Shades of the Double's Original: René Leibowitz's Dispute with Boulez

Author(s): Reinhard Kapp

Source: Tempo , Jun., 1988, New Series, No. 165, Emigres and 'Internal Exiles' (Jun.,
1988), pp. 2-16
Published by: Cambridge University Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/945132

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL*
Rene Leibowitz's dispute with Boulez
Reinhard Kapp

Webern, le seul compositeur de nos jours qui soit remont6 a la source meme de la musique, qui a pris s
point d'interrogation devant chacune de nos locutions musicales courantes ... Webern pense sa musique
excluant d'elle tout ditail inutile, en la fondant sur la puret6 du travail thematique et polyphonique ...
Rene Leibowitz, 1938, after a Paris performance of the Variationenftr Klavie

LEIBOWITZ IS DEAD, but the hostility smoulders on, and one wonders what, be
involvement, lay behind it. Boulez, too, has long been relegated to the un
historical cases-as can be seen from the 'dated' impression made by the seco
Musikdenken heute.t It seems difficult to revert to an earlier stage of musical theor
even earlier than that, without invoking purely 'historical interest'. But the pre
serial movement, which has left its traces on everyone's consciousness, could ex
signal success and its ignominious failure. Its collapse has been total; the ostensi
the abandonment of the movement were no less threadbare than fot its incepti
the 'classic dodecaphonist', left some theoretical loopholes, but one can hardly m
scapegoat for errors lying outside his responsibility. Even in retrospect, his mo
'progress' cannot be justified; but it is not merely an act of reparation if one still,
gives him serious consideration. One should not drag him out in pure deli
unpleasantness is over, as though nothifg had happened. Nor do I wish to claim h
the uncomfortable and likewise misjudged criticism of serialism by the 'neo-
My concern is to call to mind certain crucial points which were lost sight of in the
and whose neglect may have been largely to blame for the state of composition
that time. If, then, a controversy of the Forties and Fifties is unwrapped again,
of the personalities-but because the problems have remained virulent, and th
omissions of those days are far from resolved.
In the 'Leibowitz Case' the verdict of history appears to have been uttered. Yet
almost all of whose compositions have been published, whose writings app
numbers, some of whose books are still in print, who certainly made his mark a
recordings, his present oblivion does seem curious. In the literature one encounters
a near-caricature, whom one cannot conceive of exercising any influence at all:

* Mr. Kapp's article-originally published in Zeitschriftfir Musiktheorie 2 (1987), Heft 1, and reprodu
permission in a special translation for TEMPO by Inge Goodwin-bcars the German title 'Die Schatten
Doubles': an allusion to Leibowitz's book Le Compositeur et son double (1971) which itself alludes to Artaud's
double-and also a novella by Peter Weiss, Der Schatten des Korpers des Kutschers (literally, 'The Shade
Corpse')-Ed.
t .Musikdenken hieute 2, trans. Josef Hausler (Mainz: Schott 1985), corresponds approximiately to th
material in the collected English edition of Boulez's writings, Orientations, trans. Martin Cooper (London: F

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL 3

Rene Leibowitz (photo courtesy of Mobart Music Inc.)

concedes that he did so.* In fact the one-sided opinions which the writers pro
unanimity, whether as their own judgement or as an unacknowledged quotation
the old factions. In the rancorous intellectual climate of post-war Paris, where L
up a very decided position, there certainly were some objective discussions, but m
outraged screams from the defenders of France's most sacred possessions, who fe
their somewhat hypocritical cult of the neo-classicist Stravinsky (himself only ju
the stigma of being a cultural bolshevik) and on the other hand, the dismissive ju
forward-pressing avant-garde, not to mention the Zhdanovist line. Conform
conformists agreed in denying Leibowitz originality, the former resenting his m
the latter accusing him of narrowmindedness: dogmatism and academicism' were
catchwords. The success of the (historic) moment was doubtful and of short duratio
course of events saw Leibowitz on the losing side and the triumphal return of th
Boulez. All this may go to explain why there has really been no well-ground
Leibowitz, and why an attempt at a just appreciation makes one feel almost like

*For an outline account of Lcibowitz's life and compositions, sec the two articles byJan Maguire publis
and 132. Reinhard Kapp has published a bibliography of Leibowitz's writings: 'Materialien zu einem
Schriften von Ren6 Leibowitz', Zeitschriftfiir Musiktheorie 2 (1987), Heft 3, pp.275ff-Ed.

' The reproach of academlicismi, which was raised by all the interested parties on the most various occasion
lost mIuch of its force; I think one can leave it at that.

