What I’m trying to do is something that I love, what I like, and think I need. In that moment, you have to be very honest... If you try to be honest with yourself, and write what you think you need, not what you think other people need, or music critics, or colleagues, you will then be trying to communicate your truth. If it has that truth, then it will be interesting.
Mauricio Kagel
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10-11 September, 2015, The Gym, The Arts Centre
The Mauricio Kagel Project brought together International composer Gao Ping, renowned New Zealand conductor Hamish McKeich - whom Free Theatre collaborated with on Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale, a CSO production for the 2013 Christchurch Arts Festival - and Christchurch artists of experimental performance.
Directed by Peter Falkenberg, the work-in-development was presented in September at Free Theatre’s home in The Arts Centre -- The Gym -- as part of the company's innovative New Works Programme, which was launched in 2014 with the critically acclaimed Kafka's Amerika. The development of this project was made possible by the generous support of Creative New Zealand, the Asia NZ Foundation and the Christchurch Arts Festival. Filmmaker Shirley Horrocks is documenting the project and we are making plans to present a full production of the work. |
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What I’m trying to do is something that I love, what I like, and think I need. In that moment, you have to be very honest... If you try to be honest with yourself, and write what you think you need, not what you think other people need, or music critics, or colleagues, you will then be trying to communicate your truth. If it has that truth, then it will be interesting. 
Probably no-one can really explain what music is and why it comes about. That has always been a concern of mine. I am convinced that I became a composer because I believed that by writing music, I would find the answers. In vain. These days I am not so young, but I am very happy that no valid definition has yet emerged – the mystery persists. |
The Mauricio Kagel Project - a film by Shirley Horrocks (Point of View Productions)
Influenced by John Cage and the Dada cabarets, Kagel created and developed a new music-theatre genre, where music-making itself becomes theatre as a comic, absurd and above all joyously playful activity |
Image: from 'Tantz-Schul' Ballet d'action
I'm very curious, and I can live as a composer only once. It's a regrettable fact, but also a useful one, because a composer above all must know how to make use of time. 
Watch Beat Ubu Night performance of Cage's 4'33''.
Music has also been a scenic event for a long time. In the nineteenth century people still enjoyed music also with their eyes, with all their senses. Only with the increasing dominance of the mechanic reproduction of music, through broadcasting and records, was this reduced to the purely acoustic dimension. What I want is to bring the audience back to an enjoyment of music with all senses. That’s why my music is a direct, exaggerated protest against the mechanical reproduction of music. My goal: a rehumanization of music-making! 
...How conservative was the avant-garde of the sixties, and how conservative has experimental music become today? I could speak about academic experimental music, but then I’m talking about killing all of the possibilities that an experiment can have. In an experiment, the end result is very difficult to predict. Certain processes are unpredictable, but experimental music has become very predictable. I’m not interested in the old opposition of avant-garde and rear-guard. I’m a classic example of someone who did things that weren’t in the mainstream during the time of the avant-garde. To obey the rules of style, I was always absolutely against that. Pieces that are written without anarchy, without going against style, against the stony dimension of style, are more-or-less impossible to hear. |
I witnessed the results of the Kagel project, and was impressed by the dedication and skill exhibited by all of the participants. True collaboration of any sort is not an easy task. Successful cross-cultural mixing is exponentially more difficult. But I feel that the skill and commitment of Gao Ping and those involved with the Free Theatre, provide a unique opportunity to move forward into new and invigorating creative territory. 
Reviews...an evening of exhilarating colour and sound.... Traditional applause seems a little lame in this unconventional setting, but the audience delivers it with genuine delight for the commitment, skill and creative high jinks of it all. Publicity and interviews“In post-quake Christchurch we as a city need to start to reassemble from the chaos,” says Falkenberg, “But we can do so in a way we actually aim for a very highly organised constructed chaos and make it into something that can be enjoyed and productive.” Mixing different disciplines together is not easy to do but I'm personally convinced this collaboration has the recipe for success and longevity. I'm personally delighted to be involved. Interview with Hamish McKeich and Gao Ping 
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Music has also been a scenic event for a long time. In the nineteenth century people still enjoyed music also with their eyes, with all their senses. Only with the increasing dominance of the mechanic reproduction of music, through broadcasting and records, was this reduced to the purely acoustic dimension. What I want is to bring the audience back to an enjoyment of music with all senses. That’s why my music is a direct, exaggerated protest against the mechanical reproduction of music. My goal: a rehumanization of music-making! 
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Image of an early production of Kagel's Spielplan 'Jungfraulichkeit' which we used as inspiration.
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