The Cruelty of Coldness An Interpretive PDF

The Cruelty of Coldness: An interpretive analysis of Das

Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern by Helmut
Lachenmann
MUSI1562M Student I.D: 200328796
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of MMus Musicology
School of Music, University of Leeds, January 2012

ABSTRACT
The relation between metaphorical and literal meaning seems strained by Western
literature, leading to terms such as ‘coldness’ being limited to predominately
signifying a reduction in temperature with little acknowledgement of the types of
coldness that can occur from within a corporeal space. However, recent research
conducted by Chen-Bo Zhong and Geoffrey J. Leonardelli has revealed that even
though terms such as ‘icy stare’ are metaphorical, a correlation is evident between
physiological symptoms relating to an awareness of a reduction in temperature and
loneliness. The results of such research highlight how coldness can manifest itself
within a corporeal space as well as in the external environment. Beauty and coldness
are inextricably linked and despite this relation being acknowledged for millennia the
terms are seemingly opposed by Western literature. The reworking of the term
‘beauty’ and the relation it has to coldness is fundamental to Helmut Lachenmann’s
compositional ideology and technique yet little research has explored how
Lachenmann represents this relation through sound. In order to explore and define
the different types of coldness that can impinge on a corporeal space and the
physiological symptoms each type of coldness can cause, a literary analysis of The
Little Match Seller by Hans Christian Andersen will be conducted with specific
reference being made to Madness in Civilization by Michel Foucault. Establishing
how Lachenmann represents his notion of beauty and the relation is has to coldness
through sound will be explored by drawing on the literary analysis conducted on The
Little Match-Seller and applying it to an interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen mit
den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern (1988 -1996). This study aims to provide the
foundations for enhancing knowledge of the fundamental themes at work in The
Little Match-Seller, help liberate the term ‘coldness’ from predominately signifying a
reduction in temperature or metaphor, understand how Lachenmann represents his
notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness through sound, and ultimately
provide the foundations to help bridge and enhance current Anglo-American
literature on the composer.

I dedicate this research to all that have offered the most sincere care and support in
order to help me reach the end of a year in which I have had to face many personal
challenges. It is because of you that I have completed my MMus and for that I am
extremely grateful.

There are a number of people I would like to thank that without their dedication the
completion of this dissertation would not have been possible:
Mr Graham Clarke, I am very grateful for you providing much needed advice and
support with the greatest of spirit on the formalities of administrative tasks.
Dr Mic Spencer, as my supervisor your encouragement, support and advice has been
invaluable to me and I have very much appreciated your mentoring.
Dr Martin Iddon, thank you for your time and commitment to helping me flourish. It
is your dedication, knowledge and the confidence you provide me with when needed
most that inspires me to dig deep and strive to produce the best work I can.

CONTENTS

Chapter
1. Introduction…………..…………………………………………………………..1
2. Coldness……………………………………………………….............................5
3. Beauty…………………………............................................................................14
4. An interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit

Bildern (1988 -1996) by Helmut Lachenmann…………………………………..22
5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….50
Appendix one…………………………………………………………………….55
Appendix two…………………………………………………………………….56
Bibliography……………………………………………………………………..59

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
2.1 Visual representation of the fundamental narrative themes at work 6

in The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.
2.2 A visual representation of the protagonist as a corporeal space in 8

The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen being
impinged by internal and external ‘coldness’ in the form of a
semiotic square.
2.3 Visual representation of fundamental themes and attributes at work 13

in The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.
3.1 Conceptual Integration Network Model. 20
4.1 Visual representation of the fundamental narrative themes at work 23

in Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern by
Helmut Lachenmann.
4.2a-4.2c The solo soprano parts in bars 5-7, 17-18 and 33-34 of scene 11 26-27
“Hauswand 1” in Das Mädchen.
4.3a-4.3d The tubular bell part in bars 1 and 8 and the piano part in bar 27 28-29
and bar 30 of scene 11 of scene 11 “Hauswand 1” in Das
Mädchen.
4.4 The string parts in bars 10-14 of scene 11 “Hauswand 1” in Das 30

Mädchen.
4.5 The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to 31

scene 11 of Das Mädchen.
4.6 The solo soprano part in bars 95 – 97, the final bar of scene 11 32
“Hanswand 1” to the first sounding bar in scene 12 “Ritsch 1
(Ofen)” in Das Mädchen.
4.7 Full orchestral parts in bars 143-153 of scene 12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)” 33
in Das Mädchen.
4.8a-4.8c The piano parts in bars 102-103, 106-107 and 119-120 of scene 12 34-35
“Ritsch 1 (Ofen)” in Das Mädchen.

4.10 Full orchestral parts in bars 426-429 of scene 21 “Nimm mich mit” 38
in Das Mädchen.
4.11a-4.11b Harp parts in bars 427-428 and 431 of scene 21 “Nimm mich mit” 39
in Das Mädchen.


4.13a-4.13c Styrofoam parts in bars 163-165 in scene 12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)”, 41-42

bars 166-172 in scene 13 “Hauswand 2” and bar 1 in scene 1 “Auf
der Straße” in Das Mädchen.
4.14a-4.14d Solo soprano parts in bars 162-164, 166-170, 172-175 and 176-180 43-44
in scene 3 “Frier-Arie” in Das Mädchen.
4.15a-4.15c Vocal part in bars 703-704, piano part in bars 656 – 659 and string 45-46
parts in bars 701 – 707 in scene 24 “Epilog” in Das Mädchen.

scenes 1, 3, 12, 13 and 24 of Das Mädchen.
4.17 The inextricable relation beauty has to the surrounding ‘coldness’ 48

of reality.

Chapter One: Introduction
The physiological symptoms of coldness seem limited in Western literature to those

caused by a reduction in temperature that is external to a corporeal space. Dictionary
definitions predominantly focus upon describing the term in relation to the
environment or even metaphorical meaning with little acknowledgement of the types
of coldness that can occur psychologically from within a corporeal space.1 However,
recent research has shown that physical temperature and psychological perception
strongly correlate in a literal as well as a metaphorical sense. Chen-Bo Zhong and
Geoffrey J. Leonardelli provide empirical evidence to support the notion that
physiological symptoms relating to coldness can be induced by loneliness.
If thinking involves perceptual simulation of the senses, possibly

including thermal perception, we expect that experiencing social
rejection can induce an actual feeling of coldness because coldness
perception often covaries with social exclusion. This association
may be rooted in our early experience with caregivers as well as
later interactions with general others. As an infant, being held
closely by the caregiver produces warmth, whereas distance from the
caregiver induces coldness. This basic exposure may produce our
first understanding that social closeness equals warmth, whereas
social distance equates coldness.2
Here a distinction is made between a coldness experienced from a reduction in

environmental temperature, warmth from being held closely, and a coldness from
being lonely by Zhong and Leonardelli. It seems physiological symptoms relating to
the mental state of a corporeal space as well as the surrounding temperature can
occur but they need to be explored further and ultimately defined. Therefore, this
dissertation will aim to clarify what types of coldness can impinge on a corporeal
space and what physiological symptoms each coldness can cause in order to liberate
the term from predominately signifying just a reduction in external environmental
temperature or metaphor.
One other term arguably limited by Western society that has been under
scrutiny from a philosophical and artistic perspective for millennia is ‘beauty’.
Jennifer McMahon argues that beauty represents purely ‘the constructive, the rational

1
Catherine Soanes, ed., The Pocket Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2001) p.168.
2
http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/Cold%20and%20Lonely%20Psych%20Sci.pdf accessed
on 3rd April 2011 through correspondence with Chen-Bo Zhong via e-mail.

and, in the context of our well-being, the good’.3 Dictionary definitions also favor
opposing the meaning of beauty to any form of negative connotation.4 However,
Helmut Lachenmann argues from a musical perspective that defining the term in
such a way leads to the discarding of the inextricable relation beauty has to a
somewhat harsh reality and therefore surrounding ‘coldness’.
Beauty. It is the pillow, or the pin-cus[h]ion, of our species, which

has never been able to desist from hating in the name of love, lying
in the name of solicitude, killing in the name of life, spoiling in the
name of saving, suppressing in the name of freedom, and acting
foolishly in the name of responsibility.5
Understanding this reworking of the term ‘beauty’ by Lachenmann is the key to

understanding his compositional ideology and technique. For instance, Ian Pace
argues that the works of Lachenmann ‘can be considered ‘beautiful’ if one is
prepared to accept Lachenmann’s rethinking of the nature of ‘the beautiful”.6
Although Lachenmann has been recognised as a highly important composer of his
generation in his home country for some time and is rapidly gaining similar
recognition from an Anglo-American perspective, little research has focused upon
how Lachenmann represents his notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness in
his compositions from an analytical and interpretive perspective. From the small
body of Anglo-American literature that exists on Lachenmann and his works, focus
tends to be primarily on his ideology or technique. Therefore, this dissertation will
also aim to help bridge and enhance current Anglo-American literature on the
composer by clarifying how Lachenmann represents his notion of beauty and the
relation it has to coldness through sound.
In order to theorise what types of coldness can impinge on a corporeal space
and what physiological symptoms each coldness can cause, chapter two will conduct
a literary analysis of The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.7 The
chapter will focus on revealing the fundamental narrative themes at work in The
Little Match-Seller and how the notion of temperature is a common characteristic of

3
Jennifer A. McMahon, Aesthetics and Material Beauty: Aesthetics Naturalized (Oxon: Routledge,
2007) p. 171.
4
Soanes, ed., The Pocket Oxford English Dictionary p. 72.
5
Helmut Lachenmann, ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’, Tempo (new series), 135 (1980) p. 24.
6
Ian Pace, ‘Positive or Negative 1’, The Musical Times, vol. 139, 1859 (1998) p. 15.
7
Hans Christian Andersen, ed., Svend Larsen, ‘The Little Match-Seller’, Fairy Tales, vol. 1, trans. R.
P. Keigwin (Denmark: Flensted, 1968) p. 380-385.

each theme. Furthermore, the chapter will highlight that each fundamental theme of
The Little Match-Seller represents a different variant of coldness that is impinging on
the protagonist. Each type of coldness and the physiological symptoms they can
cause will be defined with specific reference being made to Madness and Civilization
by Michel Foucault.8 By drawing upon Foucault’s exploration into melancholia,
mania and hysteria, three types of coldness that can occur psychologically from
within a corporeal space will be outlined along with environmental coldness and
visually represented in the form of a semiotic square. This chapter will ultimately
aim to provide the foundations for enhancing knowledge of the fundamental themes
at work in The Little Match-Seller as well as help to liberate the term ‘coldness’ from
predominately signifying just a reduction in external environmental temperature or
metaphor.
Lachenmann’s notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness will be
explored in chapter three. Parallels evident between The Little Match-Seller and
Lachenmann’s compositional ideology and technique will be drawn via an
exploration into the composer’s article ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’ and an
interview between the composer and David Ryan.9 The metaphorical resemblance
that The Little Match-Seller has to Lachenmann’s notion of beauty will be
highlighted. Furthermore, it will be argued that Lachenmann was fully aware of these
parallels that prompted him to construct Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern:
Musik mit Bildern (1988 -1996).10 With specific reference being made to ‘Theorizing
Musical Meaning’ by Nicholas Cook, an analytical and interpretive procedure will be
outlined that will be applied to specific scenes of Das Mädchen in chapter four.11
This chapter will ultimately aim to provide the foundations for understanding how
Lachenmann represents his notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness
through sound.
A thorough interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen will be the main focus of
chapter four. By comparing the narrative of The Little Match-Seller to the libretto of
Das Mädchen an understanding of how Lachenmann maintains and distorts the

8
Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, trans.
Richard Howard (Oxon: Routledge, 2001).
9
Lachenmann, ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’ p. 20-24 and David Ryan, ‘Composer in Interview:
Helmut Lachenmann’, Tempo (new series), 210 (1999) p. 20-24.
10
Helmut Lachenmann, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern (Stuttgart:
Breitkopf and Härtel, 2001).
11
Nicholas Cook, ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’, Music Theory Spectrum, vol. 23, 2 (2001) p. 170-
195.

fundamental narrative themes evident in the traditional text will be unveiled. Specific
scenes of Das Mädchen that draw upon text representing a fundamental narrative
theme of The Little Match-Seller and therefore signify a type of coldness impinging
on the protagonist will then be analysed and interpreted using the procedure outlined
in chapter three. Once it is understood how Lachenmann represents the different
types of coldness impinging on the protagonist(s) through sound an overall
interpretation will distinguish how Das Mädchen resembles Lachenmann’s notion of
beauty and the relation it has to coldness in a wider philosophical context. This
chapter will aim to show how Lachenmann represents different types of coldness
through sound and ultimately provide the foundations to help bridge and enhance
current Anglo-American literature on the composer via an interpretive analysis of
Das Mädchen.

