Rudolf Kelterborn: Ensemble Book I - music with 5 trios - songs at night

ENSEMBLE BOOK I
A cycle of poems by Erika Burkart for baritone and instruments (1990)

1. SONATA I (instrumental)

About the poem:
eight lines

What makes me strongest
transformed?
love again and again
that elevates me
and humiliated
and left snow behind
with a track
God knows where.

(From the volume »Minute of Silence«)

2. WHAT SHOULD I ANSWER?

What should I answer,
light voice,
if you
through dead silence
give me the new name?

(From the volumes »Fernkristall«, »The Transparency of Shards«)

Whom to say that at night
the twinkle of the old stars frightens me
and that I'm confused because today is a day that passed a thousand years ago.

(From the volumes »Participation«, »The Transparency of the Shards«)

3. LIGHT MUSIC I

Backlight in the mountains

Light
root me out
drives me,
I'm looking for
the blue poppy, I know
the blue poppy has faded.
On the ridge Hermes,
evening Silhouette,
he appears as a shepherd
with hat and staff.
Where larches shine
and snow meet
i go in
in the sun mirror,
black of light,
lonely
like a split stone.

(From the volume »Minute of Silence«)

4. NIGHT PIECE I (instrumental)

5. LIGHT MUSIC II

Sunrise

The sun goes undefiled
out of the mountain
I silently watch
because lost
are the words of the old
light songs.
The light jumps from leaf to leaf.
(The) silhouette of a bird
timeless local, zen painting.
(The) wind draws wings
from cloud bodies,
not every morning has an angel.
I follow him on the dewpath
down into the soul-dealing day.

(From the volume »Minute of Silence«)

6. NIGHT PIECE II (instrumental)

7. LIGHT MUSIC III

midday low

placeless of the sun
glowing white bung,
the ball bush pulls
his shadow.
glass glazing; the way
a dry spell, white,
up to the hill
the gold-blue corn sky rises.
the light sucks out,
sucks you in, puts you down
in another millennium.
jammed the hour
Light confusion and melancholy.
this is the time
since the lovers themselves
get lost

(From the volume »The Light in the Clearing Area«)

8. ALL GOLD

All gold
the current takes back
from the star that fell to you
keeps the flight track inside.

(From the volumes »Happiness«, »The Transparency of Shards«)

9. SONATA II (instrumental)

Homage to E.B.
About the poem:
On Our Own Behalf

In white. Always the dead, the wedding dress.
the hand on the cheek,
half-closed eyelids,
she listens to the other voice
she herself, she says, would rather not talk,
died too many times lived too much
there is coming, she says, a time
because you only have to be with yourself
dare to speak, to be silent,
in writing, so to speak, and mostly in questions.
Nothing has she so abruptly
deeply and continually delighted
like the vanities of the earth:
the aspirations of art, the beauty of man,
landscapes, their lines and colors,
blue flowers, red clouds. Music.
The rituals of light, its games on demand,
the shuddering and shivering in the shadows
after hunching and crouching
under the bright sun,
the heart warmth of tiles,
when the ice storm raged –
and the infinite
Swan trains of snow.
she loved love,
also her pain
getting lost in the beloved,
to find yourself again
in another spiral
of what is going on there
as life.
If they rise from the ashes
should fly
wants her with the swans
back to earth.

(From the volume »Minute of Silence«)

© Ernest Holder

MUSIC WITH 5 TRIOS (2016-2017)

Five trios are placed on the podium – separated as far as possible: two string trios with different instrumentation, a woodwind and a brass trio and a trio with harp, piano and percussion.

The work is in four movements:

1) opening: The trio structure emerges from the tutti chord at the beginning, with completely different ensemble formations occurring in the course of the four movements.

2) Path 1: A musical process, a hike so to speak, from a starting point to an end point; »changing landscapes«, partly with similar elements.

3) Remember: Hidden quotes, e.g. echoes of mine 5 madrigals and songs at night. Whispering is only perceptible as a noise element, the texts from the works mentioned remain incomprehensible.

4) Path 2: Like Chemin 1 - but in different areas.

The work is dedicated to the conductor Pierre-Alain Monot.

Rudolph Kelterborn

SONGS TO THE NIGHT
Music in three parts for soprano and chamber orchestra on poems by Ingeborg Bachmann and Erika Burkart (1978)

It's getting harder and harder for me to say anything about my own music; with this »music for soprano and chamber orchestra« it is impossible for me. It is enough to read the lyrics: they are the true commentaries on this composition. Because I don't actually let myself be inspired by texts about the music, but mostly I look for texts that correspond to my already very specifically developed musical ideas. The songs at night belong to a series of my compositions that are located in nocturnal-fantastic »intermediate areas«.

Rudolf Kelterborn to Paul Sacher, November 1978

program: