For solo harp
Duration: 5'33''
Premiere: Vienna, 15 January 2020, performed by Gabriela Mossyrsch

Published by Edition Contemp Art (Verlagsgruppe Hermann),
Obtainable via www.schott-music.com
Product number: VGH 2703-70


The twelve numbers of the cycle Metaphysical Jazz op. 22q bis for solo accordion also include the piece »… von dieser Sterneinsamkeit zu jener Sterneinsamkeit …« [… from this solitude of the stars to that solitude of the stars …]. The title—based on a line of a poem by Giuseppe Ungaretti, translated by Paul Celan—served as an inspiration for a five-part harmonic sequence linked through various compositional procedures. This sequence was employed in the »1. Lesung« [1st Lecture] for accordion, where it receives a generally simple realization consisting of initial upward-moving phrases followed by downward-moving phrases, all at a constant tempo. Intensification is achieved only through dynamics and rhythmic culmination. In other words, it's a musical representation of the stars of a galaxy moving past one after another.

The »2. Lesung« [2nd Lecture] for solo harp presented here – which is entirely based on the same five-part chords as the »1. Lesung« – follows a different concept. The first section of a basically two-part form is a vibrant structure with numerous thematically divergent sections that gradually become calmer. The second section begins very calmly, almost mysteriously, and gradually comes to life, until it becomes faster and quieter at the same time in the last measures and thus dissipates.

The disparate elements of the first section reflect the tangibility of matter, which consists of different characteristics – from dramatic to playful and extending all the way to the mysterious and dancelike, just to name a few. In contrast, the second section is permeated by an overarching line that mystically dissolves out of the final fermata of the second section, as if an astronomer suddenly noticed that behind a galaxy lies a celestial object that emits completely different kinds of signals – could they be acoustic waves perhaps? 

The concept of two different readings of the exact same material and the exploration of their relationship to each other can already be found in an earlier composition of mine along with its parallel composition. Both of these works reflect the exact same material, resulting in two microtonal visions of the B-A-C-H motive: the first is the piece Réminiscences sur le nom de B.A.C.H., Premier Vision for Viola and Cello, while the second forms the third movement of Descendances imaginaires op. 22f.

Likewise, there are many other interconnections within the entire Op. 22, which transform it into a Gesamtkunstwerk, or a kind of modern Theory of Harmony.