infotext:
MORITZ EGGERT: MUZAK – NUMBER NINE VII: MASS Muzak "Muzak" is a phonetically modified version of the English word "music" and since the 1970s has generally referred to the "background music" commonly used in elevators, department stores, hotels and some work environments, often also referred to as "department store music" or "elevator music". . (Source: Wikipedia) For me as a composer it has always been a strange, almost absurd thought to separate my own musical world from the world around me. That's why I've never been particularly interested in self-sufficient musical systems that revolve around themselves, because they can't tell a listener of our time anything about this time. For me, however, "telling" is a prerequisite for every creative impulse - as fascinating as the complete abstraction may be, it is mostly self-sufficient, is its own beginning, its own end. I need the living, because that is always one thing: true. To consciously include the entire acoustic world of one's own time in a composition is by no means to "pollute" it (as the aesthetics of the Adorno school still postulate), provided that this inclusion does not remain as a stylistic quotation, but becomes part of a complex musical narrative ( as we know them from Mahler's music, for example). This is by no means »postmodern«, but a component of classical music from the very beginning. Even the earliest composers included all the music of their time known to them without great hesitation, at least from the moment when notated music separated from religious rites. The history of music has shown again and again that this acceptance of the other does not stand in the way of a personal style, indeed that it is precisely this that gives rise to the new and hitherto unknown. The idea for Muzak originally came from the following thought, which seemed paradoxical to me: we as composers write »new« contemporary music that wants to be universal and comprehensive, but the music that we as people hear most in our lives, the background music of restaurants and cafés, of elevators and department stores does not appear in it. Of course, this condensed "muzak" is just a distillate of all kinds of music, from pop to classical. But just because there is no particular artistic intention behind this »musique d'ameublement« (which Erik Satie wisely anticipated) does not mean that it is not part of our everyday reality and therefore just as worthy of artistic consideration as other themes of human life. Originally I started Muzak with a kind of »guerrilla« attitude, ie with the desire to subvert and unmask the hollowness of muzak music, which of course drives most reasonably sensitive people like me insane and annoying, while at the same time violently transforming it into something , which seemed valuable to me. Of course, I'm not in the least interested in making muzak or music that can be easily exploited commercially - not because that's fundamentally reprehensible, but because I would then have to sacrifice what seems to me the greatest asset of musical invention: my freedom. When writing from Muzak I increasingly noticed, however, that my piece is not actually about the background music at all, but about what it borrows from: namely the subcutaneous and immeasurable "memory of longing" of the so-called "trivial" music, which sometimes contains more truth than most academic new music aimed solely at intellectual recognition (which meanwhile simply no longer interests me). This longing memory contains something that wants to give us all a small affirmation of our own being alive again and again. Pop music may be mendacious at times, especially when it avoids the abyss and individuality, but it isn't always so. There is also poetry in it, since it usually deals with the most archaic wish of all human beings: the wish to be loved, the wish to be able to love oneself. The desire not to be alone. Post Comment: The piece is dedicated to the memory of David Bowie. »Muzak creates something that only very few works otherwise manage to do, namely to define the boundaries of their own genre. As soon Muzak is perceived as an example in which the idea of postmodernism manifests itself in an exemplary manner, it also sets standards for what is, in the truest sense of the word, a postmodern work in art music. Actually, the piece would be predestined to be performed in Darmstadt - preferably with the New music gangsta rap as a prelude so that the context of reception is unmistakable. However, one would have to cross a pain threshold to do so, since even the semblance of an affirmation of popular aesthetics is something that is deeply opposed to the historical self-understanding of New Music. The resentment against such an ›uncritical postmodernism‹ – i.e. the reluctance towards a music that carelessly follows the postmodern logic up to the happy end – is inscribed in the DNA of new music.