Res absurda!?, BVN354 (1948)

This strange piece was composed 1 June 1948 in Ribe and orchestrated between 6 June 3:30 a.m. and 8 June 5:15 a.m., according to Langgaaard’s precise indications in the manuscript score. Langgaard indicated the Latin title of the piece in different ways. On the first page of notation at the top he writes Rès absùrda? – on the title page, however, which the editor has chosen to refer to, stands Res absùrda!? On a page at the beginning of the score, Langgaard explains the title as follows:

“Res absùrda = Unreasonableness”. The expression can also be translated as “meaninglessness” or “absurdity”. The entire song text of the work is identical with the title. Langgaard submitted the score to the State Boadcasting Service, which shortly after returned it along with the institution’s standard refusal, which was: “Since we herewith return the score for your composition Res absurda. For mixed chorus and orchestra we regretfully inform you that the State Broadcasting

Service will not be able to make use of it for broadcasts.” Langgaard reacted promptly by submitting the score once again along with the letter of refusal, furnished with his comments. Opposite the title Res absurda he had written “Exactly!” – and below: “Unfriendly letters are not accepted. You can burn my masterly scores”. At Langgaard’s death in 1952 the manuscript was found in the Broadcasting Corporation’s music archive after which it was transferred to the Royal Danish Library. In 2008, the piece was recorded by Thomas Dausgaard and the DR Radio Symphony Orchestra (Dacapo 6.220519). The duration of this recording is 5½ minutes. The first live performance took place on 11 March 2017 in Konzertsaal der Universität der Künste, Berlin, the performers being Sing-Akademie zu Berlin (Hauptund Mädchenchor), Männerchor des Staats- und Domchors Berlin and the Kammersymphonie Berlin, conducted by Kai-Uwe Jirka. 

The piece is a sarcastic, autobiographical statement from a composer who felt that life, as an artist was meaningless. His lot was to create “large wastepaper-basket-works”, as he wrote in a letter to the State Broadcasting Service. The work expresses this absurdity by itself being absurd. The composition’s 30 bars, of which bb. 1-10 are identical with bb. 11-20, are meant to  be repeated faster and faster until the fastest possible tempo, whereafter the piece is concluded with a C Major chord. This effect, of increasing the tempo gradually with each repetition is not new in Langgaard’s music. Already in Music of the Spheres (1916-18) a passage can be found in which choir and orchestra repeat four bars with the ‘meaningless’ song text do re mi fa sol la for a total of 14 times in a gradually faster tempo.

Bendt Viinholt Nielsen, November 2011 (September 2022)