Futurism, Situationism, Cage and Einsturzende Neubauten
Keith Wecker
Situationist practices first evolved in the early 1950s as a complete movement. Situationists were those who took it upon themselves to theorize and partake in the creation of a situation. The situation itself can be defined in several ways. It could be a reaction to a situation already in progress, it could come about as a spur of the moment action, or it can be theorized and then put into practical use. With the latter possibility the situation is as controlled as possible, with as little left to chance as possible. Prominent Situationist composers and musicians have pushed boundaries and personal limits of what can be done. The most contemporary and relevant example of Situationist practice is Einsturzende Neubauten. The Neubauten are based in Berlin and have many ties to Situationists’ and their predecessors, the Futurists. I will use examples of the Futurists and John Cage to prove if the Neubauten is Situationism.
Luigi Russolo was one of the main composers in the Futurist movement. Along with the rest of the Futurists Russolo was witness to Pratellas' famous L'Aviatore Dro opera. Even though he isn’t mentioned to the extent of Russolo, Pratella had joined the Futurists in 1910. From reading the letter sent to Pratella by Russolo, it seems as if the opera they witnessed in1914 was the first grand scale use of noise the futurists experienced. I believe this is a first run at Situationism. The Futurists goal was to create a new experience with the new sounds they discovered. It could be applied to the definition of the Situationist movement “the goal of situationism is to theorize or put to practical activity of constructed situations" (wikipedia.org). This was used as a shock tactic to wake up the people who took in the arts to the Futurist ideology. They wanted to throw away the old and start with a clean slate. Their famous quote of "the only complete hygiene is war" (Futurist Manifesto) makes it inevitable they would reject all things classical and create their own.
While the Futurists made their own instruments and invented new compositional techniques, the rejection was not absolute, as classical instruments and venues were used through Futurist performances. When you are participating in atonal or sounds that could be classified as harsh it takes a person with a tolerance to listen to it. There is much beauty to be found with in atonal music and sounds, but it requires a more selective ear. With this in mind perhaps it is best to create a situation inside a historically recognized venue. Historically recognized isn’t necessarily an old venue, but one which it is known for consistently having shows. If you are wishing to generate a violent reaction in someway, then the Futurists shows were Situationist. They would lie about who was performing and then surprise the audience with a feast of ‘music’ many people would not tolerate at that time.
Being in a venue in Rome in 1914 and hearing noise emulate the sounds of the industrial factories that had developed in the last 50 years was not an enjoyable Sunday out on the town. The example is when the Futurists published posters about a famous orchestra and singer performing at a hall. They lied about who was appearing, and it really was a Futurist performance, full of noise and insanity happening all around. It was much easier to get away with that because since there was no one to check via the internet or telephone, so you could easily dupe the owners and attendees that said people are playing. Regulars of the opera and the orchestra showed up in their Sunday best and got their world turned on its ear. It was Situationist because they created a scenario that was dependant upon, but not entirely, how the audience would react. The Futurists theorized how to announce their intent and brought it to life in a constructed situation. Today it would be the equivalent of telling everyone that James Blunt was playing a 150 person capacity bar, and when everyone turns up they have to deal with Wolf Eyes.
The most recognizable name in Situationist music would be John Cage. In the early stages of what was to become situationism, his events never strayed too far from the actual venue either, or a building designated as a venue. His work and teachings run across a gamut of movements and styles. His work is considered important parts of modernist composition and experimental music, as well as stylistically connected to the Fluxus and Situationalist movements (wikipedia.org). John Cage’s inventiveness with retooling instruments, prepared pianos for example, and using non-instruments for making music, differently tuned radios et al, was a continuation of what the Futurists had started. While still situated in 'the venue', everything was being done to turn all the rules on their ear, both ears preferably. It seemed as if there was no limit to what could be discovered. Cage had lived by his father’s words of '’if someone tells you it can't be done, you know what to do’'(wikipedia.org). When you get to a point of so much having been conquered in terms of artistic experimentation that one needs new colors to paint with.
The Futurists felt the same way 30 years before the Situationist movement when Russolo built his Intoner machines. The need to get rid of what has come before and start fresh is a compelling idea. Ideally it would be that when the history is erased there are no traditions left. If you could delete your history then the chalkboard of life is just waiting for your first mark. You could redefine notes, what a piano is, how to play the piano, et al. It is hard to imagine getting to a place with no predisposed knowledge, no starting point. I believe that is an interesting parallel to Situationist theory. The goal is to theorize and then put into practice a controlled situation is that it would be different from the previous event and the next event. The goal that spurred on the Situationists was to create new situations. I personally don’t think they were considering the abolishment of tradition in the way that the Futurists did, but parallels can be drawn.
