The Outside of the Insider

The social conditions under which music is created often lead to reflection on the relevance within the work of art being formed. This makes it hardly surprising that history is filled with countless examples of politically motivated music, be it the confessional symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven, the rousing theatre music of Kurt Weill, or today’s feminist pop.

Cerha would certainly object to the label of “political composer” if one ever tried to pin it on him. Yet Cerha’s music also escapes the naivety of the apolitical state of “being political without noticing it”Quoted from Rosa Luxemburg: “To be apolitical is to be political without even realizing it.”. “Democratic” structures can be found in his work, in, for example, the “battle for power” of musical orders. Explicit reminders, however, are nowhere to be found. Cerha’s “mistrust of the unambiguous”Text to the Sechs Postludien für Orgel. See Joachim Diedrichs, Friedrich Cerha. Werkeinführungen, Quellen, Dokumente, Vienna 2018, p. 165 prevents any direct statements, yet continuously encourages the audience to come to their own conclusions.
Written for the radio, the composition Und du… certainly has the most direct political message among his works: It addresses the nuclear threat. Verzeichnis, on the other hand, pursues a horrifyingly sober presentation of systemic murder. The philosophical setting of Hölderlin to music, Jahr lang ins Ungewisse, remains the most abstract. It calculates the margins of social differences against each other.