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4 TEMPO

Yet even his acquaintance-in many cases, his friendship-with Adorno

Kahnweiler, Leiris, Levi-Strauss, Merleau-Ponty, Sartre, and among the mu
Kolisch, Schnabel, and Steuermann, should prove that the sorry figure
literature cannot be accurate, that his range of interests was wider, the
interesting. Without intending an apologia, one soon realizes that closer ac
work shows the cliches to be untenable. In addition to the expected con
discussion of the 12-note method, which go far beyond a mere technica
subject, the extensive and labyrinthine edifice of his theory comprises reflect
of polyphony, a theory of dramatic music, comments on musical interpret
An attempt at more accurate arrangement and just evaluation encounters im
of a purely practical nature. Trustworthy biographical data are almost
instead there is ajumble of contradictions, assumptions, myths, and ill-con
Insofar as they are relevant to our subject, I have assembled a few relatively au
Leibowitz's musical beginnings, the years in Warsaw and early years in Paris
obscure to date; again, the actual details of his studies with Webern (1930?) and
Schoenberg (1931?) are still unclarified. The only certainty seems that these
been of a propaedeutic nature and still completely within the realm of t
account of the tonal song which Schoenberg looked at and suggested an
would fit in with the earliest known composition, the song Zu wissen wen
although the autograph2 is dated 'Berlin I 1932', and Schoenberg spent that w
The performance of Pierrot Lunaire, of which Leibowitz reports that it
impression on him, must then have taken place later that year. Both as com
Leibowitz considered himself as on the whole self-taught.3
In 1933 he settled permanently in Paris. Even at this juncture he rememb
according to a self-invented method with series. A year later he discove
instructions and Greissle's preface to the pocket score of Schoenberg's Win
not at that time acquatinted with Stein's essay Neue Formprinzipien) what a
was actually about. In March 1936 in a letter to Kolisch he mentions a string
third large-scale work in this style of composition. In May of that year, at one
Mardi organized by the Revue musicale, a Viola Concerto was performed w
followed the Viennese School-the report does not specify the compos
Around this time Kolisch brought about a meeting with Erich Itor Kahn, wh
Paris, and this encounter seems to have initiated a period of intense discuss
Paul Dessau (to whom Leibowitz taught the rules of 12-note technique then
The earliest pieces Leibowitz later considered valid date from 1937; th
numbered works begun that year was op.6 (Quatre melodies). Leibowitz
12-note method in an intellectual climate conditioned by problems of the
political commitment. His artistic commitment during the Spanish Civil Wa
linked with the music of Schoenberg-his contributions to Esprit already
Leibowitz was among the initiators of the 'Front musique populaire', an
organizers of a July 1937 Humanite-festival, at which-Eisler assures us-
listened to the new compositions of modem masters'. In 1940 Leibowitz
alien. He did not succeed in emigrating, despite Dessau's intercession, but m
somehow, partly hidden by Bataille in Paris, at other times with his family
Zone. As soon as the liberation of Paris was in sight, Leibowitz returned th
that legendary clandestine recording of Schoenberg's Wind Quintet on t
German-occupied French Broadcasting Authority. It was actually broadcast
2 At present in the Schonlbcerg Muscum, M6dling. Vienna.
3 BesIicl bei Arnold SchNlliibc, il: SMZ 89 (1949), p.324.
4 La Revue musicale 17 (1936), p.167 (Works by Schubert, Herscher-Clement, Leibowitz, Waterm
pouvait faire un plus violent contraste avec celle des Danois, que le Concertino pour alto de Ren
volont6 est tendue vers les extremes limites d'une expression ipre et in6prouvee. La syntaxe, issue de
lignee Sch6nberg-Alban Berg-Webern, ne fait nulle concession a nos habituelles performances
altiste, et le pianiste Michel Elosegui triompherent avec unne habilite surprenante des difficultes de
oeuvre int6ressante est h6rissee.'

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL 5

act, immediately after the Liberation. Leibowitz then r

conductor, gave thoroughly successful and productive
emerged as a writer on music, drawing on numerous artic
during the war. On two occasions-in 1947-8 and in 19
closer contact with Schoenberg, whose Survivorfrom Wars
One achievement of his is undisputed: it was he who pro
school both theoretically and in practice. He conducted
Schoenberg's op. 46, and the first German performan
publication of Webern's Concerto op. 24; many students
scores to him; he negotiated the publication of Berg's Alte
first Paris festival devoted to the Schoenberg school and t
Schoenberg's music to Darmstadt, where he returned se
consent he had thereby given the initial impetus to the se
to leave him far behind. This role of intermediary involv
dodecaphony. Above all it was concerned with passing on
the paradigmatic character and the historical index of com
unity of composition and musical theory. Further to this
special way and with a specific emphasis. The basis of L
concept of a history of polyphony (with all that term imp
art-music. As against Neoclassicism's mistaken sense of tr
by the Viennese School, where the problems of compositio
the actual state of development of the musical language, a
must be preserved, the commitment expressed by this mu
Schoenberg he saw as the central figure of music in the
universal, where all the others only had their own particu
showed itself in all the media he attempted, for instance
composition was only one part of his achievements, but it is
With Weber, polyphony reached its most extreme pos
op. 21 was the first work Leibowitz presented to the stude
for didactic reasons. He did not simply refer to Webe
significance: 'La Projection dans l'Avenir...'5 Especially in
'antinomies' that had survived from classical tonal langua
between thematic and athematic, thematic and structu
structural-annulments growing organically from atona
was suspended by the crossing between and disregard of
hierarchies: between movement and voice, principal v
'instrumentation' potentially even between organization of
Certain subjects are broached in this way: athematism
relating to form, or Webern and the individual note, W
symmetry, Webern and the registers-and a whole orches
seems to anticipate the Darmstadt terminology, not leas
formula of generalization that implies a whole programme
the impression that there is no aspect of Webem of im
Leibowitz had not already drawn attention: he laid down
and prepared the theory of Webern's music so that up to
follow-on. One could even imagine that certain prefigurati
Leibowitz himself, as in his demand that no one musical d
expense of the others-though that does have a specific valu
of polyphony. Again, athematism, a perpetual focus of fa
represents a crucial precondition for the serial language:
syntactical reminiscences seem expunged. The 12 instrum
op. 16 (completed 1948) may be intended allegorically,
between the 12 timbres and the 12 notes, and at one point t

'...des Acquisitions Schoenbergiennes', heading of Chap.X in Schoenberg e

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6 TEMPO

another are so tied up with the 12-note melody that a kind of Klangfarb
recognizable-not in Schoenberg's sense of a speculative reversal of traditional
serially arranged.
In 1944 Boulez attended Messiaen's courses. In 1945 he went to Leibowitz 'for
information', to 'discover the rules of the twelve-note method'.6 One may t
that Leibowitz influenced the serial movement in this way, too, and not only l
his publications and his teaching activities in Darmstadt. Perhaps it is possible for
concentrate on the relationship with Boulez. Between the two men a sort of dis
which, to my mind, did not cease entirely even with Leibowitz's death. There is
pursue the history of their personal relations, nor have we sufficient data, bu
certain to me that Boulez was led on beyond the actual information obtained f
into a way of thinking which left its traces even when Leibowitz provoked hi
Whether it was a question of the main concepts: polyphony, composition (of cr
vis-a-vis Cage), integration, variation; or of the titles and genres of early instr
the option (at all events, after Boulez's Psalmodies of 1945) appears unequivocal
The chief topic of discussion, the chief cause of dissension, was the differen
to rhythm in the two conceptions. Leibowitz in 1947 summed up his pos
Messiaen and Stravinsky in the following proposition (to which Boulez late
scorn):
... I should like ... especially to emphasize that the genuine polyphonic tradition does not admit the idea of rhythmfor its own
sake. Rhythm is merely an element which is produced spontaneously by horizontal and vertical sound-forms because it
articulates the unfoldment of these forms in such a way that musical speech would be impossible without it. In this sense,
the 'purely rhythmic' experiments of certain contemporary composers7 seem to me not only mistaken, but quite
meaningless, since in them there is no 'pure rhythm' (inasmuch as this rhythm operates willy-nilly with melodic and
harmonic elements) but simply a tremendous impoverishment of polyphony as such.
It is, then, hardly possible to study rhythm without the melodic, harmonic, and contrapuntal formulae in which it is
embodied. In this sense, twelve-tone polyphony is extremely traditional, for it simply develops the possiblities of variety
and coherence implicit in the spirit of variation ...
... a carefully balanced superposition of different rhythms creates a [global rhythm of great richness with regard to the
whole polyphonic discourse.] In this sense, the term polyrhythm seems to me out of place, for one of the conditions sine qua
non of polyphonic richness and variety is that the rhythm must display the same qualities which are inherent in the other
elements of the musical discourse.8

