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