"...letzte Gebaerde offener Muender" (1998/99)
electroacoustic music/ tape music based on poems by Michael Wuestefeld
tape: 2 channel, CDR /DAT
Poems written by Michael Wuestefeld (contemporary German writer) from his book "Stadtplan" (1990) provide the poetic and tonal basis of this piece. The texts, written between 1986 and 1987 in East Germany describe numerous subjective situations, feelings and thoughts from the view of a townsman. The poems have been recorded with a female and a male voice, which both speak and whisper. After the preparations I was able to work with some variations, loops and transformation of the texts. The timber of the different voices belongs to one of the planes which structure the piece. Furthermore, I developed a text analysis form for the written words consisting of seven groups of phonemes. These groups, combined with algorithmic models, control the form of the piece and every single sound object. Using an self-designed application in MAX, I was able to work with the different combinations of numbers which have been used for musical parameters such as material, duration, rhythm, stereophonic position and density. The semantic characteristic of the text objects depends on real-time calculations that, from time to time, create something like a new synthetic language or atomic word cells. With time-stretching methods I extended central words of the poems many times longer than their original length and formed new harmonic spectra and "singing" tonal characteristics.
The piece develops from the sound of a female voice with the text "Die Begegnung mit euch" to the male voice and the poem "Morgen schon besetzen wir" . The man and the woman move through an atmospheric labyrinth of speech, noise and electronic sound manipulation. All material has been composed or abstracted from the passages of speech.
female voice: Katrin Degenhardt
male voice: Martin Baltscheit
example: list 1
6-2 6-1-6-2-6-4-1-4-1-4 4-1-7 3-5 4-1-4-7 6-4-1-7-1 6-2-4 7-1-4-7-1-4 5-1-4-1-4-7-1-4 3-5 6-1-4 4-2-5-1 4-2-5 3-4-1-4 6-1-4-1-5-7 4-1-4-7 4-2-4-7-1-4 7-4-3-4-1-4 7-1-4-5-1-4-4-1-5-1-2-4 3-5 6-1-4 4-1-5-7-1 5-1-4-7-1-6-1-4 5-2-5-4-1-5-7-3-7 4-1-4-7 2-4-1-4-1-4 3-4-1-5 6-1-5-2-4-5 5-4-1-4-6-1-4 4-2-1 4-3-7 1-4-7-5-1-4-4-7-1-4 6-2-4-1-4 7-3-4-1-4-7-5-1-5-1 6-1-6-2-6-4-1-4 6-1-4-2-4-7 4-1-5 4-1-5-7 3-4-1 1-4-5-1-6-1 6-1-6-2-6-4-1-4 6-1-4-2-4-7 4-1-5 7-3-4-1-4-7-5-1-5 6-2 6-1-6-2-6-4-1-4 4-1-7 3-5
example: list 2
4-1-4-6-1-4 5-2-4 6-1-4-1-5-1-4 4-2-4 6-1-4 7-1-4-1-5-2-4-5-1-4-1-4 1-4-7-1 7-1-4-5-7-4-1-7-5-1-2-4 5-1-4-4-2-5-1-4 1-4-5 4-1-7 4-1-4-7-1-4-4 3-4-1 1-4-6-1-4-7-4-2 5-4-3-4-6-4-1-5-1 6-1-4-2-4-1-4 1-4 5-4-2-1-4 5-7-1-4-6-1 4-3-7-1-4-1-4 5-4-2-5-5 4-1-5-7-1 6-1-6-2-4-6-1 1-5-1-4-1-4 4-2-4-6-1-4 6-2-4-1-4 2-6-1-4 6-2-4 5-7-4-1-5-4-1-5-1-4-4 1-4 4-1-5-1-4 6-1-5-7-4-2-5-1-6-1-4 5-4-1-5-1 6-1 5-2-6-1-4 4-2-4 4-2-6-1-4 3-4 4-1-7-6-1-5-2-4 6-1-4 6-2-4-5-1-4 4-1-4-7 6-2-6-1-4-2-6-1-4 1-4 6-1-4-1-4-4 6-1-5 4-1-5-5 6-2-4 4-2-7 1-7-4-1-5 5-1-4 4-2-6-1 5-2 6-1-5-3-7-7-1-4
7 groups of phonemes
vowels
1) a e ae i o oe u ue...y(ue)
2) aa ah a ee eh e aeh ae ie y(ue:)
3) ei ai au eu aeu
consonants
4) l m n r n(ng, nk) j(i, j) ...w(w) s(z) j(rz) y(j)
5) f v(f) s(ß) sch ch(i) ch(x) z-tz(ts) tsch(cz-c) x(ks) pf qu(kv)
6) b d g
7) p t (dt, th, t) k (k, q, ch, c)