and particularizes in a way that offered as many points of contact as points of offence to Boulez:

Rhythm. - There is not much more to say about the rhythm of twelve-tone music. Here, too, one must carry the spirit of
variation as far as possible. The superposition of different rhythms should produce the greatest wealth of rhythmic figures
without jeopardizing the coherence of the whole. I have tried to apply this principle radically in my recent Sonata for Flute
and Piano, op. 129 (1944) from which I quote the passage following ...

(J= -80). .
FiGte 46 &7 t' l'tkill?

( 'p .im p

ie.oa ocop . .' m f . ...

p e. pooa poco . . . . .

6 Ursula Stiirzbecher, Werkstattgespriche mit Komponiisten,

7 Leibowitz's footnote: 'I aml thinking especially of Stravi

choix de la miscCre 1musicale', Les Temps tmodemnes, No.71'.

8 ScloelIner et son tcole, pp.276, 278. [Quoted here in the

York: Philosophical Library, 1949, hereafter Newlin), pp.2
by the translator.-(Ed.)]
9 Op. 13 in the original French; op. 12 in Newlin; performe
works; op. 12B is a violin version for RudolfKolisch.

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL 7

-a)T i *r I
pp wuklo / -

M- ml
4VESTf 'P . Ph

The passage, which superimposes on a basic meter of 2/2 numerous subdivisions derived from this meter (12/8, 6/4, 3/2),
is simply the ultimate consolidation of a procedure familiar since the beginnings of polyphony. This multiplicity of meters
is not meant to be interesting in itself, but to emphasize-or, rather, to express-the varied accentuation between one vo
and the next. Furthermore, the accents within each voice are constantly varied.
If we were to formulate a general rule for twelve-tone rhythm, it would be as follows: each measure, in each voic
includes a certain number of feet, which may easily be defined in the terms of Greek rhythmics and metrics previously us
in this book ... 1

Years later Boulez in his conversations with Deliege returns to this group of problems when he
refers to a piece he composed in 1946, the year he broke off his lessons with Leibowitz:
Even in my first published composition, the Sonatina for flute and piano, there are certain passages made up of elaborate,
highly-developed rhythmic structures; these are still worked out in a simple way, being based on straightforward schemes
and written in a classical style, but even so they are elaborated to the limit of their potential. A little later I had further ideas
on the subject, but from then on I already considered that rhythmic writing ought to be something worked on for its own
sake, and I think this is the lesson I learned from Messiaen, particularly from his classes on music from Stravinsky onwards.
After having analysed The Rite of Spring with him, or even his own works, I was convinced of the necessity of working at
purely rhythmic invention. "

The composition, which belongs to the same category as the one from which Leibowitz drew
his example, links up directly with Leibowitz's context. In this first stage of confrontation
Boulez, concerned with exploring the possibilities of the 'classical style' to the full, does not yet
leave Leibowitz behind; they remain compatible. The formulations imply that inwardly he had
already turned away from him, yet at the same time reveal to what an extent he still adhered to
him at this juncture. Undoubtedly the reference to Schoenberg's First Chamber Symphony in
the same conversation12 is due to the influence of Leibowitz, who always particularly stressed
the element of the single-movement form in Schoenberg's work and in 1946 was starting to
compose his own single-movement Kammersinfonie (dedicated to the memory of Webern).
Boulez took up the stance of decided opposition in 1948 with his entry into the public debate
on theory: his contribution Propositions to the issue on Rhythm of the magazine Polyphonie,13

'o loc.cit. pp.283, 285 (Newlin pp.281, 282). The ensuing discussions are also of interest with regard to Boulez.

" Pierre Boulez, Par volonte et par hasard: Conversations with Cclestin I)eliegc, trans. Robert Wangermee (London:
Eulenburg, 1976), p.13. On the connexion between Lcibowitz's Sonata and Boulez's Sonatina nowadays sec also Theo
Hirsbrunner, Pierre Boulez tund sein Werk, Laaber 1985, p.46.

12 Cf. Giselher Schubert, Werkidee tund Kompositionstechnik. Zur seriellen Musik von Boulez, Stockhausen und Ligeti, in Die
Mulsik derfiitfzigerJahre, ed. Carl Dahlhaus (Publications of the Institut flir Neuc Musik und Musikcrzichung Darmstadt,
Vol. 26).
3 No. 2 (1948)

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8 TEMPO

which represents something like a bank-draft on the future. Here one already f
Sonatina cited, for instance, for

an example of rhythmic canon which proceeds independent of the polyphony ...

Flute I * q [ I

Piano I &! iii ? C

ql_3I~

p - r' Is j
q L' , 14 66i ki

We are in an athematic passage in which the development is made without any support from marked contrapuntal ce
Because these rhythms are not of equal lengths... their successive superimpositions do not exactly correspond, and we
have pushed to the maximum the variations that can be extracted from this ternary variation."