John Cages most recognizable piece is a Situationist piece called ‘4:33’. He composed this piece of 3 movements in which the pianist gets on stage and moves up the key guard of the piano. At the end of every movement the pianist would close the guard again. No actual notes were played but the sounds that made the piece were those of the audience getting more and more restless. This composition also fell into the category of Aleatoric music, or music that is mostly left up to chance. To use the ‘4:33’ as an example John Cage did not know how the audience would react or what they would say. Cage composed the duration of the piece as well as the silence of the piano but left the rest to chance (wikipedia.org). The reason I enjoy this particular piece is how it is equal parts Situationist and Aleatoric. Aleatoric music is when certain parts of a composition are left to chance. I feel that the next best example of this would be Einsturzende Neubauten, the proto-industrial group from West Berlin.
Formed in 1979 in East Berlin, they currently still function as a band. They were created out of the anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian stance that East Berlin had at the time. The cause of this was the cold war situation and the Berlin Wall; it was viewed as too risky to invest in East Berlin during those years. I believe that the Neubauten is based upon modernist ideologies because of how their ideas inform their function. The prevailing mood of East Berlin was incredibly off kilter with the lack of enforcement, the squatting and a prevailing tone that the apocalypse was just around the corner. (Dax pg11). The Neubauten have similarities to both the Futurists and Situationists.
Regarding the audience Einsturzende Neubauten have a very similar stance to the Futurists. In the early days the Neubauten wanted to play anti-music; something that was not accepted as music and would shock the audience (Dax pg 55). The Futurists were concerned with destroying what music was and had been up until them. There was an urgency to create something new through destruction. Einsturzende Neubauten translates to “collapsing new buildings”. The first ever show of the Neubauten was them playing in a four foot high space underneath the autobahn. It was just the singer, Blixia Bargeld, on guitar and FM Einheit on bricks. The Neubauten defiantly have upped their Situationist aesthetic over the course of their years. They have played on a stretch on top of the autobahn, played in the Nuremberg Hall, did soundtrack accompaniment for ‘Metropolis’ on a boat in a harbor, and blew up fridges for a performance in the Mojave desert (Dax pg124). When you are playing music that is abrasive and as assaulting as the Neubauten, the artistic side of it seems to be lost by a large percent of the listening population. Not that I believe that John Cage is more melodic or of a higher intelligence, but his were easier to see as art.
Cage and the Neubauten both were pushers of what can be done. Their aesthetics are quite different but both are trying to get into the same place. Cage was into using non-instruments such as out of tune radios for performances. He was also in to alteration of musical instruments. The most famous example of this would be his prepared piano. His first attempt was with a metal plate resting upon the strings of a grand piano. He was intrigued by the sound and took it further. In a prepared piano bits of rubber, metal or glass are placed in the strings of a piano, almost always a grand piano. The grand piano is optimal because of the easier accessibility to the strings and the superior tone of a grand piano.
The Neubauten were put in the position of having to improvise with the trash they found in the street because of their poverty. The only instruments they didn’t make were electric guitars, effects pedals and Digital Audio Tape machines for backing tracks when required. The Neubauten consistently talk about the love of pure Industrial noise, the mechanization of the drones and beats that would emminate from the factories. The Neubauten started as an aleatoric band. They would just play one beat for as long as and hard as possible. There was no song structure so it was all made up on stage. They were inducing this situation upon the crowd where anything could happen. There was a show in 1987 for an opening at an art institution where they attempted to dig a tunnel from the space to underneath Buckingham Palace (Dax pg 219). They attempted to either see how long it would take to dig under the palace or until how long they could get away with it for. The digging went on for over an hour but did not get very far.
I believe the defunct magazine Situationist Internationale would have declared Einsturzende Neubauten a member of the contemporary movement of Situationists. With their goal of creating an environment of unlistenable music and a confrontational stance towards the audience I see the Neubauten as a continuation in the Situationist movement. The band is asking questions with the sounds they are making. They are putting the viewer in a specific frame to see the reaction. The response of the viewer helps the band fine tune their thesis and informs what they do for the next performance. While they do owe a debt to John Cage and the Futurists, the Neubauten have taken the form of Situationist theory and mangled it into something dangerous, beautiful and confrontational.
