Zimmermann, Huber and musical creation in the United States
Three new publications from Editions Contrechamps devoted to 20th-century music.
After the writings of Bernd Alois Zimmermann, translated and published in 2010, Editions Contrechamps is publishing the first scientific work in French devoted to the German composer: fourteen contributions forming the proceedings of a symposium held in Strasbourg in 2010. They include: an approach to one of the most powerful works of 20th-century music, his Action Ecclésiastique, in which Zimmermann denounces the omnipotence of injustice and oppression, with no hope of redemption; a testimonial from Hans Zender, performer and friend of the German composer; studies on temporality in the structuring of his works, on the writing of his compositions for solo cello or on the use of a chorale in a scene from Die Soldaten. Articles are also devoted to aesthetic or philosophical reflections, in particular Laurent Feneyrou's article on Zimmermann's philosophy of time. The book concludes with an interview with the composer's widow.
Laurent Denave offers a vision of the musical history of the United States from 1890 to 1990 from a sociocultural rather than a purely musical angle. In particular, he highlights the relationship between the entertainment industry and what he calls the "conservative musical revolution", which, through an inversion of values, seeks to make the commercial pole seem avant-garde, while other forms of music are decreed conservative and academic. He rightly denounces the penetration, over the past 45 years, of the logic of short-term profit into the sphere of modern music, imposing an easier and more lucrative music, a strict negation of culture. He questions the conditions conducive to the emergence of original musical creation, and warns of what we could face if the American model were imported into Europe.
Finally, Contrechamps has reissued and expanded the volume devoted to the writings of Klaus Huber. It includes all the notes written by the composer about his works, as well as a selection of essays, often short, focusing less on the music itself than on his commitment to a fairer, more social, more humane world.
Regards croisés sur Bernd Alois Zimmermann, edited by Pierre Michel, Heribert Henrich and Philippe Albèra, 274 pages, Editions Contrechamps, Geneva 2012 ISBN 978-2-940068-43-2
Laurent Denave, Un siècle de création musicale aux Etats-Unis, 416 pages, ISBN 978-2-940068-41-8
Klaus Huber, In the name of the oppressed, writings and interviews, 312 pages, ISBN 978-2-940068-42-5
