With the paradigmatically complex and quite often
very specific developments of 20th century’s poetic practice, poetic
activity continuously rediscovered the potentiality and efficiency of the oral
and vocal dimension of language and expression. Evidently, as it is usual in
the history of art and mankind’s spiritual self-expression, the exploration of
the huge field of vocality included experiments and experiences which not
simply preceded, but even came to full bloom together with the process of
articulation of the expression itself. The excitingly interesting ancestral
symbiosis of perception, cognition and expression makes this discourse much
more complicated, but as we have not got enough space to enter this aspect of
details, for now we acclaim to the fact that for the modernization of
expression is indispensable the modernization of perception, meanwhile, at the
same time and evidently, the continuous articulation of the supplies of
expression forms articulates the capacity and the special sensibility of
perception and cognition as well.
This heroic
period of the radical modernization of poetic language is attached, as it is
quite well-known, above all to Futurist and Dadaist experiences (not
undervalueing other sources of renewal), but there had been an extremely
important precedent produced by Symbolist poetry. It would be difficult
to overestimate the significance of the recognition of the deep spiritual
identity of poetic and musical experience (conceptionalized vigorously in Verlaine’s
famous Art poéthique), intuition which leads to the theoretic separation
of the language of poetry, on one hand, and the language of prose forms, on the
other hand. It means that “literature” as an entity missing any essential link
with musicality, will be separated from “poetry” which is identified more and
more with music. This conception will be materialized, in a way, in the vocal
practice of Futurist declamation and Dadaist Lautgedichte, and
all the history of 20th centurie’s poetic experimentations will show
somehow the functionalization of musical parametres inherent in language, which
earlier had been negligated and taken as accidental and less than secondary
factors of linguistic expression. Futurist and mainly Marinetti’s declamation
harshly revitalize intonation, timbre, rhythm, volume and onomatopeism, Dada’s
sound poetry eliminates the formerly almost obligatory semantic automatism in
poetic communication, and focalize on the phoneme and letter as basic elements
of the language of poetry. Later on, radical poetic experiments, engaged in
sound experiences, tried and succeeded to penetrate the phoneme itself (see
some congenial inventions of Isou) and/or funcitonalized the
extralinguistic domain of speech activity (such as inspiration and expiration
noises, articulation noises, groaning, sighing, whispering, howl etc.), for
example see the heroic poetic efforts of Artaud. With the continuous
development of the technical basis of civilization and, consequently, of
artistic activity, the range of sound expression forms and possibilities and
the domains to be yet explored have been incredibly widened. All the artists,
poets and musicians, and all the participants and theoricians of present days’
culture are or, if not, should be well aware of what has happened in this large
field outlined by poetic, musical, artistic, performative etc. activities. As a
result, today often is really difficult to qualify generically (in base of
traditional categories), if a sound art work should be considerated music,
poetry, performance or a concept piece. (Evidently, many of them can find their
real generic identification in the intermedial range based on the conceptual
simbiosis of these fields.)
That’s why
sound poetry has a so large scale of identity aspects - from the relatively
purist tendencies of phonetic poetry (the early Heidsieck or Garnier,
Rühm or Rotella) or minimalistic vocal poetry (i.e. Spatola or
Lora-Totino) through Chopin’s or Cobbing’s or Dufrene’s or The Four Horsemen’s vocal
noisism or Rothenberg’s or Morrow’s chanted poetry and through
Blaine’s or Minarelli’s actional sound poetry up to clearly musical
sound
poetry (Amirkhanian, Stratos, Arcand,
Fontana, Moss) or even to music engaged in linguistic experiences (Cage,
Ashley, Bertoni-Serotti etc.), there is an abundant variety of genres and
manners of expression in sound poetic activity. For this see, among others,
Minarelli’s articles and papers on the concept of polipoetic genres.
