拼貼另一個貝多芬？一九七○年代起貝多芬於西方藝術音樂接受史的觀察

A Different Beethoven through Collage? Observations on Beethoven’s Reception History in Western Art Music since the 1970s

1970年，歐洲最具影響力雜誌之一的德國《明鏡》週刊，在封面全幅貝多芬的肖像下，附上一個簡潔有力的封面標題：「貝多芬／告別神話」；這個標題的背後，乃因德國作曲家卡赫爾在黑白電影《路德維希‧范》中對於貝多芬形象的處理，繼而引發學界對於貝多芬「去神話」的討論，認為近兩百年來堅定不移的貝多芬意象，在二戰後的年代裡開始面臨質疑與拆解。
然而筆者認為，這樣的省思和質疑，是源於特殊的政治意識與背景，具有其地區性意義，不宜偏頗地化約解讀成那就是貝多芬於一九七○年代之後的整體接受史。因此，本文嘗試提供另一個觀察視角，在引用和拼貼貝多芬音樂的手法當中，檢視當代藝術音樂作曲家型塑出的貝多芬接受史。
研究結果顯示，在本文所蒐集的20首相關作品中，和貝多芬晚期風格有所連結的即有14首，顯見貝多芬晚期的斷片、留白、多元風格並置、以及脫離圓融和明確性之風格，預言式地啟發了後現代的藝術音樂。這是在「去神話」的表象背後，一股隱隱匯聚的轉化力量，在拉開時空距離之後，益發清晰。預言和回顧有了對話，讓作曲家在回首過往之際，亦創化了未來。

On September 7, 1970, the German magazine Der Spiegel, one of the more influential weekly magazines in Europe, published a cover story under the short but strong title“Beethoven / Abschied vom Mythos”(Beethoven / Farewell to Myth) accompanied by a full-sized portrait of Beethoven on its front page. The antecedent behind this title was the black-and-white film Ludwig van (1970) by the Argentinian- German composer Mauricio Kagel (1931-2008), whose presentation of Beethoven challenged many aspects of the long-cherished“Beethoven myth”. Using a collage of fragments by Beethoven, Kagel’s film betrayed the conventional image of the most idolized composer of Western Art Music and instigated many debates about“demythologizing”Beethoven among musicologists.
The author suggests that these conflicting views on Beethoven originated from the idiosyncratic socio-political ideology of the post-war period in Europe and should not be interpreted as the general reception of Beethoven after the 1970s. This article examines the reception of Beethoven through a study of the intertextual quotations and collage techniques which occur in the compositions by contemporary composers.
Among the 20 pieces which have been collected and which are discussed in this essay, 14 contain intertextual references to the late works of Beethoven; the elevated percentage of references to Beethoven’s“late style”defies any possibility of being coincidental. It is apparent that his late works, which feature techniques such as fragmentation, musical stasis, multi-faceted juxtaposition and, more importantly, the departure from harmonic and formulaic patterns, anticipate the musical evolution towards avant-garde music and inspired postmodern musicians. Concealed behind the act of“de-mythologizing”lies a source of potential energy, which is about to burst forth with the distancing effect due to the passage of time and space. The dialectic between retrospective and prospective musical thought allows composers to actuate a new future as they are revisiting the past.