relationship,
a creative act of integration.
Reading –
Perception.
Merleau-Ponty:
The
Phenomenology
of
The best method to know the world of today is to draw
a comparison between different periods of art history.
The modal universe is characterized by the absence of
the leading tone and the perspective. It is a period we might
call, in a sense, irrational, and is dominated by oral culture.
The tonal universe is characterized by the existence of
the leading note and the perspective. It is a period we might
call, in a sense, rational, and is dominated by the written
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culture.
The atonal universe doesn’t have, again, the leading
tone – it is arational and aperspectivic, where the particle
“a” is the private alpha and is not about a negation. The
contemporary universe is also a period designated by
the psofal music – from the Greek psofos, indicating the
incorporation of noise as music.
When we use expressions such as aperspectivic or
atonal, the particle “a” is the private alpha, which deprives
the term from something. Deprives the concept from an
absolute validity. Indicates the transcendence of the concept
and, in this way, also its independence.
Atonal music incorporates the principles of tonal music
in a wider universe.
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Hearing: Wozzeck, by Alban Berg. Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra, Christoph von Dohnanyi conducting, with
Eberhard Waechter and Anja Silja.
Definitions:
irrational: what is unconscious of the reason process
conscious: what is conscious of the reason process
arracional: consciousness of a wider process
Epochs:
first epoch: God and the human being
second epoch: the discovery of space
third epoch: the domain of time
544
The good teacher never teaches; he only turns
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conscious what the students already know.
If the human being is not conscious of the space, he
also is not conscious of himself.
Middle Ages:
God / human being - unity / community
Renaissance:
duality – individual and God
Contemporary period:
emergence of a triadism gestaltic
In the 4th, 5th and 6th centuries there was not what we
call style.
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The first music composers in the Middle Ages did not
sign their works. Gregorian chant typically is the product of
the first epoch: God and human being.
Petrarca, with the Windy Hill letters, established the
landmark of the end of the medieval period. When admiring
Nature he realized that he was no longer someone pertaining
to the Middle Ages.
Consciousness participates in reality.
John Wheeler: the consciousness changes the reality;
the consciousness changes the matter.
The consciousness is the capacity to understand the
relations that constitute us.
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Awareness is a process of establishing functional
relations.
The object we are conscious of, participates in the
history.
John Archibald Wheeler: the human being is not only
an interpreter of reality – he is a participant in it.
Stegmatic Music – from the Greek stegma – that
means a predominantly vocal sound, which happens until
the Renaissance period.
Plagal Music – from the Greek clagal – mostly
instrumental sound, that happens until the twentieth
century.
Psofal language – what transcends perspective and
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incorporates noise, it happens from the twentieth century.
In a musical composition, emphasis is never on the
ego of the composer, but on the community.
Artistic emphasis is never on the personal, but on the
impersonal.
Without understanding the background of a society, it
is not possible to compose.
-
Twodimensional consciousness: Earth /
Beyond
-
pre rational
-
intuitive and globalizing – in the sense that
God and the human being form a unit.
-
the concept of religion, which arose from two
etymological roots: from the Latim relegere, meaning
“to reread”; and also from the Latin religare, meaning
“to reconnect”.
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in ancient societies, such as the Hindu culture
or the universe of Zoroastrianism, religion is an act of
continually reading and rereading norms and rules.
-
in ancient religions, God and human being are
a single thing.
-
then, consciousness is one-dimensional.
History never eliminates, always integrates.
The tendency of the first phase (medieval) is spiritual.
Then, in the medieval world, the process of
consciousness is the result of the relationship between the
human being and the community with the deity.
-
three-dimensional Consciousness: rational
- mental
- analytic
- tendency to materialism
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- perspective
Then, after the late Middle Ages, the process of
consciousness turns around the relation between human
being and space, taking the human being as individual.
Whatever we could discover, already exists.
-
Four-dimensional consciousness: time
- form of perception: aracional
- intellectual and integrating
- process of consciousness: function of the
contemporary artist, establishing the relations
between the human being and time, and
between the individual and the Humanity
- tendency to the intellectual universe
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Modal
one-dimensional
two-dimensional
Then, in painting everything is two-dimensional, the
structure is adirectional and the composition has a serial
character.
In the adirectional universe, one must to read and to
continually reread as to understand – religion. The result is
the experience of the concept.
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Three phases from the Middle Ages to the contemporary
world:
First phase: circular form – the artist circumscribes
concepts.
Second phase: triangular or pyramidal form – the artist
describes concepts.
Third phase: spherical form.
Circular form:
Genesis According to St. John
- In the beginning it was the Verb and the Verb
was with God and the Verb was God.
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Principle
|
God(C)
|
Principle
A
1
Verb
A
BCB
A
Form of the Gothic: AB | BC | CB | BA
The circle has no beginning or end.
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There are no values.
Everything is continuous flux.
In such
homogeneous.
reality,
the
interpretation
must
be
In aesthetic terms, monotony is the silence.
When the values are equal, repetition is strong.
It is interesting to observe the great unity that is
symbolized by the circle.
In great part of the cultures of the world, possibly in all
of them, the circle represents the soul.
We find such symbol of the circle in Lao Tzu, and in
Buddha’s teachings.
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In Heraclitus:
For the soul it is death
To become water
For water it is death
To become land
From the earth water is born
From water soul is born
In the suite Lulu, Alban Berg operates a circular
system.
Often the circular approach is used by contemporary
physicists.
Certain phenomena can not be described, but only
circumscribed.
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MENTAL / INTELLECTUAL
The state of consciousness is reflected in language.
The state of consciousness is the engine of history.
Between the period of circa 1500 and 1907 we have
the prevalence of mental – but we should extend this period
to about 500 BC – because it is when the prevalence of
mental is born in ancient Greece.
In Sanskrit, the word mind is ma, which etymologically
is related to words that begin with mam, ma, mat, me, men
– like matter and measure, for example.
The ancient etymological root ma also indicates the
sense of creative energy, of fury, measure and so on.