In the whole
process of the above outlined development of vocal and sonoric
functionalization of the language of poetry is encoded the problem of visual
components and carriers. On one hand written language - even as a score of
human speech activity - serves as a bidimensional starting point for the vocal
reinterpretation in oral poetry or declamation which is already a
three-dimensional creative action. Then in the process of this three-dimensional
(re)creation, beyond vocal and musical parametres inevitably appear visual
(gestual, ambiental, scenic etc.) codes as it can be clearly seen in the
Futurist declamation programme (Declamazione dinamica e sinottica) or in
Ball’s memoirs on the early formation of Dadaist Lautgedichte (Die
Flucht aus der Zeit, Luzern, 1946). So modern sound poetry was born
organically in a total space of creativity characterized by the simultaneous
presence of linguistic, vocal-sonoric, gestual and actional elements.
The subsequent
and well-known question which has had a paradigmatic evolution in recent art
history, is this: how to restore the link backwards from acoustic codes to
visuality, how to note down a complex vocal-sonoric-actional art work with
visual signs. Evidently, it is a question far beyond the problem of notation:
visual scores evoking the original artistic act are more then a simple
pentagram or a sort of visual description. Visual notation must be an
autonomous reinterpretation of the original artistic act, exactly the way
(back) declamation or sound poetry action was or could be a recreation of a
written poem or of a visual work. This autonomy of the single artistic spheres
which are connected by the processes of medial reinterpretation and recreation,
is dialectically completed by the special creative nature of intermedial
artistic mind. The verification of this reciprocal continuity of medial
reinterpretation and recreation can be seen in the practice of Futurist paroliberismo
where tavole parolibere as autonomous visual poems often have their
acoustic parallels in declamations which are, on the other hand, often visually
recoded in tavole parolibere as visual scores.
Since the
generic question and the artistic result of the solution of the problem of modern
music’s notation - which produced a highly interesting domain of intermedial
contacts of “pure” modern music and visual art (see, just for example, some
scores of Ligeti, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Boulez or others) - is relatively
well-known, at this point we remind to more radical steps in intermedial
artistic concepts and in their linguistic and structural consequences: to Cage’s
conceptually redefined musical or performative instructions, to Higgins’
conceptual score-works interpretable both in a visual-conceptual and a
musical-actional way.
After having
outlined, even if in a summary way, the basical developments of the
vocal-sonoric rearrangement of poetry and its visual consequences, let’s see
what has been going on in Hungary in the last few decades. Even if Hungarian
poetry was always quite sensible for the musicality inherent in poetic
language, the paradigmatic reciprocal compenetration of music and poetry that
could have been consolidated in a rich generic range as in the case of Futurist
or Dadaist practice, didn’t happen before the new avant-garde waves of the ’60s..
And what’s more, the first strong wave of historical avantgarde signaled by the
outstanding personality of Lajos Kassák, poet, writer and - as he is
better known in Europe - a congenial painter, great organizer and editor of so
relevant reviews such as A Tett (The Action), MA (Today), Munka
(Work), Dokumentum etc., took its first decisive inspiration from
German-Austrian expressionism and, on the other hand, from cubism and, a bit later,
from constructivism which were relatively purist tendencies, as they influenced
almost exclusively fine arts, or - as in the case of expressionism - had a
quite intense influence on artistic intentions and dinamism, but didn’t upset
radically the whole structure of the use of the language of poetry. Kassák and
his colleagues (such as Róbert Berény, Sándor Barta, Béla Uitz,
Róbert Reiter, Erzsi Újvári, or for a period László Moholy-Nagy)
did a lot in forming a new artistic vision on visual field, launching a new
practice in applied arts, typography, cover-design etc., but essentially didn’t
pass through the Rubicon of the asintactic and asemantic use of the language of
poetry. So, as for the acoustic aspect of poetic language, instead of initiating
any kind of vocal-sonoric poetry, the only relevant step done by them in this
field, was the interesting practice of choir-recital of poems, activity which
had a progressive relevance both in cultural-sociological and in artistic
sense.
