Tempo di Pimen

The Common Roots of Composition and the Teaching of Chamber-Music in the Work of György Kurtág

Abstract

Many analysts of György Kurtág’s music have written about the structural role of the single note in his compositions. Kurtág himself has consciously built his personal style “from the bottom up,” starting from the single note, inspired in part by the advice received from psychologist Marianne Stein in the 1950s. On the other hand, anyone who has ever heard a single one of Kurtág’s chamber-music lessons or masterclasses knows about the importance he attaches to the articulation of the smallest musical detail. However, the common roots and interactions between these two areas of Kurtág’s activity may not have received all the attention they deserve. As a former student of Kurtág who attended his weekly chamber- music classes in Room XXIII at the Budapest Music Academy from 1974 to 1979, I will attempt to highlight the intrinsic connections between the two activities, based on my own memories and those of others. It is my conviction
that we cannot gain a comprehensive understanding of Kurtág as a musician unless we consider composition and teaching jointly, as two sides of the same unique artistic phenomenon.