Challenges and Evolution in Music Notation: Helmut Lachenmann’s Pression for Solo Violoncello
This artical presents, in broad terms, the scoring systems used by Helmut Lachenmann in Pression to indicate the techniques required of the performer in manipulating various elements of the cello (strings, soundboard, bridge, and tailpiece) as well as the bow. After briefly describing the main differences between the two editions of the work (1972 and 2012), we focus on five excerpts, specifying their time cues in video recordings by Lauren Radnofsky and David Stromberg. Thus, score excerpts in hand, the reader can appreciate the precision and development of Lachenmann’s notational system as they observe the performers’ actions, gaining a fuller understanding of the profoundly inventive sonic landscape of this work, which has become a classic of the solo cello repertoire.