WORKS CITED
No Beauty Without Danger, Einsturzende Neubauten, 2005, EN Publishing, Berlin
Liebeslieder, Einsturzende Neubauten, StudioK7, 1995, 98 min, DVD, Germany
WEBSITES CITED
‘Francesco Balilla Pratella’ – Biography, Online Museum, 2003, 1. paragraph, www.museumonline.at/2003/projekt_futurismus/eng
‘Luigi Russolo’ – Online Encyclopedia, Nov. 03, 2006, 4 paragraphs, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Russolo
‘John Cage’ – Biography, Online Encyclopedia, date unknown, 10 paragraphs, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage
Situationist practices first evolved in the early 1950s as a complete movement. Situationists were those who took it upon themselves to theorize and partake in the creation of a situation. The situation itself can be defined in several ways. It could be a reaction to a situation already in progress, it could come about as a spur of the moment action, or it can be theorized and then put into practical use. With the latter possibility the situation is as controlled as possible, with as little left to chance as possible. Prominent Situationist composers and musicians have pushed boundaries and personal limits of what can be done. The most contemporary and relevant example of Situationist practice is Einsturzende Neubauten. The Neubauten are based in Berlin and have many ties to Situationists’ and their predecessors, the Futurists. I will use examples of the Futurists and John Cage to prove if the Neubauten is Situationism.
Luigi Russolo was one of the main composers in the Futurist movement. Along with the rest of the Futurists Russolo was witness to Pratellas' famous L'Aviatore Dro opera. Even though he isn’t mentioned to the extent of Russolo, Pratella had joined the Futurists in 1910. From reading the letter sent to Pratella by Russolo, it seems as if the opera they witnessed in1914 was the first grand scale use of noise the futurists experienced. I believe this is a first run at Situationism. The Futurists goal was to create a new experience with the new sounds they discovered. It could be applied to the definition of the Situationist movement “the goal of situationism is to theorize or put to practical activity of constructed situations" (wikipedia.org). This was used as a shock tactic to wake up the people who took in the arts to the Futurist ideology. They wanted to throw away the old and start with a clean slate. Their famous quote of "the only complete hygiene is war" (Futurist Manifesto) makes it inevitable they would reject all things classical and create their own.
While the Futurists made their own instruments and invented new compositional techniques, the rejection was not absolute, as classical instruments and venues were used through Futurist performances. When you are participating in atonal or sounds that could be classified as harsh it takes a person with a tolerance to listen to it. There is much beauty to be found with in atonal music and sounds, but it requires a more selective ear. With this in mind perhaps it is best to create a situation inside a historically recognized venue. Historically recognized isn’t necessarily an old venue, but one which it is known for consistently having shows. If you are wishing to generate a violent reaction in someway, then the Futurists shows were Situationist. They would lie about who was performing and then surprise the audience with a feast of ‘music’ many people would not tolerate at that time.
Being in a venue in Rome in 1914 and hearing noise emulate the sounds of the industrial factories that had developed in the last 50 years was not an enjoyable Sunday out on the town. The example is when the Futurists published posters about a famous orchestra and singer performing at a hall. They lied about who was appearing, and it really was a Futurist performance, full of noise and insanity happening all around. It was much easier to get away with that because since there was no one to check via the internet or telephone, so you could easily dupe the owners and attendees that said people are playing. Regulars of the opera and the orchestra showed up in their Sunday best and got their world turned on its ear. It was Situationist because they created a scenario that was dependant upon, but not entirely, how the audience would react. The Futurists theorized how to announce their intent and brought it to life in a constructed situation. Today it would be the equivalent of telling everyone that James Blunt was playing a 150 person capacity bar, and when everyone turns up they have to deal with Wolf Eyes.
The most recognizable name in Situationist music would be John Cage. In the early stages of what was to become situationism, his events never strayed too far from the actual venue either, or a building designated as a venue. His work and teachings run across a gamut of movements and styles. His work is considered important parts of modernist composition and experimental music, as well as stylistically connected to the Fluxus and Situationalist movements (wikipedia.org). John Cage’s inventiveness with retooling instruments, prepared pianos for example, and using non-instruments for making music, differently tuned radios et al, was a continuation of what the Futurists had started. While still situated in 'the venue', everything was being done to turn all the rules on their ear, both ears preferably. It seemed as if there was no limit to what could be discovered. Cage had lived by his father’s words of '’if someone tells you it can't be done, you know what to do’'(wikipedia.org). When you get to a point of so much having been conquered in terms of artistic experimentation that one needs new colors to paint with.
The Futurists felt the same way 30 years before the Situationist movement when Russolo built his Intoner machines. The need to get rid of what has come before and start fresh is a compelling idea. Ideally it would be that when the history is erased there are no traditions left. If you could delete your history then the chalkboard of life is just waiting for your first mark. You could redefine notes, what a piano is, how to play the piano, et al. It is hard to imagine getting to a place with no predisposed knowledge, no starting point. I believe that is an interesting parallel to Situationist theory. The goal is to theorize and then put into practice a controlled situation is that it would be different from the previous event and the next event. The goal that spurred on the Situationists was to create new situations. I personally don’t think they were considering the abolishment of tradition in the way that the Futurists did, but parallels can be drawn.
