mp3 excerpt 3
(International Ensemble Modern Academy; conductor: Manuel Nawri)
mp3 excerpt 4
(International Ensemble Modern Academy; conductor: Manuel Nawri)
programme notes
"communication – lost – found" has 12 instrumentalists explore various
forms of communication. There are several sections, which focus on different aspects of communication and
present different musical solutions for them, examining the organisation of the collaboration, freedom of
decision and individual reactions, musical material, instrumentation etc. There is 'Verständnis ohne viele
Worte' (Understanding with few words), as well as 'Streit' (Conflict) and 'Ärger' (Annoyance), there is
confirmation, answering, interrupting, mutual incomprehension and talking to oneself. There are many ways to
keep silence: perhaps because there is nothing to be said, or while planning something still to be said, expectation,
mulling over what has been said, appending answering thoughts, lingering in relaxed calm deriving from
understanding, or tense stillness resulting from not having understood.
Musically, there are many relationships between the sections. There are certain core thoughts which
repeatedly occur, transformed, and in other combinations, thus constructing a network of references and
relationships through the piece. Communication thus appears not only at the meta level (as the course of
discussion in the macro form) but also subcontaneously (in the musical structure) as well as partially (in the
sections which have their own specific subjects or content) and in detail (for example in the collaboration of
several instruments independently of the conducter and other musicians). Essentially, there is a dialogue and
also a conflict between two groups in the ensemble: the air-instruments (flute, clarinet, trumpet and accordion)
and the string instruments (strings, harp, guitar and piano), and between the two principles, the sound coming
into being and the sound passing away (with the drumkit belonging to the second category, while the strings
appear again and again as intermediaries). Generally the form is open, a 'musical discussion' is to be created
by the musicians and the conductor. While planning the form, a lively communication shall take place.
The composition was commissioned by the music school
"Paul Hindemith" Neukoelln (Berlin) for the Ensemble "Experimente"
under the direction of Gerhard Scherer.
Publisher: Edition Nova Vita, Berlin