Chapter Two: Coldness
Between 1479 and 1518 Leonardo da Vinci documented how an internal

fundamental dialectic can occur emotionally when one is faced with the unknown.
I reached, after wandering a moment amongst the shady rocks, the

entrance to a large cavern in front of which I stood for a moment,
dumbfounded and knowing nothing of this wonder. Arching my
back, placing my left hand on my knee and shading my lowered and
closed eyelids with my right hand, I leant numerous times to one
side and to the other seeking to distinguish something within:
however the obscurity reigning inside made this impossible. Two
feelings soon welled up inside of me, fear and desire: fear of the
dark and threatening cave, desire to see if there were not some
mystery within.12
Da Vinci unveils how ‘fear’ and ‘desire’ can govern how one may respond to a
situation. In The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen, the protagonist
seemingly suffers from the same ‘fear’ and ‘desire’ evident in da Vinci’s document
and the actions the girl fulfills as a result of these feelings correlate with notions of
coldness and warmth to form the impetus of the narrative.13 With specific reference
being made to Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization this chapter will argue
that the oscillation between coldness and warmth portrayed in The Little Match-
Seller signifies changes in the protagonist’s mental state and therefore inner physical
mechanics.14 First, parallels evident between The Little Match-Seller and Madness
and Civilization will be outlined and situated within an overall philosophical context.
Second, the inner physiological symptoms caused by varying mental state and
exposure to harsh winter conditions will be explored in order to decipher what
possible physical strain the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller seemingly endures.
All in all, this chapter will correlate the oscillation between coldness and warmth
portrayed in The Little Match-Seller with attributes relating to physiological
symptoms caused by ‘madness’ and a cold winter climate to highlight how each

12
Helmut Lachenmann, ‘Libretto’, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern
(Stuttgart: Kairos, 2002) p. 28. The Leonardo da Vinci extract is taken from his Codex Arundel, a
collection of 283 pages drawn from fragmented manuscripts written between 1478 and 1518 that can
be found in the British Museum in London.
13
Hans Christian Andersen, ed., Svend Larsen, ‘The Little Match-Seller’, Fairy Tales, vol. 1, trans. R.
14
Michel Foucault, ‘Passion and Delirium’ and ‘Aspects of Madness’, Madness and Civilization: A
History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, trans. Richard Howard (Oxon: Routledge, 2001) p. 80-150.

fundamental theme of the narrative represents a different variant of coldness

impinging on the protagonist.
The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen is perceived as a fairy
tale, ‘a sweet, touching treasure of literature to be read aloud during a contemplative
hour under the tree of lights, followed, perhaps, by coffee and cake’.15 There are,
however, fundamental concepts at work in The Little Match Seller that may go
unrecognized. Figure 2.1 summarizes how the narrative of The Little Match Seller is
structured so the protagonist’s ‘fear’ and ‘desire’ is encompassed within a context of
‘environmental coldness’, which is outlined thoroughly in appendix one.
Figure 2.1: Visual representation of the fundamental narrative themes at work in The
Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.
Paragraph
1 Environmental coldness  Fear

2 Environmental coldness  Desire
3 Fear  Desire  Environmental coldness
4 Desire  Environmental coldness
5 Desire
6 Desire
7 Fear and Desire  Transcendence
8 Environmental coldness
The narrative structure of The Little Match-Seller suggests that the feelings of the
protagonist and ‘coldness’ are separate entities. However appendix one highlights
that Andersen also draws upon the metaphorical relations evident between feelings
and temperature by aligning the protagonist’s ‘fear’ of reality with ‘snow’, the ‘dark’
and ‘cold’ and her ‘desire’ for comfort with ‘light’ and ‘flame’. Therefore, it can be
argued that temperature is a concept that unifies the narrative structure fundamentally
throughout. Like Andersen, Michel Foucault explores the relations between feelings
and temperature in Madness and Civilization from a philosophical, metaphorical,
psychological and physiological perspective.16 First, Foucault discusses how feelings

15
Helmut Lachenmann, ‘Sounds are Natural Phenomena’, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern:
Musik mit Bildern, trans. BrainStorm (Stuttgart: Kairos, 2002) p. 39.
16
Michel Foucault, ‘Passion and Delirium’ and ‘Aspects of Madness’, Madness and Civilization: A
History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, trans. Richard Howard (Oxon: Routledge, 2001) p. 80-150.

such as fear and desire cannot occur without ‘passion’.17 Second, Foucault outlines
how different variants of ‘madness’ that can occur in a corporeal space are governed
by fear and/or desire. For example, Foucault argues ‘Melancholia […] is always
accompanied by sadness and fear; on the contrary, in the maniac we find audacity
and fury’.18 Furthermore, Foucault implies hysteria occurs due to an overload of
‘fear’ and ‘desire’, for instance once the disease had taken precedence ‘one fell ill
from too much feeling, one suffered from an excessive solidarity with all the beings
around one’.19 Therefore, the type of ‘madness’ experienced by the corporeal space
ultimately depends on how the ‘passion’ is triggered. Third, Foucault describes
melancholia as ‘humid, heavy, and cold’ and ‘mania’ as ‘parched, dry, compounded
of violence and fragility; a world which heat – unfelt but everywhere manifested –
made arid, friable, and always ready to relax under the effect of a moist coolness’.20
Furthermore, with reference to Robert Whytt, Foucault describes hysteria as an
‘alternation of heat and cold or of heaviness and humidity’.21 Therefore, Foucault
draws upon metaphorical relations evident between feelings and temperature to
reinforce how each variant of ‘madness’ has specific characteristics. The apparent
parallels between The Little Match-Seller and Madness and Civilization ultimately
suggest that coldness impinges on the protagonist from more than just an
environmental perspective. The protagonist as a corporeal space being impinged by
internal and external coldness can be summarized in the form of a semiotic square as
shown in figure 2.2. In order to understand what physiological symptoms each type
of coldness outlined in figure 2.2 could possibly cause the protagonist in The Little
Match-Seller to suffer from, the inner physiological symptoms caused by
melancholia, mania, hysteria and environmental coldness will now be explored.

17
Ibid. p. 82-84. Foucault argues, ‘Indeed, we must no longer try to situate passion in a causal
succession, or halfway between the corporeal and the spiritual; passion indicates, at a new, deeper
level, that the soul and the body are in a perpetual metaphorical relation in which qualities have no
need to be communicated because they are already common to both; and in which phenomena of
expression are not causes, quite simply because soul and body are always each other’s immediate
expression. Passion is no longer exactly at the geometrical center of the body-and-soul complex; it is,
a little short of that, at the point where their opposition is not yet given, in that region where both their
unity and their distinction are established. But at this level, passion is no longer simply one of the
causes – however powerful – of madness; rather it forms the basis for its very possibility’. It is the
relation of Passion to ‘madness’ that is visually represented in figure 2.2.
18
Ibid. p. 119.
19
Ibid. p. 148.
20
Ibid. p. 122.
21
Ibid. p. 145.

Figure 2.2: A visual representation of the protagonist as a corporeal space in The

Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen being impinged by internal and
external ‘coldness’ in the form of a semiotic square.22
PASSION

Fear Desire
Hysterical
coldness
Melancholic Manic
coldness coldness
Environmental
Non-Desire coldness Non-Fear
Relating inner physiological symptoms to different variants of ‘madness’ is

central to Foucault’s discourse in Madness and Civilization and specific reference is
made to the ‘tension and release, hardness and softness, rigidity and relaxation,
congestion and dryness’ of muscle fibers and blood flow.23 An increase in muscle
fiber tension is one symptom of melancholia that manipulates the internal physicality
of the sufferer. With reference to Anne-Charles Lorry, Foucault acknowledges that
the illness,
Agitates the fibers which receive it; as a result tension increases in

the other fibers, which become more rigid and at the same time
susceptible to further vibration. But should the sensation become
even stronger, then the tension increases to such a degree in the
other fibers that they become incapable of vibrating; the state of
rigidity is such that the flow of blood is stopped and the animal
spirits immobilized. Melancholia has set in.24

22
Raymond Monelle, ‘Semantics and Narrative Grammar’, Linguistics and Semiotics in Music (Chur:
Harwood, 1992) p. 244-250. It is acknowledged by Monelle that the semiotic square was developed
by Algirdas Greimas to theorize ‘a common structural level, far below the level of manifestation (that
is, of actual story-telling) […] On the deepest level, signification is structured by the logical principles
of contradiction, contrariety and implication’. Therefore, the square represents the fundamentals of a
narrative that may not be apparent at first but nevertheless exist as a necessary foundation for the
narrative text.
23
Foucault, ‘Passion and Delirium’ p. 82.
24
Ibid. ‘Aspects of Madness’ p. 117.

Melancholia is portrayed as a disease that manifests itself physiologically via

paralysing muscle fiber in contraction. However, it appears that the extent of muscle
fiber paralysis due to melancholia is variable. For example, Foucault argues ‘in
melancholia, the spirits are swept by an agitation, but a feeble agitation, without
power or violence […] very soon their agitation languishes, their strength fails, and
the movement stops’.25 Therefore, melancholia targets specific muscle fibers with a
lightly fluctuating but detrimental disturbance leading to the manipulation of other
muscle fibers and possible cessation of movement. Melancholia is also portrayed as
an illness that influences blood flow. Foucault argues,
It is this languishing flow, these choked vessels, this heavy, clogged

blood that the heart labors to distribute throughout the organism,
and which has difficulty penetrating into the very fine arterioles of
the brain, where the circulation ought to be very rapid in order to
maintain the movement of thought – it is all this distressing
obstruction which explains melancholia.26
The manipulation of muscle fibers leads to blood flow being restricted and bodily
organs being supplied insufficiently. Furthermore, the ‘choked vessels’ and ‘heavy,
clogged blood’ cause congestion and puts strain on the heart leading to a disturbance
of inner fundamental pulsations. Therefore, all in all, Foucault implies that the
protagonist in The Little Match-Seller suffers from muscle fiber ‘tension’, ‘rigidity’
and ‘hardness’ and the ‘congestion’ of blood flow when in ‘fear’ of reality, which
can all ultimately constitute as the predominant attributes relating to ‘melancholic
coldness’.
The oppositional relation between melancholia and mania is arguably
analogous to an electric battery or a lava lamp.
First there is a concentration of nervous power and of its fluid in a

certain region of the system; only this sector is agitated, all the rest
is in a state of sleep; this is the melancholia phase. But when it
reaches a certain degree of intensity, this local charge suddenly
expands into the entire system, which it agitates violently for a
certain time, until its discharge is complete: this is the manic
episode.27

25
Ibid. p. 115.
26
Ibid. p. 117.
27
Ibid. p. 127. Here Foucault discusses a variety of metaphors that have been used by academics in
the past to describe the oppositional relation between melancholia and mania. This specific quotation
is lifted from Foucault’s acknowledgement of a proposal made by Spengler, which suggests that the
two illnesses are analogous to an electric battery.

Situating melancholia and mania at opposite ends of an energy spectrum would

suggest that the physiological symptoms they present with are also polarized.
However, the physiological difference between each illness in relation to muscle
fibers manifests solely in the extremity of tension. Foucault argues,
Only a few fibers vibrate in the melancholic, those which correspond

to the precise point of his delirium. On the contrary, the maniac
vibrates to any and every stimulus; his delirium is universal […] as
if the maniac had accumulated a supplementary energy in the tension
of his fibers.28
Therefore, where melancholia targets specific muscle fibers with a lightly fluctuating
but detrimental disturbance, mania on the other hand targets all muscle fibers with
rigor. The physiological difference between melancholia and mania in relation to
blood flow is clear. Foucault argues,
The essence of mania is desertic, sandy. Théophile Bonet, in his

Sepulchretum anatomicum, declares that the brains of maniacs,
insofar as he had been able to observe them, always seemed to be in
a state of dryness, of hardness, and of friability. Later, Albrecht von
Haller also found that the maniac’s brain was hard, dry, and
brittle.29
Foucault reinforces how bodily organs are deprived of any blood flow to hydrate
them when mania occurs, which consequently leads to internal physiology becoming
weak and unable to function productively. Therefore, all in all, Foucault implies that
the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller suffers from extreme muscle fiber
‘tension’, ‘hardness’ and ‘dryness’ due to very little blood flow when in ‘desire’ for
comfort, which can all ultimately constitute as the predominant attributes relating to
‘manic coldness’.
Polarizing melancholia and mania on the same spectrum implies that an
amalgamation of the two illnesses can also occur. Foucault questions, ‘Do not acid
vapors have the very properties of melancholia, whereas alcoholic vapors, always
ready to burst into flame, suggest frenzy; and sulfurous vapors, agitated by violent
and continuous movement, indicate mania’?30 Rather like a confluence of two
streams, ‘frenzy’ signifies the intersection of two mental states and therefore a

