Germany's Music Days, a tribute to contemporary music

Slamet A. Sjukur, Contributor, Jakarta

The Music Days festival has been held every year in Donaueschingen, Germany, since 1921, usually in October. The next one will take place from Oct. 19 to Oct. 21 -- very short compared with the recent Third Art Summit Indonesia 2001 here, or the Jakarta Arts Festival, each of which lasted a whole month.

During the three-day music event, 19 new works of particular importance for the century have been especially commissioned for the festival, one audio piece for the radio will be honored by the Karl Sczuka Prize of Sudwestrundfunk radio and one jazz session will be presented.

Virtual Video-Opera in 3 acts by Peider A.Defilla will also be performed, one act a day. Alvin Lucier, this magician of music who is also among the 19 trusted composers for this year, will present his new piece Oval for orchestra with sinus generator frequency which fades out and descends slowly.

The festival's director, Armin Koehler, recalled the history behind the choice of the program. Characteristic of the l990s was the coexistence on equal terms of several very different esthetic attitudes and tendencies.

The Donaueschingen Festival aspired not only to represent this broad palette, but also to give new impulses to new music. Against this background there was a risk that when a festival is being planned, the result will be "colorful monotony", a program with no profile or character of its own.

"I have tried to avoid this in the past by selecting themes. By means of these themes I have attempted to focus attention on certain definite, specific aspects of musical endeavor and thought processes," Koehler said.

The aim has always been, however, to select themes which develop directly and immediately out of musical structures, such as color, space, time, material and language. It is quite natural that the themes involved in these complex processes are infinite.

"Since we would never select extra-musical themes, which are too superficial and too imposed as it is customary everywhere now, we only have to think of 'Music and Cosmos', 'Music and Myth', 'Creation' and so on. I decided in 1999 to dispense with themes," Koehler said.

A festival needs good preparations, but when the planning process takes too much time then it runs the risk of being no longer up to date. Koehler cannot agree with this reasoning.

"We are not a high gloss festival running after the latest short-lived development in musical fashion, or setting trends of this kind, but a working festival in which, over the long term, new methods of composition are tried out.

"We present musical art and not short-lived fashion. This long period of advance planning is necessary since the number of really talented musicians is relatively small, which means that they are wooed by many festivals and sometimes have to plan as much as three years in advance".

Donaueschingen Music Days reflects a living history of contemporary music.

It all began with the aristocratic Furstenberger family in the small village of Donaueschingen. It was the custom in the 18th century for them to have their own orchestra and theater. Two figures of new music at that time, Mozart and then Liszt, were among their guests.

After Heinrich Burkard became music director in 1909, the way to the festival was slowly paved. The Society of Donaueschingen Music Lovers was founded (1913).

On July 31, 1921, the first concert of the Donaueschingen Chamber Music presentation for the advancement of contemporary sound-art took place. It was not just the tradition of Donaueschingen Music Days, instead it was the foundation of the culture of a particular and expert festival. In the program there were newcomers Paul Hindemith, Alban Berg, Alois Haba, Ernst Krenek and Philipp Jarnach.

Josef Hausler, Koehler's predecessor, said one day that in contemporary art, no standard can guarantee the value of creation. "... we must have a strong belief and feel the need to do it and await the results. If every year we get one or two compositions which continue to be on the music scene for 15 to 20 years, it is already a success."

The festival is organized by the Society of Donaueschingen Music Lovers in collaboration with the City of Donaueschingen, Sudwestrundfunk (SWR) radio in Baden-Baden.