A Coloured Theatre: non-conventional instrumental techniques and audio-visual continua in Sciarrino and Lachenmann

The Art of Composing per se encompasses multiple elements which embrace the concept of ‘the continuum’. Such is the mechanism of transformation/transition that has been applied onto both the form and material of a work throughout the History of Music. Likewise, the Act of Performing a musical work creates a visual/kinetic continuum that runs in parallel with the score’s content and composer’s requests. Therefore, the intention of this paper is to focus on the continuum concept on two parallel levels:

i. Acoustic: the compositional processing of sound material produced by non-conventional instrumental techniques (broadly known today as extended techniques) in relation to timbre and the transitional/transformational mechanisms developed during the formation of a piece and,ii. Visual: during a concert, one not only hears but also sees the effort and energy of the player. This could be compared to a kinetic continuum - as in the theatre - where a number of expressive body movements evolve in time. As the extended instrumental techniques require movements which exceed the limits of the traditional physiology of the performer, the audience may capture a higher and/or lower amount of action compared to the conventional way of playing an instrument. This, in the author’s opinion, highlights that among the requirements for a better aesthetic understanding of this kind of works, the act of ‘watching’ is equally important to the act of ‘listening ’.

This text will case-study works of 20th/21st century composers where the manifestation of acoustic and visual continua correlates to the composition and performance of works which incorporate this kind of unorthodox manner of playing an instrument. Particularly, the work of Salvatore Sciarrino (1947-) and Helmut Lachenmann (1935-) will be the central example for the approach of this paper since the sonic edifice of their outcome is based on these extended techniques.