28
Ibid. p. 120.
29
Ibid. p. 121.
30
Ibid. p. 116.

condition that can cause a plethora of conflicting physiological symptoms. Foucault

argues,
There is probably no text that bears better witness to the qualitative

instability of hysteria than George Cheyne’s book The English
Malady: according to Cheyne, The disease maintains its unity only
in an abstract manner; its symptoms are dispersed into different
qualitative regions and attributed to mechanisms that belong to each
of these regions into its own right. All symptoms of spasm, cramp,
and convulsion derive from a pathology of heat symbolized by
“harmful, bitter, or acrimonious vapors.” On the contrary, all
psychological or organic signs of weakness – “depression,
syncopes, inactivity of the mind, lethargic torpor, melancholia, and
sadness” – manifest a condition of fibers which have become too
humid or weak, doubtless under the effect of cold, viscous, thick
humors that obstruct the glands and the vessels, serous and sanguine
alike. As for paralyses, they signify both a chilling and an
immobilization of the fibers, “an interruption of vibrations,” frozen
so to speak in the general inertia of solids.31
Varying extremities of muscle fiber tension seem to be a fundamental inner

physiological symptom relating to hysteria. Simultaneously muscle fibers are
‘humid’ or ‘weak’ yet cause ‘spasm, cramp, and convulsion’ for the sufferer. As
Foucault argues, such unified physiological disturbance inevitably leads to
‘unconsciousness’.32 Although the entire corporeal space is overwhelmed with
muscle fiber tension, the unification of such a physiological symptom is fractured by
its fluctuating, chaotic traits. The instability signified by hysteria is reinforced by
‘paralyses’ temporarily discontinuing muscle fiber movement causing ‘universal
resonance’.33 Furthermore, blood flow becomes ‘viscous’ and ‘thick’ but also
‘sanguine’, suggesting excessive, dominating congestion. As Foucault argues in
conclusion, ‘Hysteria is indiscriminately mobile or immobile, fluid or dense, given
to unstable vibrations or clogged by stagnant humors.’34 Therefore, all in all,
Foucault implies that the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller suffers from varying
degrees of muscle fiber ‘tension’, ‘release’, ‘hardness’, ‘softness’, ‘rigidity’ and
‘relaxation’ along with high levels of ‘congestion’ in blood flow when experiencing

31
Ibid. p. 133.
32
Ibid. p. 149.
33
Ibid. p. 147. Foucault argues, ‘ one hand, nervous sufferers are the most irritable, that is, have the
most sensibility: tenuousness of fiber, delicacy of organism; but they also have an easily
impressionable soul, an unquiet heart, too strong a sympathy for what happens around them. This sort
of ‘universal resonance – simultaneously sensation and mobility – constitutes the first determination
of the illness’.
34
Ibid. p. 134.

a mixed state of ‘fear’ and ‘desire’, which can all ultimately constitute as the
predominant attributes relating to ‘hysterical coldness’.
It is important to acknowledge that inner physiological symptoms can occur
due to alterations outside the corporeal space. Foucault argues, ‘qualities may be
altered by accidences, circumstances, the conditions of life; so that a being who is
dry and cold can become warm and humid, if his way of life inclines him to it.’35
One external factor that the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller is exposed to is a
cold winter climate. At first Andersen describes the protagonist as suffering from
being ‘terribly cold’, ‘bare feet that were simply blue’, and ‘shivering’. Otto Edholm
highlights the impact that low temperature can have on muscle fibers.
Shivering consists of an uncoordinated pattern of activity in which

groups of muscle fibers within a muscle contract and relax out of
phase with each other. There is no purposeful movement […]
Shivering characteristically is in bursts, and cannot be sustained at a
maximum level for long.36
As an automated response to cold, muscle fibers shudder at random to generate heat.

Furthermore, the fluctuation in muscle fiber tension is intermittent and characterized
by short, high energy ‘bursts’ that fracture continuity. The final paragraph of The
Little Match-Seller outlines how the protagonist is ‘frozen to death’ and therefore the
fatal consequence that exposure to a cold winter climate can lead to. As argued by
Evan Lloyd, one physiological symptom of hypothermia is that ‘muscles and joints
are still and simulate rigor mortis’.37 As core body temperature declines so does
muscle fiber movement to the point that there is complete cessation. Furthermore in
relation to hypothermia, Lloyd highlights how ‘respiration is difficult to register’,
‘the peripheral pulse is impossible to feel’, ‘blood pressure is impossible to measure’
and ‘heart sounds are inaudible’.38 In response to such severe circumstances,
vasoconstriction occurs causing restriction in blood flow and sporadic congestion.
Therefore, all in all, Andersen implies that the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller
suffers from an increase in muscle fiber ‘tension’, ‘hardness’ and ‘rigidity’ along

35
Ibid. p. 114.
36
Otto. G., Edholm, ‘Temperature Regulation in Man’, Man – Hot and Cold (London: Edward
Arnold, 1978) p. 43.
37
Evan. L., Lloyd, ‘Hypothermia’, Hypothermia and Cold Stress (London: Croom Helm, 1986) p. 51.
38
Ibid.

with inadequate blood flow when exposed to a cold winter climate, which can all
ultimately constitute as the predominant attributes relating to ‘environmental
coldness’.
To conclude, with specific reference being made to Foucault’s Madness and
Civilization this chapter has argued that the oscillation between coldness and warmth
portrayed in The Little Match-Seller signifies changes in the protagonist’s mental
state and therefore inner physical mechanics.39 First, parallels evident between The
Little Match-Seller and Madness and Civilization were outlined and situated within
an overall philosophical context as summarized in figure 2.2. Second, the inner
physiological symptoms caused by varying mental state and exposure to a cold
winter climate were explored and the possible physical strain the protagonist in The
Little Match-Seller endures was deciphered, as summarized in figure 2.3.
Figure 2.3: Visual representation of fundamental themes and attributes at work in

The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.
Fear/Cold  Melancholic  Muscle fiber tension, rigidity and

coldness hardness along with congestion of blood
flow.
Desire/Warm  Manic coldness  Extreme muscle fiber tension, hardness

and dryness due to little blood flow.
Fear and  Hysterical  Varying degrees of muscle fiber tension,

Desire/Cold and coldness release, hardness, softness, rigidity and
Warm relaxation along with congestion of blood
flow to a high level.
Non Fear and  Environmental  Gradual increase in muscle fiber tension,

Desire/Non cold coldness hardness and rigidity along with
and Warm inadequate blood flow.
All in all, this chapter has correlated the oscillation between coldness and warmth
portrayed in The Little Match-Seller with attributes relating to physiological
symptoms caused by ‘madness’ and a cold winter climate to highlight how each
fundamental theme of the narrative represents a different variant of coldness
impinging on the protagonist.

39
Andersen, ‘The Little Match-Seller’ p. 380-385 and Foucault, ‘Passion and Delirium’ and ‘Aspects
of Madness’ p. 80-150.

Chapter Three: Beauty
The engulfing power that coldness can hold over beauty has been explored for
millennia. Yuriko Saito argues,
A major theme of Japanese aesthetics originating in the ancient court

poetry, lamentation over aristocrats’ passing youth, beauty, love
affairs, power, and wealth was invariably expressed by reference to
the evanescent phenomena of nature: passing of season, rain, mist,
snow, changing color of leaves, and falling cherry blossoms.40
Renowned for her exquisite beauty, Ono no Komachi provides one example of such
poetry.
The flowers withered,

Their color faded away,
While meaninglessly
I spent my days in the world
And the long rains were falling.41
The types of coldness impinging on Komachi and the natural environment in the
poem recall the types of coldness impinging on the protagonist and her surroundings
in The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen as outlined in chapter two.
Yet typically Western culture does not acknowledge beauty as a concept that is
reliant on being constantly inflicted upon by different types of coldness. For
example, Jennifer McMahon argues that beauty represents purely ‘the constructive,
the rational and, in the context of our well-being, the good’.42 Western culture
typically opposes beauty to any type of imperfection and fails to recognize the notion
is naturally exposed to the process of ageing.43 This chapter will address the
Westernized fixated notion of beauty with specific reference being made to Helmut
Lachenmann. First, it will be argued that liberating beauty from Western convention
is central to Lachenmann’s compositional ideology. Second, it will be discussed how
Lachenmann applies his notion of beauty to his compositional technique via the
process of ‘defamiliarization’. Third, it will be acknowledged that Lachenmann

40
Yuriko Saito, ‘Everyday Aesthetic Qualities and Transience’, Everyday Aesethetics (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2007) p. 184-185.
41
Ibid. p. 185.
42
2007) p. 171.
43
Saito, ‘Everyday Aesthetic Qualities and Transience’ p. 149-204.

seemingly recognized the philosophical and physiological parallels evident between

the narrative of The Little Match-Seller and his own compositional ideology and
technique given the construction of his own large scale composition, Das Mädchen
mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern (1988 -1996).44 Fourth, an analytical and
interpretive procedure will be outlined with specific reference being made to
‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’ by Nicholas Cook, which will be applied to sections
of Das Mädchen in chapter four in order to explore how the music signifies the
internal and external coldness impinging on the protagonist(s) as a corporeal space
and therefore the generic, intricate relation coldness has to beauty when viewed in a
wider philosophical context.45 All in all, this chapter will aim to provide the
foundations for understanding how Lachenmann represents different types of
coldness impinging on beauty through sound.
In ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’ Helmut Lachenmann outlines the types
of coldness that beauty is continuously exposed to from an artistic perspective.
Today the call for beauty is more suspect than ever – whether the
concept is a pluralism embracing all conceivable types of hedonism,
or else a reactionary hangover after false hopes and promises, or just
academicism of whatever sort. Its proponents betray themselves over
and over again as they cry out for ‘nature’, for tonality, for
something positive, ‘constructive’, for ‘comprehensibility at last’ –
and respond with loyal quotations from Bruckner, Mahler and Ravel.
It is high time the concept of beauty be rescued from the
speculations of corrupt spirits, and the cheap pretensions of avant-
garde hedonists, sonority-chefs, exotic-meditationists and nostalgia-
merchants. Once integrated into an overall theory of aesthetics and
composition, the concept is no longer suitable for the prophets of
popularity, the apostles of nature and tonality, and the fetishists of
academicism and tradition. The mission of art lies neither in fleeing
from, nor flirting with, the contradictions which mould the
consciousness of our society, but in coming to grips with them and
dialectically mastering them.46

44
45
195.
46

First, Lachenmann highlights how the seeming supporters of beauty hinder its natural
growth and reinvention by attempting to frame and preserve the concept in tradition
that no longer exists.47 Second, Lachenmann argues that beauty needs to be ‘rescued’
from the shackles of convention that Western civilization typically bind it to. Third,
Lachenmann discusses how the liberation of beauty can occur at least artistically
through recognizing, accepting and ‘mastering’ the situation from an objective point
of view. In other words, the ‘fear’ and ‘desire’ that is fundamental to a corporeal
space must be transcended in order for the ‘Beautiful’ to be experienced. As
Lachenmann argues, ‘such a determination of the Beautiful is the only realistic and
rational means of discriminating the Beautiful in traditional art’.48 Here parallels can
be drawn between the narrative of The Little Match-Seller and Lachenmann’s
compositional ideology. For instance, the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller
experiences an array of different types of coldness until she transcends her corporeal
space to find ultimate happiness in heaven with her grandmother. Similarly,
Lachenmann outlines that
The concept of the Beautiful has to pass through this purging of

itself via the real contradictions of social expectations. Beauty. It is
the pillow, or the pin-cus[h]ion, of our species, which has never been
able to desist from hating in the name of love, lying in the name of
solicitude, killing in the name of life, spoiling in the name of saving,
suppressing in the name of freedom, and acting foolishly in the name
of responsibility. The path to the ‘happy’ experience of the Beautiful
leads through a conflict-ridden experience of it, whether repressed or
accepted In other words, it asks of Man whether and to what extent
he is prepared to live eye to eye with his contradiction, and –
conscious of this contradiction – remain vigilant about what he is up
to.49
The above parallels indicate that the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller represents
beauty as a ‘pillow’ or a ‘pin-cushion’ being pricked by internal and external
coldness, which can ultimately be recognized as a metaphor for beauty in a wider

47
In ‘The Ageing of the New Music’ Theodor Adorno explores this very same notion but from a
compositional perspective. Adorno argues, ‘[New] music has begun to show symptoms of false
satisfaction. […] Whoever […] claims that the new art is as beautiful as the traditional one does it a
real disservice; he praises in it what this music rejects so long as it unflinchingly follows its own
impulse. The ageing of the New Music means nothing else than that this critical impulse is ebbing
away. It is falling into contradiction with its own idea’. Therefore, it is clear Lachenmann continues to
address the ongoing dilemma of just how vulnerable the notion of beauty is when viewed from an
artistic perspective. Theodor W. Adorno, ‘The Ageing of the New Music’, Essays on Music: Selected,
with introduction, commentary, and notes by Richard Leppert. New Translation by Susan H. Gillespie
(London: University of California Press, 2002) p. 181.
48
Lachenmann, ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’ p. 23.
49
Ibid. p. 24.

philosophical context. All in all, it is evident that beauty has been denied the
opportunity to age naturally by the very community claiming to support and nourish
it and that consequently liberating beauty from Western convention is central to
Lachenmann’s compositional ideology.50
Where a corporeal space can present the symptoms of coldness impinging on
beauty physiologically as in the case of The Little Match-Seller, Lachenmann seems
to argue that the compositional palette can present the symptoms of coldness
impinging on beauty musically.
In practice, the composer who is concerned to express himself is

obliged to take account of the ‘aesthetic apparatus’ – that is, the sum
total of categories of musical perception as they have evolved
throughout history to the present day; of the ‘instrumentarium’
which comes with them; of the techniques of playing and of
notation; and last but not least, of the relevant institutions and
markets in our society. […] This ‘aesthetic apparatus’ embodies the
ruling aesthetic needs and norms. […] For the apparatus has been
created by the nature of the demand for music. To that extent it
mirrors social consciousness, with its value-concepts and taboos –
and with its contradictions. It embodies Man’s need for beauty
together with his flight from reality – his longing, and his fear. […]
This conflict – fear of freedom and simultaneous longing for it – is
his own as well, and consequently he cannot evade the crucial
decision.51
Lachenmann acknowledges that the contemporary composer must confront and aim
to transcend the ingrained ‘fear’ and ‘longing’ or ‘desire’ for musical beauty in order
to liberate the concept from convention and experience the ‘Beautiful’ by acquiring
knowledge of the entire ‘aesthetic apparatus’ available and being aware of the
responsibility each compositional palette carries. It seems no coincidence then that
Lachenmann’s compositional technique is governed by a deep concern for the
liberation of sound. In an interview with David Ryan, Lachenmann argues,
Sounds have to be broken up so that their innermost nucleus and

vibration can be set free in space and time. That inevitability means
alienation for those who cling to the established social code; but it
means equally an opening-up and a liberation. And as such the
process must justify itself in each and every composition.52

50
It is here that parallels between the role that Lachenmann adopts as a composer and the role of the
grandmother rescuing the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller can be drawn.
51
Lachenmann, ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’ p. 22-23.
52
David Ryan, ‘Composer in Interview: Helmut Lachenmann’, Tempo (new series), 210 (1999) p. 22.