The criteria have been taken over from Leibowitz and partly turned against him. The com
to whom he defers are Stravinsky, Bart6k and Messiaen-the very ones Leibowitz had
attacking.
On the other hand, we encounter only total indifference to these [rhythmic] problems on the part of Schoenberg and Berg,16
who remain attached to the classic measure and the old conception of rhythm ... Only Webern

-and here he goes on to observations which can equally be found in Leibowitz, except that the
respective views of their evaluation differ-
... came to dislocate the regular measure by an extraordinary use of counter-rhythms, syncopations, accents on weak beats,
weakenings on strong beats, and all the other artifices adapted to making us forget the squareness [oublier la carrure].'7
It is clear that researches into rhythm are not of serious worth unless they necessarily take place in the musical text.18
Admitting the principle of a contrapuntal writing in which all the parts must have equal importance-I shall explain this
later in another discussion-I should say that we must integrate rhythm into polyphony in a more or less independent
fashion ... one should make use of all the forms developed up to now ... (In this), the principle of variation or constant
renewal will guide us unrelentingly ... Why try for such complexity? In order to make a rhythmic element also of perfect
'atonality' responsive to writing methods as varied as those of dodecaphony.'9

In the cause of polyphony, defects of composition in Messiaen and Varese are censured; an

14 This means, if I interpret it correctly, that rhythm- and interval-defined motifs separate off and are worked out
independenctly of each other.

'1 Pierre Boulez, 'Proposals', in Notes of an Apprenticeship collected by Paul Thcvenin, translated by Herbert Weinstock
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968: hereafter Notes), pp.67-8.

16 Later on Boulez would learn to value Berg's contributions to 'rhythmic explorations' more justly. In the Dclicge
Conversation he claims to have known it even then; not yet, on the other hand, the exceptional status of Webern:'... in the
Webern pieces I knew at that time, I had not found that type of very dense rhythmic structure-though it does exist in
works by Webern that I discovered later.... In the first works I got to know-the Symphony op.21 for example-the
writing is extremely classical: it consists of canons such as can be found above all in pre-classical or Baroque music. In fact
there is not really any very profound rhythmic elaboration in the whole of the modern Viennese school. But another thing
that attracted me was what Berg called 'monorhythmica'-used in certain passages of this music ...' Conversations with
I)eliege (cf. Note l1), p.13.
17 Notes, p.64.
'1 ibid., p.71.

'9 ibid., pp. 64, 70, 71.

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL 9

expanded concept means that the 'lack of cohesion between the elaborations of the polyph
properly speaking and these of the rhythm20 becomes disturbing.
In this pre-serial, 'atonal' phase of rhythmic development it is mainly a question of fre
rhythm from its shackles: its constriction within the bar and its dependence on polyphony in
narrower sense. Interest in rhythm was general at that time: partly because melody
harmony were considered encumbered with the legacy of the 19th century; partly it was felt
with tones it had become altogether difficult, and one should not place too much weigh
them; and partly, it was believed that rhythm would have to be the dominant principle.
Boulez, research had to precede integration. Following Messiaen's pointers, rhythmic ca
were developed, whose chief attraction was their organization independent of pitch. Ju
Messiaen had generalized the 'mode', it was now a matter of linking music ordered by
12-note method with the rhythmically more advanced: to link Webern with Stravins
Leibowitz with Messiaen. The train of thought was the parallel placing-this already embod
almost the entire serial principle-of the organization of pitch and duration. It was made fea
by 'analogous' possibilities which Leibowitz and Messiaen had suggested independently of e
other: the 'chromatic whole' and the unlimited graduation of the rhythmic values, the rhythm
canons, which were comparable to Leibowitz's lovingly-detailed pitch canons in Webern's l
works, Webern's symmetries, and the retrogradable rhythms to which Messiaen had dr
attention.
In 1949 the conflict is coming to a head: Boulez seeks to sever himself from Leibowitz,
principles are now at stake. In Trajectoires21 he tackles the proposition stated at the beginning. A
full discussion did not take place, any more than in 1948 when Boulez started the battle with a
broadside against Leibowitz's criticism of Messiaen, which was based on the same idea. That
polemic, which does little credit to its author's famous intelligence, and whose feints, mishits,
and moments of irritation need not be considered here,22 hardly advances matters. That is
because he has no intention of engaging on Leibowitz's level. At least the opposing principle is
set up, the cat is out of the bag:
The conception of the basic regular meter-bringing with it periodicity of feet or even their uniqueness-as the larger
common denominator of the rhythm should cede place, in view of the greater complexity of the style of writing,23 to that
fecund concept of the smaller common multiple, a rational generalization of Stravinsky's discoveries.

If complexity is really the ruling interest, which absolutely demands a change of paradigm, the
idea of complexity propagated by Leibowitz and derived from the rhythmics of the Second
Viennese School cannot meet this demand. Indeed:

By having futilely employed gauche camouflagings of the Greek metric, Schoenberg again weakened the coherence of his
language, just as Stravinsky, impotent to solve the problem of writing-style, was unable to press his rhythmic investigations
further.24

Yet Leibowitz's argument survives within this double attack: in his 1947 article on Bartok we read:

The true polyphonic composer is the one who creates complete architectures of sound, ... in which melody, harmony and
rhythm are conceived as a synthesis and form an indissoluble whole. Of course it is self-evident that rhythm, which is
merely an arrangement of melody and harmony in time-a factor, consequently, without which the musical discourse
would be inconceivable-cannot be meagre if the other two elements prove variably articulate. On the other hand, a
'purely rhythmic' exploration inevitably results in an impoverishment of the whole polyphony.25

20 ibid., p.64.
21 'Trajectories: Ravel, Stravinsky, Schoenberg', in Notes p.242ff.
22 Let us simply assume that Boulez has no sense of humour. Or that Boulez's wit was baffled by Leibowitz's theory, which
could not be less of a platitude (cf. 'Proposals' in Notes, p.61.

23 Cf. 'If, in fact, I want to go further with my inquiry into Schoenberg's language, I shall necessarily recognize that the
adoption of the dodecaphonic writing style-I insist on the word style and what it may represent, in this case, of
incompleteness-did not change the basic principles of the tonal language. I refer to ideas of melody, harmony, and
counterpoint envisaged as separate functions, ideas valid in the language of the 18th and 19th centuries, although the
superiority of Bach, for example, or of the late Beethoven, resides precisely in the intimate unification of these three aspects
of the tonal system'. Notes, p.256.
24 Notes, p.258.
25 Quoted from Musik-Konzepte 22, Bela Bart6k, p. 19f.

