➤ Collective Maulwerker: Vocal Spaces, Composed Bodies, 2021
a series of choreo-vocal compositions – Katedrala, Kino Šiška
at 8 pm
*Tickets (9 eur): http://bit.ly/Maulwerker_COFtix
*Special note: Entry into the venue is permitted only with a negative PCR or RAT test result, a medical certificate of recovery or vaccination, in accordance with the instructions of the National Institute of Public Health and the decree in the Official Gazzette of the RS, no. 73, p. 4392/May 13, 2021.
MAULWERKER
Ariane Jessulat, Henrik Kairies, Christian Kesten, Katarina Rasinski, Steffi Weismann
Since 2005, the Maulwerker have organised thematic evenings in the series maulwerker performing music, each one dedicated to a methodical-structural or material aspect of performative music. With poeme für füße these were body compositions, with translationslanguage compositions, with Halt’s Maul screaming compositions, XXXOOOXXX (numbers & circles) presented formal compositions, pro cedere process pieces, and situations conceptual, situative pieces that expanded on the form and framework of the classical concert. In speakers, the voices interacted with loudspeakers through playbacks or live processes. Augenlieder picked up the theme of body compositions, and Vokale Räume explored extended vocal techniques in abstract and concrete spaces. The series has presented world premieres by Antonia Baehr, Alessandro Bosetti, Sabine Ercklentz, Fernanda Farah, Boris Filanovsky, Jule Flierl, Robin Hayward, David Helbich, Neo Hülcker, Ariane Jeßulat, Sven-Åke Johansson, Henrik Kairies, Georg Klein, Christian Kesten, Annette Krebs, Andrea Neumann, Alex Nowitz, Katarina Rasinski, Dieter Schnebel, Antje Vowinckel, Steffi Weismann, Emmett Williams, Istvàn Zelenka, a.m.o.
Michael Hirsch (1958-2017) Intérieur à 1 (2015)
for speaker/performer and fixed media
The fixed medias, entitled “musique concrète”, represent an important strand in Michael Hirsch’s work. The collages, which he recorded himself, are strictly composed and only discreetly electronically processed. They consist of concrete sounds, noisy and percussive, belonging to the extended percussionist’s toolkit. One hears actions such as rolling, rummaging, dropping, crumpling and can at best associate the objects with them. The compositions have a kind of performativity; Hirsch himself spoke of “audible theatre”, analogous to Schnebel’s “visible music”. They can work as “acoustic stage set” or function as acousmatic loudspeaker music to which live instruments or voices refer. Intérieur à 1 creates an intimate communication between the psychological and object-like interior space of the performer and the artificial exterior space created by the recording.
Christian Kesten zunge lösen [releasing the tongue] (1999/2002)
for tongue and breath
zunge lösen is a composition for the tongue, sometimes in counterpoint with audible breath or a slight activation of the larynx. In the piece the tongue is the only head’s muscle in movement. Working at the root of articulation, the tongue is the piece’s only protagonist on the miniature stage created by the open mouth. zunge lösen will be presented as five simultaneous solos.
Antonia Baehr HA-HA-HA-AH-AH-AH (2008/2020)
A piece in three-four time for five Maulwerkers. In a strict three-quarter time corset, HAs slowly turn into laughter, the laughter derails and causes the structure of the composition to burst from within – lunacy spreads.
Repeat what you have just done as accurately as possible. But since an identical repetition is impossible, this endeavour can only fail. So try to repeat the change that has crept in in the next repetition…
Jule Flierl d!ssoc!at!on_study_2 (2018)
for three voices
d!ssoc!at!on_study_2 is a grotesque dance for the face that works against the concordance of singing voice and facial articulation, and instead develops them as independently acting fields of coordination. The result is a polyphonic interplay between larynx, oral cavity, tongue and lips.
Dissociation describes a mental state that is considered a disorder in our society. d!ssoc!at!on_study_2 wants to detach itself from the dogma of the holistic body and challenges the perception of the phonatory body. It is a game involving the sensory perception and coordination of the performers. The body of the future makes no sense analogically and moves in many directions simultaneously. This piece is inspired by the voice dances of Valeska Gert, an avant-garde dancer of the 1920s.
Dieter Schnebel (1930-2018) Stumme Schreie [Silent Screams] (2008)
Dieter Schnebel, pioneer of imaginary music and extended musical concepts that include bodily movements as compositional material, composed here an (almost) silent music of mimic gestures that takes place in the face alone. The silent expression of screams is combined with the idea of the corresponding sound or its non-existence reverberates as an echo in a remembered space.
Dieter Schnebel Poeme für Finger [Poems for Fingers] (from the cycle Zeichen-Sprache [Sign-Language]) (1989/90)
for 1-3 fingers and voice
Schnebel’s Poems for 1-3 Fingers play with the almost childlike fascination with finger movements merging with the voice. In the cycles Laut-Gesten-Laute, Zeichen-Sprache and Schau-Stücke, Dieter Schnebel combined body movements and vocal utterances and set them in relation to each other – accompanying or counterpointing. Schnebel thought of movements and gestures as compositional material and created correspondences as in a two- or multi-part musical counterpoint.
Christian Kesten Über die Lebensweise der Guam-Flughunde ist weiterhin nichts bekannt. [Still nothing is known about the Guam Flying Foxes’ way of living.] (2018)
for 5 performers
This ensemble piece is the sister piece to a solo for voice and body that Christian Kesten originally composed for Antonia Baehr and her Abecedarium Bestiarium. In the piece, the three levels feet, hands/arms and voice are led independently of one another. The result is a polyphony, a free counterpoint as the levels interact. In the ensemble of five performers this polyphony is amplified and projected further into the space. Working with the panorama and the depth of the space, a field of acoustic sculptures is created.
The Guam flying fox (Pteropus tokudae after the Japanese zoologist Mitoshi Tokuda) is an extinct species of bat from the family of flying foxes (Pteropodidae). It only existed on the island of Guam in the Western Pacific.
Steffi Weismann folie (2016)
version for five performers, voices and objects
In folie, an axis is directed into the depth of the room. The spatial positions of the musicians mark a field that is broken through by an acoustic movement like an aisle. Through the material contact between mouth and cling film, breathing and vocal sounds are filtered in a specific way and create a fragile acoustic field. folie [German for foil / cling film; French for madness] is a “danger music”. Reduced and almost abstract gestures and sounds create a threatening, off-balance climate and describe the vulnerability of its delicate organism.
PROGRAMME:
Michael Hirsch: Intérieur à 1 (2015) 5’
Christian Kesten: zunge lösen (1999/2002) 7’
Antonia Baehr: HA-HA-HA-AH-AH-AH (2008/2020) 11’
Jule Flierl: d!ssoc!at!on_study_2 (2018) 7’
Dieter Schnebel: Stumme Schreie (2008) 7’
Dieter Schnebel: Poeme für Finger (iz cikla/from the cycle Zeichen-Sprache) (1989/90) 4’
Christian Kesten: Über die Lebensweise der Guam-Flughunde ist weiterhin nichts bekannt. (2018) 11’
Steffi Weismann: folie (2016) 7’
Supported by the NATIONALES PERFORMANCE NETZ International Guest Performance Fund for Dance, which is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.
