from the sleeve note to the WERGO recording of Ursonate:
"Born in Hanover, Germany, [Schwitters's] studies in art were interrupted by WWI. In 1917, he painted his first abstract pictures and in 1918 saw the birth of his famous collage technique 'Merz.'
During these turbulent years of cultural development, Schwitters met and collaborated with other leading Dadaists such as Arp, Tzara, Hausmann and others. On hearing Hausmann's sound poem 'fmsbw' in 1921, he immediately recognized the great poetntial of Sound Poetry. With great logic and concentration, he built up a totally abstract piece, 'Sonata in Urläten.' Over the years, the Sonata grew in both size and variations, and realizing that some phonetic notation for the Sonata was essential if it was not to die with him, he finally published his notations as the last number of his Merz magazine in 1932.
In autumn 1921, Kurt Schwitters travelled to Prague, together with Raoul Hausmann, Hannah Hoch and his wife. On September 1, at the Commodity Exchange Hall, Raoul Hausmann performed his phonetic poem beginning with the line 'fmsbwtazdu', which served as an impetus for Schwitters' Ursonate. It was not until 1926 that the sonata achieved the form in which it was published in 1932. The final version, however, developed by way of innumerable performances given by Schwitters between 1926 and 1932."
"The Sonata consists of four movements, of an overture and a finale, and seventhly, of a cadenza in the fourth movement. The first movement is a rondo with four main themes, designated as such in the text of the Sonata. You yourself will certainly feel the rhythm, slack or strong, high or low, taut or loose. To explain in detail the variations and compositions of the themes would be tiresome in the end and detrimental to the pleasure of reading and listening, and after all I'm not a professor.
In the first movement I draw your attention to the word for word repeats of the themes before each variation, to the explosive beginning of the first movement, to the pure lyricism of the sung "Jüü-Kaa," to the military severity of the rhythm of the quite masculine third theme next to the fourth theme which is tremulous and mild as a lamb, and lastly to the accusing finale of the first movement, with the question "tää?"[...]
The fourth movement, long-running and quick, comes as a good exercise for the reader's lungs, in particular because the endless repeats, if they are not to seem too uniform, require the voice to be seriously raised most of the time. In the finale I draw your attention to the deliberate return of the alphabet up to a. You feel it coming and expect the a impatiently. But twice over it stops painfully on the b...
I do no more than offer a possibility for a solo voice with maybe not much imagination. I myself give a different cadenza each time and, since I recite it entirely by heart, I thereby get the cadenza to produce a very lively effect, forming a sharp contrast with the rest of the Sonata which is quite rigid. There.
The letters applied are to be pronounced as in German. A single vowel sound is short... Letters, of course, give only a rather incomplete score of the spoken sonata. As with any printed music, many interpretations are possible. As with any other reading, correct reading requires the use of imagination. The reader himself has to work seriously to becomew a genuine reader. Thus, it is work rather than questions or mindless criticism which will improve the reader's receptive capacities. The right of criticism is reserved to those who have achieved a full understanding. Listening to the sonata is better than reading it. This is why I like to perform my sonata in public."
View the complete score here.
Hear Schwitters himself performing the opening of the Ursonate here.
