Mixed choir
SKU: BR.DV-4775-01
Urtext. Composed by Don Carlo Gesualdo. Softbound. Deutscher Verlag.
ed. by Wilhelm Weismann and Glenn E. Watkins
Renaissance/early Baroque. Complete Works. 88 pages. Deutscher Verlag fur Musik #DV 4775-01. Published by Deutscher Verlag fur Musik (BR.DV-4775-01).
ISBN 9790200440287. 7.5 x 10.5 inches.
Ed. by Wilhelm Weismann and Glenn E. Watkins (Michael Gielen)
CD
Siegfried Palm Hanna Aurbacher Wilhelm Bruck Bernhard Wambach Christoph Caskel Bernhard Kontarsky
Ltg. Jochen Bartels
Gielen Edition
Intercord INT 860.921
Ans Klingende wendet die Seele sich und feiert ihre eiligen Hochzeiten und sturzt sich hinein. (Michael Gielen)
CD
Sinfonieorchester des Sudwestfunks Baden-Baden
Ltg. Michael Gielen
Saphir LC 4226 - INT 830.871
One solo instrument each which possesses properties of the piano and of one of these groups mediates between them. For example the vibraphon: it has keys but of metal. The other solo instruments are marimba (--- wood) harmonium (--- Bellows) Ondes Martenot (---voice) and electric guitar (--- strings). The number five also dominates the serial technique (only five intervals) and the rhythm (through the quintuplet). The broad formal outline is the traditional ABA. In the A sections the sounds of each group are homogeneous and always come from the same direction. In section B several musicians exchange position and play in mixed groups The sound is heterogeneous no longer constrained to one direction. One further stipulation separates the A sections from B: in the A sections the verses for the musicians in the groups alternate with the incidental music for the solo instruments. One group of five dominates in each verse the others visit. The B section is a mobile for sound objects which is always repeated in different combinations. This section uses only six pitches per octave. Once I was far enough with the planning that all of this was established I looked for a text for the speaker (the voices are soprano alto tenor bass and speaker). Fortunately I found the poem by Neruda (from Residencia en la tierra written in the thirties) whose formal layout corresponded to the musical form I had planned. I did however rearrange certain verses and omitted one. And moreover the poem deals with that which sounds. In two places one sound dominates all the others: the rustling hissing overtone-poor sound of whispering at the beginning of the reprise of A and at the end of the piece the sound of the triangle a high band of glistening sound-light. Coming at the climax of the middle section are the words from Neruda's poem cascaras del silencio that is vessels of silence. That means that the continuum surrounding us is silence - the vessels of music. A poetic disavowel of the outer world. In the fourth incidental music the soprano sings: The souls turns toward the sound.
