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„Caged“ (contents) |
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0. Fundamental things about the Zauberberg-Trilogy can be found here
1. Caged - Zauberberg-Trilogy Part II (more)
2. Soundbites (more)
3. Intellectual aspects: selected
references & inspirations (more)
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1. Caged - Zauberberg-Trilogy Part II |
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I
Part one, „Die Toteninsel“, was a kind of a taking-stock
for me:
- where am I now?
- what have I got at my disposal?
- where would I like to be?
- what do I need to go in this direction?
After completing the „Toteninsel“I made a fundamental
decision to put my own expectation of coming up with compositions that
could be quickly prepared for release at the back of the line and to
concentrate more on the aspect of research. In addition to
experimenting, research means for me learning more than anything
else. Studies of composition techniques, instruments and work with
musicians with the goal of coming up with significant results
together. My goal for each of the next projects is to establish a
consistent, unambiguous language of forms which (in
contrast to „Toteninsel“) I intend to construct with a
strictly limited selection of instruments and production tools.
II
Between September 2001 and July 2002 I concentrated on a music project
which I called "caged". I was interested in the question:
How would the inner life, the soul, of a
person
who "is no longer of this world" sound
like?
At first, I wrote music for solo tenor and solo soprano saxophone,
prepared piano, cello, violin and xylophone, that I then had played by
musicians in the studio and recorded on to a hard drive.
In this process, I used the same composing technique John Cage used
for his "number pieces". The separate notes of the score must be
played within a defined period whereby the musicians themselves can
decide on the length of the notes and the technical interpretation of
the score.
The important thing being to create an atmospheric expression during
execution, the permanent tension between mind and body: for example,
how does a saxophonist express suffering of the soul coupled with
complete physical lethargy? Can a cello depict "suffocation" or what
does a violinist do with a phrase captioned "crushed yearning"? The
task demanded the greatest commitment and sensibility from the
musicians as well as the will to go to the limits of their personal
experiences and their musicianship.
In the next phase I took this abundant recorded material and began to
combine separate particles cut from the "large score" using digital
editing techniques. The independently recorded ("autistic")
micro-compositions (it was not intended that any of the musicians
should be influenced by the interpretation of another when finding
their own interpretation) were brought into contact, "reacted"
with each other, were manipulated sometimes in a variety of ways and
reformed until a body of sound in three movements resulted
constituting the composition "caged".
I consciously refrained from incorporating any explanatory
dramaturgical elements such as text/language, identifiable
environmental sounds or electronic synthesizers, which the listener
might find "relaxing", because it is precisely the reality of the
specifically "unheard", the internal condition of losing grip, which
the piece intends to convey.
The end mix was done in Sepetember 2002.
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2. Soundbites |
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Audiofile 1: „caged“ extract from 1st Movement
(08:11-11:32)
[MP3]
[RA]
Audiofile 2: „caged“ extract from 2nd Movement (17:01-19:13)
[MP3]
[RA]
Audiofile 3: „caged“ extract from 3rd Movement
(03:00-07:26)
[MP3]
[RA]
To hear the sound samples you will need either an MP3 player
or RealPlayer (www.real.com). To listen, click on the
"[MP3]" or the "[RA]"-link after the title (providing this
has been set up with your browser correctly).
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3. Intellectual aspects: selected
references & inspirations |
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I
01: Deodato di Orlandi: Trauernder Johannes (Lamenting John), last quarter 13th century
02: Albrecht Dürer: Selbstbildnis (Self-Portrait), around 1492
03: Johann Heinrich Füssli: Das Schweigen (The Silence), around 1788/1801
04: Caspar David Friedrich: Abtei im Eichwald (Cloister Graveyard in the Snow), 1809
05: Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne: Persönliches Fotoalbum (Personal
Photo Album), 1855/56
06: Ron Mueck: Ohne Titel (no title), 2000
07: Igor & Svetlana Kopystiansky: Flow, 2002
08: Gerhard Richter: Tote (Dead Woman), 1988
II
Literature:
Alice Miller: Das Drama des begabten Kindes (The Drama of the Gifted
Child) (Suhrkamp, 1979)
Erich Fromm: Haben oder Sein (To Have or to Be?) (dtv, 1979)
Klaus Ottomeyer: Ökonomische Zwänge und menschliche Beziehungen (rororo, 1977)
Max Frisch: Stiller (Suhrkamp, 1958)
Heinrich Böll: Ansichten eines Clowns (The Clown) (dtv, 1967)
Ingeborg Bachmann: Malina (Suhrkamp, 1971)
Thomas Bernhard: Das Kalkwerk (The Lime Works) (Suhrkamp, 1973)
Helmut Krausser: Thanatos (Luchterhand, 1996)
Michel Houellebecq: Elementarteilchen (Atomised/The Elementary Particles) (DuMont, 1999)
III
Music:
Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major (op.110)
Robert Schumann: Gesänge der Frühe (op.133)
Gustav Mahler: Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen ("I'm no longer of
this world" - A musical biography of Gustav Mahler)
György Ligeti: Lontano
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Movies:
Andreij Tarkowskij: Der Spiegel (The Mirror), Stalker, Nostalghia
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