Abgrund Hintergrund or music without sound

Ramon Barce in Madrid. Photo by Elena Martín, taken from the composer's website (ramonbarce.es)

"Abgrund Hintergrund or music without sound" is an essay by teacher and musicologist Juan Francisco de Dios Hernández, bringing together an analysis of Ramón Barce's piece with Zaj with the artist's own thoughts and writings regarding it.

Abgrund Hintergrund or music without sound

Abgrund, Hintergrund is a non-sound musical piece composed by Ramón Barce (1928-2008) in 1964 for the ZAJ group's presentation concert. Zaj was founded by Juan Hidalgo (1927-2018), Walter Marchetti (1931-2015) and Barce himself in that same year. The Zaj aesthetic assumes the aesthetic assumptions of John Cage's happening and the multidisciplinary proposals of the Fluxus by Wolf Vostell, but constituted by and for music. In its first stage, Zaj managed not to be a subsidiary of other arts, in addition to enjoying a more complex dialectical proposition than that of its predecessors. To these characteristics we must add the particularity of having developed during a dictatorship. Zaj's impact was more than singular, receiving an unusual echo in the media, both in the press and in the film newsreels (NODO). With the passing decades, Zaj was gradually repositioned within a space that was increasingly distant from its initial ideas, a fact that coincided with the natural loss of reaction from the public. In its latter period, this led it to become an object of study in the form of retrospectives, numerous musicological studies and a room in the Reina Sofía Museum of Contemporary Art.

In its original conception, Zaj was intended as a group performing music-theatre pieces, which were intended to serve as a starting point for rethinking issues to do with creation. Music was the main object of creative reflection, considering that the three founders were musicians. After Ramón Barce's departure, the members of Zaj continued to be trained musicians, despite the fact that during the second wave ideas from the plastic arts were gaining ground.

Abgrund, Hintergrund represents the most complete Zaj work created by Ramón Barce. The title of the work comes from a phrase from Wozzeck by Georg Büchner and, according to Barce himself, it offered a versatility which was perfect for covering various a priori elements. On the one hand, there is the literal sense: Abyss and secondary plane or background; and on the other, a predisposition to put into action elements related to the scenic space and musical theatre.

Abgrund, Hintergrund was created for the first Zaj concert held on Saturday, November 21st, 1964 at the Colegio Mayor Menéndez Pidal of the University of Madrid (now known as the Complutense). Also performed were 4'33 '' (1952) by John Cage, Piano Music 2 (1961) by Walter Marchetti, Estudio de Impulsos (1964) by Ramón Barce, A letter by David Tudor (1961) by Juan Hidalgo, Variations IV (1963) by John Cage, El recorrido japonés (1963) by Juan Hidalgo and Ailanthus (1964) by Walter Marchetti.

It is one of the aesthetic propositions that aimed to unite the random and the visual in the 1960s, reformulating the trail proposed by John Cage's happenings. Zaj was born with a more musical and visual concept than its predecessors, trying to develop certain concepts of musical language regardless of sound. Abgrund, Hintergrund represents an application of these musical concepts stripped of their sonic nature. Pitch, tempo, rhythm and formal structure are formulated with absolute accuracy, appearing only theatrically and visually. The score is presented in the form of a drawing in which the outline of the three performers can be seen, numbering the spaces and each of the actions to be performed.

The staging of Abgrund, Hintergrund requires a screen or a frame that supports a brown wrapping paper - or in other interpretations a cloth - with certain holes arranged in perfectly pre-determined places so that the three performers will always be hidden. Said space appears in the score divided into five zones or panels to which a series of actions that have a non-sound musical relationship is allocated. There are also some accessories such as a coil of thick rope, a chair and a helium balloon - which must protrude; all this still behind the screen and hiding the actors, with the exception of their hands and feet, and the head of one of them, executing up to 17 different actions. The work requires notable synchronisation, despite the fact that the performers enjoy a certain freedom of action, and a duration of close to 5 minutes is assigned.

