Le silence -- tystnaden

Isabel MUNDRY
Born 1963, Schlüchtern (Hesse), Germany

Le silence -- tystnaden (1993)

flute/piccolo, oboe/cor anglais, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, violin I, violin II, viola, violoncello, contrabass, percussion, percussion

A basic concept in the composition is the development of individual heterogenous musical elements. These elements can be connected with each other on a different dimension whereby association with them repeatedly becomes a question of consciously altered perspective. However, structural integration should not lead to a closed order but rather should define the elements as components of open systems which momentarily accept clarity but also possibly cancel each other. The formal elements are mostly definite as the centre but are open at the edges; they move with each other to sight a profound experience just as words form from a vocabulary, complex sentences from grammar and speech from language.

In an early film by Ingmar Bergman, a child travels by train through a country unknown to him. The child looks out the window and observes speechlessly what he later playfully discovers -- represented by an almost uninhabited hotel. Finally the child leaves the country by train again. On a piece of paper `soul´ is written in a foreign language. The title of the film, translates as `The Silence´.

Programme note © 1993 Isabel MUNDRY
Translation © Annette CORKHILL