Experimental Acoustic Life Writing - Gerhard Rühm: Paper Presentation at VAL study day "Music in Literature - Literature in Music"

In German speaking countries the so called Neues Hörspiel of the 1970s marked a prolific genre of experimental radio plays that focused on the materiality and musicality of language and the sensational reality of the acoustic event (what Helmut Heißenbüttel called the “Hörsensation”). The Austrian poet and composer Gerhard Rühm (°1930), a main figure of that period, continues to write and/or compose for acoustic media until today. In my presentation I want to talk about Rühm’s recent audioplay Hugo Wolf und drie Grazien, letzter Akt (WDR/HR 2015, voices: Gerhard Rühm and Monika Lichtenfeld). Rühm draws on the biographical constellation of the 19th century composer Hugo Wolf’s love relationships and his last years of mental and verbal deterioration. Interestingly enough, he gives shape to these (auto)biographical life writing aspects – aspects not done in the experimental 1970s – in a highly experimental way. Rühm radicalizes techniques of the Konkrete Poesie and the Lautdichtung, transgressing linguistic and generic conventions into a “radiophonic chanting oratorio [radiophones Redeoratorium]”. His pieces could be termed “experimental acoustic life writing”. Through experimental acoustic techniques it enhances a referential effect: the existential urgency and complexity of an artist’s lifelong preoccupation with language and sound.