August 18th, 1936.... (death of a gypsy boy) Monumentum pro Thomas Alva Edison Erectum A.D.MIIM op.34/1 Adagio inMemory of Nino lo Bello, op. 32 Studies for Strings 0p.27 Gemini, op. 24 8 Bagatelles on the Name György Ligeti La Fontaine du Sang, op. 22b Minotaurus study for solo violin Rinne-tensho Metamorphosis of a labyrinth op. 22a Jam Session for Fritz, op. 14#6 Fantasy for 4 Violas, op. 5 Halbthurn Cappriccioso for Robert, op. 14 # 2 Funeral Music for Olof Palme for Solo Violin and Accompanying Chamber Ensemble, op. 13a Movimientos para Don José Haydn, Op. 8 Structures for different groups of an ensemble consisting of 15 instrumentalists April (A piece for Violin and Piano) Vanished Dreams, 6 Sketches for Stringquartet, op. 22c |
METAMORPHOSIS OF A LABYRINTH OP.22AFrom the classical Minotaurus saga right up to the psychoanalytical transmigration of souls of our century, the labyrinth has time and again proved to be an adaptable symbol. The impenetrability of knowledge and technical feasibility today, man's inability to comprehend and to influence causal relations constitute a new form of labyrinth with no apparent means of escape and beset with apprehensions for the future. Paradoxically, however, succumbing to the fascination of the new and unexpected only provokes other metamorphoses of this labyrinth. A labyrinth of emotions also emerges ranging from exhilaration to despair. Franz Kafka's "Letter to Felice" reveals both the artist's fear that firm commitment to a loved one could restrict his creative powers and at the same time his painful need to express himself for somebody in his art which that same person would not understand. This labyrinth, whose invisible walls represent our environment and whose secret prisoner is our feelings, is a compelling force behind the work of René Staar. Here the individual (represented by the solo violin) is confronted by a labyrinthine-like environment (the string ensemble). Spatial factors (amongst others, the ensemble being set up in various ways) are employed alongside musical ones; motif, harmony. Titles such as Awakening in the Labyrinth, the Inescapability of the Labyrinth or the Beauty of the Labyrinth, express both the erratic mutability of our feelings (in the solo violin) and the irrevocable, unwavering metamorphoses of our environment, the labyrinth. Man's striving for liberation from the labyrinth leads him only to the realization that he is incarcerated in a new, larger, perhaps fascinating, perhaps terrifying labyrinth. The indirect motivation for this work, which René Staar wrote with the help of his own chord realignment theory, came from Philippe Entremont. On the occasion of the first performance of the composer's "Just an Accident" in 1986 Entrement asked Staar and his librettist, Alan Levy, to write an opera based on texts by Kafka. Duration of the piece is approx.17 minutes. |