Abgrund, Hintergrund is a work that develops a visual theory of musical theatre, whose intention seeks to question the urgent need for sound in order to execute certain elements of musical language. In this way, the musical piece is stripped of the sound concept without giving up the typical defining elements of music. Within the Barce catalogue, Abgrund, Hintergrund is positioned in a fundamental period for the development of its production. At the same time as the founding of Zaj, Barce was working with a complex musical system that would be called the Level System. Zaj therefore came at a time when Barce was trying out a new way to rethink the natural relationships of music. Zaj musical theatre is diametrically opposed to the work on the polyphonic order that he was simultaneously elaborating. Nevertheless, in Barce's aesthetic ideology there was always a space for performance from Coral Hablado (1966) to Oleada (1982) or Serenata (1982), not to mention his never-completed project of making an opera.

Related texts by Ramón Barce

Barce, Ramón. Text delivered to the censor's office on the occasion of the first Zaj concert en Sarmiento, JA (ed.), Zaj. Musical Theatre Concert, Sensxperiment, 2007.

“…Abgrund, Hintergrund (1964): On the stage there is a screen that completely hides the three interpreters. Their work is distributed over zones. Actor A, Actions: 1) makes a hand appear to the right and then withdraws it; this movement is repeated several times, alternating with the others, 2) alternatively makes one foot appear and withdraws it, 3) slowly raises a balloon behind the screen, ultimately freeing it, 4) puts hand through the paper of the screen. B's actions: 1) alternating appearance of hands and feet, 2) puts hand through the paper screen, 3) slowly lets out a long roll of rope over the top. C's actions: 1) alternately makes hands and feet appear out of the screen, 2) puts hands through paper screen, 3) stands on a chair sticking head and shoulders above the screen. Approximate duration: 5 '…”

Barce, Ramón. Avant-garde. Experimental music in Madrid in Revista Índice, nº 193. January, 1965.

“For the first time in Spain, the public had the chance to see a complete session of experimental music with actions and the presentation of objects.

Organized by Dido Pequeño Teatro, last November 21st, a full session of experimental music, with actions and presentation of objects, was held at the Colegio mayor Menéndez Pelayo in Madrid. The following works were on the program: John Cage: 4'33 ; Walter Marchetti: Piano Music 2; Ramón Barce: Estudio de Impulsos: Juan Hidalgo: A letter for David Tudor; John Cage: Variations IV; Juan Hidalgo: El recorrido japonés; Ramón Barce: Abgrund, Hintergrund; Walter Marchetti: Ailanthus. The performance was put on by the three afore-mentioned composers: Hidalgo, Barce and Marchetti.

Such a session is not easy to describe. It would be necessary to illustrate before, even if only briefly, what is understood today by "musical theatre". A long and varied series of dynamic, aesthetic and ideological prompts has led to this new artistic genre. The closest, from abroad: the Neo-dadá movement and Japanese Zen. The darkest and most intimate: the evolution of the formal definition of music towards successive integrations that are more random and visual. In some way, certain suggestions regarding symbolic conflicts without conceptual resolution may come from the Neo-dadá movement, and from Japanese Zen the sparseness and simplicity of elements and the valuation of the objects themselves.

Formally, the integration of "actions" in music is a process of incorporation that tries to avoid certain perceptual disturbances, in the form of, for example, the ultra-rational separation of two or more forms received simultaneously. For example: in a regular concert, in addition to the musical work itself, perceptions from various sources are inevitably presented to the public, which, whether desired or not, penetrate the sound form, disrupting it and forcing listeners to reject them continuously, as they are considered "incompatible". These include, for example, the appearance, number, placement and movements of the performers; the layout and character of the room; the panorama - near and far - of the audience; and a multitude of "tangential" noises and sounds that the Faustian mind of the average European receives and must continuously be expelling.

This multiplicity of perceived forms equally affects the public and the performers. These latter receive sound and visual stimuli from different topographic angles and psychological situations. And especially from the audience, who are for them –at the same time– an inert and respectful mass and a turbulent sea that can “disturb” the performance.

