5 Mastery of a Mature Language (1969-1979) ! | Gramauey has been a crucial feature of Lytostawski's approach to iifge-scale musical forms throughout his career, During his studies with Maliszewski, much emphasis appears to haverbéen placed on the psycho- logy of how the gradual unfolding of a work is perceived. Although these lessons were absorbed primarily through studying scores of the Viennese Classical period, particularly Haydn and Beethoven, it would appear that Lutostawski may also have learned a great deal directly from the theatre, through observing dramatic conventions, treatments of plot and sub-plot, and functional principles governing relationships between characters. Lutoslawski may be dismissive about the musical significance of his many scores of incidental music for theatre and radio plays composed during the post-war years from 1947 to about 1960, but one should not over- look or undervalue such a clear indication of his exposure to the under- lying structure of dramatic works. Ifone resorts to discussing music in terms of analogy or metaphor, then the most appropriate parallels for Lutoslawski's worl Rein areas rl ing, in some way to phenomena occurring over or through a span of time, as that is how music of the Western European tradition is experienced and perceived, Analogies are often drawn between music and visival arts, usually painting or sculpture; but such parallels as exist are severely limited in validity because of the absence of a time diriension. The temptation to draw analogies with theatrical situations thus becomes almost irresistible. Even this, however, must be approached with con- siderable caution, lest misleading notions of ‘meaning’ are introduced and applied. In a lecture originally intended for presentation at Darmstadt, ‘Notes on the construction of large-scale closed forms’ (still unpublished), Luto- stawski discussed the problems facing a composer of the later twentieth century in shaping the abstract drama of music without 1 ished — conventions associated with tonal language. From the outset, he made ear his commitment to the idea of composing each work as an entity, including not only the notes but also the perception of the listener: 117THE MUSIC OF LUTOSEAWSKI When composing large-scale closed forms, | always remember shat what J am princi lly engaged in doing is organising the process of perception of my work, To my mind, a piece of music is not only an arrangement of sounds in time but also the set of impulses crm’ these sounds to the listengr and the reactions those impulses then awaken in bi He went on to distinguish between active and passive kinds of musical perception. The latter he considers to be where the listenet’s attention is totally absorbed by what is heard at a given moment; whercas the former (his main concern) ‘relates to the process of assimilating what has been heard earlier, and in anticipating and waiting for what might occur: it would be wrong to assume that large-scale closed forms are a hopeless proposition for the modern composer. His oply problem is to find ways of activating the listeners memory and anticipation, despite the absence of recognised conventions which could serve as 2 cue, of of a congenial soil of listening habits. It is such devices that I have been hunting for over thp-past years... My explorations in this field can be divided roughly into two groups\ The first is a matter of providing a purchase for the listener's pavers of recall and anipaton through the cation of ‘anceonly conventions Pd. ‘The second, much less important, area . ‘other arts, principally the theatre. This can be fruitful when the aim is to create more ‘intricate formal situations in which the elementary once-only conventions ... are no longer enough.* The simplest kind of ‘once-only convention’ used by Lutostawski is where he establishes in a given work a repeated idea, in order to play with the listener's expectation that it will recur (This effect can be produced by asitoralle or retain, 2s already obseeved th the first movements of both Jeux vénitiens and the Second Symphony (the same principle will later be identified in relation to other works such as Epitaph, the Double Con- certo, and the Piano Concesto). The listener’s capacity for expectation can alsa be primed and manipulated by a referential signal, as obsecved in the String Quartet (also to be discussed in relation to the Third Sym- phon is worth noting that L.utoslawski’s continuing search for varied treatments of the dramatic, psychological principles of expectation, fulfil- ment, denial and surprise has been brought about by a desire to simulate ffects typical of music composed within al conven= Without the referential pdtential offered by tonal organisation (such7as returning to particular keys), Lutostawski has tried to find his own substitutes within the non-tonal harmonic language he has used since 1957.‘inci my tof Ises ical nis ‘mer ition net's. have ided ner’s vr. tthe nore eno i is MASTERY OF A MATURE LANGUAGE Cello Concerto No piece of Lutostawski has been discussed more extensively in terms of analogy to theatrical situations than the Cello Concerto. The general idea for such a concertante piece had been in his mind for some years, but once he had begun to concentrate on the project the intensive compositional work occupied him for a period of about eighteen months in 1969 and 1970, not long after writing the above lecture (which refers to works up to andincluding the Second Symphony). The Cello Concerto was commissioned in 1968 by the Royal Philhar- monic Society for its 1970-71 season. At the first performance, in London on 14 October 1970, Mstislav Rostropovich was presented with the highest accolade of the Royal Philharmonic Society, its Gold Medal commemorating their commission of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The work was written for and is dedicated to Rostropovich, who is fond of finding possible extra-musical interpretations in order to make more vivid the task of projecting the performance. Many of the quasi-theatrical situations and gestures which can be found in the work had, particularly at that time in Rostropovich’s life, significant allusions to the personal conflict he had long experienced with Soviet institutions of state ‘security’.> This certainly does not mean that the work was composed with such matters in mind; these interpretations were formulated after it had been completed, during rehearsal. In one respect, however, Rostropovich's individual mode of identification corresponded with the composet’s original intention: the principle of conflict. The traditional role of the orchestra in a solo concerto is accompaniment, dialogue or orchestral tutti which separate passages played by the soloist. The relationship berween soloist and orchestra in my composition is rather different, I built it by borrowing analogies from other arts, the theatre in particular. The relationship is one of conflict. The situation should be quite clear to the listener from the very first orchestral note, because the orchestra provides the element of intervention, interruption, even disrup- tion. Ths is followed by attemprs at reconciliation: dialogues. Bur these are in turn intercupted by a group of brass instruments, which in fact provide the element of intervention in the work. My aim was to find some justification for employing these two soatradiciory forces: the solo instrument and the orchestra. The relationship between ‘hese two forces undergoes a change in the course of the concerto. There is even a moment of complete harmony in the cantilena, but this provides the opportunity for the stost violent of the interventions, this time from the whole brass section.* ‘The concerto begins with a discursive monologue for the soloist, lasting some four minutes. Clear comparison obtains with the similarly theatrical 119