Analogous to physiologists investigating DNA within a cell structure, Lachenmann

goes beyond the walls of convention to explore the essence of sound. As David
Metzer argues, Lachenmann ‘alters a sound from the inside out. It begins by
exposing the “anatomy” of a sound […] the basic core, like that of the scrape of a
bow against a string or the flow of breath’.53 As with the extraction of DNA from a
cell, intricate force must be used to puncture the defensive structure guarding the
central essence. In relation to the wider concept of ‘instrumental musique concrète’,
Lachenmann uses a similar intricate physical force and violence to turn familiar
sound into the unfamiliar. Lachenmann argues,
The idea of ‘instrumental musique concrete’ – i.e. sound as a

message conveyed from its own mechanical origin, and so sound as
experience of energy, marked the compositional material of my
pieces between 1968 (Tem A) and 1976 (Accanto). It remains part of
my thinking as a composer to this day. It signifies an extensive
defamiliarization of instrumental technique: the musical sound may
be bowed, pressed, beaten, torn, maybe choked, rubbed, perforated
and so on. At the same time the new sound must satisfy the
requirements of the old familiar concert-hall sound which, in this
context, loses any familiarity and becomes (once again) freshly
illuminated, even ‘unknown’. Such a perspective demands changes
in compositional technique, so that the classical base-parameters,
such as pitch, duration, timbre, volume, and their derivatives retain
their significance only as subordinate aspects of the compositional
category which deals with the manifestation of energy.54
The renewal of sound is born out of applying ‘defamiliarization’ to the mechanics of

instrumental performing.55 Exploring new ways of playing an instrument can
inevitably create ‘new’ sound and perception. As Metzer argues, ‘Lachenmann
begins with musical sounds, or musical means of creating sounds, and
“defamiliarizes” them’.56 All in all, Lachenmann uses his compositional palette as a

53
David Metzer, ‘Sonic Flux’, Musical Modernism at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) p. 197.
54
Ryan, ‘Composer in Interview: Helmut Lachenmann’ p. 20-21.
55
The term ‘defamiliarization’ was coined by the Russian Formalist Victor Shklovsky as ‘ostranenie’
in his 1917 essay ‘Art as Technique’ with specific reference made to Tolstoy’s War and Peace. Victor
Shklovsky, ‘Art as Technique’, Russian Formalist Criticism: Four essays, trans. by Lee T Lemon and
Marion J. Reis (Lincoln: Nebraska, 1965). As a device, ‘defamiliarization’ can be applied to a variety
of objects and events beyond literature as highlighted in R. H. Stacy, Defamiliarization in Language
and Literature (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1977). For more information on
‘defamiliarization’ in relation to Lachenmann please see Piotr Grella-Możejko, ‘Helmut Lachenmann
– Style, Sound, Text’, Contemporary Music Review, 24, 1 (2005) p. 57-75.
56
Metzer, ‘Sonic Flux’ p. 197.

tool to ultimately help shed any variant of artistic coldness from impinging on beauty
that may present itself through sound.
Like so many other artistic and literary works, The Little Match-Seller has
seemingly become branded by convention. As Elias Bredsdorff remarks, the trend
has typically been to label Andersen as
‘A nursery writer’, a harmless entertainer for the little ones – with

the tacit implication that Andersen has nothing to give to the adults.
For such is the situation in Britain to-day – and I believe also in
America. Hans Christian Andersen’s stories and fairy tales have
increasingly become the prey of unscrupulous publishers speculating
in cheap and popular ‘nursery books’. […] In many cases, therefore,
it is a distorted and mutilated Andersen we meet in these books.57
It is clear that Lachenmann became aware of the limitation placed upon The Little
Match-Seller by Western society and the suppressed fundamental themes that
Andersen draws upon to construct the narrative as a reflection of the complications
and contradictions he as a composer has had to confront from a musical perspective.
The construction of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern (1988
-1996) provides sufficient evidence that Lachenmann felt compelled to represent
such parallels through sound. In an interview with Klaus Zehlein and Hans Thomalla,
Lachenmann discusses how Das Mädchen is an attempt to try and ‘open up this
pleasant fairy tale, this <<sentimental tearjerker>> to create space for the
suppressible aspects hidden within’.58 However, exactly how Lachenmann enables
such concealed signification to be accessible through music is still yet to be explored.
It seems the small body of literature that exists on Lachenmann and his works focus
primarily on either his compositional ideology or technique via purely descriptive or
analytical research. Therefore, understanding how the notion of beauty and the
relation it has to coldness is represented in Das Mädchen will ultimately help bridge
and enhance existing Anglo-American literature on the composer.
Although visual aids are incorporated into Das Mädchen it is the orchestral
score that seemingly provides the narrative. Lachenmann argues, ‘the direct sound-
events must themselves become self-sufficient ‘theatre pieces of the natural world’:

57
Hans Christian Andersen, ed., Svend Larsen, ‘Introduction’ by Elias Bredsdorff, Fairy Tales, vol. 1,
trans. R. P. Keigwin (Denmark: Flensted, 1968) p. 10.
58
Musik mit Bildern (Stuttgart: Kairos, 2002) p. 40. As with this and the following quotations, the
arrows are part of the extracted texts.

mobile, static, protean, transcendent sound-landscapes, and even more so: landscapes
of sound creation’.59 Therefore, there is good reason to focus on analysing and
interpreting solely the orchestral score when exploring how the notion of beauty and
the relation it has to coldness is represented through sound given Lachenmann
seemingly reverses the traditional operatic hierarchy of where the narrative is
predominately told.60 It is in ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’ by Nicholas Cook that a
visual representation of how specific sound can signify specific meaning is provided.
Figure 3.1: Conceptual Integration Network Model.61
Generic space
Text space Music space
Blended space
The orchestral score of Das Mädchen is extremely large and an entire interpretive
analysis of the work would not be suitable for the size of this research project.
Inste1ad, specific scenes of Das Mädchen that mainly signify either ‘melancholic
coldness’, ‘manic coldness’, ‘hysterical coldness’, or ‘environmental coldness’ via
the libretto will be explored. Each of these scenes will represent the ‘generic space’
outlined in figure 3.1. The analysis of each scene will focus on exploring certain
compositional techniques that may or may not be defamiliarized and the findings will
represent the ‘music space’ outlined in figure 3.1. The fundamental narrative theme

59
Ryan, ‘Composer in Interview: Helmut Lachenmann’ p. 24.
60
As Metzer argues, ‘The idea of perception broadens to welcome the visual, a new mode of
composing and listening that Lachenmann referred to with the subtitle of the piece: “Musik mit
Bildern” (music with images). The theatrical surroundings also bring to the fore a relationship […]
that between sound and the act of expression. […] Andersen’s story may be familiar, but
Lachenmann’s presentation is anything but’. Metzer, ‘Sonic Flux’ p. 199.
61
Cook, ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’, p. 184.

of the scene and the physiological symptoms of each type of coldness that were
deciphered in chapter two and seemingly signified through sound in Das Mädchen by
certain compositional techniques situated in the ‘music space’, will represent the
‘text space’ outlined in figure 3.1. The amalgamation of the ‘text space’ and the
‘music space’ will unveil the type of coldness impinging on the protagonist(s) being
signified in the orchestral score and this will represent the ‘blended space’ outlined in
figure 3.1. Although only a small amount of musical material will be explored in
comparison to the entire score available, an interpretive analysis with a methodology
such as this will engage beyond what may at first be perceived and therefore
hopefully discover how Lachenmann releases ‘the suppressible aspects hidden
within’ The Little Match-Seller. As Cook argues, ‘the interpretation is articulated
around not the sustained glare of the music, but rather its inner tension, its eruptive
qualities’. 62 Therefore, such a two-pronged approach to Das Mädchen ultimately
provides the foundations for understanding how Lachenmann represents his notion of
beauty and the relation it has to coldness through sound.
To conclude, this chapter has addressed the Westernized fixated notation of
beauty with specific reference being made to Helmut Lachenmann. First, the
liberation of beauty from Western convention was argued as being central to
Lachenmann’s compositional ideology with specific reference being made to ‘The
‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’.63 Second, Lachenmann’s application of his
understanding of beauty to his compositional technique using defamiliarization was
discussed with specific reference to an interview conducted between the composer
and David Ryan.64 Third, it was acknowledged that Lachenmann became aware of
the parallels evident between The Little Match-Seller and his compositional
experience and beliefs that led to the construction of Das Mädchen. Fourth, an
analytical and interpretive procedure to be conducted on specific sections of Das
Mädchen in chapter four was outlined with specific reference being made to
‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’ by Nicholas Cook.65 All in all, this chapter has
provided the foundations for understanding how Lachenmann represents his notion
of beauty and the relation it has to coldness through sound that will ultimately help
bridge and enhance Anglo-American literature on the composer.

62
Cook, ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’, p. 183.
63
Lachenmann, ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’ p. 20-24.
64
Ryan, ‘Composer in Interview: Helmut Lachenmann’ p. 20-24.
65
Cook, ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’, p. 170-195.

Chapter Four: An interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen mit den

Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern (1988 -1996) by Helmut Lachenmann
Foucault outlines that the onset of the physiological suffering one may experience
when faced with the unknown occurs as soon as ‘truth’ becomes distorted.
Madness begins where the relation of man to truth is disturbed and

darkened. It is in this relation, at the same time as in the destruction
of this relation, that madness assumes its general meaning and its
particular forms. […] According to the different forms of access to
the truth, there will be different types of madness.66
It is the ambiguity behind the relation of ‘madness’ to ‘truth’ or rather ‘coldness’ to

‘beauty’ that forms the impetus behind this chapter. First, a structural comparison
between the narrative of The Little Match-Seller and the libretto of Das Mädchen
will be conducted in order to understand how Lachenmann unleashes the hidden
fundamental themes of the ‘pleasant fairy tale’. Second, the compositional techniques
that Lachenmann draws upon to signify the physiological symptoms that different
types of coldness can cause a corporeal space through sound in Das Mädchen will be
explored and applied to a Conceptual Integration Network model as outlined in
chapter three. Third, it will be argued that the types of coldness impinging on the
protagonist in Das Mädchen ultimately represents Lachenmann’s notion of beauty
and the relation it has to coldness in a wider philosophical context. All in all, this
chapter will aim to show how Lachenmann represents different types of coldness
through sound and ultimately help bridge and enhance current Anglo-American
literature on the composer via an interpretive analysis of specific scenes in Das
Mädchen.
It is clearly stated that the libretto of Das Mädchen ‘does not follow a
traditional narrative pattern. It interposes Hans Christian Andersen’s tale with texts
by Gudrun Ensslin and Leonardo da Vinci’.67 Therefore, an overall literary structural
comparison of The Little Match-Seller with the libretto of Das Mädchen will indicate
where Lachenmann has distorted the original fundamental themes of ‘fear’ and/or
‘desire’ and ‘environmental coldness’ and ultimately the different types of coldness

66
Michel Foucault, ‘Passion and Delirium’ Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age
of Reason, trans. Richard Howard (Oxon: Routledge, 2001) p. 98-99.
67
Helmut Lachenmann, ‘Libretto’, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern
(Stuttgart: Kairos, 2002) p. 25.

impinging on the protagonist(s).68 Below figure 2.1 from chapter two and figure 4.1
summarize how the fundamental themes of The Little Match-Seller and the libretto of
Das Mädchen are structured, which are thoroughly outlined in appendix one and two.
Figure 2.1: Visual representation of the fundamental narrative themes at work in The
Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.
Paragraph
1 Environmental coldness  Fear

2 Environmental coldness  Desire
3 Fear  Desire  Environmental coldness
4 Desire  Environmental coldness
5 Desire
6 Desire
7 Fear and Desire  Transcendence
Figure 4.1: Visual representation of the fundamental narrative themes at work in Das
Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern by Helmut Lachenmann.
Scene
1 – 6c Environmental coldness
7-8 Fear
10 Desire
11 Fear  Desire
12 Desire
14 Desire  Environmental
coldness
15a – 17 Desire
18 Fear and Desire
19 – 20b Desire
21 Fear and Desire
22 Transcendence
23 Cheerful coldness?
Figure 2.1 and 4.1 highlight that the structure of the fundamental narrative themes at
work in The Little Match-Seller and the libretto of Das Mädchen appear to