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10 TEMPO

But it is not solely the role of rhythm which is controversial, it is the rhythmic co
Leibowitz, rhythm did appear as hierarchically determined in two ways: integra
subordinated to, polyphony; and internally, with subdivided duration and gr
Boulez wants to abolish these hierarchies. The question of metrics had been eva
now it is to be regarded as settled. The canons and symmetries are to remain
consequences which Leibowitz has analysed in Webern's work and defined as the
complexity. The new principle allows a greater variety of values and more d
layering of pure durations, but one dimension is lost. Whether the music Boule
really more complex than what went before, that is the question: Leibowitz has
view of the results. The change to addition and pure beat proves 'fecund' insofar as
accents: they are assigned to the realms of mode of attack or dynamics, and they a
Boulez went to Leibowitz in 1945, the year ofWebern's death. 1951, the year of
death, saw the true birth of serial music. One must admit that the idea of an o
rhythm corresponding to the 12-note technique was gaining ground increasingly
At a conference on 12-tone music in Munich it was 'pointed out in the discussio
with the new organization of tonal material, there must be a consequent
rhythmics and dynamics'.27 This pronouncement may have been made under th
Messiaen's Mode de valeurs et d'intensities, composed in 1949. Boris Blacher i
'variable metres' in Rufer's Komposition mit zwilf Tinen, as a development arising n
the dodecaphonic experience.28 Milton Babbitt, however, in his review ofLeibowi
et son Ecole and Qu'est-ce que..., objected that the author's proposals regarding rh
related specifically to the twelve-tone concept:
... it is precisely in the realm of rhythm that twelve-tone music may conceivably compensate f
functionality. In tonal music, the attendant presence of harmonic weight necessarily reduces rhyth
secondary role and provides no criteria for the development and structural use of the rhythmic ele
dissolution of harmonic functionality, however, rhythm is free to emerge as a primary, independe
importantly, twelve-tone principles are capable of giving meaning to this freedom, since the operation of
is as meaningful with relation to rhythmic characteristics (duration and order) as to the pitch sequence ch
set. Thus there arises the reality of a rhythmic structuralization totally identical with the tonal structura
elements integrating with each other without harm to the individuality of either one. In addition there is
intimate interrelation of durational rhythm, accentual rhythm, textural rhythm, timbral rhythm, and t
these... It is not too much to state that in the combined principles ofcombinatoriality, set derivation and s
twelve-tone music is approaching the compositional completeness which will make possible an en
significant creative achievements, far transcending considerations of idiom or style.29

From such concurring opinions one must deduce that changes in the realm of rhy
the agenda. Yet there was no sort of agreement on what should be done. The ma
the new procedures were to be tried out appeared partly ready, partly still needi
As an amorphization of music emerged as a result of the serial method of compo
just as well as the much-evoked 'higher structuralization', have comprised t
central interest all the time.30 Boulez seems to consider certain statistical traits, wh
examples and arguments he presents, a very profound part of his conception.
In contrast to all the other musical disciplines [?], in fact, rhythm draws exclusively on the fairly superfici
pick up from an ordinary training in the principles of sound.

In order to participate in the contemporary sense, he has to catch up on theory:

26 'Sonlcone now nmight ask me how I choose the rhythms-and that is a question to which no verbal reply
one that can be answered only by the music that one writes ...' ('Proposals', in Notes, p.70).

27 Melos 17 (1950), p.361.

28JosefRufer, Die Komposition mit zwilf Tdnen, Berlin and Wunsiedel 1952, p.161 f. The appendix is only
edition. Incidentally, Rufer also discovers in Schoenberg a sort of'isorhythmic procedure': p.109, 122,

29Jounal of the American Musicological Society 3 (1950) No. 1, p.59f. Cf. also in the same number the abst
by R.H. Hoppin: 'Rhythm as a Structural Device in the Motet Around 1400'.

30 The temporary alliance between Boulez and Cage could bc sccn as confirmation.

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL 11

I may be criticized for so unilateral an attitude with regard to rhythm ... In truth, it seems to me that the
language itself is much closer to solution since the adoption-more or less widespread-of the serial tec
point on, it is a question of re-establishing an equilibrium.3'

To this end it is important that rhythm should not be left to 'spontaneity', but sh
purposefully. Leibowitz's admittedly dangerous term did not of course imp
directness or random chance, only that state of consciousness which balances the
against each other and thus conducts the synthesis of composition. For Boulez t
is to isolate rhythm and subject it as far as possible to scientific criteria.
As he sees it, the work that has been done on pitch still needs doing for rhythm
of the 'balance' Boulez refers to in his Stravinsky article as we know deman
atonality. Though Boulez agrees with Leibowitz when he speaks of 'dissolutio
language' (instead of'atonal language') in Schoenberg,32 it becomes apparent that
in the dissolution of the language, i.e. the linguistics of rhythm, while Leibowi
precisely in the dynamism of dissolution, visualizing the dissolution of 'classical
tonal harmony, as part of historical continuity. With the observation that 'since
Renaissance, rhythm has not been considered a peer of the other musical compo
concedes that Leibowitz's delimiting of rhythm aptly describes a state of affair
ended. After centuries of neglect for rhythm, a fair balance can only be achieved
temporary priority. The malady cannot be cured by recourse to tradition:
To find the most rational attitude toward rhythm in our occidental music, one must turn to Philippe de V
Machaut, and Guillaume Dufay ... one sees something that may seem unthinkable to many listeners,
contemporary composers-that the rhythmic structure of those [isorhythmic] motets preceded the w
only a phenomenon of dissociation, but also a procedure contrary to that which we observe in the evo
musical history from the 17th century on. ... This is ... a question ... of noticing that before the simpl
barred measure, men were preoccupied with coordinating in coherent fashion the rhythmic data of m
harmonic and the contrapuntal. ... It is time to adhere to such a logic ... we should release rhythm fro
direction ... liberate rhythm from being, properly speaking, an expression of polyphony and move it
principal factor in the structure by recognizing that it can preexist polyphony-an idea that has at its aim n
still more closely-but so much more subtly!-to polyphony.34

