This piano music contains diaries, sketches, cartoons, inner monologues, bad dreams, supposed awakenings, illusions and disillusions, in other words: aspects of an existence that has been quite trusting so far, but also uncertain – represented and recorded through sound, concentration, reduction to the supposedly essential.
The first CAPRICCETTI cycle revolves around the turn of the year 1987/88, sketching snapshots of my life when I was studying in Lübeck at the time, right on the border with the former GDR. The second cycle was written in bursts between 2014 and 2017. Allusions and impulses (as if by themselves) became larger sequences, abysses. Once (in the sixth piece), I briefly incorporate phrases from a diary entry by Sibelius dated April 21, 1915, in which he put into words the pictorial signal for the final theme of his Fifth Symphony: “Saw ten to eleven 16 swans today...” At that time, Sibelius was living in his native Finnish “splendid isolation,” far away from the First World War.
TRAUMA UND RÜCKGRAT records abuse of power, breach of trust, sexual assault. This play is dedicated to Shoko Kuroe and the #MeToo movement. The global awareness of this movement has torn away many veils of secrecy, strengthening democratic consciousness and exposing patriarchal exploitation of power as a “curse of ridicule” (see Wedekind's fourth scene in his drama “Musik”). It reveals the injustice that damages everyone—women, children, men—and violates our fundamental rights.
Jan Müller-Wieland
Incredibly poetic music that gets under your skin. Jan Müller-Wieland's works radiate a life-affirming optimism and testify to a fundamental trust in the good in people. I got goosebumps the first time I heard his CAPRICCETTI, and the more I engaged with his musical language, the more fascinated I became. I am very grateful to him for TRAUMA UND RÜCKGRAT, a work that hits the mark and approaches the subject artistically with great warmth and strength. The piano works are also extremely innovative and demonstrate what is still possible with classical playing technique.
Shoko Kuroe