The first canto of Homer’s Iliad is Ménin Achilleos
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– which means the Fury of Achilles. Homer’s work can be
considered the first work of the modern era, elaborated in
its final form probably around 700 or 800 BC.
In the Iliad, like in the Odyssey, the poet presents the
events no longer in a circular form, but directly, in a directional
and causal form.
Ménin means fury while revolt of reasoning and is a
spiritual significance; but also indicates the idea of courage.
So the clash between humans and gods happens.
Thales of Miletus presumably was the first to write from
left to right. The expression of written language reinforces
the movement from top to bottom.
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Written movement from top to bottom: expression of
the unity God / human being.
Written movement from right to left: emotional
expression.
Written movement from left to right: removal of the
emotion, emergence of reason – know yourself.
The Latin word mens – which appears from the
etymological root ma or me, indicates the following
meanings:
Fury
Directional
Mind
Courage
Think
Thought
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Intelligence
Mentality
Imagination
Measure
The Sanskrit word manu – which also appears from the
same etymological root – gives us the following meanings:
Man
Thinker
Who measures
Man, mind, meter, measure, material, materialism,
dimension and mathematics – all these words indicate the
same etymological root: the ancient Indo European ma or
me.
Mind contains all the components of the perspectivic
universe.
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It is the fugue from the spiritual.
There is a mutation of consciousness. It is about a
jump and not an evolution, as it is so often said.
The circle protects the soul, then everything the human
being has is characterized by complementary poles. There is
not, yet, the dialectical conflict of opposites.
Intellectual: word linked to the creation of concepts
and to the search for previous forms of consciousness.
The content of art is the psyche, the structure of the
soul.
Art does not express emotions.
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Art sublimates the human soul.
The human being participates in the artistic
phenomenon, as well as the listener participates in the
music.
Hearing: Gyorgy Ligeti – String Quartet.
In architecture this transition indicates the transition
between transparencies, like what happens in the Gothic; for
closed spaces, as what happens in the baroque; and again
we have the transparency in the contemporary world.
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Monotony is not something pejorative, but an
important aesthetic value in the arts.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, about 500 AD said:
The souls acquire a rational understanding when seeking the
truth of things discursively and in gyratory movements.
Napoleon Bonaparte: ...I intensely love this music. It is
monotonous and only what is monotonous really moves us.
Napoleon Bonaparte indicates meditation and
reflection as elements of interior enrichment.
Monotony: predominance of the elements of
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redundancy.
Redundancy: elements that expected to be repeated.
It then that an informational aesthetics emerges,
based on the principles of the Theory of Information – and
Napoleon Bonaparte was, in some sense, its precursor.
Without expectation there is no musical expression.
Information: what is expected to not occur.
Redundancy and information can happen while
subjective questions, objective questions or even as historical
data.
Hans Joachim Koellreutter: music only really is music
when we forget the sound.
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Middle Ages – time measured by church bells.
Thirteenth century – gradually time becomes more
and more rationalized.
First public clock: 1283 in London.
Byzantine Universe:
interior: paradise
exterior: protection, monument
In the Byzantine world everything is horizontal, there is
no volume, no three-dimensionality, the plans do not move.
Everything is symbolic – gold, sky and so on.
It is about an anti-naturalistic reality.
In a same space, a scene.
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There is no movement. Faces are not individualized.
Circle around Christ.
Romanesque: non-dynamic exterior / interior unity.
Gothic: dynamic exterior / interior unity – the
emergence of naturalism, consciousness of vision.
It is impossible to make an analysis of styles in relation
to the Middle Age. All organized collectivist societies make
no references to styles, but only to schools.
In medieval art is functional and the individual passes
to a second plan.
Unity in the Middle Ages is the result of a feeling of
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integration between heaven and earth.
Space is interval.
Cavern: interior / exterior. The combination of these
two intervals leads to the cathedral.
The dome of a cathedral is not something inside, but a
fundamental part of Nature while concept.
First cathedrals – cavern walls only with protective
function.
Columns – elements of spatial division.
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Galileo Galilei: Everything can be measured, and what
cannot be must be transformed until it can be measured.
Primitive art – everything represented among the
plants, vegetables, signs in confusion.
Unity – the emergence of magic.
*Ma is also the etymological root of magic and
emancipation – as well as of machine.
Whatever his condition is, the human being is always
a participant in the Nature.
If this statement is true, then, what we call consciousness
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is just one thing.
Positivism: current hostile to metaphysics, aspiring to
fundament knowledge solely on facts: definitive and safe
facts – definitive data and security are the inadmissibility of
doubt: absolutism.
Metaphysics: everything that transcends the physic.
Metamusic: what transcends traditional music
– reflections on the nature of music: John Cage, Karlheinz
Stockhausen and even the traditional Hindu music.
Metamusic: what it looks to sublimate.
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Directional thought – intentional, it aims an object, a
goal.
Religion as to read and to reread in the circular thinking
period. The understanding passes to be the experience and
not a content.
So, God is not content, but experience.
To analyze the Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach.
To read Goethe, fragments, and the Bible, the Old Testament,
fragments.
Circular logic – inclusive, essentially creative.
Triangular logic – objective, empts creativity.
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No one organizes the arts in a particular way. Everything
is process and knowledge. The important is to create.
The artwork that has no order has no meaning.
Order requires repetition – the existence of conjunctive
elements.
Repetition is necessary to cause the feeling of unity.
Repetition is necessary because what is repeated is
what is fixed in the mind.
Only difference produces consciousness.
570
Art and music between the end of World War II and 1980
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was characterized, in general, by one-way communication –
what is made is due to a relation with the repertoire of who
listen. Conceptual art.
Symbol: a sign that coincides with the object.
Protestantism: first reaction of rationalism in Western
religion.
A symbol is, therefore, more than a sign, because in it
there are latent two basic possibilities that, when rationally
approached, are opposed, and when psychically approached
form a whole.
An authentic symbol is a set of two poles that naturally
complement themselves.
