![Kazimierz Serocki - ‘Musica Concertante: Segments for Chamber Orchestra; Episodes; Symphonic Frescos’[Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Krenz] Vinyl LP, Wergo (1970)
My only contact with Kazimierz Serocki had been through a tiny song called: “Eyes of Air”, made after a poem by Julian Przybos, and in the voice of diva Halina Lukomska. The song can be found in a split-release whose original pressing from 1968 I was lucky enough to get, and is thereby included along with works by Lutoslawsk and Augustyn Bloch. Beautiful as it is the song does not convey, even remotely, the scope, range and reach of Serocki’s aesthetics, into which I crashed head-on in awe and curiosity; the four pieces showcase atonal music, lively and sparkling insightful as can be.Serocki’s works, composed from 1958 to mid-sixties ascribes to radical atonalism and delves into blends of serialism freely conceived, invented by himself. If I played these pieces asking you to guess who had written them I am sure three names would pop up, maybe not in the following order apart from the first: Iannis Xenakis, and then Giacinto Scelsi and Hans Werner Henze.These pieces sound stochastic a-la-Xenakis, but stochastic with a twist. In fact Serocki did not feel oppressed by that which Ianni identified as too deterministic patterns in serial rationalities that prevailed at the time when he proposed his stochastic music (term stems from the Greek: random).To get a vantage point on Serockis’ aural choices one should bear in mind one great political-aesthetical conundrum. First what the conundrum is not about: it is not at all to be or not to be serialist or, in other words, to ascribe or not to ascribe to serialism in avant-garde classical. Serialisms will be as many as composers will design them. To adopt this or that serial episteme, including inventing a brand new one, will always be a practice of freedom. That was, bluntly put, why Xenakis, by making resistance to some modalities of serialism as too deterministic, ended up inventing a new serialism. Absolutely successful in his invention, and once more opening up new directions in modern music — it was a routine in Xenakis career, by the way —, stochastic music brought in ‘probability distributions’ and indeterminacy (nothing to do with Cage’s) into serialism to great effect and wonderful consequences. But it was and has been another blend of serialism.Then again, if being serialist or not is not the big conundrum in modern avant-garde music, which is the conundrum? It is to be or not be atonal. In atonal realm, any system, whatever one decides to call this system, which steps out of totally arbitrary, unrepeatable randomness, will be a serial or serialist episteme. Furthermore, one does not need to emulate or copy Anton Webern — or any other foundational role model — in order to make serialist music, as many still insist in claiming or indirectly assuming.Hence, at the end of the day, Serocki’s hard-core serialism (some of it incorporating splinters of the good ‘old-ever-green’ twelve-tone template) reaches the intensity of the boiling points and the dizzying heights of Xenakis’ stochastic music, without ever being infused with the latter’s stochasticism. Nevertheless, what Serocki shared with Xenakis and which made feasible the unleashing of his innovative drives away from tonal hegemony was the radical option of making atonal music in novel ways; novel ways meant serialist ways. Thus, if there are oppressive inflections to be identified and opposed to, they are tonal epistemes, not serialism(s).If some fancy record label such as Kairós, Col Legno, Neos, Da Capo, and Mode released new renditions of the pieces hereby included (with a track-list as it reads in this release, just for fun, as if it was a remake), it would become an instant cult as any release by Haas, Nørgård, Ruders, Ablinger, or Lachenmann. If you are into avant-garde classics and find this LP (hard to believe it was released in 1970) in mint or good or any condition, consider purchasing it on the spot.I will digitalise my copy before holes appear in it…
docperkins](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzh8mj7U4D1qzi4j0o1_400.jpg)
Kazimierz Serocki - ‘Musica Concertante: Segments for Chamber Orchestra; Episodes; Symphonic Frescos’[Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra/ Krenz] Vinyl LP, Wergo (1970)
My only contact with Kazimierz Serocki had been through a tiny song called: “Eyes of Air”, made after a poem by Julian Przybos, and in the voice of diva Halina Lukomska. The song can be found in a split-release whose original pressing from 1968 I was lucky enough to get, and is thereby included along with works by Lutoslawsk and Augustyn Bloch. Beautiful as it is the song does not convey, even remotely, the scope, range and reach of Serocki’s aesthetics, into which I crashed head-on in awe and curiosity; the four pieces showcase atonal music, lively and sparkling insightful as can be.
Serocki’s works, composed from 1958 to mid-sixties ascribes to radical atonalism and delves into blends of serialism freely conceived, invented by himself. If I played these pieces asking you to guess who had written them I am sure three names would pop up, maybe not in the following order apart from the first: Iannis Xenakis, and then Giacinto Scelsi and Hans Werner Henze.
These pieces sound stochastic a-la-Xenakis, but stochastic with a twist. In fact Serocki did not feel oppressed by that which Ianni identified as too deterministic patterns in serial rationalities that prevailed at the time when he proposed his stochastic music (term stems from the Greek: random).
To get a vantage point on Serockis’ aural choices one should bear in mind one great political-aesthetical conundrum. First what the conundrum is not about: it is not at all to be or not to be serialist or, in other words, to ascribe or not to ascribe to serialism in avant-garde classical. Serialisms will be as many as composers will design them. To adopt this or that serial episteme, including inventing a brand new one, will always be a practice of freedom. That was, bluntly put, why Xenakis, by making resistance to some modalities of serialism as too deterministic, ended up inventing a new serialism. Absolutely successful in his invention, and once more opening up new directions in modern music — it was a routine in Xenakis career, by the way —, stochastic music brought in ‘probability distributions’ and indeterminacy (nothing to do with Cage’s) into serialism to great effect and wonderful consequences. But it was and has been another blend of serialism.
Then again, if being serialist or not is not the big conundrum in modern avant-garde music, which is the conundrum? It is to be or not be atonal. In atonal realm, any system, whatever one decides to call this system, which steps out of totally arbitrary, unrepeatable randomness, will be a serial or serialist episteme. Furthermore, one does not need to emulate or copy Anton Webern — or any other foundational role model — in order to make serialist music, as many still insist in claiming or indirectly assuming.
Hence, at the end of the day, Serocki’s hard-core serialism (some of it incorporating splinters of the good ‘old-ever-green’ twelve-tone template) reaches the intensity of the boiling points and the dizzying heights of Xenakis’ stochastic music, without ever being infused with the latter’s stochasticism. Nevertheless, what Serocki shared with Xenakis and which made feasible the unleashing of his innovative drives away from tonal hegemony was the radical option of making atonal music in novel ways; novel ways meant serialist ways. Thus, if there are oppressive inflections to be identified and opposed to, they are tonal epistemes, not serialism(s).
If some fancy record label such as Kairós, Col Legno, Neos, Da Capo, and Mode released new renditions of the pieces hereby included (with a track-list as it reads in this release, just for fun, as if it was a remake), it would become an instant cult as any release by Haas, Nørgård, Ruders, Ablinger, or Lachenmann. If you are into avant-garde classics and find this LP (hard to believe it was released in 1970) in mint or good or any condition, consider purchasing it on the spot.
I will digitalise my copy before holes appear in it…
docperkins
