Match for two cellos and percussion

Sports often borrow the language and metaphors of war: one team “defends,” another “launches an all-out attack,” opponents go “head-to-head” until a winner is crowned. Even music has had recourse to such analogies, as when a concerto soloist “battles” against the larger ensemble or when we speak of a composer’s “strategy” in a particular work. But it’s a rarity when all three of those arenas overlap: conflict, sports, and music. Match by Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008) is one such case. Composed in 1964, Match features three players in an aural and visual tennis match; think Federer vs. Nadal with Stradivarii. Two cellists face-off under the watchful eye of a percussionist functioning—as you might guess—as the chair umpire. All three performers are called upon to produce a dizzying variety of nontraditional sounds. For the cellists this means trilling harmonics, col legno, aggressive pizzicato, use of fingernails, and striking the body of the instrument. The percussionist is more accustomed to such physicality. In addition to officiating the unruly cellists, she is also called upon to provide rhythmic pulse throughout.
Beyond all musical aspects, there is clearly a great deal of theatricality involved in Kagel’s conception. Born in Argentina to Russian parents who had fled the Soviet Union in the 1920s, Kagel spent the majority of his life in Germany. He taught for many years at the famous Darmstadt Summer Institute alongside people like John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciano Berio, and other voices of the avant-garde. He did compose works in traditional genres, but his absurdist works that involve visual spectacle and physical interaction between musicians have become his trademark. Kagel’s style, so evocatively expressed in Match, embraces the confrontational polemics of Dadaism, openly questioning the role of art in modern society.

(c) Jason Stell