(*René Wohlhauser)
infotext:
FROM THE DEPTH OF TIME
Works for various ensemble combinations
From the depths of time
Ensemble version for soprano, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin and cello (2019), based on a dialogue poem by the composer
Ergon 73, No. 2, musical work number 1918
Composition commissioned by the Basel-Stadt and Baselland Music Committee
The recording is a studio production with the »Ensemble Polysono«, which premiered this piece on a European tour in 2020: Christine Simolka (soprano) René Wohlhauser (baritone) Anastasia Chulkowa (flute) Andriy Bandurin (clarinet) Maria Ten (violin) Vladislav Smirnov (cello)
Conflicts between opposites are part of today's reality of life. The "concept of opposites" is also a theme in this work based on a dialogue poem by the composer.
The conflict already takes place on the level of the text, on the one hand in the form of a relatively traditional rhyming poem, which, however, is already broken up as a poem itself by a critical and reflective attitude, designed as ironic and mocking interim comments. This results in a new form of text that I call a »dialogical poem«.
This system is followed by the shaping of the singing voices. The more bel canto-like lines of one voice are countered by the other voice with disturbing and irritating moments.
In the face of these antagonisms of vocal dispute, the instruments seek their role between the fronts. They tend to move in a noisy area, as if they were holding back on the one hand, but at the same time trying to create connections between the opposites, which they hardly succeeded in doing. It is a struggle for unity where unity is not possible.
The tension of the piece arises from these conflicts and struggles. Will the opposing positions move towards each other? Do the positions rub off on each other? Or do they not mix but retain their individuality, albeit in a different form?
In the course of the compositional process, this type of “dialectical composing” becomes a new whole that is greater than the sum of its parts and has a structure that has never existed before.
The piece is laid out like a small dialogical opera, since not only is a poem set to music, but a conflict-ridden dialogue is built up through critical and ironic interim comments, which sets in motion a confrontation-laden drama through the manifestation of different perspectives.
It is the conflict between different social classes, between different aesthetic life plans and worldviews, represented in this piece by the contrast between aloof poetry and everyday sarcasm. In this way, the dramas of life are expressed in my work.
Duo for clarinet and piano
2nd version (2014 / 2018)
Ergon 55, No. 2, musical work number 1874
The recording is a studio production with members of the »Ensemble Polysono«, who premiered the piece on a European tour in 2020: Andriy Bandurin (clarinet) René Wohlhauser (piano)
The composition of a duo lends itself to thematizing different forms of communication between the two instruments and illuminating them compositionally. It is about the development of various expressive gestures and figural structural developments as a means of communication between the two instruments. Are there any speaking gestures of the characters? Is there a greater or lesser degree of communication between characters or structures? How does the musical conversation develop?
Certain island moments and surging and descending streams of energy are formally interesting, allowing for a flexible formal perception.
Various forms of interlocking and interlocking of disparate structures were explored in the context of how new ideas are prepared and introduced, leading to a kind of 'structural permeation' of the stylistic context. In doing so, the inclusion of today's ubiquitous noise mode was deliberately avoided and the search for a different quality of sound vibrations was activated. Peculiar turns of phrase combined with a distinctive rhythm lead to a special kind of musical humour.
Miramsobale
for soprano and violin (2019), on a poem by the composer
Ergon 74, No. 1, musical work number 1922
The recording is a studio production with members of the »Ensemble Polysono«, who premiered the piece on a European tour in 2020: Christine Simolka (soprano) Maria Ten (violin)
The piece combines a mysterious contrasting poem by the composer with the music. The poem consists of onomatopoeic as well as semantic and marginal-semantic text components that suggest different moods rather than making clear statements. This makes the linguistic boundaries between semantics and non-semantics fluid and permeable. Due to the enigmatic and mysterious nature of the language, the language itself becomes a kind of meta-music, so to speak, while, conversely, the music approaches the language. This also blurs the boundaries between music and language. The disparate text components are held together by the pull of the music. The musical rhetoric is reinforced by the gripping impetus in the rhythmic and gestural areas. This creates yet another shift in perception. Not only is there a strong rapprochement between language and music, but the functions tend to be reversed. Non-verbal music gains concrete, almost linguistic expressiveness, while verbal language loses its concreteness and behaves more like music.
