(2010/2014) 60' / for three female voices, trombone, and percussion with a text by Friedrich Hölderlin
The premiere performance took place on September 20th, 2014 in Maastricht at the Musica Sacra festival. The performers were Sven Schildknecht, Clara Meloni, Anne-May Krüger, voices, Mike Svoboda, trombone, Michael Kiedaisch, percussion.
Instrumentation:
- 3 female voices each with a small bell (c4, c#4, e4) and a megaphone (not electronic)
- trombone (mutes: cup, straight, wawa, harmon, plunger), megaphone, 1 pail partially filled with water
- percussion with a megaphone, bass drum (played with a shoe brush, light, and heavy beaters), 3 pieces of wood (ca. 120x10x6 cm different pitches), 1 bucket (large enough to walk in) filled with small stones, 1 pail partially filled with water, 1 flat bucket filled with stones (ca. 6-12 cm ø)
Programm note
While still a teenager, Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) wrote the monumental poem Die Bücher der Zeiten, a work related to the Books of Revelation in which mankind's deeds are dramatically enumerated. This work tells of the horrors and wonders of the human race, of the salvation through the spirit, of mankind's achievements and their many rewards. In his composition, Mike Svoboda (*1960) assigns the proclamation of this apocalyptic vision to three female voices, thereby creating a link to mythological figures such as the norns, the visionaries of past, present and future. The composer not only conveys the text's semantic content, but also interprets it on an associative and sounding level. Trombone and percussion contribute to the archaic aspect of both poem and composition.