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In India it is a crime to perform a morning raga at night.
The morning raga is, in itself, the morning itself. It does not
exist in another horary, in another time.
In India, coincidence is lived.
The process of rational art – as well as the entire history
of the arts – is a process of emptying the symbols.
All symbols are based on a polar reality – duality that
forms a whole.
The idea of contrast as opposition no longer exists in
the Middle Ages.
572
The real experience is always irrational.
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In fantasy, soul teaches us what reason does not want
to admit.
It is through the experience that we get to true
knowledge.
Logic of circular thought: all points have the same
distance from a same fixed point.
There is an interesting and mysterious relationship
between the idea of night and the number eight. In every
language Anglo-Saxon and Latin languages, the particle “n”
indicates the idea of negation.
In all these languages, the words night and eight are
written in a similar way, as if they had a same origin. Night
and eight in English; noite and oito in Portuguese; nuit and
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ouit in French; notte and otto in Italian and so on.
For the Orphic universe, night was the beginning of
everything, but also the negation of everything.
Night as the unconscious of the human being – the
negation of the consciousness.
The number eight, lying, is the symbol of infinity.
The first elements of the flat perspective appear with
Giotto.
The troubadours were the first musicians and singers
to sing poems about their self, about the individual.
It then opened an abyss between humans and
Nature – approximately between the twelfth and thirteenth
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centuries.
St. Thomas
rationalism.
Aquinas
reveals
the
Aristotelian
Pope John XXI, born in Lisbon in 1210, and who was
pope between 1276 and 1277 – considered one of the most
intellectual popes of all times – wrote De Anima, which
probably was the first treatise on psychology.
Westminster, London, 1285 – the first public clock.
Time is transformed from quality to quantity.
Egyptian plastic representation was, in a certain sense,
inhuman – because there was no consciousness of the interior
human value, of a soul, as it would happen later. Then, the
human being was composed by disparate elements, material
and immaterial.
KOELLREUTTER
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The Greek miracle is a preparation for the Italian
Renaissance.
Cybernetics – from the Greek kubernus, which means
pilot: science of human brain piloting.
Information Theory and Communication Theory are
part of Cybernetics.
Redundancy: occurrence of elements that are
expected.
The elements of redundancy are what characterize
the style.
Chaos: equivalence of all elements, equal probability
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of all elements.
Chaos: Entropy
Order: neg-entropy
The world is moving to the entropy and the end result
is death for all elements, all becoming equivalent.
The artist always creates unity. Always relates. The artist
works in reverse sense to the entropy, always establishing a
structure.
Middle Ages – the human being communicates with
God.
Renaissance – troubadours sing to the human soul.
577
Josqin des Prés – Reservata music. The music should
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be just what it represents.
Doctrine of the Affections – relates tempo dynamics
with human feelings: Baroque.
Aesthetics of descriptive music – programmatic
music.
Sixteenth century, movement of human consciousness,
the portrait emerges. Third dimension in the human being.
From Piero della Francesca, an inflation of space essays
start in the history of Western art.
Werner Heisenberg: There is no longer language inside
the context of quantum problems.
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Perspective visualizes the human being.
Part taken by the whole – pars pro toto.
Middle Ages: metaphysical dimension
Renaissance: perspective, space
Contemporary world: time
Time questions and annuls the three classic
dimensions.
Hearing: Gyorgy Ligeti, Artikulation II.
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Any amplification requires a prior reduction.
All that is positive becomes negative through a process
of over-intensification.
Totality is the sum of parts.
Totos – nothing and, simultaneously, everything.
Everything is relative.
In Japanese, and also in Chinese, the words green and
blue did not exist – both were shades of the same color. There
was no consciousness of a difference between those colors.
In Hindustan the word kal means both yesterday and
tomorrow, the meaning depends on the context.
580
Our lives are islands in a totos.
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Tonality always implicates ambiguity:
amplification of the possibilities of combination
reduction of the possibilities through
fragmentation
Thirteen century – troubadours, singing the music of
the individual.
Then, the first composers of so-called Flemish
school appear, establishing the principles of tonality. The
Flemish painters also appear, establishing the principles of
perspective.
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RESERVATA MUSIC.
Adrianus Petit Coclico, pupil of Josqin des Prés,
establishes the music at service of the text – reserved to a
very small number of listeners.
Choral music that can only be performed in certain
places.
Evolve to the Baroque, which gives rise to the Doctrine
of the Affections.
Doctrine of the Affections: all ornaments and
characteristics of the composition should mean emotions
and feelings of the human beings.
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In its turn, the Doctrine of the Affections culminates in
the nineteenth century as programmatic music.
QUADRATURE: process of organizing the melody
through even numbers of phrases, all of equal size.
Leonardo da Vinci – non-perspectivic era ends.
After Leonardo da Vinci:
- Christopher Columbus (1437-1506), discovers
the terrestrial space.
- Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) establishes
the heliocentric principle.
- Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564), discovers the
corporal space.
- Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), developed and
popularized the instrument for the conquest of sidereal
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space: the telescope.
- Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), discovers the
motion of the planets in ellipses.
- William Harvey (1578-1657), discovers the
arterial pressure.
Sixteen century – the technique of oil painting appears,
which was, until then, virtually unknown. Oil painting allows
the expression of transparency and depth that was not
possible with the frescoes.
At the same time, laces are popularized – weaving
technique that allows transparency.
Sixteen, seventeen and eighteen centuries arise:
Schism
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The fragmentation and division of religions
Colonies
Conquests
Politics of power
They are transformations that culminate in the
contemporary world as the era of technology and of the
conquest of peoples.
First phase of the Renaissance:
- strong emergency of the counterpoint
and of the leading note.
more
precise
notation
concerning
the
duration
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- the dualistic thinking appears
Contrasts become opposites.
Guillaume de Machault – using intervals of fourths,
fifths and octaves. Monteverdi, using for the first time
intervals thirds and sixths.