The modern "musical theatre" has broken the barrier between stage and room, between performers and public, to limits that Fedor Stepun, devoted as he was to audience cooperation, could not have imagined. For the audience, these sessions are no longer a mere spectacle that is viewed with submission and passivity. And, vice versa, for the performers, the audience is no longer that dark and crouching crowd which they aim to win over from the stage - and only from the stage. An authentic interaction has come about, in which any utterance or manifestations - whether from one side or the other - have to be considered not as disruption, but as cooperation. Also the old normative tricks of "stage mischief" (what in Spain is called "carpintería teatral" (theatrical carpentry), and which consists of smoothing any rough edges of true originality with an equalising and gratifying "craft" at a low standard) are here abolished. And, of course, all "narrative" that seeks emotion for the outcome has disappeared.

The works that premiered in this session were very varied and contrasting in nature. Music (sounds or noises), considered as a further Action, would disappear and reappear without ever occupying a privileged position. The various trajectories of the interpreters as they crossed the stage and the room in all directions suggested to the spectators the existence of an integral space of which they formed part and where the works were unfolded.

An important aspect of the concert was the "presentation" of objects. The interpreters not only brought, located and moved around objects of very different kinds, but in some cases, these objects themselves occupied the foreground in the absolute absence of the performers (for example, in Hidalgo's El recorrido japonés, and, at times, in Variations III by Cage). Such objects appear stripped of their usual functionalism - in the same way as the actions and routes taken - in order to avoid a collision between the valid forms (the work itself) and the tangential forms (the noises, aspects or actions that, inevitably - owing to their functionality - disturb the work). Both objects and actions (including sounds and noises) are thus perceived by the viewer as pure manifestations, valid in and of themselves and totally integrated in an organic context.

The crowded audience of the room cooperated discreetly and intelligently, providing the required Randomness. From the first moment, and despite the novelty of what was being witnessed, the audience felt immersed and involved in the action. The composer-performers did hard and complex work, despite its apparent simplicity - the result of six months of intense preparation - and were rewarded by the passionate interest of the viewers, who immediately understood that they were present at the most disquieting limit of the musical avant-garde."

Barce, Ramón. Sobre Coral Hablado in Revista Sonda, nº 6, pp. 27-44. May 1973.

“…I wrote the definitive version of Coral hablado in 1966. My experiences with the Zaj group were recent. I had composed three experimental pieces for them: Estudio de impulsos and Abgrund, Hintergrund, in 1964, and Translations, in 1965. I was then looking for various formulas that would help explain the musical action by themselves and which would avoid the natural shock produced in the listener-spectator by the happening in which conventional music (or even sound in general) is removed from the show. Often the happening is a kind of abstract theatrical (or ritual) representation built from everyday elements. The public immediately recognises the everyday (or trivial) and is then surprised by the use which is made of this trivial material. Thus, it suffers two shocks that can be compared to the surprise or suspense of certain film gags. Not that this is inherently objectionable, but there is no doubt that unmotivated (or insufficiently motivated) surprise is too easy a draw, and cannot be used systematically. In the case of Coral hablado, the solution which I found is unprecedented in the history of music I think, and it can be said that it is typically and specifically experimental..."

Barce, Ramón. My musical activity in the Zaj group in de Dios Hernández, JF Zaj-Barce-Zaj, pp.38-43, Madrid, 2015. ISBN: 9781514722527.

"The Zaj Group was founded in Madrid in 1964. It was initially formed by Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti and myself. Our intention was to create a group in Spain in order to present to the public the most avant-garde aspects of music at that time. Above all, to stage "events" or "happenings": shows that were considered musical, but in which the visual prevailed. The idea of creating such a group came from Hidalgo and Marchetti. They had come from Italy to Spain - in Italy they had been in contact with John Cage and other avant-garde currents who at that time were proposing "alternative solutions" to dodecaphonism [Zwölftontechnik] and serial music [serielle Musik]. These solutions were based on “open music” [offene Musik].

