infotext:
THE COMPOSER IN THE FLOW OF TIME Like my orchestra CD released by NEOS, the chamber music works on this CD are also determined by the shape of time in the flow of time, which existentially conditions human existence. The compositions deal emphatically with the phenomenon of time and its philosophical and also anthropological context. Why emphatic? Because we are affected so much as human individuals, also in the threat to our collective existence. Time existentially determines everything that is. Every piece of matter in our world has its own time, its own speed of time. In this respect, the present, future and past are relativized to our conscious perception of time and are not categories of existential objectification of time. Their simultaneity is more than a possibility, it is a fact, as is their horizontal (in time layers) and vertical (incessantly changing states of aggregation) constitution. What does time mean to us for our being? What does time mean in its simultaneity of several layers of time, in its ontological contingent state of aggregation? Does it expand into infinite nothingness, does it condense, accelerating and "whirlpooling", like space and matter into the "black hole", an apocalyptic vision that directly affects our being anchored in time? Like that natural processuality of being as a constantly occurring becoming and passing away, different aggregate states of polyphony as forms of expression of time and their progression, including individual progression, determine these compositions and my work as a whole to a large extent. Polyphony is an expression of movement and an expression of the simultaneity of different layers of time, which only relatively dissociate themselves into past, present and future as lived places of consciousness. Hence the future is the anticipated past. The polyphony, which takes place at different speeds of progression, its speed of progression by stretching and compressing (Prolatio major and prolatio minor) variably designed, is the obvious image of these complex manifestations of time, especially their process nature, which everyone encounters in everyday life, even if not individually perceived and unconsciously, omnipresent. According to this understanding, polyphony is an expression of individuation, an equivalent for the leveling of hierarchical structures, which leads to the utopia of a space free of domination, in which, and only in which alone, the human individual can freely develop creatively. As with Bach, polyphony has a strong influence on the humanity Related religious component: All people are equal before God. Yet another aspect is important: According to the Heraclitan wisdom, which can only be called breathtaking at its historical location, according to which "we never step twice into the same river", everything that exists is not static and therefore discontinuous (polyphony and polymorphy), i.e. a permanent change subject. gone away, composed in 1992, means the transition to the hereafter, beyond time, beyond real being. gone away means the awareness of what cannot be grasped with the help of human comprehension; gone away means the virtual ground of being, of which the human-real existence is merely an image. In the first part, the acceleration of the passage of time is conveyed on the one hand as an auditory impression by means of a systematically composed event density, on the other hand the development of the individual is symbolized. In the second part, the structures disintegrate, are decomposed, the polyphonic eroded, the musical time decelerates, comes to a standstill, »goes« into what is open to the front. Interlude X, composed in 2010, is an interlude from the jazzy composition StalCalvin arrived at the beach, whose ensemble cast is somewhere between »Big Band« and »Octandre«. interlude 10 is a relatively strict three-part fugue for oboe, clarinet and bassoon. escape from time, composed in 1988, works with the difference between »experience time«, the subjective perception of the temporal progression and the actually measurable time (temps mesure) on the other hand. At the beginning of the work, the rhythm, which is consistently composed against meter in a ratio of 7:6, unsettles the perception of time by »running« faster than the meter. This even progression, arithmetically strictly composed, becomes more and more condensed. Through this compositional compression, acceleration up to the highest tempo of the time is received as a subjective listening impression. In the second part of the work, the same thing happens again in a completely different aggregate state of texture and musical morphology of the same material, finally culminating in a furiously fast fugato of all eight instruments of the time-escape ensemble and as "haptic time", quite different from in gone awayto collapse in on itself. Encounters with an unusual soloist, composed in 1979, is one of the earliest existing pieces for a solo instrument, which (hence the title) was hardly received as such at the time. Two individuals, by nature Schumann's Florestan and Eusebius, one spirited, the other rather calm, initially face each other relatively abruptly, gradually enter into a dialogue, only to become alienated again, to talk past each other - a topic, even today still very up to date. The instrument is extremely explored in terms of playing technique and articulation, which is how interpretation could and in principle can develop further. Formally recursed Encounters with an unusual soloist to the classic form of the rondo. It occupies a hybrid position between a closed and an open rondo form - in the sense of progress as a never-ending, open process in contingent being, beyond its limitation to the haptic space and the temps mesure (the measurable time). Although the final section relates strongly to the beginning, like the latter (unlike in the classic rondo) it is not a refrain section but a metamorphic one, its opening into the stillness of the Eternità differs fundamentally from the pronounced unity of the opening section. In ...crushed, broken through, crumbled..., composed in 2009, nine miniatures document the decay of any temporal order, its relativity, and make it appear virtual, as a decay of perception and thus of certainties. Three fast parts contrast the more slow and calm sections. In the second part, a fugue appears in the sense of an escape from the reality of "shattering", collapsing, the disintegration of everything that has been interpreted as good and right, including the disintegration of many illusions. The sixth part, which is already shorter, is determined by a wild stretta, which, although composed very rigidly, leaves the impression of a disintegration of order, of processual destruction, the individual elements of which remain as rubble. The shortest, eighth part, with a triple counterpoint, is extremely brief and concentrated, reminds us of the previous part and also allows time to disappear into a black hole, as it were. All things want to have an end, Final piece for chamber ensemble, composed in 1993, is also included at the end of this CD. In the corner sections, one event polyphonically pushes the other ahead, musically always spirited. The acceleration of the perception of time is here, unlike in escape from time, evoked by the systematic, yet non-arithmetic compression of the musical morphology and its structures up to the end of the piece. In a middle section that is rhythmically pronounced because it is almost in rhythmic unison, interrupted by a short, quiet pause, the racing of time seems to have gotten out of joint. A process of detachment from the rigidity of the repetitively “raging” middle section introduces the final section, until it culminates in an all the more dense polyphony (cf. escape from time) ends, with a simultaneous conscious reduction of the musical articulation. Doesn't appear randomly All things want to have an end in a »Pierrot Lunaire« cast, since (like the »Pierrot subject«) abrupt, cinematic tableau or scene changes determine the piece. Its rondo form is as in Encounters to be understood as a sign of the being process of »becoming and passing away«. Ernest Helmuth Flammer |
program:
[01] gone away for flute, clarinet, piano, violin and cello (1992) 16:56 Martina Roth, flute [02] Interlude X for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (2010) 05:46 Alexander Ott, oboe [03] escape from time for flute, oboe, clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello and double bass (1988) 15:38 Martina Roth, flute [04] Encounters with an unusual soloist for solo double bass (1979) 12:15 Johannes Nied, double bass ...crushed, broken through, crumbled... for flute, clarinet, percussion and cello (2009) 09:29 Martina Roth, flute [14] All things want to have an end Final piece for chamber ensemble 06:48 Martina Roth, flute Total playing time: 67:29 |