Manfred Trojahn has composed a Magnificat for the reopening of the Imperial Cathedral in Königslutter in April. Shortly before this, his Moderato, Sinfonischer Satz, Überschreibung II. Zustand will be premiered at “musica viva” in Munich. Its compositional theme is musical acceleration.
Sound–space–Marian–music
A specific conception of sound, inspired by the acoustic of the Romanesque basilica of the Imperial Cathedral in Königslutter, was the basis for the composition of the Magnificat, Mary’s prayer after the Annunciation: two high sopranos, whose figurative singing intertwines, and the orchestra envelop the space in a tapestry of sound, in which time stands still. “The Magnificat is primarily a sound piece. The idea was to create a spatial acoustic. The sopranos are ultimately treated as one voice which flows above the acoustic with the orchestra. The starting point was an exciting acoustic, inspired by this church with which I have had a special relationship since my childhood. Although I had this space in mind, it is not essential for the performance.” The two moving voices are wrapped by soft spheres of sound like an aura. At the end, the sense of metre is suspended in a tonal harmony over C major, full of friction, in block chords which avoid strict beats. “A music in which the temporal-metrical gives way to the spatial. The composition acquires an uncertainty, a story which could almost linger.” The work ends with solo repetitions of the soprano figurations. Trojahn conducts the first performance in a concert at the reopening of the restored cathedral on 25 April 2010.
Continuos accelerando
“Zweiter Zustand” (second state) – a term from fine art becomes the symbol for a new way of working which Manfred Trojahn employs in Moderato, Sinfonischer Satz, Überschreibung II. Zustand. ‘States’ denote the stages of work in making prints or lithographs where, after making the prints, the plates are re-used. An encounter with the latest works of David Hockney was a stimulus for Trojahn’s new working method: the British artist combines individual paintings to make monumental pictures, landscapes and trees, details of which he paints several times throughout the year. He is transferring a technique, which he created earlier with polaroids in a quasi-cubist way, to painting. For Trojahn, Hockney’s new method of composition was “an opportunity to try out new techniques. Until now I have always developed a piece from the beginning to the end, but now I take material from earlier pieces as the basis for a new composition. I work on an existing score like a painting which, for instance, only had outlines up to now, but is now being given colour in order to clarify things.” A composition is created which already had a preliminary sketch, but now assumes completely new dimensions.
Moderato is not a characterizing title, but denotes a mere tempo of working in which Trojahn approaches numerous works. But this tempo is overridden in the course of the piece. The movement is conceived as a continuous accelerando. It is based on material from the fifth scene of his opera La Grande Magia and two movements from La tomba di Paganini. The idea of speeding up the music over a long period is radicalised: the piece leads into a violent movement, almost contradicting the title Moderato. Moderato, Sinfonischer Satz, Überschreibung II. Zustand will be premiered on 23 April 2010 at “musica viva” in Munich by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Emilio Pomarico.
Marie Luise Maintz
(from [t]akte 2/2010)