When Thomas Schäfer found out a few days after the start of the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt that a member of the French ensemble Linea had tested positive for Corona, he had to make a decision very quickly. Originally, the twelve musicians should have come to the concert from Strasbourg at short notice, says Schäfer. “We looked again at the rehearsal plans, who was with whom, and then we realized: This is a crystal clear case from the Covid protocol.” Until shortly before midnight, the artistic director of the holiday courses and his team discussed how to deal with the situation. “In my opinion, the risk of infection would still have been low,” explains Thomas Schäfer, who is also the director of the Darmstadt International Music Institute. “But if there is an outbreak here because of that, then I have a huge problem as a municipal cultural organizer. Then I can close the academy. Therefore, despite all the emotionality, it was clear that we would have to cancel the concert.”
Such failures can hardly be avoided these days due to the pandemic. But no other festival could have found a full replacement as quickly as the holiday courses. Within one day there were nine participants who performed an evening of more than an hour of rehearsed and improvised pieces in the Lichtenberg School under the working title “Carte Blanche”, including the viola teacher Geneviève Strosser with an excerpt from the precise, onomatopoeic text performance “Machinachions” and the Israeli electric guitarist Yaron Deutsch with an intricate improvisation. The ad hoc concert was evidence of the concentration of talent that shows up here in Darmstadt every two years.
The 50th edition of the Darmstadt Summer Course, the world’s most important meeting for musicians, composers and theorists of contemporary music, which will end this Wednesday, took place for the first time in an odd year due to Corona. Founded in 1946 by Wolfgang Steinecke and held annually until 1970, the holiday courses are a yardstick and indicator of the state of new music. Avant-garde giants like Messiaen and Cage, Stockhausen and Boulez helped shape them. They live from exchange, from being close to like-minded people from all over the world.
The holiday courses are a chamber version of themselves, but they allow for the exchange of like-minded people
Originally, the artistic program was scheduled for the beginning of April 2020. In the following summer, as in previous years, around 450 participants who had registered since January were expected. “At the beginning of the pandemic, we were still a bit naive and thought: Maybe it will be over after a few months,” remembers Thomas Schäfer. “But after Easter I decided together with Darmstadt’s Lord Mayor Jochen Partsch to postpone everything.” That did not mean, as in many other cases, a complete shift to the virtual world, but a move to this year, with a mixture of face-to-face and online formats.
As far as the financing was concerned, all sponsors – the municipality, the state of Hesse and the federal government – were extremely flexible. Although subsidies are usually tied up in the budget year, Schäfer was able to carry over almost the entire budget of 1.3 million euros into 2021. In this way, all 20 commissioned compositions, a core concern of the holiday courses, were implemented as planned. The contribution rate was reduced, reflecting the fact that most musicians had not had any performance opportunities or income since the initial lockdown.
Trevor Saint plays experimental works by Alvin Lucier on the carillon during the summer courses for new music.
(Photo: Kristof Lemp)
Nevertheless, of course, a lot is different this year. On the campus in front of the Lichtenbergschule grammar school, which was converted into an event location during the summer holidays, there is no excessively lively activity even on sunny days. Two small food trucks take care of those participants who take part in the courses in the Academy for Music on the opposite side. Colloquial language is English. Only around 140 musicians, lecturers and lecturers have traveled, the composition courses take place via Zoom.
Some things are hybrid, such as the “Table of Contents” workshop by the sound artist Tarek Atoui. The Lebanese native gives an introduction to his concept of touching sound via a video link from Paris. “The materials should have a chance to express themselves sonically,” he explains to half a dozen participants in the Lichtenbergschule cafeteria. A whole series of such materials is arranged on three tables, with which the musicians then independently explore this idea after Atoui’s lecture: a glass marble scratching on a metal turntable connected to transistor amplifiers, grit on an eardrum, felt on one Cymbal is rubbed. A short survey of those present shows that none of the young musicians find the format less personal than if Atoui were present himself.
The young Russian composer Elena Rykova does not necessarily see the fact that things are not as lively as usual as a disadvantage. She was in Darmstadt as a student and says it can be a bit overwhelming to see so many people who are usually here. “It’s a chamber version of the normal vacation courses,” she states. Rykova has lived in Boston for six years. There she uses the studio at Harvard University, where she is working towards her doctorate. Her journey to Germany was strange: “I hadn’t seen my family in Russia for a year and a half,” she says. “I visited them at the first opportunity and wanted to travel to Germany from there – but I should have been quarantined or perhaps not have been allowed into the country at all. Instead, I traveled to the USA, stayed there for ten days and then flew to Germany. That shortened the process. “
The beginnings of “Asymptotic Freedom”, a new composition by Rykova for six electric guitars, were worked out in February 2020, shortly before the first lockdown. “That was lucky, we had time to get to know each other through one-on-one sessions and to improvise together.” At the time, she thought you could come up with a concept in summer where all musicians would play six solos in different rooms. But when it became clear that everything would be postponed until 2021, the project changed: “I wanted to see everyone together in one room. Everything is focused on the sound, less accompanied by visual gestures. Simply musicians in a semicircle – back to basics. “
Elena Rykova praises the support that musicians find in Germany – in Russia everyone fights for themselves
As an alumna of the Berlin Academy of the Arts, Elena Rykova could have applied for funding in Germany, but did not do so because she benefited from another scholarship. She considers the support that musicians, including from the contemporary scene, received in this country during the pandemic, especially in comparison to the USA, where many colleagues could no longer have paid their rent, or in Russia: “There is anyway everyone is on their own “.
In principle, Lucas Fels, cellist of the Arditti string quartet based in London, sees it similarly, which played pieces by five female composers on the opening weekend in Darmstadt, including the first complete performance of Karola Obermüller’s composition “xs” https://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur /. “Our division,” says Fels, “is well funded in Germany. The Federal Culture Foundation, Music Fund, Siemens Foundation, universities – everyone has worked incredibly hard. That is much better than 20 or 30 years ago, and in the Corona -Time made noticeable. “
Nevertheless, the pandemic has already left a gap in operations: “Now that touring, especially for British ensembles through Brexit, has become more complicated, so people are needed more urgently than ever to take care of acquisition, accommodation and transport the agencies broken – like Cami last August, one of the largest and oldest agencies for classical music. Nobody has any reserves. “
Despite the comparatively comfortable German subsidy situation, Fels is preparing for harder times: As a professor at the Frankfurt University of Music, he recommends his students “to be open to doing something different”, that is, to have a plan B.
Like Elena Rykova, Fels refers to the situation of his colleagues in the United States as an alternative, perhaps warning example: “The outstanding American ensembles for new music, such as the International Contemporary Ensemble or Dal Niente, all live from hand to mouth. They do individual projects or a tour, the rest of the time they work at Starbucks. “
In the long term, he sees a danger in Germany in the lack of courage to try out new things on a broad basis, according to Lucas Fels, according to the motto: We can’t afford that at the moment, let’s see how it looks in a few years . “And that’s the great thing here in Darmstadt,” he says, “this will to try new things over and over again – they pull it off.” From now on in odd years.