Duo for Violin and Piano No. 2 [Violin-Piano-Duo No. 2] (2019)
Ergon 70, music work number 1892
The recording is a studio production with Elia Seiffert (violin) and René Wohlhauser (piano), who premiered the piece in 2019.
In this piece I continue my research, which I have started in recent years, into basic musical development strategies that occur in a wide variety of styles and genres, regardless of tonality or atonality. These strategies are applied in this work through different types of their development processes (modifications, intensifications and compressions).
In addition, this piece gets a strong vital thrust through a pronounced rhythmicity, paired with a far-reaching sensuality, as can also be found in works from the classical period. This also represents a continuation of a line of development that I have begun in recent years.
On the one hand, there are passages that are rhythmically reminiscent of classical music, but on the other hand they also contain rhythmic elements from jazz and rock music, which are so heavily modified and alienated that a genuinely new rhythm is created.
At the pace of perception
Piano Trio No. 1 for violin, cello and piano (2019)
Ergon 72, music work number 1910
The recording is a studio production with members of the »Ensemble Polysono«, who premiered the piece on a European tour in 2020: Maria Ten (violin) Vladislav Smirnov (cello) René Wohlhauser (piano)
The tempo of the perception of time changes significantly in this piece several times. After a frenzied beginning, it comes to a standstill (in bar 23). (A »stopping tempo of perception«.) Shortly thereafter, the music becomes two-dimensional and the tempo comes to a standstill, so to speak. Then the piano alone performs a stepless acceleration and deceleration and draws the perceiving subject into the vortex of experience of these fluctuating perceptual tempo modulations. Next we come to a very quiet section, which, however, has the same basic tempo as the beginning and thus makes it clear that the metronomic tempo does not determine the tempo of perception (bars 46ff). After a gradual return to the rapid movement of the beginning, which now first appears in a fragmented form, before the music finds its way back to continuous movement, and without the basic tempo ever having changed, this continuous movement is now abruptly interrupted (bar 87 ). The stopped will to express reacts aggressively and defiantly to these cuts with an increasingly increased compression of the movement (from bar 95). After a withdrawal (from bar 109) and a change in the meaning of the sonority (from bar 113), the piece seems to be drawing to a close with a coda (bar 122). However, the end has not yet been reached, as essential statements have not yet been made. A section now follows in which the ever-changing tempo of perception turns into actual multiple tempo modulations before the piece (from bar 166) turns another big loop with a “fragmented sample recapitulation” and then finally, relatively abruptly stopped, after all has been said, to culminate in the conclusion.
Duo for flute and cello No. 1 (2019)
Ergon 75, music work number 1925
The recording is a studio production with members of the »Ensemble Polysono«, who premiered the piece on a European tour in 2020: Anastasia Chulkowa (flute) Vladislav Smirnov (cello)
At the beginning of the piece, the material is exposed, which is then processed: a trill and a quick movement. Derivations from this material are found throughout the piece.
After fast, virtuosic movements in the first section, the piece tries to go into itself and listen quietly to the depths. The cello only plays the trills on the body. In a variation of this second section, the two instruments increase to a relief-like four-part composition, which is achieved through the infiltration of tonally contrasting counter-material. After the reprise-like return of the opening material with the trills and the fast movements, another type of fast movement sets in: a wild dispute between two opponents, who increasingly interrupt each other. Then the two reflect, become quiet again and look for internalization. Towards the end of this section, the flute plays the trills as key noise trills, in analogy to the cello's body trills in the second section. The final trill of key noise leads to a section with various forms of rapid movement, before the condensed, condensed figure of movement is increasingly perforated in the final section until it comes to a standstill.
