Sénanque for Solo Flute (1993)

Sénanque is the name of Cistercian monastery in Provence, surrounded by fragrant lavender fields through which the wind gently blows. The monastery complex is built in wonderfully clear architecture that invites you to look around. In the evening, monks sing in the chapel.

These impressions during a short summer stay in Sénanque are reflected in this atmospheric piece for solo flute. In addition to wind sounds and the imitation of the psalm-modulating monks’ chants, there are numerous archaic-seeming melodic gestures which are to be played on the various pieces of the flute: on the foot joint and on the combination of main joint and foot joint. I denote these playing techniques Pars-pro-Toto-Playing.

For the performance of Sénanque, there are basic notes and sign explanations in the EDITION on the Pars-pro-Toto-Playing techniques used here. My video recording of Sénanque is available on youtube. VIDEO 

Musique pour un père mort for flute and violoncello (1994 / 2022)

This work consists of six short parts, which are joined together in a free form and merge seamlessly into one another.

At the beginning, Koto-like pizzicati sound in the violoncello in meditative silence, from which an ostinato accompaniment develops for the first melodious, evocative passage on the foot joint solo ("l’incantation"). The violoncello then postulates the tonal stock of the next section (D flat-E flat-A flat-B flat) with a bowed passage, and it accompanies the main joint-foot-joint combination, again by koto pizzicati. 

This dream-like melodic section, in which long-forgotten times are evoked ("le temps perdu"), leads into a first improvisation by head joint solo and violoncello ("pour parler aux arbres"), reminiscent of the rustling of the wind in the leaves of a tree, and finally into a second improvisation with whistle sounds on the complete flute and harmonics of the violoncello, which twinkle like stars ("pour parler aux étoiles"). 

Times of mourning and reflection are especially hours of solitude, like the solitude of the forest or the solitude of the night. The fifth section follows with an extended cadenza for the complete flute ("les questions sans réponses"), which describes and processes the traumatic experience of the news of death starting from the central note – d’ -, ever greater melodic turns build up, leading to the dramatic climax of the work after a tremolo in the right hand. Leaps from e’’’’ to b, flutter tonguing and multiphonics stand for a cry of despair. 

Finally, a wistful melody is heard in the sixth and final part ("l'âme qui s'envole") on the complete flute, again accompanied by ostinato pizzicati from the cello. It is a farewell, the last greeting to the deceased, sorely missed father; organ-point-like sustaining notes with the notes A (for Andreas) and B (in German musical notation h here for Hubert) symbolising the lost unity of father and son, now a memory. The work dies away in final pizzicati and whistle sounds (b''' - H again for Hubert) which symbolise the disappearance of the beloved soul into distant spheres of a paradise of whatever kind.

A sheet music edition is available. EDITION

A recording is available on youtube

(first performance on 27. 06. 1994 - Genuit-Saal Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe) VIDEO

Press review

PERENTI for Solo flute and clapsticks (2004)

The perentie (Varanus giganteus) is the largest monitor lizard or goanna native to Australia. It is one of the oldest lizard families in the world and is considered highly intelligent. Due to its shyness and the remoteness of much of its range, it is rarely seen. 

Its importance in many Aboriginal cultures is reflected in its use as a totem, and it is part of the Ngiṉṯaka dreams, from the oral tales of the Dreamtime. Among the Aboriginal People of the desert, it was a popular food, and the fat was used for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. 

In the typical painting of the Aboriginal People, the dot-painting, the perentie has its firm place. I found the following text under a particularly beautiful depiction: 

"Perenti lying in the midday sun, the perenti rests in hot desert country. Clan groups travel pathways across wild spinifex country to waterholes and creeks. At night the song man chants stories of the perenti."
 

The colourful artistic depiction of a PERENTI, this text and my personal stay in Australia in Sydney in 1999 were together the inspirational starting point of this composition. Particularly striking in my composition are clapsticks, typical instruments of the Aboriginal People, which sound from afar, sometimes commenting on the melodic gestures of the flute and the Pars-pro-Toto Playing techniques, sometimes in duet with them. In the final passage on the combination of main joint and foot joint, there are quotations from the Australian national anthem. 

The premiere took place in 2004 during a lecturer's concert at a Pars-pro-Toto workshop in Bad Wildbad. 

Manuscript on request, a sheet music edition is in preparation. 

My video recording is available on youtube. VIDEO