With this surprise twist, Boulezfor thefirst time rises to the height of Leibowitz's
opposition becomes fully conscious. In the succession of the Viennese School an
has established itself: this 'necessary correction' is designed to make the idea of p
forth even more powerfully. A stronger commitment to polyphony is still only a
promise, and the first exertions are negative: uncoupling, for separate developm
The psychological situation, for someone like Boulez, was as 'unnatural' as the
unfavourable to orientation. In the immediate post-war years, of the three chi
the Viennese School only Schoenberg was still alive-the founding father,
Webern, who had pointed the way to the future, was dead. The generation of W
(to which in any case Leibowitz did not belong), which in normal circumstan
have been confronting, was scattered by emigration: it was not a presence in the w
Leibowitz belonged to an intermediate generation, not a suitable case for
parricide. However, he was beginning to bother Boulez, what with his insistenc
and his 'Schoenberg-Cult'. The school Boulez had backed was in his view p
incapable of moving with the times: Schoenberg had initiated the modern mov
and established it with some admirable compositions, but still he was essentiall
He had outlived his time, it was almost intolerable that he was still alive. Unde
historical continuity it was essential to think beyond Webern, and Schoenberg a
stood in the way of this. The sentence 'Schoenberg est mort' breathes unmistakeabl
clearing up of a cumbersome and compromising relationship. Boulez's 'Vous
which proclaimed his open break with Leibowitz-carries similar historical vibra

31 'Stravinsky Remains' in Notes, p.143. (For the first passage cited we have preferred a translation
Weinstock's freer version-Eds.)
32 'A time forJohann Sebastian Bach' in Notes, p. 11 (Wecilstock in fact translates 'dissolution' as 'sus
33 'Stravinsky Remains' Notes, p.143.
34 ibid., p. 143-5 (with Editorial revisions.)

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12 TEMPO

Thus the apparently simple sentence: 'Schoenberg is dead'-forming both start

summing up of the famous article-holds more than one meaning. First there i
for the definite occasion, the appreciation and historical assessment of Sc
achievements. Evoking the epoch which the deceased personified, the statem
declaration, a proclamation: This epoch ended with him; we can no longer relate
With this unambiguous rejection the concluding line is drawn under the direct
Leibowitz. This is Boulez's hour. It has been variously pointed out that the form
back to the classic salutation. To whom, however, does Vive le roi! refer? It ha
that Weber is meant. But the occasion, the actual death of Schoenberg, con
assumption. In fact the complementary formula reads: 'Strawinsky demeure
further article, also completed in 1951.35 This assigns to the old adversary the role
throne, the now indisputed part of preceptor of modern music. This only seem
the swiftly unveiled Webern-succession. Stravinsky is soon and unmistakeably
he has been left alive, what is left of him. Schoenberg's 'style flamboyant' an
neo-classicism, putrid aesthetics both, are equally to be opposed. Both-Boule
the fray-are accused of classicism, which ultimately disfigures the originally p
constructive contributions of these composers. The progressive aspect is celebra
to inherit, the sentimental retrospective part is rejected. Thus the dodecaphon
once more disintegrates into the 'serial principle'-which has yet to be truly re
outmoded packaging in which it is presented. Classicism is not opposed (as by L
false tradition, but simply as tradition; the serial principle is legitimated, not b
history of polyphony, but by its very novelty and stake in the future-it no
amalgamations with yesterday's models than did Stravinsky's rhythmic innovat
on the whole accepted, but rather incompletely and negatively characterized as
cast off the last remnants of tradition and abjured all romanticism. Boulez cou
him no genuine interest on a purely rhythmic level-Webern was simply, of all
School composers, the one who had taken rhythm furthest, yet without ev
classical system. He met certain demands for austerity, he saved the concept ofp
I do not intend to invoke the 'other Weber' against this one-sided view-the on
the relaxing of the serial grip, gained solidity; but there must have been a profo
perception of Weber's music. It must have sounded-not in Darmstadt, but to
people-somewhat as though on Craft's recordings. The first experience ofWebe
reduced to makeshift performances; when the interpreters who knew how this
'go' returned from exile, people no longer listened to them. Relating to Webern
vacuum, at best in a state of reduced awareness. It only happened in earnest afte
death, and then it was dealing with another dead man. Webern was not rec
tradition. He was discovered and singled out in a certain historical context, rath
Cage. His qualities, and the possible points of contact, could be laid down in a so
and so one could fancy oneself moving freely about the universe assigned t
Stravinsky without fear of contradiction.
What unites these choices defines itself negatively in strange accord with the old
line, on account of which the Schoenberg School with its hysterical over-refin
expressionist individualism was felt to be superseded (depasse) by modem devel
consensus was reactivated immediately after the war, as soon as the music o
School began to surface again.36 Webern alone could now be excepted from this
the rejection of a certain romanticism by an 'objectivist' aesthetic, the second,
point is the interest in a particular exploration of rhythm after Stravinsky's mode
geared to the classical bar. If Boulez could so rapidly place rhythmics on a
basis-Messiaen's or, as it were, Stravinsky's-the question arises: Was it ever b
else? The derivation from Messiaen proves stronger than its supplementary dev
Leibowitz. It is to Messiaen, to his parallel construction of melody and rhythm,
35 Notes, p.72. Rudolf Stephan had already pointed out this connexion early on.
36 One need only go through the early post-war years of Melos, in those days dedicated to neo-classicisn: h
omiits this clich:.

