Profiles : Alexander Müllenbach

What does your music sound like?

I think that laypersons are able to perceive my music as coherent, in which a logical sequence of thoughts emerges. One of my main concerns is to be able to grasp the form and the coherence at all times. But there is another important component which I call the “inner soundscapes”. I think every figure hat I write has something poetic about it, something that moves people. This means there is a basic mood that – I think – comes across quite well.

How do you live together with the music that you do not write?

If music moves me, then I like to hear it and deal with it intensively. I also allow myself to be inspired by it. It’s a wonderful thing when someone else’s music inspires a thought, not for you to reproduce, but really as an impulse in a completely different manner, one that you wouldn’t have had without this music.

If you could have a coffee with a composer from the past, who would it be, and what would you talk about?

I would like to have a cup of coffee, and some other things, with Debussy – I think he liked wine, so we would have a truly pleasant evening- and we would talk about how he managed so well to free music from a number of fixed formulas. He didn’t throw tonality overboard – which is often said in uninformed circles – he rather expanded tonality, and the great thing is he detached it from the concertante forms that were previously in use. He invented and used forms that did not exist until then. We have to admit that there were already a few precursors who attempted this, such as Liszt. Liszt was a very important composer and, without Liszt, Debussy would have been very different. I would talk to this man about the freedom of rhythm, but with a very strict control of form, and then of course about the wonderful harmony that he developed, which represents a continuation in an unorthodox way of existing sonic materials.

How and when did you start composing?

I had an uncle, called Uncle Fred. He was an accordion virtuoso and he used to visit us sometimes. He played on RTL television and also wrote his own music. When he was sat in our living room, playing a few tunes, he suddenly said, « And now I’m going to play a composition of mine » . He played a waltz, which was very pretty, and that was the first time I realized « Alright, so this music has to be written, and that’s what my uncle does. » That’s when I felt this is something I could do too. I was about 7 or 8 years old and I also played the accordion and I just gave it a go. I composed my own waltz. I tried to write it down – I had only had a year of Solfège (music theory), so… [laughs], but I wrote it down and played it a lot too. So basically that was my first composition. It fascinated me so much that I continued. Of course I got to know the whole repertoire, and then my language developed along with the repertoire.

What is the greatest quality/flaw of an interpreter of your music?

The greatest quality of an interpreter of my music is when he or she has sensed and understood the meaning and the structure in its inner context. That means that the tempo relationships are right, that the … I’ll call them cadences, so that you notice how one part flows into another, and that the character of the music, is understood. The biggest mistake is when these qualities are not present. Then it’s really bad. I have experienced performers who just played the material without thinking about the agogic structures. That is unbearable, as you get the feeling that the music is bad, simply because it is played badly.

Nowadays, what does the label “contemporary music” mean?

In the past it was said that it was Stockhausen. That was the embodiment of contemporary music, and people meant by that that it was music that they no longer understood and that had no coherence. This is because the term “contemporary music” was applied to music that was not ‘light music’ and which had to be as progressive as possible. A work had to deliver even more unknown things and experiments than the previous one, which explains the bad image that this kind of music had in the general public’s perception.

But things have, you could say, watered down over time, and that’s a good thing. That means the term contemporary music is gradually expanding, and you can really say now: ‘this is the music that is being written today’. Although, when you hear a rock group for example, you are not talking about contemporary music. It could fit, but that is not how the term is being used. But the Americans, for example John Adams or Philip Glass, have expanded the term a lot because elements that had previously been banned from (contemporary) music were reappearing: a coherent rhythm, a steady pulse, but also harmonies which you can still understand. I believe this was good for the music. Today we have a rather confusing number of styles and languages, which I think is very good. Because nowadays everyone can actually write whatever they want without this dictation. One remembers the so-called Darmstadt School, which exerted an unrelenting dictate on all composers. During the 60’s and 70’s, no one dared to write tonal music – and if they did, then they were « written off », as the saying goes. So things have actually moderated, and I think that’s a good thing.

Do you have a utopian project?

When I was much younger, I already had utopias. Some have come true, for example, when I was 20 or so, I always wanted to organize a master class, where you make contemporary music, where you get together and spontaneously play this piece and then that piece, then present it to an audience, and where you live and work together etc.
I was fortunate to be the director of one of the best academies and master classes, which is the Summer Academy of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. I have to say that this utopia has definitely come true for me.

What question do you wish we had asked you?

No further questions, Your Honor.

About « Profiles »

The video interview series « Profiles » is an initiative by the United Instruments of Lucilin aimed at presenting composers with whom the ensemble has had the opportunity to collaborate in a different light. By giving them a voice, not only about their music and career but also to explore their feelings on broader subjects, political and societal issues, and discovering them in a different light through some more personal questions. The goal is to reaffirm the role of discourse and ideas conveyed by artists in contemporary creation.

The series features a selection of Luxembourgish and international composers from diverse backgrounds.
A series of video-interviews

8 Episodes available: Toshio Hosokawa, Catherine Kontz, Philippe Manoury, Camille Kerger, Francisco Alvarado, Carola Bauckholt, Jessie Marino & Alexander Müllenbach. See the entire serie.

Credits:
The « Profiles » series is co-produced with the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel.
Video: Jean Huot, Skillab
Sound engineer: Philippe Mergen, CNA
Questions: defined by Lucilin’s artistic committee
Interview: Florence Martin, Lucilin
The musical extracts have been recorded in the CNA’s studio, by United Instruments of Lucilin’s musicians.

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