Despite of
the overtly oppressive nature of the stalinist dictatorship in the ’50s, and
then the more and more disguised oppression of the long Kádár-era, because of a
complicated texture of various (sociological, political, cultural etc.) effects
and because of the new winds of the ’60s in Europe (which were not arrestable
on the frontier), a highly intensive new wave of neo-avantgarde thought
developed in the last ’60s and in the first ’70s. The most progressive outcomes
were reached on the field of experimental theatre (see the not only one example
of Kassák Stúdió, later, in emigration, Squat in New York) and in
progressive pop music (see the not only one example of Kex and János
Baksa-Soós), but even in fine arts and poetic practice very important
results were achieved. Still, the most important influence of this new wave was
the pre-forming of the artistic mind of the then young generations, because of
which from the late ’70s through the ’80s an over-all effective “parallel”,
indipendant, over-underground culture and art practice were developed outside
the official institutions of the regime based on monolitic power.
Perhaps for
the first time in the history of Hungarian avantgarde movements, now the
dominating artistic trend was exactly this over-all view of art, the total
compenetration of poetic, musical ands artistic ideas. That’s why musical field
became so decisive for poetry as well as for art. The concert-theatre situation
and the relative freedom offered by the means and effects of the same
situation, produced a new sort of space for artistico-poetico-musical
experimentations. A number of relevant groups were formed - and worked or have
been working intensely - by artists, poets, musicians and all kinds of
performers such as Bizottság (Committee), Konnektor, BP Service,
Lois Ballast, Art Deco, Jugó Tudósok (Yugoslavian
Scientists) and so on.
It seemed to
be evident that musical and visual space could have a strong influence on the
use of the language of poetry, first on the level of vocality, and then on the
level of sonority and conceptuality. Nevertheless, real Hungarian sound poetry
was put in motion outside Hungary. In modern Hungarian poetry, between the two
wars and after the second one, till the ‘60s, the only poet who occasionally
transpassed the semantic border of language, and sometime from poetic
musicality moved on towards the abstract phonic possibilities inherent in
language, was one of the greatest poets of this century, Sándor Weöres.
(It is not a mere case, that more of the most relevant Hungarian sound poets of
the first generation made some sound tributes to him: Tibor Papp in his Pagan
Rhythms and Katalin Ladik in her Group of phonemes or Panyigai ü,
just for example.)
Katalin
Ladik, poet, performer, actress, was born in 1942 in Novi Sad, lived in her
native country and was a Yugoslavian citizen till the end of the ‘80s. She
published several books (both in Hungarian and in Serbian-Croatian), had
innumerable performances in Europe, but
her most outstanding way of artistic expression probably is vocal art
and sound poetry. Her international fame is due - among others - to her
exceptional vocal capacity and voice training and, of course, to her deeply
original poetic inventions in vocal expression. In her sound poetry activity an
atavistic richness of body language sublimed in voice meets a folkloristically
deeply coloured linguistic bakcground and a highly up-to-date modern
sensibility. It is not a case at all that her sound poetry works attracted the
attention of Henri Chopin already in 1979, in his relevant monography on
international sound poetry (Poésie Sonore Internationale,
Jean-Michel Place ed.).
Tibor Papp
was a ’56 refugee and he has been living in Paris. In the first period of his
sound poetry activity he concentrated mainly to verbal rhythmics and to the
alternative or simultaneous adoption of French and Hungarian language. He
developed a large-scale cooperation with emigrant Hungarian avantgardists (in
Paris, with Pál Nagy and Alpár Bujdosó, edited for decades the
most important review of Hungarian neoavantgarde: Magyar Műhely /Atelier
Hongois/), and similarly with French avantgarde artists, collaborating
in Polyphonix group, with artists such as Jean-Jacques Lebel, Charles
Dreyfuss etc. Since the ‘80s he has been engaged in computer poetry and
worked out, beyond a number of relevant computer sound poems, even some
original poetic program softwares such as Distichon Alfa which can
generate an almost endless number of distichons. At the same time he became a
theorician of that kind of poetic language.
Inside
Hungary, after the first strong wave of the above mentioned artistic renewal,
in the ‘70s more Hungarian poets - usually working in other forms of poetic
self-expression as well - started a real sound poetry practice, in which the
inspirations and the influences of the avantgarde movement of the previous
period can be considered quite decisive. One of them is yet more or less a
foreigner: István Kántor, for decades more known in his artist name Monty
Cantsin, in the mid ‘70s left the country and has been living mostly in
Canada. He is
a heavy performance artist, musician, composer, but
the basic issue of his other activities, too, is probably a profound sound
poetic inspiration. In his songs, multimedia performances or other works vocal
and verbal expression remains decisive.