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL 13

generalization of the concept of mode, that the idea of a transference of the 'serial princ
other dimensions besides pitch may be traced. To arrive at this point by 'consequence' o
to relinquish certain assumptions essential to the Viennese conception. Stravinsky w
foundation of the serial thought structure, and on this, his own basis, he was able to carry
startling conciliatory about-turn, and join 'the enemy'. Indeed, the above mentioned We
recordings emanated from Stravinsky's school; the choice of conductor excluded any da
backsliding into 'non-objective' attitudes towards this music.
For Boulez, Schoenberg's death also meant a return to his original field of interest. H
was not unique. Remembering that in 1945 he, and in 1948 a few German compos
Darmstadt, were introduced by Leibowitz to the laws of 12-tone compostion, and
Stockhausen's discovery of Webern went on more of less uninfluenced by Leibowitz, on
readily work out that there could not have been a true general assessment of Schoenber
Weber's music between 1945 and 1951. Serial music cannot claim historical descent from t
Viennese School, if only because the latter had no hand in the training of the Darm
protagonists. None of these had completed the relevant studies with a member of that
none had been exposed to the entire range of the problems being worked out there. His
necessity, which Stockhausen or Nono invoke for direct descent, is inspired by the des
legitimate, rather than rooted fact. That of all the older generation it was Herbert Eime
found himself in the central group speaks volumes.37 So although Leibowitz promulgat
music of the Viennese School, evidently it was not his role to hand on the traditions of
School. What he did hand on, ironically enough, was the historical concept, not the m
from which it sprang and which among the adepts was confined to certain externals
reception of Weber. The serialists, at all events, did receive from him some occasio
profound impressions, but only after their 'constitution' had already been framed. That t
ways of thinking, Messiaen's and Leibowitz's, could co-exist side by side, with fluct
influence, possibly explains why the situation was never unambiguously clarified. Probab
classic dodecaphonists, the old adherents of Schoenberg, had more illusions regardin
compatibility of the attitudes-Adoro and Kolisch, for instance, tried to assimilate some
newly fashionable points of view. Leibowitz eventually realized with something of a shoc
after the enthusiastic acceptance of Schoenberg's and his pupils' music the neo-classicist
were resurfacing (or had simply survived all along); that, in Darmstadt, Stravinsk
conquered.
For the young people who at the end of war, in a multiply corrupt situation, tried to
out the possibility of a fresh start, the 12-tone method, untainted by any whiff of collabor
had obvious attractions. In France, as also in Italy,38 it had come to be associated
intransigence and resistance. That the protagonists of the serial movement were in fact recr
from the former occupied countries goes some way to explain why they were so eager t
with the past. The delicate thread of the Viennese School tradition had snapped, but the
of fundamental change, tabula rasa, zero hour, demanded a clean break generally. It w
only a question of distancing oneself from most surviving music, one had to liberate
altogether from past abuses. Amid a contradictory mixture of impulses-enlightenin
rationalist, revolutionary and egalitarian, anarchist and totalitarian, positivist and my
they attempted to create a whole new order of the musical scene. Positively intoxicated w
idea of purity, driven by the obsession of cleansing, they addressed themselves to the pr
task of stripping away anything 'flamboyant',39 extirpating rank growth root and b
strictly abjuring all hierarchically stratified and prearranged categories: form, theme,
harmony, melody. Rhythm did not for the present figure among those overlapping dime
In order to permeate music rationally from its roots they took endless trouble to prise lo

37 It is interesting also to note the conversion of Heinrich Strobel, a former fierce opponent of Schoenberg, to the p
the serial movement.

38 Cf. Horst Weber, Dallapiccola - Madera - Nono: Tradition among the Italian Modernists, in: Rudolf Stephan and Sigrid
Wiesman (Ed.), Report on the 2. Congress of the Internationale Schinberg-Gesellschaft, Vienna, 1986, p.97.
39 This reminds one a little of that retrospective anti-Fascism so often mentioned and discussed by Klaus Heinrich, which
with the demolition of the 19th century facades expected to strike at the root of all evil.

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14 TEMPO

dry out sticky connexions, light up the dark recesses of the emotions, avo
transitions and ambiguous values. It suited the zero hour situation to go back to
style' and rebuild the whole from its elements. We have already seen that the
have no presuppositions was full of its own implications, deriving partly from
partly from Messiaen; the sort of dialectic in which the serialists ultimatel
entangled is common knowledge. That must be because mathematical and pseu
notions figured to an astonishing extent, instead of true expertise. The fai
movement marks the failure of an a priori, abstract conception to attain realizatio
been what Leibowitz-who had made available the viewpoint of historical co
when he called serialism an 'ultra-consequential' theory.40
Leibowitz's stance began to define itselfin a cognitive process which for the mo
with Boulez and was set off by the relationship of both to rhythm. Boulez lea
quickly what he could assimilate from Leibowitz's tuition, and also that he wa
different: he was not quite sure what, as one can see from his polemics ag
Nevertheless, he knew ultimately on which side he belonged. Leibowitz found
to work out his views on rhythm more precisely, but took a long time to realize
broken with the tradition of which he felt a part and was pursuing another parad
two positions were irreconcilable. In 1957, when he was invited to Darmstadt fo
he still seems to have believed he could achieve something there. Around this
influenced by Kolisch, he discovered that principle that would finally divi
opponents, being constitutionally linked (I can only make the bare assertion here)
of accents (Akzentstufentakt): the Espressivo.42 As he only fully faced this at a lat

Leibowitz (1.) with Rudolf Kolisch (photo: Kolisch Nachlass)

:-

40 ['ultra-consequentc'], if I understand the word correctly which Pierre-Michel Menger, in Le Paradoxe du Musicien: Le
compositeur, le tnlonane et I'ttat dans la socihte contemporaine (Flammarion), 1983, p.59, quotes without substantiation and
clearly also out of context.
41 The invitation reached Leibowitz too late.

42 Despite Heinz-Klaus Metzgcr's responsive 'Addendum in motu contrario' (cf. Musik-Konzepte, monograph on Anton
Webhern I, pp.207ff), which refers to expressive requirements being the motive for the utmost differentiation in serial
music-to which I would merely add 'It would be nice if it were so'; and despite certain ideas about realization,
composing-out and rationalization oft the Espressivo, which Scherhche and Kolisch also got hold of-the Darmstadt music
had expressive requirements, of course, but no Espressivo.

