TEXTS

THE SOLITUDE OF THE USER OR THE METAMORPHOSIS OF DIALOGUE (1995) This lecture offers an inventory of our »reality«, tailored to the needs of the radio play. And purports the end of traditional dialogue and its social relevance - deduced from the converse communi­cation-cosmos of Beckett - and its displacement through inexorable digital networking and along with that the atrophy of physical pres­ence. Based on this state-description, the lecture exerts itself on the prospects of radio play in the light of this deprivation.



The Solitude of the User or the Metamorphosis of the Dialogue was the opening lecture for the Radio Play Forum of the Film Foundation Nordrheinwestfalen in 1995.

no dialogue without body

FLYING WITH CRUTCHES.
AND ALL THE PRISTINE SOUNDS.
BODIES AND VOICES IN BECKETT (1991)

by Stefan Hardt
saxophone, speaker & director: Stefan Hardt
Südwestfunk



The radio essay deals with two themes: what are the effects of the credo »less is more«, when it includes an overall aesthetic reduction on the body? And: what kind of relationship did Beckett have with the acoustic universe?
The bodies of his »heroes« are lesioned, only fully functional in a limited way. Nevertheless he devotes quite some attention to them. This is noticeable. He seems to like them. The limitation seems to guarantee them and him a sort of shelter: in the face of the daily demands of our civilization.
The handicaps of his figures are never denounced, quite the oppo­site: one can sense fondness towards them, for the curtailment of their free moving space is described not as loss but as an oppor­tunity to fan out more accurately and more pleasurably the details of what´s left. This ambivalence between loss and shelter, in relation­ship to music it becomes the simultaneity of consolation and bale: this is the lullaby and is voices in the head at the same time; this is scuffling steps which calm and is whispers which confuse. Some­times the latter become repetitions, also linguistic ones which in the end are nevertheless variations, as self-reassurance.
To eavesdrop on the hush; to convert the inner voices into music: it´s always sternness and absurdity in equal measure which gives the protagonists a good shaking. Till finally sounds and words leave the body, become autonomous.

the witless moon. It must be her arse she shows us always.

PORTRAIT OF TAKTLOS AND INTAKT (1990)
One hour long radio portrait of the Swiss festival Taktlos and of the label Intakt.
Sound samples with Irene Schweizer, Maggie Nichols, George Lewis, Joelle Leandre, Günter „Baby“ Sommer, Marylin Mazur, Carlos Santos, Greetje Bijma, Andrew Cyrille, David Moss, Barry Guy, Howard Riley, Evan Parker, Pete McPhail, Paul Lytton, Hans Koch.
Furthermore appear: Louis Moholo, Elliot Sharp, John Zorn, Chris Mc Gregor, Keith Tippett, Larry Ochs, Vanessa Mackness, Hannes Bauer, Phil Wachsmann, Louis Sclavis, Shelley Hirsch, Dietmar Diesner, David Weinstein.
Südwestrundfunk



DE LA SOUL: FROM THE SOUL OF RADIO PLAY.
IN HIPHOP, ROCK & JAZZ (1990)

Musical essay by Stefan Hardt
with Christian Brückner, Gertraud Heise, Jakob Rentorf, Stefan Hardt & some pedestrians
director: Stefan Hardt
Südwestfunk



To discover new possibilities of development in the border area of the radio play, you have to recollect the sounding neighborhood of hiphop, rock and jazz.
Since the beginning of pop music there has been a growing number of mini radio plays, of acoustical coulisses and sound-collages in many branches of the so-called light or popular music. This develop­ment goes back to the beginnings of radio art and talkies.
Already composers such as Satie, Russolo and Varese embedded noises in their pieces and so reacted to the changing sound sphere of the industrial age. Out of this inventory comes the main assump­tion of the soirée: Even for the narrative radio play the future lies in the musicalisation of the form.



DE LA SOUL: FROM THE SOUL OF RADIO PLAY (12/1990)
Short version of the radio essay with the same name; for the music magazine Spex.



THE PERCEPTION OF CONTEMPORARY-MUSICAL TECHNIQUES: OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE RADIO PLAY (1988)
Lecture for the dramaturg´s conference at the Südwestfunk.



CULTURAL RADIO PROGRAM (1988 - 1989)
Self spoken short segments about the musicians, groups and writers Karen Borca, Marylin Crispell, Diedre Murray, Fred Frith, Jeanne Lee, Zeena Parkins, Irene Schweizer, Andrew Cyrille, Iva Bittova, Heiner Goebbels, Heiner Müller, Hubert Fichte, Room, Larry Ochs, Chris Brown, Negativland, AMM, Hans Koch, Louis Sclavis, Rene Lussier, David Weinstein, Conny Bauer, Barry Guy, Vladimir und Estragon
Südwestfunk & Deutschlandfunk



SPEECH IS STUPIDITY
CONTROL AND ASSASSINATION
ABOUT RAINALD GOETZ (1988)

Essay by Stefan Hardt
speaker & director: Stefan Hardt
Südwestfunk



PORTRAIT IN JAZZ: CECIL TAYLOR (1989)
One hour long self spoken radio portrait of Cecil Taylor, with several sound samples like Rick Kick Shaw, Shifting Down, Bulbs, Things ain´t what they used to be, In With (Exit), Communications #11, Nuit des la fondation maeght, One too man salty swift and not goodbye, Air above mountains (buildings within)
Südwestfunk



ABOUT HUBERT FICHTE (1988)
Article about the writer Hubert Fichte
Südwestfunk



JOHN ZORN: PORTRAIT (1988)
One hour long self spoken radio portrait of Cecil Taylor, with several sound samples.
Südwestfunk



ABOUT THE FUNCTION OF MUSIC IN THE RADIO PLAY (1988)
Lecture for the meeting of lectors at the Südwestfunk.



DIAMANDA GALAS - THE LITANIES OF SATAN (1987)
Half an hour long, self spoken radio portrait of the singer Diamanda Galas
Südwestfunk



DEATH AT TABLE - FATAL MEALS (1987) Text by Stefan Hardt
Südwestfunk



DEATH AND EROS AT TABLE (1986/87)
This work of literary criticism examines pertinent eating scenes in the literature of the 20th century.
Starting point is the assumption that sexuality is the taboo of the 19th century while death is the taboo of the 20th century. Now liter­ature enables the history of the respective ostracism to become silver-tongued. Even during the most positive, life-supporting action, ingestion, these taboos come up. Like in a baroque allegory, death and eros sit at table too till lust is almost completely swamped by death.



The classic connection between eros and eating, as it was still pres­ent during the 19th century in the form of the »erotic meal«, gives way to a disconcerting amalgamation of death with ingestion and its ceremonial forms... Around 1900 eating begins to topple out of the order of lust and to change fronts. Destruction, nausea and death nest in it... Through the exclusion of death which becomes more and more total, an eerie and inexorable multiplication of its presence takes place. To banish it means to quote it cluelessly there where its terrain doesn´t seem to be, in eating.
The research of Stefan Hardt is about that. Such a theme is almost nonexistent in scientific literature. What is accomplished by this work, is to break new ground in unknown territory.*


*Hartmut Böhme: from the preface of Death and Eros at Table.

This thesis was published in 1987 by the Athäneum Verlag.