Piotr Zak
Encyclopedia
Piotr Zak is the name of a fictional Polish composer whose alleged composition Mobile for Tape and Percussion was broadcast twice on the BBC Third Programme on June 5, 1961 in a performance supposedly played by 'Claude Tessier' and 'Anton Schmidt'.
The work was duly reviewed in newspapers and journals, receiving approving notices from two leading music critics and lukewarm or condemnatory reactions from others.
Though the BBC initially denied rumours that the work was a hoax, eventually it was revealed that Zak did not exist, and that the piece had been produced by Hans Keller
and Susan Bradshaw
at the BBC. By striking randomly and with deliberate senselessness at a collection of percussion instruments, the two had produced a strenuously meaningless twelve-minute 'work' of superficially 'avant-garde
' character; this was completed by the addition of a selection of human whistling sounds (evidently meant to represent the 'tape'), and with the resulting chaos being edited into some kind of whole by BBC technicians.
It is often assumed that the spoof piece was intended to ridicule 'modern music' and its composers, but this is not the case. Both Keller and Bradshaw were professionally involved in the world of contemporary music (Bradshaw as a performer, Keller as a BBC administrator and composition teacher). In fact, the Zak 'Mobile' was intended to expose what Keller believed to be the low level of critical discourse associated with contemporary music. From this point of view, the spoof was not greatly successful: although the work was certainly reviewed as if it were a genuine composition, no critic expressed particular enthusiasm for it.
Shortly after the broadcast, the BBC broadcast a radio documentary, The Strange Case of Piotr Zak, in which Keller discussed his hoax with a number of music critics.
Compare to:
History
The broadcast of the work was preceded by alleged biographical information about Zak as well as a programme note supposedly written by Schmidt. The text read by the announcer (Alvar Liddell) was as follows:- Piotr Zak, who is of Polish extraction but lives in Germany, was born in 1939. His earliest works are conservative, but he has recently come under the influence of StockhausenKarlheinz StockhausenKarlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
and John CageJohn CageJohn Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
. This work for tape and percussion was written between May and September of last year. Within the precise and complex framework defined by the score, there is considerable room for improvisation.
The work was duly reviewed in newspapers and journals, receiving approving notices from two leading music critics and lukewarm or condemnatory reactions from others.
Though the BBC initially denied rumours that the work was a hoax, eventually it was revealed that Zak did not exist, and that the piece had been produced by Hans Keller
Hans Keller
Hans Keller was an influential Austrian-born British musician and writer who made significant contributions to musicology and music criticism, as well as being an insightful commentator on such disparate fields as psychoanalysis and football...
and Susan Bradshaw
Susan Bradshaw
Susan Bradshaw was a British pianist, teacher and writer. She was mainly associated with contemporary music, and especially with the work of Pierre Boulez, several of whose writings she translated...
at the BBC. By striking randomly and with deliberate senselessness at a collection of percussion instruments, the two had produced a strenuously meaningless twelve-minute 'work' of superficially 'avant-garde
Avant-garde music
Avant-garde music is a term used to characterize music which is thought to be ahead of its time, i.e. containing innovative elements or fusing different genres....
' character; this was completed by the addition of a selection of human whistling sounds (evidently meant to represent the 'tape'), and with the resulting chaos being edited into some kind of whole by BBC technicians.
It is often assumed that the spoof piece was intended to ridicule 'modern music' and its composers, but this is not the case. Both Keller and Bradshaw were professionally involved in the world of contemporary music (Bradshaw as a performer, Keller as a BBC administrator and composition teacher). In fact, the Zak 'Mobile' was intended to expose what Keller believed to be the low level of critical discourse associated with contemporary music. From this point of view, the spoof was not greatly successful: although the work was certainly reviewed as if it were a genuine composition, no critic expressed particular enthusiasm for it.
Shortly after the broadcast, the BBC broadcast a radio documentary, The Strange Case of Piotr Zak, in which Keller discussed his hoax with a number of music critics.
Compare to:
- Sokal AffairSokal AffairThe Sokal affair, also known as the Sokal hoax, was a publishing hoax perpetrated by Alan Sokal, a physics professor at New York University. In 1996, Sokal submitted an article to Social Text, an academic journal of postmodern cultural studies...
- Ern MalleyErn MalleyErnest Lalor "Ern" Malley was a fictitious poet and the central figure in Australia's most celebrated literary hoax. The poet, and his entire body of work, were created in one day in 1944 by writers James McAuley and Harold Stewart as a hoax on Max Harris, Angry Penguins, the modernist magazine he...
Further reading
- Hutchings, Arthur. 1961. "Du Côté de chez Zak". The Musical Times 102, no. 1424 (October): 623–24.
- Keller, Hans. 1982. "Zak's 'Mobile'". The Musical Times 123, no. 1674 (August): 531.
- Keller, Hans, and Anton Weinberg. 1996. "In Interview with Anton Weinberg". Tempo, new series, no. 195 (January): 6–12.
- Porter, Andrew. 1965. "Some New British Composers". The Musical Quarterly 51, no. 1, (January, "Special Fiftieth Anniversary Issue: Contemporary Music in Europe: A Comprehensive Survey"): 12–21.
- Porter, Andrew. 1982. "Zak's 'Mobile'". The Musical Times 123, no. 1671 (May): 319.