68
As will be discussed in this chapter, the role of the protagonist is evident in the role of the
incorporation of texts by Ensslin and da Vinci and that the trio seemingly signify as one despite
occurring in different circumstances.

predominately correlate despite such implied narrative distortion. Metzer speculates

one reason as to why Lachenmann incorporates texts by Ensslin and da Vinci into the
libretto.
[The] texts […] are necessary to introduce the two outsiders,

Ensslin and Leonardo. Both are represented by excerpts from their
writings. The excerpts along with the bits of prose from the
original story supply Lachenmann with material to further his long-
standing explorations of how to incorporate language into a
musical work.69
Although Metzer acknowledges the incorporation of texts into Das Mädchen from a
technical point of view, there are arguably more poignant reasons behind why
Lachenmann chose to include texts specifically by Ensslin and da Vinci.
Gudrun Ensslin wrote a letter in her Stammheim prison cell using

some ugly, violent language, but in the end her words are of
touching beauty – beautiful because they call a spade a spade – so
that I do not only simply see the unleashed preparedness to use
violence and her broken spirit, but also her love for the individual
who breaks under the strictures of society. She herself is something
like an extremely disfigured variant of my <<girl>>. Not only did
she play with matches, she went beyond that and made use of
violence thereby disfiguring her own humaneness. <<The criminal,
the lunatic, the suicide, they embody this contradiction; they perish
through it. << The small girl never had the opportunity to embark
upon such a career. She was granted the >>grace of an early
death<<… So much for the litany, the first insert. 70
The parallels drawn between the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller and Ensslin
by Lachenmann ultimately bridge the notion of different types of coldness impinging
on beauty with reality. Part of the text by Ensslin mentioned in the above quotation
by Lachenmann is incorporated into scene 15a and reads ‘Criminal, madman and
suicide embody – this contradiction. They are annihilated by it. […] Their
criminality, their madness, their death express the revolt of the destroyed against his
destruction, not object, but man’.71 Here ‘criminality’ suggests mania, ‘madness’
suggests hysteria, and ‘suicide’ suggests melancholia, which ultimately highlights

69
70
Lachenmann, ‘Sounds are Natural Phenomena’, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit
Bildern, p. 39-40
71
Ibid. ‘Libretto’ p. 27.

that Lachenmann seemingly clarifies the internal types of coldness that can impinge
on beauty in Das Mädchen via text by Ensslin.
Lachenmann discusses the incorporation of the text by da Vinci with equal
poignancy.
I had long been familiar with the text by Leonardo da Vinci about
the troubled heart of the seeker of knowledge, a state he compares to
the natural force with which sulphur and rocks burst forth from a
volcano. Metaphorically, this may allude to the description of his
peregrination through the shadowy cliffs to the entrance of that dark
cave, in front of which the wanderer, the <<I>>, crouches down –
just like the freezing girl in front of the cold house wall at night –
and before the darkness of which he feels both: fear and yearning –
fear of the menacing darkness, yearning, however, to see with his
own eyes what wonderful things may lie hidden within.72
The parallels drawn between the protagonist in The Little Match-Seller and da Vinci
ultimately brings the concept of how a fundamental dialectic can occur emotionally
when one is faced with the unknown and therefore the fundamental thematic
fluctuations present within the narrative of The Little Match-Seller to the surface of
the libretto. The comparison of figure 2.1 and 4.1 indicate that the incorporation of
the separable piece ,,… zwei Gefühle …”, Musik mit Leonardo in scene 18 is the only
place that the structure of the fundamental narrative themes at work in The Little
Match-Seller and the libretto of Das Mädchen differ. Here the underlying theme of
‘desire’ is interrupted in Das Mädchen by ‘fear’ and ‘desire’ being signified, which
highlights that Lachenmann brings attention to the fundamental narrative themes at
work in The Little Match-Seller that may go unrecognized via text by da Vinci. All in
all, Lachenmann seems to maintain the traditional narrative structure of The Little
Match-Seller in the libretto of Das Mädchen but significantly embellishes it with text
by Ensslin and da Vinci in order to ultimately ‘open up this pleasant fairy tale, this
<<sentimental tearjerker>> to create space for the suppressible aspects hidden
within’ and bridge the make believe with reality.73
Throughout Das Mädchen a plethora of sounds are drawn upon by
Lachenmann and sculpted into large audible landscapes to reflect the narrative of the
libretto. Metzer argues,

72
Ibid. ‘Sounds are Natural Phenomena’ p. 40.
73
Ibid.

In some scenes, the sounds are suggestive but not so clearly

representational. The opera opens with tableaux of cold, which
reinforce the meteorological and social frigidity in which the girl is
trapped (scenes 1-4). Cold is admittedly not the easiest condition to
capture in music, although Baroque composers again found ways of
doing so, as with Vivaldi’s “Winter” Lachenmann musters sounds
unheard in the eighteenth century: high-pitched “toneless” clusters,
the wisp of breath passing through a brass instrument, and bowed
bells. The sounds sustain an atmosphere, but one that many listeners
may not interpret as cold.74
Clarifying how certain sounds of Das Mädchen signify different types of coldness
will ultimately help listeners hear the narrative of the libretto through the orchestra
without the need for relying on any visual aid, which is seemingly what Lachenmann
was keen to achieve. In scene 11 “Hauswand 1” the protaonist’s fears of going home
and facing her father’s violence is portrayed by a number of compositional
techniques in the musical material resembling the physiological symptoms of
melancholia.
Figure 4.2a – 4.2c: The solo soprano parts in bars 5-7, 17-18 and 33-34 of scene 11
“Hauswand 1” in Das Mädchen.75
A.
B.

74
Metzer, ‘Sonic Flux’, p. 204.
75
Breitkopf and Härtel, 2001) p. 140, 142 and 146.

C.
Figure 4.2a shows that the solo sopranos swiftly move from stuttering the phonetic
sound of “H[a]” towards fluttering. Although the two vocal parts seem to become
slightly agitated, a sense of control and unity is maintained given the first solo
soprano is echoed by the second solo soprano and the pitch and dynamic range of
each voice are similar. Figure 4.2b shows how the agitation evident in figure 4.2a
begins to intensify as the scene continues given the rhythm of the phonetic sound
“N” in the first solo soprano part is disturbed with tuplets and the second solo
soprano begins with fluttering. Furthermore, echoes of flutter tongue can be heard in
the flute and piccolo part, which suggests that the agitation also begins to disperse as
well as intensify. Figure 4.2c compromises of predominantly toneless stuttering and
fluttering along with rhythmic disturbances and melodic inflections. The rise from C
to A presents itself as fractured before succumbing to the same agitation evident in
figures 4.2a and 4.2b except in figure 4.2c the dynamic level reaches forte. It is the
compositional techniques evident in figures 4.2a – 4.2c that resemble the lightly
fluctuating disturbance melancholia can cause to muscle fibers and the way such
tension can trigger the agitation of other muscle fibers contained with a corporeal
space.
Figure 4.3a and 4.3b show that each strike of the tubular bell is instructed by
‘erstickt’ meaning choke or suffocate.

Figure 4.3a and 4.3b: The tubular bell part in bars 1 and 8 of scene 11 “Hauswand 1”
in Das Mädchen.76
A.
B.
Any form of reverberation is denied by physically suppressing the tubular bell

resonance and it is clear that this compositional technique of dampening is applied to
other instrumental parts.
Figure 4.3c and figure 4.3d: The piano part in bar 27 and bar 30 of scene 11
“Hauswand 1” in Das Mädchen.77
C.

76
Lachenmann, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern, p. 139-140.
77
Ibid. p. 145.

D.
Figure 4.3c shows a semi-quaver Db with an open note head and a cross through the
stem situated within a triplet in the piano part. This notation instructs the performer
to dampen the string using cloth.78 Figure 4.3d shows a rising scale of rectangular
notes heads signifying that the tuning pins of the piano should be played triple forte
with a ‘Metallstab’ meaning metal stick. Lachenmann reduces the piano to short,
sharp percussive sounds by denying any form of vibration to resonate. In figure 4.2a
the toneless inhalation of “H[a]” in the final bar of the second solo soprano part is
another example of Lachenmann applying the notion of choking to an instrument
except in this instance it has to be self inflicted by the performer. It is the
compositional techniques evident in figure 4.3a – 4.3d and figure 4.2a that resemble
the cessation of muscle fiber movement melancholia can cause when the tension
becomes excessive leading to rigidity and hardness in the corporeal space.
Figure 4.4 highlights that the string parts contain the juxtaposition of the
demand for sturdiness and accuracy from the performer with the simultaneous
production of a thin and seemingly vulnerable sound quality.

78
Helmut Lachenmann, ‘Instructions for Piano’ ,,… zwei Gefühle…’’ Musik mit Leonardo
(Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1992).

Figure 4.4: The string parts in bars 10-14 of scene 11 “Hauswand 1” in Das
Mädchen.79
At label A the solo violins are instructed to use flautando with the shifting of the bow
from the fingerboard to the bridge. At label B, the double basses are instructed to
glissando ‘poco a poco’, meaning little by little. At label C, the cellos are instructed
to bow on the right side ‘of the rim of the bridge, vertically downward or upward’
with no pressing down on the bow. The semi circle with a square on top of it with a
protruding horizontal line that seems to dominate the musical material in figure 4.4
instructs the string players to perform
Toneless bowing on the wood of the bridge. The indication “toneless”

is to be taken absolutely literally. All whistling or squeaking sounds
are to be rigorously avoided. The bow is to be held with the fist; the
index finger lies on the bridge of the bow stick. In order to more easily
prevent the strings from sounding unintentionally, either in front or
behind the bridge, it is recommended to bow at an angle and to mute
the string. Bow pressure and speed of bowing must be appropriately
controlled and balanced. Actually, a certain pressure with the bow can
be carefully attempted in order to increase the intensity. The frequent
“fff” indications should not mislead one to ignoring the intensive
toneless bowing.80

79
Lachenmann, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern, p. 141.
Lachenmann, ‘Instructions for Strings’ ,,… zwei Gefühle…’’ Musik mit Leonardo. Reference also
80
applies to figure 4.4 labels A and C.

It is the compositional techniques evident in figure 4.4 that resembles the weak,
congested flow of blood that melancholia can cause and lead to the disturbance of
inner fundamental pulsations within a corporeal space. The Conceptual Integration
Network model will now be applied to the above analysis of scene 11.
Figure 4.5: The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to scene 11
of Das Mädchen.
Generic space
Scene 11 of Das
Mädchen
Fear and
Melancholia
• Mild muscle • Stuttering and

fiber tension. fluttering of
phonetic sound
increasing in
intensity and
dispersing over
time.
• Muscle rigidity • ‘Ersticken’,

and hardness. short, sharp
percussive
sounds and
inhalation.
• Weak and • Techniques

congested blood requiring
flow. sturdiness and
accuracy from
the performer to
create an array
of “toneless”
sounding sounds
Blended space
Melancholic coldness

To conclude, figure 4.5 provides a visual representation of how specific

compositional techniques and sound evident in scene 11 of Das Mädchen represent
the physiological symptoms of melancholia and therefore the ‘melancholic coldness’
impinging on the corporeal space of the protagonist.
In the transitional phase between scene 11 “Hauswand 1” to scene 12 “Ritsch
1 (Ofen)” the protagonist’s transition from feeling fear to desire is portrayed.
Figure 4.6: The solo soprano part in bars 95 – 97, the final bar of scene 11
“Hauswand 1” to the first sounding bar in scene 12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)” in Das
Mädchen.81
Figure 4.6 shows how scene 11 is unified with scene 12 by the first solo soprano
calling “ich”. Metzer discusses the rarity of such poignant vocal assertiveness.
The only sounds we hear for a long time are those of the body, like
shivering. […] There could be no more elemental form of the
expressive act in opera than this, a single word proclaiming “I” sung
to a speechlike tone on an approximate pitch. It should be noted that
the girl never makes these cries in Andersen’s story. Lachenmann
added them to his libretto. They not only serve as a way of giving
the girl a vocal presence, as rudimentary as it is, but they also
transform her from a freezing body to a person struggling to lay
claim to her individuality in a world that views her as refuse on the
street.82

81
82

It is the fact that Lachenmann places the cries of “ich” at the end of a scene
representing melancholia and the start of a scene representing mania that enables the
protagonist to be provided with a voice and identity that the surrounding society has
continued to deny her and ultimately signify how a fluctuation in mental state that is
beginning to conjure in the corporeal space is unified on the same spectrum, in a
similar vein to how a change in energy can occur in a single battery or lava lamp.
In scene 12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)” the protagonist’s desires for food and comfort
is portrayed by a number of compositional techniques in the musical material
resembling the physiological symptoms of mania.
Figure 4.7: Full orchestral parts in bars 143-153 of scene 12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)” in Das
Mädchen.83

83

Figure 4.7 shows the orchestral texture at full capacity and how continuous
oscillations occur within the musical material. Metzer argues ‘the sonority evolves
through changes in density, tone colour, size, dynamics, internal agitation, and
register. Lachenmann also alters the harmonic colour’.84 The percussion consist of an
amalgamation of dynamics ranging from triple piano to triple forte, the woodwind
alternate between varying degrees of piano and forte, the brass begin at piano and
crescendo to forte before subsiding to piano with a few infiltrating forte, and the
strings crescendo from double piano to double forte before subsiding to mezzo piano
and then increasing to double forte for a second time. It is the continuous oscillations
such as these that embellish a deeper motion in which the musical material is pulled
back and forth. Metzer highlights how ‘The “consonant”, “warm” chords heard
during the illusion of the glowing oven […] are not “symbolic”; rather they are part
of an “acoustic muse-en-scène” of “harmonic vibrations” that the listener can
“feel”’.85 It is the compositional techniques evident in figure 4.7 that resemble the
extreme muscle fiber tension that mania can cause leading to the entire vibration of
the corporeal space.
Figure 4.8a – 4.8c shows that the piano part produces a variety of hard yet
brittle sounds amongst the highly-strung orchestral texture in scene 12.
Figure 4.8a and 4.8c: The piano parts in bars 102-103, 106-107 and 119-120 of scene
12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)” in Das Mädchen.86
A.

