Illuminated invocation

Summoning God in György Kurtág’s Song Alcohol

Abstract

Only a few years after the remarkable compositional richness of The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza, György Kurtág wrote a song cycle on the poems of a contemporary poet and friend, János Pilinszky. The musical world of the first piece of the
cycle, entitled Alcohol, could not be more puritanical: the majority of the song is written for one single note D. But it takes only a little closer look for the observer to discover secrets hidden in that single note; secrets disguised by the poet, uncovered and hidden again by the composer. This article aims to reveal the complex layers of meanings lying beneath the simplicity of the monotonic, distorted vocalism of the piece. For this, other relevant Pilinszky poems are also taken into
consideration, along with a personal discussion with the composer and several musical clues – for, as the reader will see, a single note and a few distorted vowels are able to carry a surprising number of musical clues. From my point of view,
these traces lead the listener from contemplating the intoxicated disintegration of the speaker to witnessing the active invocation of a substantiality that exists in a different, transcendent realm.