Really
different is Ákos Szilágyi’s sound poetry, basicly inspired by the gap
of the semantic and the phonic level of language. He makes a permutative oral
poetry in which the consistent alteration of the sound form of the same words
or phrases leads to the continuous modification of the semantic meaning. In
this method the parallel development of the semantic and phonic modulations,
inserted always in a very chasracteristic rhythmic composition, usually creates
a deeply grotesque effect, which is, at the same time, full of existential
anxieties.
Outlining a
survey of Hungarian sound poetry, I cannot avoid to mention, even if shortly,
my sound poetry acitivity, started in the last ‘70s. Just in the first period
the musical inspiration was very strong in it both in verbal/vocal and in
compositional sense. I worked out for myself a sort of abstract sound poetry in
which musical cues are decisive. Voice often ends up with becoming sound, and
the sonor or even musical complexity of the piece is always important. It is
not a case at all that I’ve been working continuosly with bands (Szkárosi&Konnektor, Spiritus Noister, or even the
English group Towering Inferno) and that my poetry usually has a strong
intermedial and/or performance character in which visuals and action - even if,
recently, in a minimal way - become components of the whole (sound) poetic
composition.
It is in the
‘80s, too, that artists and poets of other genres begin to work in the
framework of sound poetry as well. Gábor Tóth was rather known as a
visual poet when he discovered for himself the language of vocality and
sonority, creating a special way of verbality and gestuality in his poetry.
Recently he envolved in his experience noisism as well, and makes a sort of
noise-dj-poetry. As for noisism, one of the most original creation of Hungarian
avantgarde in the last decades is attached to the activity of a self-made
artist: since the early ‘80s Viktor Lois has been constructing mobile
sculpture-instruments from oldened household machines, wastes, refuses, any
kind of objects. These constructions are, on one hand, visually authentic
sculptures, on the other hand they are moveable and some way soundable as wind
or pluck or percussion instruments, and their sound is electrically amplified.
In order to explore the exciting possibilities of composition with these
self-built instruments he has formed various groups (the most known name is Lois
Ballast) with which he participated in several festivals and tours in
Europe. In recent years he has composed real songs combining this instrumental
basis with vocal contributions.
Evidently,
the concept and even more the practice of sound poetry is quite large, and
artists can get to this field from various directions, from different studies
and different experiences. As we could see, among sound poets there are some
who arrive from textual poetry, some others from fine arts and so on. And it is
obvious that a number of musicians have continuous contact with sound poetic activity,
working on both fields (which often are not really separable). It is the case
of worldwide known composer László Hortobágyi, whose music has a very
strong individual character, synthesizing in its language high-tech
contemporary expression forms, deeply transposed ethnic instrumental and vocal
traditions and new inventions based on an extemporarily large scale of musical
experiences. It is the consistent
presence of archaic and hypermodern vocality forms in
his compositions that makes his work highly relevant from sound poetry’s point
of view as well.
Looking on
the development of Hungarian experimental culture as a whole from the mid ‘70s,
the strong and decisive presence of musical expression forms is more than
characteristic. A number of new formations, forums, ways of expression and a
great lot of artists form their thought and practice on the basis of musical
experiences, using musical expression forms or inserting them somehow in their
artworks.. The analysis of this phenomenon could be the subject of a separate
paper, now we must content ourselves with making a note on it. But it is worth
mentioning even the fact that in the ‘90s this organic complexity of poetic
experiences seems to disappear in specialization: meanwhile artistic experiences
(musical, actional, multimedia or intermedia activities) are envolving more and
more a kind of verbal conceptuality, the so-called poetic activity turns back
mostly to linear forms. Interdisciplinary minded artists who work with text,
language or with any sort of verbal expression, or poets who work in musical,
visual or intermedial context, more and more consider themselves simply an
artist, and they don’t lay claim to be defined as poets. Is it the sign of a
conceptual separation between two concepts of artistic praxis and existence: a
traditional one and an experimental one? Will Verlaine’s idea of the basic
identity of poetry and music be revised?