With sonic eclipse Matthias Pintscher has composed a new three-part cycle for ensemble. The first two parts, celestial object I and II, were premiered by the Scharoun Ensemble in Berlin and Zermatt at the Berliner Philharmoniker’s summer academy, and the third, occultation, will be be premiered by Klangforum Wien on its 25th anniversary in 2010 in Witten.
The phenomenon of the eclipse – the passing of one celestial body over another and the resultant blackout at the moment of total eclipse – is a symbol of a compositional process of convergence and finally the momentary fusion of completely diverse elements. “The musical idea is that in the first piece, the trumpet, and in the second, the horn, take over a solo function. The contours of the two pieces are quasi laid one over another in the third part, though the material of both the pieces is entirely heterogeneous and at the moment of coming together, fuses together. I was interested in investigating the repertoire for two very different instruments which belong to one family, and in allowing both instruments to sound very differently. This entirely heterogeneous repertoire of sounds and shapes is slowly brought together and layered, and finally the ensemble is also drawn in, so that everything merges into one voice, one instrument and sound gesture, then subsequently also falls apart. Figuratively, this corresponds exactly to an eclipse.”
Pintscher attributes his interest in the cyclical, that is in compositions in several parts with related subjects, to a need to continually keep moving forwards: “I would like to carry on composing works which I have just completed. It is about searching for a completely new task and yet moving organically from one state to the next.” Matthias Pintscher will continue with this approach with his next cyclical project, the first part of which is a work for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under its new music director Alan Gilbert and with Thomas Hampson as soloist. In his earlier a cappella work she-cholat ahava ani for the SWR Vocal Ensemble, which was premiered in February in Stuttgart, he used a text from “shir ha shirim”, the Song of Solomon. In his new work for baritone and orchestra, he combines this biblical text with contemporary lyric poetry, love poems by Yehuda Amichai, the Jewish poet who died in 2000. This is also part of the new cycle, which the Ensemble Intercontemporain will continue.
Pintscher describes his four-part Study on Cy Twombly’s Treatise on the Veil, in which he “depicts the same subject again and again with different perspectives, a different portrayal, different techniques and materials”, as self-contained, but with one reservation: “I still have a vision of laying all the Studies on top of each other and bringing them together in various positions in a space in a new, integrated score.”
Marie Luise Maintz
from: [t]akte 1/2009