Orpheus und Demokrit
Music for piano with tape (1996/97)
Duration: ca. 11 min
First performance: Essen, 1997/05/23
GEMA No.: 4262063
While Democrit’s theory of the atom was completely disproved by quantum physical discoveries in the first decades of the last century, our present day computer thinking is, nevertheless, based on the assumption that everything can be broken down into noughts and ones.
Indeed, even such complex phenomena as piano sounds can be very precisely analysed and reproduced with the means of digital technology. Thus, the entire tape part of this piece consists of "manipulated reproductions" of various occurrences created on the piano, ranging from the normal touch up to certain pedal noises. At some points, especially at the beginning and the end of the tape, the "atoms" of the analysis become audible through the extreme lengthening of the original.
I have tried to use such, and other, methods to draw attention away from the attack onto the vibrating of the piano body. This is in turn then used to develop great arcs, perhaps even: to create a kind of vocal music.