They are formally clearly separated, contrasting parts that refer to each other and that challenge each other. The individual parts are related to each other without literally corresponding. There are contrasts between hectic and poetry, between eruption and ebb, between busyness and contemplation, between alienation and internalization, between too much and almost nothing. Through internalization, the fast movement is critically reflected and thus more substantial. On the other hand, it's also about them
Liberation from the critical-reflective corset, it's about unleashing the imagination. Through their power of imagination, we let the music take us somewhere we haven't been before.
crowcress
for soprano, baritone (with additional speaking voice) and percussion (2019), on a poem by the composer
Ergon 71, music work number 1909
The recording is a studio production with Christine Simolka (soprano) and René Wohlhauser (baritone and percussion), who premiered the piece on a European tour in 2019.
How can novelty in the listening experience be achieved when once-advanced vocal techniques are no longer advanced? The advancedness in sound and its application alone do not guarantee a high-quality composition. The way in which a composer disposes and develops his means and possibilities in a composition is decisive for this. In this sense, this piece attempts to explore novel trajectories that open up previously unknown perspectives on known materials. Conflicts between different material states are not avoided, but deliberately brought about in order to gain the strength from the energy of the collision to push open doors to previously unknown areas of expression. Microtonal vocal lines, combined with spoken and beaten passages, form the starting point for a previously unknown sound history, which, through various stages of intensification and compression on the one hand and fragmentation on the other, leads to a radicalization of the material, which only in this radicalization becomes the able to penetrate the actual nature of the substance. Only after passing through this radicalized state is perception ready for the actual sonic revelation that enables a new, deep listening experience.
Mochlan
for soprano and baritone (2020), on a poem by the composer
Ergon 77, music work number 1953
The recording is a studio production with Christine Simolka (soprano) and René Wohlhauser (baritone), who premiered the piece on a European tour in 2020.
In a time of great lack of prospects and uncertainty, in which public concerts (as a symbol of direct artistic expression and for communication with the audience) were prohibited for an indefinite period due to the corona virus, the need matured in me to give this desolate external situation an indomitable oppose inner world. Therefore, the work is characterized by a dark mood, against which there is increasing resistance and which is repeatedly broken up by outbursts and contrasts. By penetrating into the interior of the sound, by striving to put the inside of the sound on the outside and to strive in complex structures, the gloomy, depressing mood of the Corona period is discolored, broken and reshaped from the inside, so to speak. The intangible of the virus, which is not visible (to the naked eye), becomes virulent itself and unleashes dormant forces of resistance and inflexibility. The work thus becomes a symbol of resistance and rebellion against destructive forces. Culture as spiritual nourishment and necessity to give people the strength to regain the dignity to lead a self-determined life.
Rene Wohlhauser
program:
From the depths of time
Works for various ensemble combinations, recorded by the "Ensemble Polysono" [01-03, 05-06], Elia Seiffert and René Wohlhauser [04] and the "Duo Simolka-Wohlhauser" [07-08]
[01] Out of the Depths of Time Ensemble Version (2019) 13:03
for soprano, baritone, flute, clarinet, violin and violoncello, based on a dialogue poem by the composer
[02] Duo for clarinet and piano 2nd version (2014/2018) 11:12
[03] Miramsobale (2019) 10:35
for soprano and violin, based on a poem by the composer
[04] Duo for Violin and Piano No. 2 [Violin-Piano Duo No. 2] (2019) 10:39
[05] In the Tempo of Perception Piano Trio No. 1 (2019) 11:32
for violin, cello and piano
[06] Duo for flute and cello No. 1 (2019) 07:56
[07] Crow Hood (2019) 07:14
for soprano, baritone (with additional speaking voice) and percussion, based on a poem by the composer
[08] Mochlan (2020) 07:05
for soprano and baritone, based on a poem by the composer
Total playing time: 79:21
first recordings