In "open music", musical notation is versatile, such that it allows the interpreter a variable degree of freedom in choosing the pitch of the notes, the tempo, the silences, the instruments... If this freedom is taken to the extreme, it allows the interpreter to perform actions that are not specifically musical, such as moving, getting up, sitting, walking, gesturing, speaking... A degree of absolute freedom could lead to the strangest and most unimaginable situations. This leads to the idea that "everything is music", even total silence. Often, conventional musical notation does not allow for all the freedom that the composer would wish; or permit actions that are far removed from the world of sound. That is why many scores of open music, and all those of the Zaj Group, use other means such as so-called "graphics" (drawings, marks, lines, any type of graphics), or simply texts that explicitly indicate what Performers must or can do.

Naturally, the actions suggested or described in the scores (graphics or texts), have to be "presented" to the public. Thus, the entire show becomes a form of theatre, a very original and varied "musical theatre". Zaj shows generally avoided all sorts of "plot" Thema. Because plot, or narration, creates a logic which is proper to a stage play; which we did not want.

In any case, the visual actions witnessed by the public necessarily evoke symbols in that audience. This was a problem for the musical sense of the Zaj Group shows. And, in general, it was a problem for all kinds of abstract "musical theatre". For the symbol which precedes organised sound is generally slight, ambiguous; it does not refer to concrete objects or concrete facts: it is far removed from the concrete representations of the extra-musical world. On the other hand, the symbolism that comes from body movements, gestures and actions (even if they are absurd) immediately evokes for the viewer some aspect of real life.

In this way, it is likely that the viewer relates such a performance to some plot feature suggested by the stage actions. Normally, many spectators set off in search of a "meaning", partial or total; a meaning that is often foreign to the very intention of the show.

It was important to me to avoid, as far as possible, such references to a plot or global symbolic meaning. My project for Zaj was to create true musical works, replacing the sound with scenic actions. Actions naturally devoid of meaning, which followed one another, overlapped or combined with each other in a way similar to the way in which sounds (organised notes) behave in the musical work. All the actions would take place in time, as occurs in the sound musical work. Thus, these works written for Zaj were a “visual music” in which the important thing was the combinations of those actions, and not the apparent content, not the actions themselves. For the Zaj Group I wrote Estudio de impulsos, Abgrund Hintergrund y Traslaciones.

Estudio de impulsos (1964) is a graph of lines that tangle and intersect; and it focuses on the idea of two pianists moving around the piano for a few minutes. The piece consists of three pages, in which, with absolute freedom, a few paths and actions are suggested (always next to the piano); the piece is absolutely “open”, but not - “improvised”. Before the concert, the performers have to translate the graphic into concrete and determined actions, and strictly abide by them in the version they put before the public. That is to say, they can do whatever they want, but establish it before the concert and then follow it exactly. At least that's what we did in our performances.

Certainly it would also be possible - since nothing is said to the contrary in the score - not determine anything and act on stage with total improvisation. What is determined, however, is the time: the work must last exactly three minutes. Both performers can also play some notes on the keyboard: it is an option that may or may not be used.

Abgrund Hintergrund (1964) bears a title in German. This title was surely suggested to me in the first place by that painful phrase that Georg Büchner puts in Wozzeck's mouth: “Der Mensh ist ein Abgrund"; and also by the phonetic game (impossible in Spanish) between "Abgrund" (in Spanish "abismo", meaning abyss) and "Hintegrund ”(in Spanish “segundo término”, meaning background).

As in Estudio de impulsos, the work is very open: but it is also required that all the actions are decided upon in advance, and in that in the performance they are strictly carried out, along with adherence to the time.

Three actors and a large 2-metre-wide screen (divided into five panels, each about 40 centimetres wide) are required. In reality, the screen is formed simply of wooden frames, and the material that covers the panels is strong wrapping paper. The three actors will be only partially visible: they will always be behind the screen, and only hands, feet or head will sometimes appear. Some accessories are also necessary: a roll of thick rope, a chair and a balloon, all behind the screen - they will only appear at some points. The actual performance is left to the performers, but, as we have already said, before the concert it has to be planned and rehearsed..."