Before the temperament – largely established by
Johann Sebastian Bach and Jean-Philippe Rameau – nontempered music was much richer in terms of frequencies.
When this happens, almost all intervals are different.
In India, twenty-two to thirty intervals are listened in
a single octave.
The synthesis, simplification of relations with
temperament indicates a hypertrophy of the ego – leading
to individualism and to massification.
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The consciousness of space amplifies the possibilities
and reduces the spectrum, constituting paradoxical poles.
Baroque – means
etymological terms.
strange,
extraordinary,
in
In sociology, when something is super emphasized, it
means that something is in decadence.
History is a series of realizations of things that already
exist.
In the twentieth century, surely, the most important
event was the consciousness of time.
Time as a fourth dimension of space.
KOELLREUTTER
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Time gradually ceases to be a physical factor to become
a form of perception.
1916 – General Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein:
the concept of time.
Space is not three-dimensional, but four-dimensional
with time.
It is not possible to exclude time from space.
Time and space are two aspects of a single thing – we
do not know what it is.
Albert Einstein: The space-time continuum is the fourdimensional space where we have physical phenomena
characterized by three spatial coordinates in threedimensional frame and a fourth coordinate given by the
product c.t where c is the speed and t is the moment of
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occurrence in the space referential.
Continuous: something that does not show discrete
components.
Dimension: sense in which one perceives the musical
discourse to evaluate and appreciate a relation that is
considered susceptible to measurement and analysis.
Dimension – mension... to measure: rational and
spatial.
Dimension – di: through something.
Time destroys the dimensions, transcending and
integrating them.
Magic: from mag, to assume some machine, to
emancipate himselves through machines, machining.
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According to the criteria established by Einstein in his
Theory of General Relativity, the classic three-dimensionality
simply does not exist.
Space cannot exist without time.
Whatever measure of space or time, it will never be
absolute.
Jorge Luis Borges: the human dreams the world.
In contemporary music there is no longer classic
references, such as a theme or a tonic.
No longer having independent space, the principle of
direction ends.
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The arts become potentially multidirectional, with
changeable elements, into multi-functionality.
Hearing: Just-Gú II, by Maki Ishii, for Gagaku and orchestra.
Hearing: Cassiopeia, by Tohru Takemitsu, for solo percussion
and orchestra.
Space and time are only forms of perception of the
observer.
The new concept of time aims to recover the whole. It
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tends to the whole.
Memory – fundamental to the systatic perception.
Space and body gradually become transparent.
Time does not exist.
Present is infinite, it is the origin.
The origin is eternal, everything is origin.
The present is the quintessence of time.
The present is pure time.
master
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Music of the Twentieth Century
Notes on the course of Music of the Twentieth Century
by Hans Joachim Koellreutter
São Paulo, 1981
The history of music has four main periods characterized
by four musical idioms:
- Modal idiom
1. Romanesque
2. Gothic
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3. Renaissance
- Tonal idiom
1. Baroque
2. Classicism
3. Romanticism
4. Impressionism
- Atonal idiom
1. Expressionism
- Psofal idiom
The first period is essentially ftegmatic – Greek word
that indicates the idea of predominantly vocal sounds.
The second and third periods are essentially clagal
– predominantly instrumental.
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The fourth period is essentially psofal – which
incorporates the noise, taking the sound as a whole.
First period – succession of sounds
Second Period – simultaneity of sounds
Third period – convergence of sounds
Fourth period – the emergence of the concept of time
In Tristan and Isolde, of 1859, Richard Wagner tried
– in his own words – to emphasize the dualism between life
and death.
The third act of Tristan and Isolde shows one of the
moments of gradual disintegration of tonality through
multiple modulations.
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Since then – although the ideas present in Tristan and
Isolde were part of Wagner’s world and, especially, of Liszt’s
world – it is possible to draw a line of transformations in
several works and composers:
1875, Bagatelle without Tonality by Franz Liszt – first
atonal work.
1889, Ave Maria on Enigmatic Scale, by Giuseppe
Verdi.
1896, Quartet No. 1 by Charles Ives.
1899, Transfigured Night by Arnold Schoenberg.
1900, Symphony No. 4, second movement, by Gustav
Mahler.
1901, Salome and Electra, in 1908, composed by
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Richard Strauss.
1909, Three pieces for piano, opus 11, by Arnold
Schoenberg.
1911, Six pieces for piano, opus 19, by Arnold
Schoenberg.
1912, Jeux by Claude Debussy.
A great controversy about the end of tonality emerges
in 1908.
1912, Arnold Schoenberg with Pierrot Lunaire, Opus
21: most important work of atonalism.
In Pierrot Lunaire everything is made in maximum
exaggeration - including an extreme radicalism in low and
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high sound regions.
Alban Berg integrated tonality into atonality.
Serialism is characterized by elements of repetition,
which are conjunctive elements.
Atonality announces an acausality – evident in physics.
FIRST PERIOD OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC
Key feature: the language of music is atonal, with the
absence of the leading note.
Structure: tri and four-dimensional.
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Thoughts: rationalist.
Trend: materialistic.
Consciousness: the relationship between the human
being as an individual personality and the mass, the
collective.
The forms are discursive. The innovative style
is the expressionism. But there are also restorative
trends – i.e.: neoclassicism, folklorism and nationalism.
SECOND PERIOD OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC - after
the Second World War
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Music Language: psofal (includes noise)
Trend: planimetry, graphic scores
Restorative trends:
Krzysztof Penderecki
Luciano Berio
Wiltold Lutoslawski
Karlheinz Stockhausen (late career)
Muldimensional structure
Thought: aracional – which is paradoxical in its
essence.
Trend: intellectual
The process of consciousness revolves around the
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relationship of the human being with the time, and of the
individual with the Humanity.
The new forms are again spherical.
Styles: experimental.
Werner Heisenberg, book: Physics and Philosophy.
Fayga Ostrower: Art is a form of growth in direction to
freedom, a path for life.
