David Philip Hefti: Light and Shade

LIGHT AND SHADOW

The program put together for this CD brings together three visually stunning and promising titles: On transparent threads, Concubia nocte and Danse interstellaire. The works, all linked by the basic instrumentation of the string quartet, revolve in the field of tension between tiredness and courage, light and shadow, sadness and consolation. They are exemplary for the musical experimentation and expressiveness of the composer David Philip Hefti, who knows how to exploit the spectrum between sound and noise, sensation and silence, tension and relaxation with virtuosity.

Right in the first piece On transparent threads for mezzo-soprano and string quartet, based on a poem by Kurt Aebli, these aspects come into play. The poet dedicated his work Endless beginning of everything David Philip Hefti, with whom he has been friends for many years. Hefti then set it to music for voice and violoncello, commissioned by the Tonhalle Society and the Zurich Literature House, and only later wrote a new version for mezzo-soprano and string quartet. He dedicated the new composition to the singer Maria Riccarda Wesseling and the Amaryllis Quartet, who premiered the work on April 19, 2018 in Lübeck.

Already the beginning of the poem calls for a musical interpretation: »The world came into being out of sound, that is why those who know say that they do not know, that is why their silence is never empty, that is why their emptiness is never dumb, that is why the correct is never beautiful, and that's why the beautiful is never correct.” The focus of Hefti's composition is thus on impressive and characteristic sounds. The playing instructions for voice and strings are expressive. While the singer clicks her first note and then produces with her voice, among other things, "speech song", "straw bass" and "multiphony" (polyphonic pressed sound), the strings play, for example arco gettato (throw the bow aside), col legno battuto (hitting the side with the bow stick) and »Shooting Stars«, which in this context means that the harmonic fingering remains unchanged during a glissando, so that several glissandos follow one another. In addition to dynamic contrasts, such as rapid changes from triple forte to double piano, emptiness and silence in the form of general pauses and fermatas play an important role. In addition, the individual voices are constantly in exchange with each other, adopting the rhythm or tempo of the others and emancipating themselves from each other again. The visual power in Hefti's music remains consistently concise when she comments on Aebli's lines from the last movement "when a piece of fabric that served as a curtain is torn in two" with overtones, scratches and carpets of sound, and thus the unembellished reality and the recognition and acceptance of one's own represents finiteness.

The second piece of the program sounds from the middle of the night. Concubia nocte is Hefti's fifth string quartet and the second work of his night watches-Cycle which, in keeping with its title, deals with themes of insomnia, dream, twilight, darkness and hallucination. Concubia nocte - music for the second watch of the night was commissioned by the »Z Zwischentöne« chamber music festival in Engelberg (Switzerland) and is dedicated to the Merel Quartet, who also premiered the piece on October 26, 2018. In the months following the birth of his first son, Hefti made a virtue of his insomnia and began his night watcheswrite cycle. The result, according to the composer himself, is »real night music, often written in the darkest hours.« Concubia nocte is characterized above all by quarter-tone harmonies and a certain mysteriousness.

As in the other two pieces, the timbres arise on the one hand through abrupt transitions, from furious (angry) to atmospheric (atmospheric) and sudden alternations of opposing dynamics and rhythms. On the other hand, Hefti also gives the sounds time to develop by letting individual tones rise and fall or stand out and shine. The atmosphere constantly changes between mystery and surprise. Towards the end, the play takes an unexpected turn. Through the game instructions scordatura the strings retuning their instrument will produce a different note than the one being played. The musicians also play arco inverso, that is, with the bow below the strings, so that the highest and lowest strings can be bowed at the same time. The resulting sound of the string quartet is reminiscent of the string psaltery, a further development of the medieval psaltery, precursor of later plucked instruments such as the zither, harp and harpsichord. In addition, harmonics and glissandi serve as a transition to the end of the piece. Because the sound is pulled into the light as if by transparent threads and suddenly unfolds as a C major chord. It sounds almost too good to be true, as if the sun were rising and chasing away the evil spirits of the night. Hefti lets the chord stand for two minutes, the time it takes for the piece to regain the stability and confidence that one scarcely dared hope for.

The seemingly contradictory opposites of sorrow and consolation are united by Hefti Danse interstellaire, his »funeral music for basset clarinet and string quartet«, dedicated to the memory of his mother. Composed in 2014 on behalf of the Schwetzingen Mozart Society, the work was premiered on October 3, 2015 by Nikolaus Friedrich and the Amaryllis Quartet. The piece marks the end of the CD program and expresses the inseparable extremes of light and shadow most aptly. The clarinet represents impermanence, often leaving the strings alone, resulting in pure string quartet passages over and over again. Again, Hefti works with the absence of sound and thus with the meaning of emptiness and silence.

Isolated, soft tones and the tremolos of the strings create a spooky mood, as if they had lost their bearings with the clarinet. From time to time, however, the clarinet flashes again with its song-like tone (singable) and sounds like a nice memory. Or she breaks with triple forte, furious (angry) and with fast, high movements, spiraling up to dizzying heights with the strings. At the end you can hear the clarinet “breathe in through the instrument”. Catching your breath becomes a feat of strength, continuing to live becomes a challenge. The strings play »soundlessly on the bridge«, the »left hand dampens the strings«. They remain lost and almost lifeless.

But similar to Concubia nocte The play takes an unexpected turn towards the end. Because the basset clarinet suddenly mixes into the vacuum again, Dolce and atmospheric (sweet and atmospheric), and leads into well-known music: Bach's Invention No. 11 in G minor. From bar 244 of Heftis Danse interstellaire the tones of this miniature ring out with some careful adjustments, arranged for string quartet and basset clarinet. Bach's work, which for Hefti means "confidence and sadness at the same time" and is closely linked to the death of his mother, expresses the unspeakable where the grief increases immeasurably and the composer fails to find words. In the end, the strings take over singable the clarinet – a glimmer of hope.

A great shadow lies over all three works. Dark, melancholic, sad and even desperate tones are struck. And yet the compositions strive towards life, towards the light. David Philip Hefti's music defies the melancholy with optimism and joie de vivre and shows in a virtuoso way that every shadow is also a signpost to the light.

Deborah Maier