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Burkhard Schlothauer

More Chamber Events

Label: Edition Wandelweiser

Format: CDx2

Genre: Experimental

Out of stock

Antoine Beuger (flute), Christoph Nicolaus (stone harp), Burkhard Schlothauer (trumpet, bass drum). Before starting the event series in 1995, I had been occupying myself with nonrepresentational minimalist painting, in which, rather than representing anything from the objective world, the artwork itself becomes an entity, an object of the world. Would it be possible to realize such a degree of abstraction in music? In this series of compositions for solo instruments each sound by itself is conceived of as a mono-chrome painting on a white wall of silence. the flow of time moves listeners from one sound tableau to another. pitches were taken from the inexhaustible variety of possible frequencies within the range of audibility. tones were understood as complex sounds, as a sum of partials and noises going along with their production.
As the pieces were to be realized by instrumentalists, the durations of the sounds were based on their physical possibilities - a breath, a bow - or on the physics of the instrument - the resonance of a piano string. In these pieces, contrary to academic musical practice, the player is encouraged to focus on unlocking the manifold sonic possibilities of his instrument. Each sound in these pieces is obtained through a highly disciplined act, eked out by the musician with a tranquil power. born to live briefly, each sound soon returns into silence. A few years later (1998) the idea evolved to let these solo pieces come together in various combinations, thus allowing events to emerge and take place. In the event series the initial idea of single monochrome sounds is thwarted. Acoustic coincidences occur, manifesting themselves as complex wave structures, ever new amalgamations of sound materials and shapes.

events in five parts can be heard as one piece in five parts.It opens with flöten, for solo flute. Tracks 2, 4 and 5 are combining flöten (1998), stein reiben (2008) for stone harp and hauchen (2016) for trumpet (three solo pieces from the event series) into 3 possible versions of events #2 and events #3. in the middle (center) section of the piece stands variable densities in space for 8 bass drums and 2 trumpets. The eight bass drums are spatially divided and all play the same slow beat, though never all of them at the same time, letting the sound wander through the space. Sometimes only one drum sounds, sometimes a few of them together. In the latter case one can hear low frequency beatings. The 2 trumpets, one to the left, one to the very right, are playing a very slow pulse with noisy sounds, independent and dissociated from the beat of the drums. Events #2 flute and stone harp, in this version of events #2 the two solo pieces flöten, for flute, and stein reiben, for stone harp are superimposed in various ways.

Details
Cat. number: EWR 1701/02
Year: 2017