Ensemble Modern / Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart / SWR Experimentalstudio

Did music originate from language or vice versa? Its origins remain a mystery and it is most probable that there was not a single beginning, but instead a number of different starting points. Clara Iannotta and Márton Illes, two representatives of contemporary music who are idiosyncratic in the best sense of the word, take their inspiration from lyrical poets. Iannotta has long been fascinated by the poetry of the Irish author Dorothy Molloy which has already provided the foundations for works such as They left us grief-trees wailing at the wall. The Italian composer responds to the surreal scene of an acoustic wailing wall with a journey through a tonal world possessing scant associations with the accustomed sound of classical instruments. The instruments are transformed through their preparation with adhesive tape, polystyrene and cardboard and are played in an unorthodox manner, revealing a different identity and shifting the coordinates of the customary system. 

Drawing on the experience that everything that seems certain can suddenly no longer be taken for granted, the chamber work with electronics echo from afar (ii) was created. Written after a course of radiation therapy, Clara Iannotta processes her acoustic memories of the treatment in this piece, oscillating between fear and hope. The music is not a depiction of illness; rather, the composer seeks an expression for “this invisible force that changes you from within” – and in doing so places her trust in a new beginning.

Márton Illés, a composer who barely leaves any details of his highly differentiated exploration of sounds and noise to pure chance, speculates with the aid of the poet Felix Reinhuber on the origins of articulation. The journey back to the beginning of time represents an attempt to ignore all tried and tested parameters in order to become active beyond traditional formal languages. It is no paradox that the dream of time immemorial is supported with live electronics from the SWR Experimentalstudio. The employment of technology can help to overcome numerous thresholds both in the departure into the unknown and the return in the opposite direction.