FIRST PHASE:
Igor Stravinsky, My Life
Rene Leibowitz, Schoenberg et son ecole
Adorno and Boulez
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Martin Heidegger, Being and Time
Igor Stravinsky:
Romantic: Symphony
Impressionism: The Firebird
Expressionism: The Rite of Spring and The
Soldier’s Tale
Neoclassical: Pergolesi Suite
Serialism: Canticum Sacrum and In Memoriam
Dylan Thomas (1954)
Interestingly, Franz Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern
were born in Austria.
Arnold Schoenberg: The Warsaw Survivor – politically
engaged work.
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Arnold Schoenberg: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
- peak of expressionism in music.
ATONAL CONCEPT
It is the equivalence of intervals, chords and the
emergence of simultanoids.
Simultanoid: chord that cannot be analyzed through
intervals of thirds.
In 1937, Paul Hindemith provoked a great debate:
the chords exist as they are being heard and not as they are
described in theory.
In the atonal universe there is no longer hierarchy. No
longer the dichotomy between dissonance and consonance.
The music of the twentieth century makes the
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emancipation of dissonance part of consciousness.
The concept of dissonance arises with the Flemish
musician Johannes Tinctoris, who lived between 1435 and
1511, great composer and theorist – he established the
concepts of dissonance and consonance.
Atonality fundamentally is acausal – one cannot
predict what will happen next.
Atonal – circular, spherical, transparent: systasis.
Albert Einstein: The sphere is unlimited, but finite.
FIRST DIMENSION: melodic line, horizontal
SECOND DIMENSION: vertical relations, harmony
THIRD DIMENSION: tonality, atonal, several orders of
relation
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FOURTH DIMENSION: systatic perception
Systasis: include everything starting from all sides of
the object that is perceived.
Systasis: no fixed reference points.
Too much information: absolute disorder.
Excessive redundancy: absolute order.
Absolute disorder is equal to absolute order.
First law of thermodynamics: the universe we live in is
developed in complex and differentiated systems.
Second law of thermodynamics: everything tends
toward entropy.
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The human being looks for order; he reacts to the
process of entropy.
Chaos does not communicate.
Excess do not communicate.
There is the active and the passive silence.
The sphere essentially is four-dimensional because on
it everything moves.
Freedom is the result of discipline.
The emergence of time destroys all dimensions of
music.
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In his Opus 19, Arnold Schoenberg was looking for
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a great form. But it was not possible because of missing
elements of order.
Arnold Schoenberg: Atonalism is the art of composing
with twelve independent notes.
The series has the function of unifying the
composition.
It is not necessary to repeat the series. It
becomes more present in the consciousness when
is interrupted. All that is order becomes more
present in consciousness when is interrupted.
Hearing: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, Alban Berg.
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FIRST SCHOOL OF VIENNA: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang
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Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig von Beethoven.
SECOND SCHOOL OF VIENNA: Arnold Schoenberg,
Alban Berg, Anton Webern.
Series: any parameter can be serialized.
Integral Serialism: all parameters in music obey to series.
Hearing: Structures No. 1 for Piano, by Pierre Boulez.
Serialism: walking from the idea to the series, and not
from the series to the idea
Hearing: Five Pieces for orchestra,
opus 16, by Arnold Schoenberg.
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Hearing: Grosse Fuge, in B flat for string quartet, opus 133,
by Ludwig von Beethoven.
Hearing: Symphony, Opus 21, by Anton Webern.
Impressionism in music:
melody without intervals
passive
joint degrees
chromaticism in middle tones
timbres built as a whole
semantic
great instrumentation
Expressionism in music:
large intervals
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active
timbres taken individually
syntactic
reduction in the number of instruments
sacrifice all the ideals in benefit of the
expression
Anton Webern: melody of timbres, each note can have
a different timbre.
Hearing: Musical Offering by Johann Sebastian Bach,
transcribed by Anton Webern.
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In Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg two dimensions
are worked: melody and harmony.
Anton Webern incorporates for the first time the
Gestalt, transforming the melody into figuration and forcing
the audience to listen to it as a systatic whole.
Hearing: Variations for Piano, Opus 27, by Anton Webern.
Restorative trends in music:
Paul Hindemith – seeks to restore the compositional
techniques developed by Bach and to designate a “new
tonality”. He fought the atonalism.
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Igor Stravinsky – especially in the phase between the
piano sonatas and the Symphony of Psalms. Three works that
fall outside the restorative trend in Stravinsky:
Cantum Sacrum (serial liturgical work)
Septet (first serial work, with dodecaphonic
parts)
Agon
Béla Bartók
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Kodaly
Manuel de Falla – especially in his neo-classical
works.
Restorative movements essentially are folklorist or
nationalist. They belong to a substantial nationalism when
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making direct use of folkloric elements or of popular music.
They belong to an essential nationalism, when the folkloric
traces appear as the spirit of music.
George Gershwin often is a substantial nationalist.
Other restorative trends:
Neoclassicism
Igor Stravinsky
Prokofiev
Shostakovish
Hearing: Third Quartet, by Paul Hindemith.
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Psofal music, which incorporates the noise, came up
with Henry Cowell, professor of John Cage.
Henry Cowell wrote several pieces for prepared piano
in the first half of the twentieth century.
FORM – Form is everything that results from the
disposition and from the relationship of the components
and the constituent parts of a composition. It is a condition
under which the composition is manifest. The basic
elements of form are repetition, contrast and variation.
Hearing: Quartet Opus 135, Ludwig van Beethoven.
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Hearing: Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, by Béla
Bartók.
Frozen dissonances: dissonances that cannot be
resolved.
First concept of time – magical, vital, original time, like
what happens in Candomblé, for example.
Second concept of time – psychic, intuitive. Music
with irregular and diverse rhythm, with no compass, with no
fixed and determined values of duration. Non-metric music,
which is based on natural pulse and on the values of duration
that the disposition of spirit and emotion require. Like what
happens with Gregorian chant or the alap in Indian music.
Third concept of time – automatic and monometric.
Practiced by force of habit. Quantitative temporal elements,
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as it is established by clocks. Rational diversified rhythm.
