Reconstruction of Mauricio Kagel’s „Tactil“ and „Unter Strom“

Orpheus Instituut, Gent, Belgium In 1969, resp. 1970, Mauricio Kagel ‘made’ two experimental instrumental theatre pieces, “Unter Strom” (25’) for three performers and “Tactil” (25’) for two guitarists and pianist. Since a fully encoded and composer-authorized score is lacking, the historical performers - Kagel himself, Wilhelm Bruck, Theodor Ross and Christoph Caskel - have been the only ones to play and record these seminal compositions. Due to the limited potential of the existing audio and video recordings (the former not being appropriate for these highly theatrical pieces, the only adequate possibility to perform these pieces anew is through reconstruction of the original performance practice and the making of a score. The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation supports the reconstruction of the scores on the basis of the surviving manuscript sketches, the historical audio and TV recordings, the personal notes and recollections of the historical performers, and the surviving theatrical stage requisites. New performers will then study the two works under the live guidance of the three historical performers. A public live performance will then take place at the ORCiM Research Festival and a DVD recording of this performance. Finally, all three output aspects come together: the two scores, a DVD (recorded performance as well as documentation materials from all previous phases) and articles explicating and positioning the reconstruction process of this experimental type of musical/theatrical composition as well as the knowledge transfer relationship between the two generations of musicians in this project. The program will then be toured with at international festivals and venues throughout Europe and the wider world. July – December 2012 Orpheus Instituut, Gent Further Information: www.orpheusinstituut.be