Output details

Raus auf die Straße! Luft! ¡A la calle! ¡Fuera!

Spatialised concert work for multiple small ensembles and electronics

This project explores ideas of cross-mapping, the reading of writing or notation against the grain of "proper" meaning, like Guy Debord’s description of a journey ‘through the Hartz region in Germany with the help of a map of […] London’ (Debord, G., ‘Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography’, in: Ken Knabb (ed. and trans.), Situationist International Anthology. Berkeley: Bureau of Public Secrets, 1981, 7). The piece was commissioned by Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin (KNM) for their project “Clang • Cut • Book” (works by composers and poets from Argentina and Germany), a festival in Berlin in June 2013 and Buenos Aires in November 2013 (www.clangcutbook.com).

The starting point is two texts by Florian Neuner, focusing on Berlin and Buenos Aires but obscuring their identities by abbreviating both to ‘B’. The texts examine how cities are usually discussed: what is typical? which clichés contradict perception? where are differences blurred? To situate the work even more “between” languages and continents, Neuner’s German texts were translated into Argentinean Spanish and recorded by two women, one Argentinean, the other Spanish; the German texts were recorded by Muenz (German) and the poet (Austrian).

The music "misinterprets" the spoken texts as a musical structure, deriving instrumental phrases from transcriptions of the recordings into musical notation and prioritising intonation, tempo, rhythm – aspects of speech normally regarded as peripheral – over semantic content. The idea of an imaginary geography is reflected in the work’s structure: three “satellites”, played outside the concert hall; and one concert piece. ‘Satellite 1’ is a shrill plein air musique including mobile musicians and megaphones, suggesting a revolutionary situation. Satellite 2 contrasts this with a dialogue between contrabass clarinet and oboe d’amore in melodic “speech phrases”; pre-recorded natural sounds intervene contrapuntally. ‘Satellite 3’ focuses on rhythmic aspects of speech. The ‘Abendstück’ summarises the ‘Satellites’.