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abglanzbeladen / auseinandergeschrieben (1992-96) |
solo percussion (from Opening of the Mouth)
This composition for solo percussion forms the basis of the first section of Opening of the Mouth, a contemplation of the poetry of Paul Celan for voices, ensemble and electronics, which was premiered by ELISION at the 1997 Festival of Perth. Many of the components of Opening of the Mouth had their origins in a journey I made through eastern Europe in the summer of 1991. In a park overlooking Budapest stands a memorial to the victims of the Nazi death camps, which takes the form of a willow tree made of shining metal, each leaf bearing a name.
The title, after two neologisms (“laden with reflections... written asunder”) found in different Celan poems, the aforementioned memorial (as it persists in the memory), and the music of abglanzbeladen / auseinandergeschrieben together form a tenuous and indescribable constellation. The first half of the composition, for vibraphone only, involves the gradual intermingling of two strands, one of chords and the other of single pitches, which begin as distorted mirror-images from opposite ends of the keyboard. The second, which adds crotales, steel drum, gong and flexatone, separates and dissolves these strands.
abglanzbeladen / auseinandergeschrieben, completed in February 1997, was written for Peter Neville and is dedicated to George E.Lewis.