84
85
Ibid. p. 202.
86
Lachenmann, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern, p. 159-160 and 162.

B.
C.
Figure 4.8a shows short, double forte chromatic cluster chords situated in a high
tessitura that contrast and perforate the sustained yet oscillating piano resonating
orchestral body. Figure 4.8b shows arm length, triple forte cluster chords that
perforate the sustained bass clef notes. Figure 4.8c shows piano cluster chords
situated in a high tessitura that are immediately embellished by glissandi. It is the
compositional techniques evident in figure 4.8a – 4.8c that resemble the lack of
blood flow mania can cause leading to dryness, hardness and fragility in the
corporeal space. The Conceptual Integration Network model will now be applied to
the above analysis of scene 12.

Figure 4.9: The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to scene 12
of Das Mädchen.
Generic space
Scene 12 of Das
Mädchen
Desire and Mania
• Evidence of • Cry of “ich” by

unification solo soprano at
between the end of scene
melancholia and 11 and the
mania. beginning of
scene 12.
• Extreme muscle • Full orchestra

fiber tension sustained yet
oscillating in a
variety of ways.
• Lack of blood • Perforating

flow causing chord clusters
dryness, and glissandi in
hardness and piano parts
brutality in the
corporeal space.
Blended space
Melancholic coldness


the physiological symptoms of mania and therefore the ‘manic coldness’ impinging
on the corporeal space of the protagonist.
In scene 21 “Nimm mich mit” the protagonist’s fears of being left alone by
her grandmother and her desires to be taken to Heaven alongside her are portrayed by
a number of compositional techniques in the musical material resembling the
physiological symptoms of hysteria. Figure 4.10 shows how the orchestral texture
contrasts between being sparse and at full capacity. Bars 426, 428 and 429 consist of
quiet tremolo played in a high tessitura by the string parts creating a delicate
shimmer of sound. Bar 427 and the first beat of 428 consist of forte staccato semi-
quavers played by the woodwind, brass and string parts in which the melodic contour
of each orchestral section varies creating a sudden exertion of energetic sound.
Furthermore, the perforating arm length cluster chords evident in figure 4.8b also
occur much more widely distributed in the piano part of bars 427-428. It is the
compositional techniques evident in figure 4.10 that resemble the extreme
fluctuations of muscle fiber agitation that hysteria can cause within a corporeal
space.
Figure 4.10 label A shows how the solo soprano calls “ich” at the end of bar
427. The rare poignant vocal assertiveness evident in figure 4.6 makes another
appearance here with clarity given the “i” of “ich” is a speech tone and the “ch” of
“ich” is a short but sustained breath tone. Furthermore, Lachenmann places the cry of
“ich” in between the end of orchestral sparseness and the beginning of full orchestral
capacity, in a similar vein to how the cries of “ich” in figure 4.6 are placed at the end
of a scene representing melancholia and the start of a scene representing mania. It is
the incorporation of “ich” evident in figure 4.10 that resembles how an amalgamation
of melancholic and manic physiological symptoms can be caused by hysteria within
a corporeal space.

Figure 4.10: Full orchestral parts in bars 426-429 of scene 21 “Nimm mich mit” in
Das Mädchen.87

87
Ibid. p. L88

Figure 4.10 label B shows harp glissandi that occur in bars 427-428 and a close up of
this material can be found below in figure 4.11a.
Figure 4.11a – 4.11b: Harp parts in bars 427-428 and 431 of scene 21 “Nimm mich
mit” in Das Mädchen.88
A.
B.
Figure 4.11b shows how the harpist is instructed to glissandi ‘mit Plektrum’ meaning
with plectrum and then mute ‘all the strings by loosely laying the arm or hand over
them’.89 It seems increasing emphasis is placed on the metallic sound quality the harp
can create, which is then amalgamated with the concept of ‘ersticken’ as the scene
progresses. In bars 412, 417, 432 and 437 in scene 21 there are also full orchestral
pauses that bring the fluctuating orchestral body to a standstill where the sound
seemingly becomes temporary suspended in resonance, which reinforces how
Lachenmann applies the concept of ‘ersticken’ to the structure of the musical
material as well as individual instruments. It is the compositional techniques evident
in figure 4.11a – 4.11b that resemble the juxtaposition of frail, highly energized and
hard muscle fibers along with the impermanent paralyses that hysteria can cause
within a corporeal space. The Conceptual Integration Network model will now be
applied to the above analysis of scene 21.

88
Ibid.
89
Ibid. p. L88-L89.

Figure 4.12: The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to scene
21 of Das Mädchen.
Generic space
Scene 21 of Das
Mädchen
Fear + Desire and

Hysteria
• Variable • Fluctuating and

extremities in oscillating
muscle fiber orchestral traits.
tension.
• Evidence of • Cry of “ich” by

unification of solo soprano
melancholia between the end
with mania. of bar 427 and
beginning of bar
428.
• The • Emphasis placed

juxtaposition of on the metallic
weak and highly quality of the
energized, hard harp along with
muscle fibers the concept of
along with ‘ersticken’ being
intermittent applied to the
paralyses. instrument and
the orchestral
structure of
scene 21 via the
incorporation of
pauses into bars
412, 417, 432
and 437.
Blended space
Hysterical coldness


the physiological symptoms of hysteria and therefore the ‘hysterical coldness’
impinging on the corporeal space of the protagonist.
The cold winter climate causing the protagonist to suffer from external
coldness is portrayed by a number of compositional techniques in the musical
material throughout Das Mädchen.
Figure 4.13a – 4:13c: Styrofoam parts in bars 163-165 in scene 12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)”,
bars 166-172 in scene 13 “Hauswand 2” and bar 1 in scene 1 “Auf der Straße” in Das
Mädchen.90
A.
Figure 4.13a and 4.13b show how Lachenmann bridges the transition from scene 12
“Ritsch 1 (Ofen)” to scene 13 “Hauswand 2” by instructing the performers to rub
Styrofoam, a type of polystyrene in what becomes a circular movement. Metzer
argues,
It is a unique sound, one created by an everyday object handled in

a not-so-everyday manner. It is also an ambiguous sound, assured
to inspire as many different images as there are listeners. […] It
plays a particular dramatic role in the opera. The sound follows the
orchestral luminescence suggesting the girl’s illusion of a warm
oven created when she lights one of her matches. When the match
burns out (“erlosch”), she plunges back into the cold, a minute or
so of just the Styrofoam noise. An enigmatic sound has been given
a specific meaning.91

90
Ibid. p. 167-168 and 1.
91

B.
It is the dramatic contrast to the previous sustained yet oscillating full orchestral
texture the rubbing of the Styrofoam creates that enables the contrast of flame and
light to cold and dark in the narrative to be signified by the musical material. A
similar sound creation is evident at the beginning of the opera.
C.

Figure 4.13c shows how the string parts play a sustained double piano Ab in a high
tessitura for approximately between 30 and 60 seconds long that seemingly suspends
the musical material in situ. It is the compositional techniques evident in figure 4.13a
– 4.13c that ultimately resemble the still white landscapes created by a cold winter
climate.
Figure 4.14a – 4.14d shows that the solo soprano parts produce a variety of
unstable sounds in scene 3 “Frier-Arie”.
Figure 4.14a – 4.14d: solo soprano parts in bars 162-164, 166-170, 172-175 and 176-
180 in scene 3 “Frier-Arie” in Das Mädchen.92
A.
B.
C.

92
Lachenmann, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern, p. 34-37.

D.
Here a plethora of sounds are used by Lachenmann to capture the automated

response a human body activates when exposed to a low temperature. Metzer argues,
Cold must be perceived, and above all sound must be presented as

capable of conveying it and other images. We have to realize early
that sound can claim the specific. To chill the opera house,
Lachenmann goes beyond these suggestive sounds and relies on
means more obvious and immediate than anything in the Baroque
Imitation-Lehre. The singers in the orchestral pit make shivering and
chattering noises and even rub their hands together. With these parts
there can be no ambiguity. We now have a visible source producing
the sounds of the image to be conveyed. Specific human sounds and
gestures capture the specificity of cold.93
In order to begin the chilling process of the opera house Lachenmann distorts
phonetic sounds with inhalation and exhalation, sustained breath tones, speech like
tones, irregular short bursts of rhythm, and variations in dynamic levels in the solo
soprano parts. It is the compositional techniques evident in figure 4.14a – 4.14d that
resemble the stuttering, mumbling and chattering of shivering that a mild
environmental coldness can cause to a corporeal space.
Figure 4.15a shows the only vocal part present in the final scene and the final
vocal part of the entire opera. The sustained “H[a]” sound sung by a separate vocal
part to the solo sopranos consists of one exhaled breath tone that rises from ‘niente’
meaning nothing to then quickly subside. All effort required in order to decipher the
‘farrago of phonemes, syllables, and words’ previous to the final scene is no longer
needed.94

93
Metzer, ‘Sonic Flux’ p. 205
94
Ibid. p. 206-207.

Figure 4.15a – 4.15c: Vocal part in bars 703-704, piano part in bars 656 – 659 and
string parts in bars 701 – 707 in scene 24 “Epilog” in Das Mädchen.95
A.
Throughout the final scene emphasis is placed on basic physical movement in the
piano part.
B.
Figure 4.15b shows how a very quiet chromatic chord made up of B and C is
repeated seemingly at random with some use of the pedal and the muting of the
string with the hand. Similar reduction of instrumental movement and sound is
evident in the final bars of the opera played by the string parts. Figure 4.15c shows
continuous up bow and down bow movement performed in unison where the bow is
gently brushed along muted strings away from the bridge toward the finger board and
vice versa. For the final bars of the entire opera sound is barely audible and with the
movement simulating slow inhalation and exhalation of breath, it seems highly
poignant that the final brush stroke is that of an up bow followed by a full orchestral
pause.

95
Lachenmann, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern, p. L121 and L128.

C.
It is the compositional techniques evident in figure 4.15a – 4.15c that resemble the
cessation of muscle fiber movement and the weakening of the pulse and heart caused
by hypothermia that a severe environmental coldness can cause and lead to the death
of a corporeal space. The Conceptual Integration Network model will now be applied
to the above analysis of scenes 1, 3, and 24.

Figure 4.16: The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to scenes
1, 3, 12, 13 and 24 of Das Mädchen.
Generic space
Scenes 1, 3, 12, 13 and

24 of Das Mädchen

Cold winter climate
and external coldness
• Still white • Rubbing of Styrofoam

landscape that bridges the
transition from scene 12
“Ritsch 1 (Ofen) to
scene 13 “Hauswand 2”.
Sustained string part in
high tessitura at the
beginning of the opera.
• Shivering • Distorted phonetic sound

with inhalation and
exhalation, sustained
breath tones, speech like
tones, irregular short
bursts of rhythm and
variations in dynamic
levels in the solo
soprano parts of scene 3
“Frier-Arie”.
• Hypothermia • One exhaled breath tone

leading to death by voice part separate to
solo soprano. Basic
physical movement in
the piano and string parts
at a very quiet dynamic.
Poignant final up bow in
unison by the string parts
followed by a full
Blended space orchestral pause.
Environmental
coldness


compositional techniques and sound evident in scenes 1, 3, 12, 13 and 24 Das
Mädchen represent a cold winter climate the physiological symptoms it can cause
and therefore the ‘environmental coldness’ impinging on the corporeal space of the
protagonist.
The different types of coldness impinging on the protagonist(s) represented
through sound in Das Mädchen signify what human beings are continuously exposed
to during a lifetime. The incorporation of texts by Ensslin and da Vinci embellish the
narrative of The Little Match-Seller and highlight how the ‘true’ story within ‘this
pleasant fairy tale’ is a representation of Lachenmann’s notion of beauty and the
relation it has to coldness in a wider philosophical context. As Metzer argues, ‘the
text creates links between the girl, Ensslin, and Leonardo. The trio experience the
“two feelings” described by the painter, those of “fear and desire”. Moreover, all
three are “outsiders”, the poor, the political radical, and the artist’.96 Having
established what types of coldness engulf and impinge beauty, a visual representation
of Lachenmann’s notion of beauty as a ‘pillow’ or a ‘pin-cushion’ can be
constructed.97
Figure 4.17: The inextricable relation beauty has to the surrounding ‘coldness’ of
reality.
Manic coldness Hysterical coldness

Melancholic Environmental
coldness coldness
Beauty

96
97

All in all, Das Mädchen enables the listener to witness through sound the necessary
self-purging of the protagonist and how she feels at the same time as trying to
transcend the types of coldness impinging on her via her fears and desires in order to
reach the Beautiful and therefore the fundamental fluctuations that govern human
response to reality.
To conclude, the ambiguity behind the relation of ‘coldness’ to ‘beauty’ has
formed the impetus behind this chapter. First, a structural comparison between the
narrative of The Little Match-Seller and the libretto of Das Mädchen was conducted
in order to understand how Lachenmann unleashes the hidden fundamental themes. It
was acknowledged that Lachenmann maintains the traditional narrative structure of
The Little Match-Seller in the libretto of Das Mädchen but significantly embellishes
it with text by Ensslin and da Vinci in order to ultimately ‘open up this pleasant fairy
tale, this <<sentimental tearjerker>> to create space for the suppressible aspects
hidden within’ and bridge the make believe with reality.98 Second, the compositional
techniques that Lachenmann draws upon to signify the physiological symptoms that
different types of coldness can cause to a corporeal space through sound in Das
Mädchen were explored and applied to a Conceptual Integration Network model. As
Metzer argues, ‘it is surprising how illustrative certain passages can be’.99 Third is
was argued that the types of coldness impinging on the protagonist in Das Mädchen
ultimately represents Lachenmann’s notion of beauty and the relation is has to
coldness in a wider philosophical context. All in all, this chapter has shown how
Lachenmann represents different types of coldness through sound and provided the
foundations for ultimately helping to bridge and enhance current Anglo-American
literature on the composer via an interpretative analysis of specific scene in Das
Mädchen.

