Bela Tarr - Werckmeister Harmonies (00) I: The Title

Werckmeister Harmonies is a masterpiece. It is very slow and moving. And it enables a multitude of possible interpretations. I wanted to write my own interpretation, but it became very long, so I broke it into two pieces. This is probably the most dry and boring part, but also the most factually correct. It concerns the title of the film, which is weird, but also very significant. This contains spoilers. Many spoilers. So you shouldn't read if you haven't watched the movie. But, you know, it's a masterpiece, so you should go and watch the movie. And then come back. I think it can be found on youtube, but you didn't hear that from me.



When a title doesn't imediately relate to a central aspect of the plot, it usually merits attention. That is very much the case with Werckmeister Harmonies. The title relates to an obsession of Uncle Gyuri, the method of tuning a piano as thought out by Andreas Werckmeister (1645-1706). This is a very significant allusion, but it probably has to be explained. And I'll have to warn, this explanation is quite long, and quite technical. And I'm not sure I entirely get it. But there is an inherent problem with the piano, namely that the player can't tune the instrument as he plays it. With the flute or the violin, you can microtune the instrument with your mouth or your fingers while you play. The piano works by hitting strings with hammers, it is not possible to tune the strings in any way while you play. This is a problem, as the scale as we use it in the western world, isn't entirely logical. On a piano, if you start on a C and go to an F, you have jumped a fourth. If you jump to a G, you have jumped a fifth. If you jump from C to the next C, you have jumped an octave. But the problem comes when you then jump from G to C, which should also be a fourth (you count both the first and the last note, therefore it is not a third). But the fourth from C to F will not be the same fourth as the fourth from G to C if the piano was tuned perfectly from the C. This brings problems, especially if you want to play in different keys. A melody in C-major will not sound the same if played in exactly the same way, but in D-major. That is the problem Gyuri obsesses about, and it was a problem different people solved differently. Some people chose to gather up the 'wrong' intervals in as few intervals as possible, and then never use those intervals when composing. This is called 'mean' tuning. Werckmeister created tuning systems that we today call 'well-tempered'. All the keys sound different, but none of them sound perfect, and none of them sound horrible. He did not, however, create the tuning-system that we use today. Today we use 'equal' tuning, in which there are twelve equally small intervals in the octave on the piano. Every key can be used for everything. None of them are different. None of them are perfect. They are all equally mediocre.

Prelude in C from Bachs The Welltempered Piano, pieces written to show all the possibilities of a tuning system probably quite similar to Werckmeisters. You all know this one. This is actually in a temperament called Kirnberger III, which seems to be more of a 'mean' kind of tuning.

Werckmeister held another view on musical theory. If you only play on the white keys on a keyboard, you can actually play eight different scales, depending on where you start. In the old days, people used to write music in all of these scales, called Lydian or Phrygian or Mixolydian etc. But Werckmeister was among those who thought that only two keys were actually useful. The one starting on C, then named Ionian, what we today call a major key or Dur. And the one starting on an A, Aeolian, what we today call a minor key, or Mol. Normally, Dur or major is considered happy and optimistic. Good. While Mol or minor is considered sad and pessimistic. Bad.

Now, all the keys today are equally mediocre. Isn't that a wonderful metaphor for communism? Instead of exploiting the differences in humans, communism forces them to be the same. Reducing a multitude of keys to only two opposed possibilities. Couldn't that be seen as a metaphor for the Dialectic method, a keystone of communist thinking? As Gyuri first describes his theories, he is sad that the technicians has defeated the natural state. The god-given state. He longs for a better time, the time of the Greeks, when the notes were thought of as stemming from the Gods, and difference was allowed. But what he doesn't mention is, that the view of differences as created by God also allowed for slavery to exist in ancient Greece. He does, however, allow that there will be difficulties in playing on his perfectly tuned piano. When we next see Gyuri at his piano, he is playing a recording of Bachs suite in E-flat major from the Well-tempered piano. Now, Bachs suites were written to show the possibility of the well-tempered way of tuning the piano – as opposed to the perfect way, but also not the way we tune the piano today – and while the suite sounds quite lovely on a piano tuned after Werckmeisters instructions, it sounds false and horrible on Gyuris piano, which he also admits. This is of course the dangers of difference, as allowed by capitalism. If we allow for the better, we must also allow for the worse. And as some keys will allow a lot of different melodies on the perfect piano, while others will allow only a few, so will some people be allowed a lot of different possibilities in their lives, while others will have their lives severely limited by their surroundings.

Prelude and Fugue in E-flat Major. This sounds horrible in Gyuris tuning system, but quite lovely in Welltempered, and Equal tuning.

As you've probably have noticed, I have cheated a bit. Werckmeister never proposed equal tunings, so my claim that the title of the film can be seen as symbolizing communism is obviously false. But in fact, since we doesn't use Werckmeisters tunings today, Gyuris obsessions seem totally obscure. If you now about the state of tuning today, than the title will signify something, that can by a deroute come to signify communism... But, the question remains, why is the film called Werckmeister Harmonies, if Gyuris obsession is completely arbitrary? Well, Werckmeister Harmonies is definitely a better title than Equal Tuning. It is actually a strikingly brilliant title, mysterious yet catchy. And it has almost none immediate connotations. One of Werckmeisters successors was named Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729), had the film been named Heinichen Harmonies, it would invoke some unfortunate thoughts in people... Also, the title puts a face on the symbolism. It is not just a metaphor. It is more complicated than that. It is a part in a historical evolution of tuning, and it is a person with a background and a life and probably relatives. Sufferings and triumphs. Tarr focuses on the human rather than the allegorical

The theme of the piano reaches a very ironic and bitter conclusion. Gyuri tells Janos that he has retuned the piano, and that now he can play anything on it. But at this point it doesn't matter, as Janos is catatonic. And also, we have never ever been given the slightest hint that Janos might be able to play the piano. It doesn't matter to him now, and it kind of never has. The ending seems to say, that no matter the piano, which in my reading means no matter the political system, Janos would not have been able to play. Which is terribly pessimistic. And I've sort of created other excuses as to why that isn't the point of the film, but we'll get to that. Tomorrow, hopefully.

If you really found this explanation interesting, check out this article from Slate Magazine. Also, if you can find this kind of thing, then check out the article 'The Recognition of Major and Minor Keys in German Theory: 1680-1703' by Joel Lester from Journal of Music Theory vol 22 no 1. Spring 1978. Page 65-103. It's quite interesting, but very confusing. Werckmeister is dealt with at the beginning of the article, underlining that while he is very important to this history, he is not the endpoint Gyuri makes him out to be. Hope you'll wan't to read the second part of this piece as well. It deals with whales and helicopters and politics and stuff. And please, if I have misunderstood something, let me now in the comments.

[Part II: An Interpretation]