It emphasizes the beginning and end of the execution –
traditional western music.
Fourth concept of time – achronic. Transcending the
measure established by the clock. It reminds the concept
of archaic time, pre-magical – a concept that is no more a
concept. No evidence of consciousness of time in humans.
Disintegration of the classical notion of time.
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Breve bibliografia
http://www.sibila.com.br/index.php/sibila-english/395-anthropophagic-manifesto
BRITO, Teca Alencar de – Koellreutter Educador, o humano como objetivo da educação musical. Peirópolis, São Paulo, 2001.
EGG, André. O debate no campo do nacionalismo musical no Brasil
dos anos 1940 e 1950: o compositor Guerra Peixe. Dissertação de
Mestrado em História, UFPR, 2004.
KATER, Carlos. Música Viva e H. J. Koellreutter. Movimentos em direção à modernidade. São Paulo: Musa/Atravez, 2001.
KOELLREUTTER, Hans-Joachim. O caminho da superação dos opostos.
MúsicaHoje - Revista de Pesquisa Musical. Belo Horizonte, Núcleo de
Apoio à Pesquisa e Centro de Pesquisa em Música Contemporânea
da Escola de Música da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, n. 2, p.
7-26, 1995.
KOELLREUTTER, Hans Joachim – Estética, á procura de um mundo
sem vis-à-vis, Novas Metas, São Paulo, 1983
KOELLREUTTER, Hans Joachim – Harmonia Funcional. Ricordi, São
Paulo, 1980.
KOELLREUTTER, Hans-Joachim. Introdução à estética e à composição
musical contemporânea. ZAGONEL, B. & CHIAMULERA, S. (orgs.).
Porto Alegre, Editora Movimento, 1984.
KOELLREUTTER, Hans-Joachim. A nova imagem do mundo: estética,
estruturalismo e planimetria. Revista Música. São Paulo, Departamento de Música da Escola de Comunicações e Artes da Universidade de
São Paulo, v. 2, n. 2, p. 85-90, 1991.
ZAMPRONHA, Edson S. – Notação, Representação e Composição, Annablume, São Paulo, 2000.
Recordings
H. J. Koellreutter - Tacape, São Paulo, Brasil 1983 (disc)
Koellreutter - Funarte, Brasil, 1997 (compact disc)
Ácronon - Sérgio Villafranca, São Paulo, Brasil, 1999 (compact disc)
onomastic index
Adderley, Julian Cannonball
Adorno, Theodor
Adriano, Carlos
Agostinelli, Marco
d’Almeida, Arminda – Dona Mindinha
Almeida, José Coelho de
Anaximander (Anaximandro)
Andrade, Mário de
Andrade, Oswald de
Aquina, St. Thomas (São Tomás de
Aquino)
Aristotle (Aristóteles)
Áurea
Ayres, Nelson
Bach, Johann Sebastian
Bacharach, Burt
Banerjee, Nikhil
Bartók, Béla
Bartoli, Cecilia
Bataille, Georges
Beethoven, Ludwig van
Berberian, Cathy
Berg, Alban
Berger, René
Berio, Luciano
Berns-Lee, Tim
Beuys, Joseph
Bhagwat, Neela
Bill, Max
Bira
Bonaparte, Napoleão
Bonner, William
Borges, Jorge Luis
Borh, Niels
Boulanger, Nadia
Boulez, Pierre
Brün, Herbert
Bracque, Georges
Bratke, Marcelo
Brito, Teca (Maria Teresa) Alencar de
Brown, Earle
Burckhardt, Jacob Christoph
Busoni, Ferruccio
Bussotti, Ferruccio
Cabrita, Dulce
Cage, John
Campos, Augusto de
Campos, Haroldo de
Capra, Fritjof
Caznok, Yara
Celibidache, Sergiu
Cézanne, Paul
Charles, Daniel
Chaurasia, Hariprasad
Coclico, Adrianus Petit
Coleman, Ornette
Columbus, Christopher (Cristóvão
Colombo)
Copernicus, Nicolaus
Coppola, Francis Ford
Corona, Eduardo
Costa, Valério Fiel da
Cowell, Henry
Cozzella, Damiano
Cunningham, Merce
Dali, Salvador
Dallapiccola, Luigi
Debussy, Claude
Debret, Joan Baptiste
D’Elboux (família)
Dohnányi, Christoph von
Domizio, Lucrezia De, Baronesa Durini
Duchamp, Marcel
Eckhout, Albert
Einstein, Albert
Elliot, T. S.