« Number Nine VII: Mass The basic concept of Number Nine Cycle is – similar to my piano cycle fortepiano – the attempt to find an individual answer to the »gretchen symphonic question« by concentrating on very different themes: How do you write for an orchestra today? Like the piano, the orchestra is also a historically highly "burdened" medium, and that represents a very special challenge for a composer. The title of the cycle number nine refers both to the ominous number of completed symphonies by Beethoven, Bruckner, Dvořák and so on. But it's also a nod to one of my favorite Beatles tunes, Revolution 9. There are already eight works - the last piece will of course be called »Number Nine IX: Number 9«. Number Nine VII: Mass goes back to the following story: I was once sitting in a restaurant with the actor Peter Luppa. He told me that he had attended an orchestra concert and was very surprised that not all the musicians played all the time, but only a few. And he said it would be a waste of money to have to pay so many musicians when most of the time they had nothing to do. Of course I explained to him the reasons for this, but somehow I couldn't get the idea out of my head. I wanted to face this aesthetic challenge and write an orchestral piece in which all the musicians have to play without a break. The conductor plays a very special role in this piece. He becomes, as it were, the tamer of a wild animal. At the beginning of the piece he wakes it up; later he has to try to keep it in check, that is, to ensure that the released energies do not turn into uncontrollable chaos. Moritz Eggert |
program:
Moritz Eggert (* 1965)
[01] Muzak (2016)
for voice and orchestra
Dedicated to the memory of David Bowie
(world premiere)
playing time 42:19 p.m
[02] Number Nine VII: Mass (2008)
for large orchestra
commissioned by musica viva
(world premiere)
playing time 17:58 p.m
Moritz Eggert, Voice [1]
Symphony Orchestra of Bayerischen Rundfunks
conducted by David Robertson [01], Peter Rundel [02]
Total playing time 60:25
Press:
Stefan Drees wrote in issue 12/2018:
(...) Moritz Eggert confronts the resulting paradox by sharpening it to the question of why the universally applicable work of a contemporary composer intended for the concert hall should have a different quality than the background music we surround ourselves with in everyday life, since in both cases they are part of our everyday reality.
In his composition Muzak (2016), Eggert draws the conclusion from such considerations and at the same time makes clear how strongly our cultural memory is actually permeated by pop-cultural elements: as a vocal performer in front of the orchestra, embedded in a sophisticated game with stylistic changes, he simulates the characteristic Sound profile of numerous personalities without working with musical quotations. (...) All in all, this CD production shows Moritz Eggert to be an astute composer whose music has a lot to say to us.
A portrait of Moritz Eggert appeared in the November 2018 issue. PAUL KILBEY also discussed “Muzak”:
"Muzak (2016) plays a similar game on a vast orchestral scale. It was written for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra's long-running Musica Viva series, and its title refers not specifically to “elevator music” as such, but to the broader concept of Background Music, the inescapable Music we hear around us all time: it's a 43-minute, stream-of-consciousness-style collage of fragments that refers to every type of popular music under the sun, from Advertising Jingles to André Rieu, over the top of which Eggert himself wistfully croons on the recording. 'It's alright,' is the first phrase he sings, above a comforting guitar-and-harp accompaniment – although the chaotic orchestral writing around it does not, in fact, sound all right at all. But while it begins as an ironic look at the lie that Commercial Music sells us, Muzak ultimately seems to reach a wryly amused truth with is material.”
In the November 2018 issue, Manfred Karallus deals with four new editions of NEOS under the title “What does peculiar mean?”
(...) Eggert's music has strengths, it is attractive in a peculiar way, "catchy": divergent, distracting, entertaining. And it, like all popular music, is imbued with the desire (he says so himself): to love and be loved. Just one question: Why does a composer who is so uncritical and whom Muzak allegedly "drives insane, annoys" bother with that at all? (...)
Read the full article by Manfred Karallus here.
#5_2018
Egbert Hiller experiences the two works on the CD quite differently:
(...) [via “Muzak”] The music exceeds all expectations, albeit in a negative way. No cliché is left out in the colorful mix of styles, diverse ingredients are mixed into a sticky, viscous sauce that smothers every hint of irony. At best, Eggert's courage as a singer should be acknowledged, but he doesn't pull it out. The dedication to David Bowie, who didn't deserve it, is also out of place. (...) [via “Number Nine VII: Mass] ... the result is a miracle: the sound is extremely condensed, which was to be expected, but dramaturgically very differentiated, with insistent arcs of suspense including crazy repetitions. The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Peter Rundel is in top form here.
