11.000 Saiten

Eleven thousand strings provide considerable scope for new compositional combinations and sounds, especially since each piano is tuned slightly differently: at a distance of two cents, meaning two 100ths of a semitone. Georg Friedrich Haas compares the circular positioning of the instruments to a giant clockwork mechanism in which each individual clock ticks slightly differently, and yet – or perhaps precisely because of this – everything is in harmony. With this approach, the Austrian composer subverts expectations – including those of microtonal compositions: “Haas’s score teases the ear: The spatial and musical effects at work have the power to create a kind of tingling sensation that tantalizes you” (The New York Times). The harmonic space of well-tempered sounds, in which sounds are arranged in steps, has become too narrow for him. His microtonal universe with shifting moods gives the ears the freedom to glide through a space traversed by waves instead of steps. It is a weightless listening experience, freed from the ballast of static constructions. With 11.000 Saiten, Haas throws “question marks into the machinery of European music,” allowing listeners to find various answers in the resonance along with new.

The spark of inspiration for 11.000 Saiten was ignited in a piano factory in Ningbo, China, which Peter Paul Kainrath, artistic director of Klangforum Wien, visited. There, new pianos are played automatically by machines for 24 hours on a trial basis before leaving the factory – a situation that lives on as a trace in Haas’s composition when the 50 pianists follow their cues with the help of synchronised tablets. Part of the concept is also the involvement of local artists and universities, who, together with Klangforum Wien, brought the piece to Bolzano, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf, and New York, among others, for acclaimed performances. The Berlin venue reflects this industrial heritage: the cultural centre MaHalla occupies the former AEG factory in Oberschöneweide, once a major hub of the city’s industrialisation.