Poème Symphonique Für 100 Metronome - Raumversion (1962/1985)

Ti­tle of the com­pi­la­ti­on/album: Poème symphonique für 100 Metronome
Ti­tle: Raumversion (Track 05)
Publisher: Michael Frauenlob Bauer
Da­te: 1969
Me­di­um: re­cord 30 cm
Cover: M.F. Bauer

Poème Symphonique Für 100 Metronome (Poème Symphonique for 100 Metronomes) is the most provocative work by György Ligeti. It was written during his involvement with the Fluxus movement and became a milestone of the 20th-century musical avant-garde. The LP contains two versions of the piece, a circle version and a space version. The two recordings, which last about 30 minutes, were made in the night from the 25th to the 26th of November 1985 in the Dornbuschkirche in Frankfurt. The room version can be heard here.

Ligeti composed the piece in 1962 for a conductor, ten performers and one hundred (mechanical) metronomes. Each performer 'plays' ten metronomes. At the beginning of the performance, the metronomes are set up on stage by the performers - either in a circle around the microphones, or lined up next to each other - and set to different tempos and wound up to the maximum. Then the conductor gives a pause of two to six minutes. At his signal, the performers then begin to set the hundred metronomes in motion as quickly as possible (ideally, all the metronomes start at the same time) and leave the stage. The clicking of the metronomes sounds chaotic at first. As some of them run out, regular rhythmic patterns begin to emerge. Between the infrequent ticking, more and more silence can be heard. The sound patterns seem to gradually harmonise until, finally, only one metronome remains, and then silence falls. Then the performers enter the stage again.

In the booklet of the new CD recording from 1995, Ligeti reports on the premiere, during which he himself took care of the "instruments" freshly delivered from the Allgäu to Holland: "100 metronomes were packed for transport in ten well nailed wooden boxes, which were stored in a remote corridor of the town hall. I stood alone in front of the wooden boxes, but armed with a hammer and pliers. Opening the boxes was child's play, but the metronomes (all brand new) were all delivered wound up, so they first had to be opened and set in motion to run. Even set to the fastest possible pendulum time, a fully wound metronome took almost a good half hour to run, but I couldn't have guessed that at the time. Then there was the difficulty that the winding keys were firmly stuck to the bottom of each machine with an adhesive strip. So I had to free the 100 keys first and then screw each one separately onto the winding shaft. It was already September, but the sun was still blazing hot. I was completely drenched in sweat, alone and panicking: How was all this preparation to be finished by the time the reception began, how were the 100 metronomes, even before the guests arrived, to be placed on pedestals in the ballroom of the town hall and covered with black cloth sheets so that the audience could not guess what kind of musical piece was about to be performed?"

The premiere of Poème symphonique, which took place in 1963 as the closing event of the Gaudeamus Foundation's courses and concerts of new music at an official reception in Hilversum Town Hall, was a scandal. After the performance, the confused audience, who had no information about what to expect, protested loudly. At the request of the Hilversum City Senate, the television broadcast planned for the following day was cancelled.

Ligeti regarded this work not only as an ironic critique of the contemporary musical situation but for him, Poème Symphonique was also directed, above all, against all ideologies insofar as they were stubborn and intolerant of others. He commented in 1971 that radicalism and petit-bourgeois attitudes were not so far apart; both wore the blinders of the narrow-minded.

ATJ