Epimenides
Falla, Manuel de
Ferrier, Kathleen
Feynmann, Richard
Foucault, Michel
Francesca, Piero della
Frank, César
Galilei, Galileu
Galvão, Patrícia (Pagu)
Garaudy, Roger
Gaubert, Philippe
Gershwin, George
Giron, Luiz Antônio
Gismonti, Egberto
Glass, Philip
Glucksmann, André
Gödel, Kurt
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Goldelman, Saloméa
Gomringer, Eugen
Graça, Fernando Lopes
Gropius, Walter
Guerra-Peixe, César
Guarnieri, Camargo
Hawkings, Stephen
Harvey, William
Haydn, Franz Joseph
Heidegger, Martin
Heifetz, Jacha
Heisenberg, Werner
Heraclito
Herrigel, Eugen
Hindemith, Paul
Hitler, Adolf
Hofstadter, Douglas
Hokusai, Hatsushika
Hollanda, Chico Buarque de
Homero
Ishii, Maki
Ives, Charles
Jaeger, Werner
Jobim, Tom
John, Saint (São João)
Jordan, Fred
Jorge, Valdemar (Dema)
Juarez, Benito
Kandinsky, Wassily
Kant, Emanuel
Karabtchevsky, Isaac
Kater, Carlos
Katunda, Eunice
Kaufmann, Walter
Kepler, Johannes
Khan, Ustad Hafezz Ahmed
Khan, Ustad Sabri
Khan, Ustad Vilayat
Kodaly, Zóltan
Kokoschka, Oscar
Kontarsky, Alfons
Kontarsky, Aloys
Krasner, Louis
Krieger, Edino
Kubrusly, Maurício
Lange, Francisco Curt
Langer, Susanne
Leibowitz, Rene
Leiner, Jaime
Leminsky, Paulo
Leonin
Leventhal, Sígrido
Lévi-Strauss, Claude
Ligeti, Gyorgy
Lima, Demétrio
Lima, Maurício Nogueira
Liszt, Franz
Lupasco, Stephanne
Lutoslawski, Witold
Machault, Guillaume de
Mahler, Alma
Mahler, Gustav
Mahler, Manon
Magnani, Sérgio
Marsicano, Alberto
Martiessen, Carl Adolf
McLuhan, Marshall
Medaglia, Júlio
Medauar, Jorge
Mello, Chico
Mello, Eduardo Kneese de
Mendes, Gilberto
Menezes, Philadelpho
Merleau-Ponty, Maurice
Merz, Mario
Milan, Carlos
Milhaud, Darius
Mindlin, José
Minkowiski, Hermann
Moles, Abraham
Mondrian, Piet
Monet, Claude
Monk, Thelonious
Morin, Edgar
Moraes, J. Jota de
Moura, Paulo
Moyse, Marcel
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mussi, Magali
Muszkat, Mauro
Nani, Rodolfo
Niblock, Phill
Nicolescu, Basarab
Nietzsche, Friedrich
Nobre, Marlos
Nono, Luigi
Oliveira, Jocy de
Oliveira, Willy Corrêa de
Oppenheimer, Robert
Ostrower, Fayga
Pacheco, Diogo
Pagano, Caio
Paik, Nan June
Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da
Parmenides
Pascoal, Hermeto
Patzak, Julius
Paz, Manoel Venâncio Campos da
Paz, Octavio
Penderecki, Krzystof
Peirce, Charles Sanders
Peixinho, Jorge
Penrose, Martin
Pereira, José Antônio
Perotin
Petrarca, Francesco
Picasso, Pablo
Pignatari, Décio
Pimenta, Laura
Pimenta, Luciana
Pollini, Maurizio
Porto, Regina
Pound, Ezra
Près, Josqin des
Prestes, Luiz Carlos
Prigogine, Ilya
Prokofiev, Serguei
Rampal, Jean-Pierre
Rameau, Jean-Philippe
Reich, Steve
Reggio, Godfrey
Riegl, Alois
Riley, Terry
Rilke, Rainer Maria
Ritter, Karl
Robinson, Paula
Roman, Beatriz
Rugendas, Johann Moritz
Santoro, Cláudio
Satie, Eric
Schack, Margarita
Shankar, Ravi
Shannon, Claude
Scheck, Gustav
Scherchen, Hermann
Scherchen, Tona
Schnabel, Arthur
Schoemberg, Arnold
Schoppenhauer, Arthur
Shostakovish,
Fedoseyev
Schröndinger, Erwin
Schubert, Franz
Sekeff, Maria de Lourdes
Shuenemann, Georg
Vladimir
Schwarz, Alfred Gerhard
Seiffert, Max
Silja, Anja
Silva, Conrado
Soleri, Paolo
Souza, Rodolfo Coelho de
Stockhausen, Karlheinz
Strauss, Richard
Stravinsky, Igor
Sverner, Clara
Tacuchian, Ricardo
Taffanel, Paul
Takemitsu, Tohru
Tanaka, Satochi
Tarso, Saulo Di
Taylor, Geoffrey Ingram
Thomas, Kurt
Tinctoris, Johannes
Tineti, Gilberto
Tozzi, Cláudio
Tudor, David
Turin, Roti Nielba
Vargas, Getúlio
Verdi, Giuseppe
Vesalius, Andreas
Villafranca, Sérgio
Villa-Lobos, Heitor
Vinci, Leonardo da
Vorobow, Bernardo
Waechter, Eberhard
Wagner, Richard
Walter, Bruno
Webern, Anton
Wehinger, Rainer
Wheeler, John Archibald
Wigner, Eugene
Wilheim, Joanna
Wilheim, Jorge
Worringer, Wilhelm
Young, LaMonte
Zarif, Fernando
Zé, Tom
Zenon (Zenão)
Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta has been considered by many as one of
the most interesting musician, architect, photographer and intermedia artist of the
world at the beginning of the third millennium – according to statements written by
personalities like John Cage, Ornette Coleman, Merce Cunningham, John Archibald
Wheeler, René Berger, Dove Bradshaw, Daniel Charles, Phill Niblock or William
Anastasi among others.
His works are included in some of the most important art collections and
world-wide recognised institutions like the Whitney Museum of New York, the ARS
AEVI Contemporary Art Museum in Sarajevo, the Biennale of Venice, the Cyber Art
Museum of Seattle, the Kunsthaus of Zurich, the Durini Contemporary Art Collection,
the Bibliotèque Nationale of Paris and the MART - Modern Art Museum of Rovereto
and Trento among others.
He develops music, architecture and urban projects using Virtual Reality,
cyberspace technologies and based on neurosciences.
In 2008 he created the first opera on Dante Alighieri’s the Divine Comedy
in the history of music, with the world première at the Abstracta Festival, in Rome,
Italy. In 2009, his concert CANTO6409, created in partnership with the Italian movie
director Dino Viani, who was responsible for the film, is acclaimed at the International
Film festival of Cannes, in France.
His works are included in the Universalis Encyclopaedia (Britannica)
since 1991, in the Sloninsky Baker’s Music Dictionary (Berkeley), the Charles Hall’s
Chronology of the Western Classical Music, as well as in the All Music Guide – The
Expert’s Guide to the Best Cds among others.
Legendary musicians like John Cage, David Tudor, Takehisa Kosugi, John
Tilbury, Christian Wolff, Martha Mooke, John DS Adams, Maurizio Barbetti, Michael
Pugliese, Umberto Petrin, Susie Georgetis, Audrey Riley and the Manhattan Quartet
among others have performed his compositions.
