Antithese (1962)
(Play for one or two performers with electronic and environmental sounds)

The composition was written in 1962 and premiered on June 23, 1963 at the Schauspielhaus in Cologne. It is based on a tape containing electronic sounds, but also the noises of a concert audience such as applause, whistles or comments. In a 'dilapidated, dusty laboratory' – according to the stage directions – a performer carries out the prescribed actions and at the same time listens to the tape.

This film faithfully follows the scenic version of the work. The libretto/score already suggested the possibility of projections or film overlays during the action on stage: 'The simultaneous performance of a filmic and a scenic version is possible. For this, different main actions or forms of realization should be selected so that repetitions are avoided. This (silent) film version would fulfill the function of a second actor and could also be produced with an actor who is not the one in the staged performance. The film could be shot in several locations (e.g. in the open air, in a studio, in a forest, on the deck of a steamship); however, the original set – a collection of devices of disparate ages – should be shown unchanged.‘

The script adheres faithfully to the specifications of the scenic version of 'Antithesis'. This was important in order to respect the essence of the libretto – a variable sequence with prescribed execution of the actions. The cinematic dramaturgy is thus composed according to musical laws which, when strictly implemented, are also expressed in the editing montage. The function of the music here is ambiguous. On the one hand, it appears as the acoustic product of a collection of old electro-acoustic devices and is consequently manipulated in a similar way to the devices that the actor mistreats; on the other hand, it moves in an independent dimension, freed from the visual events, and thus creates an additional experience.

No background music was intended for the film. The original music is to be played back as an autonomous work without interruption, with the exception of a short fragment right at the beginning of the film. All other sounds and noises were inserted selectively and composed in such a way that the connection between action and audible effect always points to other aspects of this duality. Synchronous events can also be perceived here as a distortion of what is called original or synchronous sound. In general, a real sound atmosphere in a movie can hardly be justified, since a (specific) selection is constantly made when listening. The acoustic environment is not a synthesis, but a fragile continuum.

In 'Antithesis', the musical composition was an attempt to view this continuum itself as a context. The electronic sounds are on stage, the audience of the tape simultaneously applauds and rejects, whistles excitedly and comments audibly. The public sounds of these listeners are only conditionally a sign of their reflexes: The clapping, the conversation before and during the musical events are barely distinguishable from one another, although concert audiences, sports spectators and cocktail party-goers take turns as the piece progresses.

Because the real listener of 'Antithesis' attends a theatrical event in which other 'listeners' vividly dedicate themselves to unreality for him, the piece is perceived in the third person, so to speak: the real listener is amply represented by the unreal one. The composition thus becomes a musical theater of public opinion. The script of the film version called for both an objective and subjective realization of the libretto. As the plot consists of interchangeable actions, particular emphasis was placed on a logical dramaturgy - or rather, perhaps, on a logical handling of dramatic transitions. For this reason, the actions of the scenic version in the film were adapted to other temporal relationships that seem to coincide formally and thematically with the musical intention.

M.K.
(Translation by Edition Peters)