Day 346: Avant-garde 3
36yearsago.com
Vienna 1971—A Student Journal
A year of music, study, travel, sightseeing &
friends.
Day
346 — Avant-garde 3
13-Jul-1972
(Thur.)
TRANSCRIPT
Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche
BERLIN
Last night they left a candy bar on my bed. I cannot
believe how nice they are.
This morning tried to get a room in a studentenheim.
Forget it.
The proprietress came to me and said that I could
stay another night for free. We had a nice
conversation and I said that I will write about the
pension. I can’t believe how nice they are. I will,
however, pay them something for this night. She said
5 DM.
Already, the ausstellung [exhibition] is not so good.
You have to pay an admission charge. And there is no
printed program of what is played. I asked the guy in
charge and there is not even an order of when and
what will be played. There is also no one here to
listen and there are other things going on. So all in
all, this will in reality turn out to be a flop, when
it could have been better. That means that all of
this work for this was for nothing. Even
educationally, it will not be good because I wanted
to hear the works of the University of Illinois but I
won‘t be able to because no one knows when it will be
played.
The compositions are played, again here, the same
problem. They all sound similar. Even the guy that
runs the thing said it’s that way. “It’s private
music.”
On a lighter note. These Berliner girls are driving
me wild! With my luck, I probably won’t meet any.
They’re good looking and chic (whatever that means).
Progressive might be a good word. The “bustenhalter”
business must be in a slump. I don’t see many around.
More
sightseeing
Most impressive thing was the exhibition of the
Berlin Wall located near the Berlin Wall. Unreal.
Like a nightmare! What freedom really means to some
people.
3rd
night avant-garde
Group from New York. Steve Reich and musicians.
Interesting idea but still doesn’t have it for me.
Style: always a very short (3 beats) melodic and
rhythmic ostinato, which repeats continuously, every
once in a while with a change in rhythm or melodic
motive. Interesting textures. These become very
tiring. No “movement” to anywhere. All their music is
this way.
Laura Dean Dance Company. Interesting choreography.
Has some communication of feeling. Sometimes light
and humorous. Same style based on repetition. For me,
slightly too much. However, the choreography does
impart a feeling of having gone somewhere, not bad.
REFLECTIONS
The
proprietress and the pension. Every
day my landlady is being nicer and nicer, and letting
me stay for less money. She says free and I pay 5 DM.
I hope that this was a fair rate, beyond their normal
charge. A pension is a small boarding house, often in
a private home.
Day
concert. I am at
the exhibition hall for the day version of the
avant-garde music festival. Even though I bought
tickets, I seem to have to pay again. I ask for a
program and am upset that there is none. I wanted to
see the group from the University of Illinois. There
is no concert program. There is no “order” of when
anything occurs. I am upset. Why? It was a
“happening,” and “chance” was part of the nature of
the event. I mention again that much of the music
sounds the same. As always, I’ll attribute it to my
youthful passion and I’m certain that I wasn’t
storming around yelling at people and being grumpy.
Berlin
girls. Berlin
appears to be the center of the bra-less universe, at
least according to my eyes (probably my bulging
eyes). I was young. I had hormones. The girls, as
usual, controlled the entire universe. We males are
helpless.
Berlin
Wall. Went to
the museum at the Berlin Wall. Seeing the exhibit and
that people lost their lives trying to escape to
freedom, once again puts freedom as a precious
commodity of life that we shouldn’t take for granted.
I remember buying a souvenir book that I have not
been able to find. The view of the Berlin Wall below
shows a “dead-man” zone where even buildings have
been cut off by the wall.
A view of the Berlin Wall
Evening concert. Back at
the evening concert I get to see a new-comer to my
experience, Steve Reich. Reich is one of the foremost
of the young composers of the 20th century. His
minimalistic style of small motives (melodic and
rhythmic) that repeat and vary create rich textures
and tapestries of music. I like Steve Reich. At the
time, I remark that there is no “movement” to the
music—in the traditional sense of building to
climaxes. Still, that is fine. I guess, I was looking
for emotion in music. Even my corny and programmatic
piece, Fantasy
on Broken Glass, had a
bit of emotion and drama to it. Today, I have more
tolerance in my opinions of music. Ah, youth.
The modern dance group added some interest to the
music. Why? Simply adding the “visual” element of
dancers in movement adds a dimension to the music. It
gives us something visual to track, or focus on,
rather than the more difficult audio patterns of
avant-garde or chance music.
More
photos. The
opening photo of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche
is the bombed-out church ruins from WWII, left as a
reminder of the horrors of war. Below are photos from
the vast wooded are of West Berlin called the
Tiergarten, a series of parks, and outdoor and wooded
areas.
West Berlin’s Tiergarten walks
View from the Berlin Wall—”dead man” zone
Looking into “Checkpoint Charlie”
Looking
into East Berlin at the Brandenburg
Gate
John
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