The title gives an indication as to what this cycle is about: “Lines” as a catch-all phrase for melodic relationships: differently formed – from a unison melody for two instruments to counterpoints of independent voices; composed in different ways – from “calculated” proportioning to spontaneous writing; expressive in different ways – from lament to competition. If nothing else, these pieces are also a journey through all registers of the clarinet family, from Eb- and Bb clarinet through basset horn and bass clarinet all the way down to two contrabass clarinets.

Alexander Stankovski was born 1968 in Munich and moved to Vienna in 1974. He studied composition at the Vienna Music Academy with Francis Burt and in Frankfurt with Hans Zender. Besides he attended courses a.o. with Karlheinz Füssl, Ulrich Siegele, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Brian Ferneyhough and Gérard Grisey.

I believe in the meaning of art, in which each artist in his or her work must find and invent a means of expression, which is independent of its use and worth.

I believe in intuition, which through the artist as a person enables a vision of something not yet in existence to emerge, becoming reality uniquely from him or her.

I believe in a communication between the composer and musician, the musician and composer and between the composer and listeners.

I believe in being a self-critic, where a view of one’s own work is as if they had an outsider’s perspective.

I believe in chance, where unexpected results can arise, even with the most detailed planning.

Composing means for me, that decisions are made, “lines are drawn” and constraints are envisaged. I am unable to compose without a selected and defined scope of constraints. The definitions themselves, the containment of my possible decisions, can change from piece to piece and even within that, from movement to movement, from layer to layer or from section to section. I’m interested in the juxtaposition of differently defined regions. It is not about the mediation of opposites, rather it is about the representation and experience of incommensurability.