98
Lachenmann, ‘Sounds are Natural Phenomena’ p. 40.
99

Chapter Five: Conclusion
The straining of the relation between metaphorical and literal meaning seems a
significant reason behind why Western literature limits the physiological symptoms
of coldness to those caused by a reduction in temperature that is external to a
corporeal space. For instance, Zhong and Leonardelli argue that ‘metaphors are not
usually literal (e.g., Galinsky & Glucksberg, 2000) – the term ‘icy stare’ makes no
reference to actual experience with ambient temperature. In fact, metaphors have
been typically considered unidirectional’.100 With metaphors signifying a non-literal
concept there is no obvious reason as to why dictionary definitions should focus on
anything other than describing coldness as a term in relation to the environment or
metaphorical meaning with little acknowledgement of the types of coldness that can
occur psychologically within a corporeal space. However, it is by recognizing that
the relation between metaphor and literal meaning can and do complement that
Zhong and Leonardelli were able to conduct research to show how physical
temperature and psychological perception correlate. Zhong and Leonardelli outline
how ‘metaphors are not simply isolated concepts, they are constellations of concepts
and experiences established through our interaction and negotiation with the natural
and social environment and are then later used to understand more complex
interactions’.101 By providing empirical evidence to support the notion that
physiological symptoms relating to coldness can be induced by loneliness, a
distinction could be made between coldness experienced from a reduction in
environmental temperature, warmth from being held closely, and coldness from
being lonely. This dissertation has explored and defined what types of coldness can
impinge on a corporeal space and the physiological symptoms they can cause in
order to liberate the term from predominately signifying just a reduction in external
environmental temperature or metaphor.
The relation between ‘beauty’ and coldness is another that seems a significant
reason behind why the term has been under scrutiny from a philosophical and artistic
perspective for millennia. Furthermore it seems generally agreed in Western
literature and dictionary definitions that ‘beauty’ represents purely ‘the constructive,

100
http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/Cold%20and%20Lonely%20Psych%20Sci.pdf p. 4
accessed on 3rd April 2011 through correspondence with Chen-Bo Zhong via e-mail.
101
Ibid.

the rational and, in the context of our well-being, the good’.102 It is by recognising
the fundamental importance of the inextricable relation beauty has to a somewhat
harsh reality and therefore surrounding ‘coldness’ from a musical perspective that
Lachenmann has been able to construct a poignant compositional ideology and
technique to govern the output of his works. Ian Pace argues that the works of
Lachenmann ‘can be considered ‘beautiful’ if one is prepared to accept
Lachenmann’s rethinking of the nature of ‘the beautiful”.103 Despite being
recognised as a highly important composer of his generation in his home country for
some time and rapidly gaining similar recognition from an Anglo-American
perspective, little research has focused upon how Lachenmann represents his notion
of beauty and the relation it has to coldness in his compositions from an analytical
and interpretive perspective, focus has tended to be primarily on his ideology or
technique. This dissertation has provided the foundations to help bridge and enhance
current Anglo-American literature on the composer by clarifying how Lachenmann
represents his notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness through sound.
In order to theorise what types of coldness can impinge on a corporeal space
and what physiological symptoms each coldness can cause, chapter two conducted a
literary analysis of The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.104 The
chapter focused on revealing the fundamental narrative themes at work in The Little
Match-Seller and how the notion of temperature is a common characteristic of each
theme. Furthermore, the chapter highlighted that each fundamental theme of The
Little Match-Seller represents a different variant of coldness that is impinging on the
protagonist. Each type of coldness and the physiological symptoms they can cause
were defined with specific reference being made to Madness and Civilization by
Michel Foucault.105 By drawing upon Foucault’s exploration into melancholia, mania
and hysteria, three types of coldness that can occur psychologically from within the
corporeal space were outlined along with environmental coldness and visually
represented in the form of a semiotic square. This chapter ultimately provided the
foundations for enhancing knowledge of the fundamental themes at work in The

102
2007) p. 171.
103
Ian Pace, ‘Positive or Negative 1’, The Musical Times, vol. 139, 1859 (1998) p. 15.
104
Hans Christian Andersen, ed., Svend Larsen, ‘The Little Match-Seller’, Fairy Tales, vol. 1, trans.
R. P. Keigwin (Denmark: Flensted, 1968) p. 380-385.
105
Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, trans.
Richard Howard (Oxon: Routledge, 2001).

Little Match-Seller as well as help to liberate the term ‘coldness’ from predominately
signifying just a reduction in external environmental temperature or metaphor.
Lachenmann’s notion of beauty and the relation it has to coldness was
explored in chapter three. Parallels evident between The Little Match-Seller and
Lachenmann’s compositional ideology and technique were drawn via an exploration
into the composer’s article ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’ and an interview
between the composer and David Ryan.106 The metaphorical resemblance that The
Little Match-Seller has to Lachenmann’s notion of beauty was highlighted.
Furthermore, it was argued that Lachenmann was fully aware of these parallels that
prompted him to construct Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern
(1988 -1996).107 With specific reference made to ‘Theorizing Musical Meaning’ by
Nicholas Cook, an analytical and interpretive procedure was outlined that was
applied to specific scenes of Das Mädchen in chapter four.108 This chapter ultimately
provided the foundations for understanding how Lachenmann represents his notion
of beauty and the relation it has to coldness through sound.
A thorough interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen was the main focus of
chapter four. By comparing the narrative of The Little Match-Seller to the libretto of
Das Mädchen an understanding of how Lachenmann maintains and distorts the
fundamental narrative themes evident in the traditional text was unveiled. Specific
scenes of Das Mädchen that draw upon text representing a fundamental narrative
theme of The Little Match-Seller and therefore signify a type of coldness impinging
on the protagonist was then analysed and interpreted using the procedure outlined in
chapter three. Once is was understood how Lachenmann represents the different
types of coldness impinging on the protagonist(s) through sound an overall
interpretation distinguished how Das Mädchen resembles Lachenmann’s notion of
beauty and the relation it has to coldness in a wider philosophical context. This
chapter showed how Lachenmann represents different types of coldness through
sound and provided the foundations for ultimately helping to bridge and enhance

106
Helmut Lachenmann, ‘The ‘Beautiful’ in Music Today’, Tempo (new series), 135 (1980) p. 20-24
and David Ryan, ‘Composer in Interview: Helmut Lachenmann’, Tempo (new series), 210 (1999)
p.20-24.
107
108
195.

current Anglo-American literature on the composer via an interpretive analysis of

Das Mädchen.
Other short stories by Hans Christian Andersen could be analysed with the
same procedure applied to The Little Match-Seller in chapter two in order to explore
whether they too have become branded by convention and consequently contain
suppressed hidden meaning within fundamental narrative structure. Exploring the
pattern of ‘fear’, ‘desire’, ‘fear and desire’ and ‘environmental coldness’ in tales such
as The Snow Queen, The Snow Man, The Ice Maiden and The Snowdrop may provide
a multitude of fundamental narrative themes that will be of interest to compare and
contrast given each of the stories above contain more than one prominent character.
The interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen could be extended much further to include
other scenes from the opera or indeed the entire work. It would be of interest to
explore scene 15a “Litanei”, 15b “Schreibt auf unsere Haut” and 18 ,,… zwei
Gefühle…” as these contain the texts by Ensslin and da Vinci that signify desire and
fear and desire. Scene 23 “Shô” has no allocated libretto text, however, as touched
upon in the beginning of chapter three there is an evident connection between the
relation of beauty to coldness and ancient Japanese poetry. Lachenmann discusses
the significant relation that Japanese culture has to Das Mädchen.
Of course, I – as many others – have known the Hans Christian

Andersen fairy tale since my childhood. I re-encountered it in a
strangely alienated version, however, when my small daughter
received a Japanese radio play version of this fairy tale as a gift from
a relative in 1975, which, when listening to it, was twice as touching
on account of its Japanese stylised cheerful sadness.109
Perhaps a deeper exploration into Japanese aesthetics on coldness may reveal a new
type of coldness that signifies the seeming oxymoron of ‘cheerful sadness’ that can
then be explored in relation to the sound created by the Shô in Das Mädchen.110
Scene 22 “Himmelfahrt” seemingly also does not fit into any of the four
distinguished fundamental narrative themes as it deals with the concept of
transcendence. As Metzer argues,

109
Musik mit Bildern (Stuttgart: Kairos, 2002) p. 40.
110
The Shô is said to ‘sound like the cry of the phoenix’, which seems significant given the mystical
bird and the relation it has to seeming mortality, heat and ash and the importance of temperature in
The Little Match-Seller. For more information on the Shô please see William. E. Deal, ‘Performing
Arts’, Handbook to life in medieval and early Japan (New York: Infobase Pubishing, 2006) p. 266.

In the scene where the girl and the grandmother rise to heaven,
Lachenmann conveys the growing gulf between heaven and earth by
pushing up in range from the already stratospheric heights in the
strings and plunging the heavy sonorities in the lower brass further
and further down. At one point, he even pulls out ascending
chromatic scales. It is hard to imagine a Baroque depiction of the
Ascension being any more descriptive.111
Perhaps a deeper exploration into less defamiliarized ways of representing coldness

through sound may reveal a new type of coldness that signifies transcendence that
can then be explored in relation to the traditional ‘descriptive’ compositional
techniques Lachenmann seemingly applied to scene 22. Extending the interpretive
analysis of Das Mädchen will reveal more ways Lachenmann represents coldness
through sound and enable the mapping of how Lachenmann represents his notion of
beauty and the relation it has to coldness onto more musical material that in turn can
provide an overall picture of the interaction between different types of coldness
being represented through sound that may not be at first perceived. Analysing and
interpreting more musical material may reveal that a different type of coldness is
being signified to the one represented by the libretto allocated to the scene, which
would then show how the musical material can at times contradict the fundamental
theme of the scene and lead to the unveiling of a new musical narrative specific to
the sound that is different and in competition with the text structure Lachenmann
constructs. Sometimes it may be the case that no types of coldness are signified by
sound, which can then lead to investigating what other hidden meaning the music of
Das Mädchen emitting. The analysis and interpretation could extend further to
including a comparison of Das Mädchen with other pieces of music that imply they
are signifying the representation of coldness through sound such a ‘Winter’ by
Vivaldi that Metzer draws attention to or more current works such as Schnee by Hans
Abrahamsen. Not only does such further research have the potential to build upon the
foundations provided for helping to bridge and enhance current Anglo-American
literature on Helmut Lachenmann but it also nourishes the opportunity for enhancing
the musical discipline as a whole.
Word Count: 15186