John Cages most recognizable piece is a Situationist piece called ‘4:33’. He composed this piece of 3 movements in which the pianist gets on stage and moves up the key guard of the piano. At the end of every movement the pianist would close the guard again. No actual notes were played but the sounds that made the piece were those of the audience getting more and more restless. This composition also fell into the category of Aleatoric music, or music that is mostly left up to chance. To use the ‘4:33’ as an example John Cage did not know how the audience would react or what they would say. Cage composed the duration of the piece as well as the silence of the piano but left the rest to chance (wikipedia.org). The reason I enjoy this particular piece is how it is equal parts Situationist and Aleatoric. Aleatoric music is when certain parts of a composition are left to chance. I feel that the next best example of this would be Einsturzende Neubauten, the proto-industrial group from West Berlin.
Formed in 1979 in East Berlin, they currently still function as a band. They were created out of the anti-establishment and anti-authoritarian stance that East Berlin had at the time. The cause of this was the cold war situation and the Berlin Wall; it was viewed as too risky to invest in East Berlin during those years. I believe that the Neubauten is based upon modernist ideologies because of how their ideas inform their function. The prevailing mood of East Berlin was incredibly off kilter with the lack of enforcement, the squatting and a prevailing tone that the apocalypse was just around the corner. (Dax pg11). The Neubauten have similarities to both the Futurists and Situationists.
Regarding the audience Einsturzende Neubauten have a very similar stance to the Futurists. In the early days the Neubauten wanted to play anti-music; something that was not accepted as music and would shock the audience (Dax pg 55). The Futurists were concerned with destroying what music was and had been up until them. There was an urgency to create something new through destruction. Einsturzende Neubauten translates to “collapsing new buildings”. The first ever show of the Neubauten was them playing in a four foot high space underneath the autobahn. It was just the singer, Blixia Bargeld, on guitar and FM Einheit on bricks. The Neubauten defiantly have upped their Situationist aesthetic over the course of their years. They have played on a stretch on top of the autobahn, played in the Nuremberg Hall, did soundtrack accompaniment for ‘Metropolis’ on a boat in a harbor, and blew up fridges for a performance in the Mojave desert (Dax pg124). When you are playing music that is abrasive and as assaulting as the Neubauten, the artistic side of it seems to be lost by a large percent of the listening population. Not that I believe that John Cage is more melodic or of a higher intelligence, but his were easier to see as art.
Cage and the Neubauten both were pushers of what can be done. Their aesthetics are quite different but both are trying to get into the same place. Cage was into using non-instruments such as out of tune radios for performances. He was also in to alteration of musical instruments. The most famous example of this would be his prepared piano. His first attempt was with a metal plate resting upon the strings of a grand piano. He was intrigued by the sound and took it further. In a prepared piano bits of rubber, metal or glass are placed in the strings of a piano, almost always a grand piano. The grand piano is optimal because of the easier accessibility to the strings and the superior tone of a grand piano.
The Neubauten were put in the position of having to improvise with the trash they found in the street because of their poverty. The only instruments they didn’t make were electric guitars, effects pedals and Digital Audio Tape machines for backing tracks when required. The Neubauten consistently talk about the love of pure Industrial noise, the mechanization of the drones and beats that would emminate from the factories. The Neubauten started as an aleatoric band. They would just play one beat for as long as and hard as possible. There was no song structure so it was all made up on stage. They were inducing this situation upon the crowd where anything could happen. There was a show in 1987 for an opening at an art institution where they attempted to dig a tunnel from the space to underneath Buckingham Palace (Dax pg 219). They attempted to either see how long it would take to dig under the palace or until how long they could get away with it for. The digging went on for over an hour but did not get very far.
I believe the defunct magazine Situationist Internationale would have declared Einsturzende Neubauten a member of the contemporary movement of Situationists. With their goal of creating an environment of unlistenable music and a confrontational stance towards the audience I see the Neubauten as a continuation in the Situationist movement. The band is asking questions with the sounds they are making. They are putting the viewer in a specific frame to see the reaction. The response of the viewer helps the band fine tune their thesis and informs what they do for the next performance. While they do owe a debt to John Cage and the Futurists, the Neubauten have taken the form of Situationist theory and mangled it into something dangerous, beautiful and confrontational.
WORKS CITED
No Beauty Without Danger, Einsturzende Neubauten, 2005, EN Publishing, Berlin
Liebeslieder, Einsturzende Neubauten, StudioK7, 1995, 98 min, DVD, Germany
WEBSITES CITED
‘Francesco Balilla Pratella’ – Biography, Online Museum, 2003, 1. paragraph, www.museumonline.at/2003/projekt_futurismus/eng
‘Luigi Russolo’ – Online Encyclopedia, Nov. 03, 2006, 4 paragraphs, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luigi_Russolo
‘John Cage’ – Biography, Online Encyclopedia, date unknown, 10 paragraphs, www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cage
posted by Studies in Audio Culture at 10:14 a.m.
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