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 SHADES OF THE DOUBLE'S ORIGINAL 15

that the rift never wholly closed up again, between the original technical and the later linguis
investigations, marking a shift of interest from the 'present state of composition' to a con
with tradition (true, compositional activities continued, but without the pressure of have t
up-to-date). The same Leibowitz who had dubbed twelve-tone music 'une tendance...u
mouvement',43 refused to follow an avant-garde which seemed to him to set all hitherto
criteria aside and represented itself as totally unpredictable and absurdly wrong-headed.
The irritating thing was that there were still areas of agreement. Crucial concepts derived f
the Viennese School. True, they underwent a change of significance, and that may have been w
perplexed the Schoenbergians. The structural concept, on the way, as it were, from structu
structures, loses its relation to form: though the claims of the formal concept on structure are
completely waived, the concept itself has changed. The meaning of the term 'athematic' al
with the change from the syntactical dependence of 'classic' athematic music to an asyntac
music. Permanent variation is no longer an historically evolved task of composition, bu
programmable mechanism. The tractability of timbre-rows is inferred from the feasibilit
timbre-melody. The category of material loses its claim. And so on. Thus the object
Leibowitz raised against serial music are not unjustified, but they started out from assumpt
that seem to be no longer valid. Of course the possibilities of dodecaphony were far fr
exhausted; of course the 'parameters' were not historically prepared for equal treatmen
course the materials were manipulated without anyone being quite sure what they were, an
course nothing has been evolved that could challenge the classical 'character' for complexit
but such arguments seem strangely irrelevant to developements that were obviously histori
inevitable and to which serialism only contributed without itself setting them in mot
re-opening up of the homogeneous sound medium, amorphization, emancipation of noise,
Does it not look as though Leibowitz had nothing really to oppose to that? Or, a yet m
captious and pressing question: would, in other circumstances, a more thorough and promis
line of development have been possible from Leibowitz's postion?
As long as the serial concept was being built up, Leibowitz could intervene. Once it
developed and established, he was given no chance of further debate. This explains w
Leibowitz's attitude strikes one as less explicit and theoretically worked out than taking the sh
of a general reservation. If we try to take up the discussion that never was, this reservation will
to be converted into a stance and an argument. The Espressivo gives us a lead. When Leibow
discussing the exposition of Webem's late work, the first movement of the Symphony op. 21,
very stimulatingly outlines the idea of a tone which, as an intersection and node of voices, seem
gather and concentrate their various gravitational tendencies, almost as though it held a dynam
force transcending it. This qualitative concept accordingly contains a functional, a tension- a
density-component: the tone is not a single point but knot of complexities. Against that, insofa
the serial school has produced a concept of tone at all, it appears strangely flat and positivist. On
theory are the other parameters of'the tone' apart from frequency, given equal treatment as s
In practice it is only the intersection of divers streams, random vehicle of changing values
minimal material need to show up the structures. Consequently it does not seem fully grasped
composition. It might be that the initial attack is integrated, but not the further duration; or else
tone is thought of for its whole duration, but not in the transitions that link it to its surround
etc. Just as abstract as the contemplation of tone as an element are the views on structure, sett
style, and form. Beyond these positions, however, a polarity emerges to which the en
historical development of music in this century can be traced back: polarization between a 'mu
with tones' and one quasi without. One may, without grave injustice, name Schoenberg
Stravinsky as the chief exponents of these two main directions. Throughout al
transformations and derivations, the school of Schoenberg always regarded polyphony
composition with tones-by no means a closed perspective-while the serialists of Stravins
party were willing to sacrifice the tone as a guarantee of continuity and as the material of mu
in favour of more general conceptions. For Leibowitz, who rated polyphony equal with
compulsory history of music, autonomous rhythm lay outside his territory. The above-qu

43 Qu 'est-ce que la Musique de douze Sons? Le Concerto pour neJf lInstruments Op. 24 d'Anton Webemr, Liege 1948, p.61.

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16 TEMPO

argument of 1947, however, undeveloped and stark though it may appear, is

historical and systematic ramification. The history of organization by pitch ha
produced richly developed rhythmics and metrics-whose compositional mani
not been anything like fully explored-while after overcoming states like
concentration on rhythm has always given rise to harmonically meagre or e
certainly insufficiently considered, results. Even after having adopted the 12-t
Stravinsky's followers markedly lowered the standards of precision and tension
which Schoenberg and Webern excelled. Consequently Leibowitz would have d
opting for music of tones was a free choice between equally valid possibilities.
A prospectus from Editions Dynamo, Liege, has preserved the project of a ser
evidently only the first number, a Lasso-transcription by Leibowitz, ever appear
vivante.4 The publisher's advertisement sets out a programme in a few se
certainly originated with Leibowitz:

NOTRE BUT: Faire de la musicologic une science vivante, un instrument d'cnquetes compositionnelles e
compositeurs et non plus un prctexte a 6rudition. La nlusicologie r6side en premier lieu dans son esprit de
dans cette attitude d'erudition froide et scche qui est le propre d'un grand nombre de musicologues. Nous v
a cctte nouvelle recherche une ccrtaine parent6 avec l'acte createur du compositeur qui est l'honmme Ie mie
musicologue, pour donner a la musicologic son sens v6ritable, pour la fonder.

Leibowitz himself confessed that he regarded theory and composition as ins

aspects of the same thing. For him composition was at least partly a process of
assimilation of the discoveries of the past. I do not yet feel able to judge his
oeuvre, but at any rate one can say that-as he wrote of Adorno-his experience
was of value to his writings. As his theoretical interest was centred on questions
and he regarded it as his task to shed light on these, one would perhaps do well not
voice of this musicologist.

44 I aml indebted to Rudolf Stephan for my knowlcdgc of this document.

ID X COMPOSITION PRIZE
Stichting FORYOUNG EUROPEAN COMPOSERS
Studiefonds UP TO THE AGE OF 30
Oskar Back
On behalf of the European Options Exchange in Amsterdam (EOE),
Oskar Back Scholarship Foundation is pleased to announce a music-writ
competition for young composers. The winning composition, a

VIOLIN SOLO
lasting about 8 minutes
will be performed for the first time during the twelfth National Violin
Competition for young Dutch violinists, to be held at the Concertgebouw,
Amsterdam, in March 1989. The prize-winning composition will form part of
the compulsory section of the programme to be performed by the com-
petitors in the 1989 National Violin Competition.
The composer of the winning piece will receive the European Options
Exchange prize of 10,000 guilders, as well as the trip to Amsterdam for the
prize-giving ceremony on 25 March 1989.
Compositions must be submitted by 1 November 1988 at the latest.
Further information and competition rules are available from:
National Violin Competition 1989, c/o Concertgebouw, Van Baerlestraat 98,
1071 BB Amsterdam, Netherlands. Tel: (0) 20-5730573

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