111

Appendix One: The Little Match-Seller by Hans Christian Andersen.112
It was terribly cold. Snow was falling, and soon it would be quite dark; for it was the last day in the
year – New Year’s Eve. Along the street, in that same cold and dark, went a poor little girl in bare feet
– well, yes, it’s true, she had slippers on when she left home; but what was the good of that? They
were great big slippers which her mother used to wear, so you can imagine the size of them; and they
both came off when the little girl scurried across the road just as two carts went whizzing by at a
fearful rate. One slipper was not to be found, and a boy ran off with the other, saying it would do for a
cradle one day when he had children of his own.
So there was the little girl, walking along in her bare feet that were simply blue with cold. In
an old apron she was carrying a whole lot of matches, and she had one bunch of them in her hand. She
hadn’t sold anything all day, and no one had given her a single penny. Poor mite, she looked so
downcast, as she trudged along hungry and shivering. The snowflakes settled on her long flaxen hair,
which hung in pretty curls over her shoulders; but you may be sure she wasn’t thinking about her
looks. Lights were shining in every window, and out into the street came the lovely smell of roast
goose. You see, it was New Year’s Eve; that’s what she was thinking about.
Over in a little corner between two houses – one of them jutted out rather more into the street
than the other – there she crouched and huddled with her legs tucked under her; but she only got
colder and colder. She didn’t dare to go home, for she hadn’t sold a match nor earned a single penny.
Her father would beat her, and besides it was so cold at home. They had only the bare roof over their
heads and the wind whistled through that, although the worst cracks had been stopped up with rags
and straw. Her hands were really quite numb with cold. Ah, by a little match – that would be a
comfort. If only she dared pull one out of the bunch, just one, strike it on the wall and warm her
fingers! She pulled one out… ritch!... how it spirted and blazed! Such a clear warm flame, like a little
candle, as she put her hand round it – yes, and what a curious light it was! The little girl fancied she
was sitting in front of a big iron stove with shiny brass knobs and brass facings, with such a warm
friendly fire burning… why, whatever was that? She was just stretching out her toes, so as to warm
them too, when – out went the flame, and the stove vanished. There she sat with a little stub of burnt-
out match in her hand.
She struck another one. It burned up so brightly, and where the gleam fell on the wall this
became transparent like gauze. She could see right into the room, where the table was laid with a
glittering white cloth and with delicate china; and there, steaming deliciously, was the roast goose
stuffed with prunes and apples. Then, what was even finer, the goose jumped off the dish and waddled
along the floor with the carving-knife and fork in its back. Right up to the poor little girl it came… but
then the match went out, and nothing could be seen but the massive cold wall.
She lighted another match. Now she was sitting under the loveliest Christmas tree; it was
even bigger and prettier than the one she had seen through the glass-door at the rich merchant’s at
Christmas. Hundreds of candles were burning on the green branches, and gay-coloured prints, like the
ones they hang in the shop-windows, looked down at her. The little girl reached up both her hands…
then the match went out; all the Christmas candles rose higher and higher, until now she could see
they were the shining stars. One of them rushed down the sky with a long fiery streak.
“That’s somebody dying,” said the little girl, for her dead Grannie, who was the only one had
been kind to her, had told her that a falling star shows that a soul is going up to God
She struck yet another match on the wall. It gave a glow all around, and there in the midst of
it stood her old grandmother, looking so very bright and gentle and loving. “Oh, Grannie”, cried the
little girl, “do take me with you! I know you’ll disappear as soon as the match goes out – just as the
warm stove did, and the lovely roast goose, and the wonderful great Christmas-tree”. And she quickly
struck the rest of the matches in the bunch, for she did so want to keep her Grannie there. And the
matches flared up so gloriously that it became brighter than broad daylight. Never had Grannie looked
so tall and beautiful. She took the little girl into her arms, and together they flew in joy and splendour,
up, up, to where there was no cold, no hunger, no fear. They were with God.
But in the cold early morning huddled between the two houses, sat the little girl with rosy
cheeks and a smile on her lips, frozen to death on the last night of the old year. The New Year dawned
on the little dead body leaning there with the matches, on lot of them nearly all used up. “She was
trying to get warm,” people said. Nobody knew what lovely things she had seen and in what glory she
had gone with her old Grannie to the happiness of the New Year.

112
Hans Christian Andersen, ed., Svend Larsen, ‘The Little Match-Seller’, Fairy Tales, vol. 1, trans.
R. P. Keigwin, (Denmark: Flensted, 1968) p. 380-385.

Appendix Two: The libretto of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit
Bildern by Helmut Lachenmann113

In the street
1 – Chorale prelude “O du fröhliche” It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of
(Joyous night) the old year, and the snow was falling fast.
2 – Transition: “In the cold…” In the cold and the darkness, a poor little girl, with bare
3 – Frost aria, part I head and naked feet, roamed through the streets.
It is true she had on a pair of slippers when she left home,
but they were not of much use. They were very large and
4 – Trio and repeat (Frost aria, part II) had belonged to her mother.
5 – Scherzo
(Part I “The Queen of the Night”)
6a – Scherzo (Part II: Tongue clucking aria)
6b – Silent night
6c – Tongue clucking aria (finish)
7 – “Two carriages” They were, indeed, so large that the poor little creature had
lost them whilst running across the street to avoid two
carriages that were rolling along at a terrible rate. One of
8 – “The pursuit” the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized the other
and ran away with it, saying that he could use it as a cradle
when he had children of his own.
9 – “Snow flakes” So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which
were quite red and blue with cold. In an old apron she
carried a number of matches, and had a bundle of them in
her hands. No-one had bought anything from her the whole
day, nor had anyone given her a single penny. Shivering
with cold and hunger, she crept along; poor little child, she
looked the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her
long, fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but
she regarded them not.
10 – “In all the windows…” Lights were shining from every window, and there was a
savoury smell of roast goose, for it was New Year’s eve –
yes, she remembered that.
In front of the wall of the house

11 – Wall of the house 1 “In a corner” In a corner, between two houses, one of which projected
beyond the other, she sank down and huddled up. She had
drawn her little feet under her, but she could not keep off
the cold; she dared not go home, for she had sold no
matches, and had not even a penny to take home. Her
father would certainly beat her; besides, it was almost as
cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover
them, through which the wind howled, although the largest
holes had been stopped up with straw and rags. Her little
hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah ! perhaps a
burning match might do some good, if only she could pull
one from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to
warm her fingers. She drew one out – “scratch! (ndt :
12 – Ritsch 1 (Stove) Ritsch)” how it sputtered as it burnt! It gave a warm, bright
light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it. It

113
Helmut Lachenmann, ‘Libretto’, Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit Bildern, trans.
Inca Langues and Richard Neel (Stuttgart: Kairos, 2002) p. 25-29.

was really a wonderful light. It seemed to the little girl that

she was sitting by a large iron stove, with polished brass
feet and a brass ornament.
How the fire burned ! It seemed so beautifully warm that
the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when,
13 – Wall of the house 2 lo ! the flame of the match went out, the stove vanished,
and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her
hand.

14 – Ritsch 2 (“The table was covered, Wall of She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into flame,
the house 3” Part not composed) and where its light fell upon the wall it became as
transparent as a veil, and she could see into the room. The
table was covered with a snowy white tablecloth, on which
stood a splendid dinner service and a steaming roast
goose, stuffed with apples and dried plums. And more
wonderful still, the goose jumped down from the dish and
waddled across the floor, with a knife and fork in its
breast, to the little girl. Then the match went out, and there
remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before
her.
15a – Litany Criminal, madman and suicide embody – this
contradiction. They are annihilated by it. Their annihilation
illustrates man’s hopeless impasse in the system: destroy
yourself or destroy others. Dead or egoist. But their death
shows more than the perfection of the system: they are not
criminal enough, they are not mad enough, they are not
murderous enough, and so the system hastens theirs death.
A death which is at the same time the negation of the
system: Their criminality, their madness, their death
express the revolt of the destroyed against his destruction,
15b – “Write on our skin” not object, but man. Write on our skin.
Gudrun Ensslin
16a – Ritsch 3 She lit another match and found herself sitting under a
16b - Shop beautiful Christmas tree.
It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one
she had seen through the glass door at the rich merchant’s.
Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green
branches, and colourful pictures, like those she had seen in
the shop windows, looked down upon it all. The little thing
stretched out her hand towards them, and the match went
out.
16c – Transition (“The Christmas lights rose The Christmas lights rose higher and higher, till they
higher and higher”) looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star
fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. “Someone is
dying,” thought the little girl, for her old grandmothers, the
only person who had ever loved her, and who was now
17 – Evening blessing (“When a star falls…”) dead, had told her than when a star falls, a soul was going
up to God.
18 – “… two feelings…” Even the raging sea does not make sure a roar when the
North wind whips the lashing waves between Scylla and
Charybdis into a fury; nor do Stromboli and Etna when the
sulphurous flames they retain finally rent asunder the
mountain tops, spewing out rocks and earth into the air
along with belching flames; nor does Mongibello when its
fiery canerns send forth the elements they barely manage
to contain, furiously spitting and spewing them in all
directions, repelling all that hinders their impetuous
advance (…)
Dragged from futile reverie and wanting to behold the

immense number and variety of forms created by fertile

nature. I reached, after wandering a moment amongst the
shady rocks, the entrance to a large cavern in front of
which I stood for a moment, dumbfounded and knowing
nothing of this wonder.
Arching my back, placing my left hand on my knee and
shading my lowered and closed eyelids with my right
hand, I leant numerous times to one side and to the other
seeking to distinguish something within: however the
obscurity reigning inside made this impossible. Two
feelings soon welled up inside me, fear and desire: fear of
the dark and threatening cave, desire to see if there were
not some mystery within.
Codex Arundel, Leonardo da Vinci
19 – Wall of the house 4/20a Ritsch 4 She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone
around her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother,
20b – The grandmother clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance.
21 – “Take me with you” “Grandmother,” cried the little one, “Take me with you; I
know you will go away when the match burns out; you
will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the
large, glorious Christmas tree.”
And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches,
for she wished to keep her grandmothers there. And the
matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the
noonday, and her grandmothers had never appeared so
huge or so beautiful.
22 – Ascension (“In brightness and joy”) She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew
upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where
there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were
with God.
23 - Shô
24 – Epilogue (“But in the cold dawn”) In the dawn of morning the poor little thing lay there, with
pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall;
she had been frozen to death on the last evening of the year
; and the New Year’s sun rose and shone upon her little
corpse! The child was still sitting, in the stiffness of death,
holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was
burnt.
“She tried to warm herself,” said some.
No-one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor
into what glory she had entered with her grandmothers, on
New Year’s day.
Translation: Inca Langues, Richard Neel

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Websites
http://www.rotman.utoronto.ca/facbios/file/Cold%20and%20Lonely%20Psych%20Sci.pdf accessed
on 4th April 2011.

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The Cruelty of Coldness: An interpretive analysis of Das

MUSI1562M Student I.D: 200328796

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

School of Music, University of Leeds, January 2012

4. An interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen mit den Schwefelhölzern: Musik mit

2.1 Visual representation of the fundamental narrative themes at work 6

2.2 A visual representation of the protagonist as a corporeal space in 8

2.3 Visual representation of fundamental themes and attributes at work 13

3.1 Conceptual Integration Network Model. 20

4.1 Visual representation of the fundamental narrative themes at work 23

4.4 The string parts in bars 10-14 of scene 11 “Hauswand 1” in Das 30

4.5 The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to 31

4.9 The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to 36

4.12 The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to 40

4.13a-4.13c Styrofoam parts in bars 163-165 in scene 12 “Ritsch 1 (Ofen)”, 41-42

4.16 The application of the Conceptual Integration Network model to 47

4.17 The inextricable relation beauty has to the surrounding ‘coldness’ 48

Chapter One: Introduction

The physiological symptoms of coldness seem limited in Western literature to those

If thinking involves perceptual simulation of the senses, possibly

Here a distinction is made between a coldness experienced from a reduction in

Beauty. It is the pillow, or the pin-cus[h]ion, of our species, which

Understanding this reworking of the term ‘beauty’ by Lachenmann is the key to

Chapter Two: Coldness

Between 1479 and 1518 Leonardo da Vinci documented how an internal

I reached, after wandering a moment amongst the shady rocks, the

fundamental theme of the narrative represents a different variant of coldness

1 Environmental coldness  Fear

Figure 2.2: A visual representation of the protagonist as a corporeal space in The

Relating inner physiological symptoms to different variants of ‘madness’ is

Agitates the fibers which receive it; as a result tension increases in

Melancholia is portrayed as a disease that manifests itself physiologically via

It is this languishing flow, these choked vessels, this heavy, clogged

First there is a concentration of nervous power and of its fluid in a

Situating melancholia and mania at opposite ends of an energy spectrum would

Only a few fibers vibrate in the melancholic, those which correspond

The essence of mania is desertic, sandy. Théophile Bonet, in his

condition that can cause a plethora of conflicting physiological symptoms. Foucault

There is probably no text that bears better witness to the qualitative

Varying extremities of muscle fiber tension seem to be a fundamental inner

Shivering consists of an uncoordinated pattern of activity in which

As an automated response to cold, muscle fibers shudder at random to generate heat.

Figure 2.3: Visual representation of fundamental themes and attributes at work in

Fear/Cold  Melancholic  Muscle fiber tension, rigidity and

Desire/Warm  Manic coldness  Extreme muscle fiber tension, hardness

Fear and  Hysterical  Varying degrees of muscle fiber tension,

Non Fear and  Environmental  Gradual increase in muscle fiber tension,

Chapter Three: Beauty

A major theme of Japanese aesthetics originating in the ancient court

The flowers withered,

seemingly recognized the philosophical and physiological parallels evident between

The concept of the Beautiful has to pass through this purging of

In practice, the composer who is concerned to express himself is

Sounds have to be broken up so that their innermost nucleus and

Analogous to physiologists investigating DNA within a cell structure, Lachenmann

The idea of ‘instrumental musique concrete’ – i.e. sound as a

The renewal of sound is born out of applying ‘defamiliarization’ to the mechanics of

‘A nursery writer’, a harmless entertainer for the little ones – with

Figure 3.1: Conceptual Integration Network Model.61

Text space Music space

Chapter Four: An interpretive analysis of Das Mädchen mit den

Madness begins where the relation of man to truth is disturbed and