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ERNST HELMUTH FLAMMER ORCHESTRA WORKS VOL. 3 What can be said about space and time, about polyphony, about special articulatory and textual questions as well as questions about the polyphony of my composing for orchestra, especially in places where it goes against the grain of convention, about its methodology , may be read in the introductory texts of the first two CDs with orchestral works, also released by NEOS [NEOS 10803 & NEOS 11909]. Only one thing should be emphasized in principle: Questions of polyphony are questions of the time in such a way that everything that exists is subject to constant change (Heraclitus). Seen in this way, this intentionally corresponds to an approach of the critical composing The works reproduced on this CD take - with one exception, the Cello Concerto capriccio – Reference to a subject that, alongside that of space, time and the associated questions of being, is of the greatest importance in my work: the beginning and end of being, its finitude, further birth, death, genesis and apocalypse. They become narrative, at Gethsemane supposedly verified about this biblical story. GEN evokes the idea of creation as part of Genesis, but also implicitly ambiguous, refusing its illustration, provided with a clearly dark, apocalyptic coloring via the concept of »gene«, which is more than just a shadow that hovers over the whole thing. There is a crack in the earth against forgetting warns not to avoid the horror by looking away and suppressing it. The music takes a critical-discursive, commenting and implicitly ambiguous position on the subject. Gethsemani - before disappearing and being forgotten for large orchestra can be excellently described in the words of the musicologist Peter Becker (Falling into the spokes of the wheel ..., notes on the work of Ernst Helmuth Flammer) from which I would like to quote here: »The title refers to the historical place with which we associate farewell and the beginning of passion. In the subtitle, the perspective is drawn into our present, which, unlike the Son of God who is ready to suffer, no longer knows anything about the good end. Before disappearing and being forgotten means the suffering of the many and the guilt of all who know about it without sympathizing and - what would be the least - to give their voice, their cry, to those mute from suffering. In Gethsemane the music turns itself into our representative, screams its multiple ›Eli, Eli, lama asabtani‹ against the walls of injustice and silence, fails in the attempt to break out and finally threatens to break up itself. Gethsemane does not participate in the transfiguring E major ending in Pendereckis Luke Passion, does not anticipate any reconciliation in the musical material. The intention is transfiguration, no different than in Helmut Lachenmann's Les Consolations, and that means focusing relentlessly on what is.« Gethsemane is divided into five parts, the 2nd and 4th parts of which still reflect something like hope in their fragile beauty, whereas the final part, in its denaturedness, is almost to be understood as »countermusic« that, after the »rupture« of everything tonal, bridges all bridges seems to break off before the piece closes with a scream from the orchestra. Whoever “perceives this as a scream – and not just registers it as a painful cluster of sounds – will also see things differently and differently than before, and they will no longer be able to get rid of the thought that what is, can be changed” (Peter Becker). There is a crack in the earth against forgetting for large orchestra: It is about injustice, looking away, with reference to the posthumous dedicatees Wolfgang Harich and Walter Janka, Jewish, one publisher, the other writer, cruelly persecuted in the Stalinist era by the Minister of Justice Hilde Benjamin, victim of the show trials that were common at the time, Victims of their love of truth, their inflexibility despite all ideological challenges. The rift that continues unbroken through society to this day is also about the horror associated with the Holocaust and about all the injustice and mass deaths that the cruel 20th century brought us. The individual fates of Wolfgang Harich and Walter Janka are representative of all of this. The seven miniatures paradigmatically describe life situations and moods of those afflicted by fate, rebellion, resignation, hope and hopelessness. The shortest of these pieces, very concentrated and yet standing as a very light contrast to other formal moments in this work, lasts only about 20 seconds. The tenderness and, at times, great fragility of the music, its denatured passages, its disappearance as soon as it has appeared episodically, paint a picture, so to speak, of the fragility of that freedom that lies in truth, that truth that defies looking the other way and forgetting , against being mute and silent by screaming, but also quietly defends. GEN for soprano, baritone and large orchestra: Joseph Haydns The Creation stands for departure, for an ideal, unbroken utopia in the spirit of the Enlightenment. The view of the client, Lothar Zagrosek, was GEN into the course of Haydn's oratorio and thus to confront it with the broken reality of our lives. So, in addition to the multifaceted title, in addition to the meaning "Genesis", including the dark variant of the GEN technology that threatens the organic world, which shows the aspect of the apocalypse, the music also has a dark side on the one hand, but a very broken and torn side on the other. »GenTech«, »genital«, »genocide«, »ingenious«, »genuine«, »general« and »sui generis« all aspects of the complexity of creation and also downfall are included. These terms are split in the lyrics, broken down into syllables, filleted, syllabically broken to the point of absurdity, "screwed together" again and thus constantly, since the same thing happens contrapuntally with the music, confronted with new contexts in a variety of ways. In accordance with this process of decay, the singing progressively denatures into the noisy and incomprehensible. On the other hand, the textless orchestral parts as a sign of silence are taking up more and more space. Capriccio for violoncello and large orchestra: the recipient commonly associates the term "Capriccio" with a short musical work of great virtuosity, the occasional ballad-like and narrative expansion of a musical idea, its composition. The course is not based on a cross-work concept. The composer can determine his own formal concept for each work of this kind. A capriccio develops the idea of the »moment musical«, often initially introverted, in the direction of playful virtuosity, as is the case in my piece. Capriccio is a diptych, it strings together two musical thoughts, pushes them into each other after the exposition. Both are of opposite nature, one moving, the other rather calm. Yet the second, the quiet thought, derives from the first. The polyphony of the first thought becomes the surface of a woven tapestry of sound, and this at the end is reduced to a sustained single tone, and finally to a sustained single tone. The polyphonic structure uses small intervals, which are excellently suited to complex overlays and the virtuoso use of this technique. Nevertheless, the idea of symmetry runs through the whole piece. The great orchestral interlude of the first half, not skimping on sensuality of sound and a climax of virtuoso polyphony, reappears in a slightly modified form at the end in a retrograde progression. This is only the most noticeable element of symmetry. Those other symmetries are modified more towards the end in the sense of reducing the means. In this respect, the laws inherent in the piece are stricter than in the »moment musical«, with which it has in common the emergence of the musical idea, namely that it was invented spontaneously. This work, unlike the three previous ones, is a concert piece in a very classical sense. Ernest Helmuth Flammer program: Ernest Helmuth Flammer (* 1949) [01-05] Gethsemani - before disappearing and being forgotten for large orchestra (1985/86) 20:16 [01] part One 08:03 Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (now! German Radio Philharmonic) [06-12] There is a crack in the earth against forgetting Seven Pieces for Large Orchestra (1990) 17:10 [06] No. 1 03:08 Symphony Orchestra of Bayerischen Rundfunks [13] GEN for soprano, baritone and large orchestra (1998)* 09:46 Gabriele Rossmanith, soprano [14] Capriccio for cello and large orchestra (1992)* 25:15 Total playing time 72:38 * First recordings |