He collaborated with John Cage, as commissioned composer for Merce
Cunningham, from 1985 until his disappearance in 1992. He remained commissioned
composer for Merce Cunningham in New York until his disappearance in 2009. His
works are part of the Legacy project of the Cunningham Foundation for concerts and
performances between 2010 and 2013.
His concerts have been performed in some of the most prestigious theatres
all over the world, like the Lincoln Center and The Kitchen in New York; the Opera
Garnier or the Theatre de La Ville in Paris; the Shinjuku Bunka Center in Tokyo, the
Montpellier Municipal Theatre, the Festival of Aix en Provence, the Modern Art
Museum MASP in Sao Paulo, La Fenice in Venice, and the Biennale of Sao Paulo
among others.
Articles on his works have regularly appeared in different newspapers and
magazines, like The Wire, Ear, New York Times, Le Monde, Le Parisien, Liberation,
O Estado de Sao Paulo, O Expresso, and O Globo, Il Sole 24 Ore and la Reppublica,
among others.
With more than four hundred musical compositions already recorded,
twenty published compact discs, four cd-roms, he has wrote and published about
thirty books, several of them individually, several papers, articles and electronic
books. His works have been regularly published in England, the United States, Japan,
the Netherlands, Portugal, Brazil, Germany, Canada, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy and
Spain.
He has also been curator for various institutions, like the Biennale of Sao
Paulo, in Brazil; the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Portugal; the Triennial of
Milan, in Italy; and the Belem Cultural Centre, in Lisbon, among others.
In the early 1980s Emanuel Pimenta coined the concept “virtual architecture”,
later largely used as specific discipline in universities all over the world. Since
the end of the 1970s he has developed graphical musical notations inside virtual
environments.
He won the National Marketing Prize in 1977 by the Brazilian Association of
Marketing; the APCA Prize in 1986 by the Art Critics Association of Sao Paulo (AICA
Section in Sao Paulo); and the Lac Maggiore Prize in 1994 by the Lombardia Regional
Government, the International Association of Art Critics, the Unesco and the Council
of Europe, in Locarno, Switzerland. In 1993 his works were selected by the Unesco, in
Paris, as one of the most representative intermedia researchers of the world.
He is member of the SACD – Societè des Autheurs et Compositeurs
Dramatiques in Paris since 1991. He also is an active member of the European
Environmental Tribunal, in London, where he has been member of the board since
1995.
He is an active member of the New York Academy of Sciences, of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington DC and of the
ASMP - American Society of Media Photographers. He is member and advisor of
the AIVAC – Association Internationale pour la Video dans les Arts et la Culture, in
Locarno, Switzerland. He was a founding member of the International Society for the
Interdisciplinary Study of Symmetry – ISIS Symmetry and the International Symmetry
Association, both in Budapest.
He is member of the jury of the BES Fellowship (Experimental Intermedia
Foundation of New York, the Luso American Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian
Foundation) since 1995.
Mr. Pimenta has been frequently invited, as professor and lecturer, by several
institutions, among then the universities of New York, Georgetown, Lisbon, Florence,
Lausanne, Tsukuba, Sao Paulo, Palermo, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Monte
Verita Foundation in Switzerland and the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa,
Israel.
He his founder and director of the Holotopia Academy, an institution oriented
to music, art, philosophy and science, in the Amalfi Coast, Italy. He is also founder
and director of the Foundation for Arts, Sciences and Technology – Observatory, in
Trancoso, Portugal.
Emanuel Pimenta lives between Locarno, Switzerland, which is his main
residence, New York and Lisbon. His site in Internet is www.emanuelpimenta.net
Copyrights
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cover and pages 89, 140, 158, 200, 216, 244, 250, 271, 277, 284, 399, 407, 411, 427, 454, 463,
486, 489, 490, 517, 521, 526, 540 – by Emanuel Dimas de Melo Pimenta
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page 160 – The composer Hans-Joachim Koellreutter and the pianist Sérgio Villafranca
with the spherical score for Acronon. Written by Roberto D Ugo Jr.- http://images.google.pt/
imgres?imgurl=http://musicadiscreta.blog.uol.com.br/images/TSP.jpg&imgrefurl=http://musicadiscreta.
blog.uol.com.br/&usg=__EP8rchSNJjg7siKH32TLmf4-04k=&h=376&w=502&sz=17&hl=pt-PT&start=
2&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=3yEYLNnT4s79EM:&tbnh=97&tbnw=130&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dacronon
%26um%3D1%26hl%3Dpt-PT%26lr%3D%26newwindow%3D1%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2ADSA_ptPTPT335%26tbs%3Disch:1 em http://musicadiscreta.blog.uol.com.br/
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page 177 – Artikulation by Girgy Ligeti: flickr.com/photos/20661330@NOO/227036970
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page 234, John Cage, Ária – private collection
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page 238, Hans Joachim Koellreutter, Tanka II – private collection
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page 290, Hans Joachim Koellreutter, sketch for a planimetric score – private collection
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page 313, Hans Joachim Koellreutter, Improviso – private collection (copy)
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page 319, Freiburg Panorama 1000, Description Freiburg Panorama 1000.jpg, English: 360°
panoramic view of Freiburg, Germany. Pictures taken on the, Schlossberg tower and stitched using Hugin. Deutsch: 360° Panorama-Ansicht von Freiburg. Die Fotos wurden vom Schlossbergturm aufgenommen, und mit Hugin zusammengefügt. Date 02.08.2008
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page 322, Hermann Scherchen, in Maxence Caron, http://maxencecaron.canalculture.
com/2009/05/21/bach-lart-de-la-fugue-par-hermann-scherchen/
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page 330, Rio de Janeiro 1938, flickr.com/photos/quadro/256775091/
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page 358, Rugendas, in BELUZZO, Ana Maria de Moraes – The Construction of the Landscape,
Metalivros, 1995