September 2018
In 1968, the Beatles shocked their fans with the sound collage “Revolution 9”. Seemingly incompatible things, snippets of our everyday noises, snippets of music came together in the wild alternation of passages blended into one another. This was completely new, even revolutionary, for the rock world. Contemporary music, of course, knew this much earlier thanks to Pierre Schaeffer. Moritz Eggert, self-proclaimed enfant terrible of new music, has now written a whole series of Number No pieces. But in addition to the Beatles, he also refers to classical orchestral literature, in which 9 seems to be a magical number (Beethoven, Bruckner or Dvořák). “Number Nine VII: Masse” basically deals with the question of how one can still write for symphony orchestras today. On the other hand, it wants to demonstrate the sheer mass of sound, i.e. the entire sound range of the orchestral apparatus, at the same time. The result is, of course, an impressive sound from the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Peter Rundel. It always has narrative elements, but breaks them off straight away and transforms them into new ones. Even more Eggert can be found in “Muzak”. Here the Munich artist collages pieces of so-called background music that surrounds our everyday lives. During the orchestral passages, Eggert sometimes grunts like Louis Armstrong and follows up with vocalizations à la Bobby McFerrin that the listener may lose sight of hearing or seeing. Of course, the CD shows once again what a gifted, highly imaginative composer Eggert is. On the other hand: Does a piece like “Muzak”, which has absolutely its entertaining merit live, really have to be on a CD?
(Tilman Urbach)
August 2018
Little has been heard in UK by Moritz Eggert (b1965) during those two decades since he came to prominence, but in Germany he has carved a niche in music-theater with numerous operas, ballets and sundry projects to his name. This latest release features Muzak (2016), a discourse on the concept of music whose existence 'at the margins' has led to perrneating many aspects of society. (…) Rather more engaging is Mass (2008), the seventh installation in the 'Number Nine' series that Eggert has been assembling over the past two decades, which considers the phenomenon of the Ninth in terms that encompass Austro-German symphonism as well as John Lennon's (in)famous tape collage. Musically it is predicted on all instruments playing all of the time, although Eggert varies the texture so a wild range of incidents is encountered over is eventful course. (…)
Richard Whitehouse
top rating up pizzicato.lu – Uwe Krusch lent the CD musica viva 30 – Moritz Eggert the “Supersonic” award. In his article “Walker between the musical worlds” he writes:
For Moritz Eggert, the irritating use of dods everywhere was the starting point for modeling this wild mixture into an orderly composition. You always have the impression that you know the scraps, but they are all just imitations. (...) The universally praised Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has acquired exquisite competence for new music over the decades (...), so that one can almost speak of a special ensemble. So you simply have to enjoy every one of her excursions into this profession.
The full article can be found here: https://www.pizzicato.lu/wandler-zwischen-den-musikwelten/
In April 2018, Dominy Clements wrote:
“This is a very well recorded and superbly performed pair of fascinating and stimulating works. Moritz Eggert has clarity of vision and a serious amount of craftsmanship both conceptual and practical, qualities from which the rest of us composers and listeners can all learn a great deal.”
Read the full article here / Read the full review here
April 2018, by Juan Martin Koch
Thanks to the worthwhile musica-viva series on the NEOS label, which has now reached episode 30, you can now listen to Moritz Eggert's tour de force “Muzak”, which premiered in 2016, again in peace. The re-encounter is pleasing, perhaps because the recorded sound is the suitable medium for Eggert's inauthentic mix of styles, which Harry Lehmann has since ennobled in a detailed analysis as an exemplary manifestation of the idea of postmodernism. The powerful, differentiated orchestral tutti study “Masse” is also worth listening to.
Awards & Mentions:
top rating up pizzicato.lu – Uwe Krusch lent the CD musica viva 30 – Moritz Eggert the “Supersonic” award. In his article “Walker between the musical worlds” he writes:
For Moritz Eggert, the irritating use of dods everywhere was the starting point for modeling this wild mixture into an orderly composition. You always have the impression that you know the scraps, but they are all just imitations. (...) The universally praised Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has acquired exquisite competence for new music over the decades (...), so that one can almost speak of a special ensemble. So you simply have to enjoy every one of her excursions into this profession.
The full article can be found here: https://www.pizzicato.lu/wandler-zwischen-den-musikwelten/