"...was er für ihn genommen..."

Beschreibung
Looking at the title already makes evident that this piece is strongly related to choral music – the words “…was er für ihn genommen…” are a text fragment from choral N°160 “Herzlich thut mich verlangen” by Johann Sebastian Bach. The choral – and especially Bach’s chorals – marks an important change in musical history, which was surely important for the western understanding of music of today. Alone this fact was enough for me to busy myself with this issue more in detail. I tried to deal with the choral in different ways; therefore, the piece is structured in two contrasting parts. The first part, which is the longer one, quotes the already mentioned choral by Bach; at first only hearable as a diffuse texture, it comes more and more to the foreground and pushes the other musical material aside – but comes to a sudden stop shortly before the end. After that first part, in which the question concerning the choral still remains unanswered, the second part works with the issue of choral in another way; the string players buzz while they are playing; therefore, in combination with double stops, a many-voiced structure, which is always in movement and returns to mind the choral, arises. At the same time, there is a development from usual sound production to air noises – and at the end, consequently, there is only air left as the very beginning of breathing, which marks the beginning of every choral.

Uraufführung
12.02.2014 - Brooklyn, NY
Mitwirkende: S.E.M. Ensemble in Brooklyn, Marianne Gythfeldt (clarinet), Petr Kotik (conductor)