Nitsch, Hermann

Requiem für meine Frau Beate: Musik der 5.6.Aktion

Label: Alga Marghen Country: Italy

"Alga Marghen presents the documentation of Requiem für meine Frau Beate, which took place in the Chiesa di Santa Lucia in Bologna, Italy, in 1977 shortly after Beate Nitsch's death. This was not only one of the strongest and most powerful aktionen by Hermann Nitsch but also a crucial point in the development of his art.

Beginning in 1977, Beate Nitsch was travelling in Schwarzwald. She has been inaugurating a nursery-school and wanted to meet some relatives in Stuttgart when, near Ulm, she had a terrible car accident. Beate had supported her husband's art not only sharing the sentimental part of their life but also actively collaborating to the organization of his work. She organized the purchase of a castle in Prinzendorf, the central place where Nitsch would develop his Orgien Mysterien Theater. For Hermann Nitsch, this loss was a complete collapse. He suddenly felt to be on the opposite side of life, alone and full of despair. In those days, he reached the deepest point of black unhappiness.

Nitsch decided then to go Naples where he organized a Lehraktion at Morra Gallery. His friend Kubelka joined him from the USA. During the Lehraktion, he was told about a big Performance Festival that would have taken place in Bologna. Nitsch was invited to participate with an aktion to be performed in a big old church. It was clear to Nitsch that he would have conceived an aktion dedicated to the memory of Beate. A requiem, even. Before the aktion in Bologna, Hermann Nitsch's music was basically released as a wall of noise. The musicians could play what they wanted and the only instruction was to play as loud as possible. Only the duration, the starting point and the noise level of each instrument was fixed. For the first time with the Requiem, Nitsch started to conceive longer tone clusters, specially for the wind instruments. The perfect acoustics of the church with its wonderful organ, which shocked Nitsch with its intensity and power, suggested him a new direction in music. Among the lucky audience were many friends coming from all over the world to witness the event. For everyone the Requiem was an important and ecstatic experience. The big success of the aktion gave Nitsch the strength to continue his work. Shortly after Bologna he was invited to create new aktionen in Canada and Los Angeles.

First time 2CD edition, in tri-folded digipack, reproducing the impossible-to-find 3LP art gallery edition issued in Naples in 1977 for the Radiotaxi series. Including a 12-page folded insert with drawings and directions from the LP boxset original graphics. This edition also includes a 32-page shocking full color photo documentation of the aktion, for the first time available now."-Alga Marghen