Music

The “Sternbilder – Astra” (“Constellations – Astra”) cycle is a setting of all the constellations recognised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Since 1922, the IAU has counted 88 constellations by a total of six authors (Bayer, Brahe, Hevelius, Lacaille, Planci-us and Ptolemy). In the cycle “Sternbilder – Astra II” (“Constellations – Astra II”), op. 27, six further constellations are set to music.

Each movement bears the title of a constellation named by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille (1713 - 1762). Lacaille discovered and named a total of fourteen constellations still in use today. He often named his discoveries after technical achievements, and “Sternbilder – Astra II” (“Constellations – Astra II”) is dedicated to all those constellations that were named after just such achievements.

A central idea that runs through all the movements is repetition. On the one hand, the repetition of motifs, rhythms and small melodies, on the other hand, sounds that recur one after the other (as for example in “Grabstichel – Caelum”). This reflects the recurring appearance of constellations every night.

The first versions of “Pendeluhr – Horoglium” were written for solo piano in 2020. In spring 2022, the movement was rewritten for the present instrumentation. The movements “Chemischer Ofen – Fornax” and “Winkelmaß – Norma” were composed in July 2021 and were also originally written for piano. The remaining three movements were composed between December 2021 and January 2022 and were written directly for the present instrumentation.

The movements “Grabstichel – Caelum”, “Mikroskop – Microscopium” and “Teleskop – Telescopium” were composed on the occasion of the competition “Jugend komponiert 2022” (“Youth composes 2022”) of the Austrian Composers Association (formerly ÖKB). On
19th March 2022, the work was premiered in the small studio of the Mozarteum Salzburg by András Gergely Gerhardt, Petra Seidl and Karin Küstner as part of “ASPEKTE Salzburg” and won 2nd prize in age group II.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has recognized 88 zodiac signs since 1922. In scientific contexts, some factors are given for a named constellation, in this case only the English and Latin nominative are mentioned (if the names are congruent, it is only written once). There are also small explanations of the background to the names.

Opus 20 contains only 8 of 88 zodiac signs, whereby these are again related in two independent Greek mythologies. The corvus, the crater and the hydra are thematically related, as are Cassiopeia and four other unpublished constellations.

The cycle “Five Little Moments” describes five little, almost insignificant scenes that can easily be forgotten.

At the moment only the “First Little Moment” has been published.

The night is a place of reverie. Some people find their most exciting thoughts in their sleep, others deal with a seemingly simple everyday situation. But there is more to sleep than a world of dreams. A world opens up to beings who do not exist in the real world. Unreal situations happen and pass. However, to plunge into the depths of the night it takes more than a moment or a moment of reverie. It takes a certain amount of time to get involved in the situation, and the daydreaming affects the active consciousness well into the morning.

The cycle follows the literary form terzine. The first movement consists of parts A-B-A, the second from B-C-B, the third from C-D-C, the fourth from D-E-D and the last from E-A-E-A.

“Atlantic” is the 17th piece of the story WHITE that I am telling by musical means. In this part of the story the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean changes the life of the main character. The story is set at a time when this crossing was dangerous. In the whole story the piano represents the protagonist, while the other instruments represent external circumstances, as does the violin in this piece as the more dominant voice. In the story, the protagonist wants to fetch his family from Brazil and bring them to France. During the long journey he thinks a great deal about how his huge family will fare in a small French village. Before the crossing, he and his sister were the only colored people there and were little respected.

1. Part A, piano and violin: The protagonist has reached his mental and physical limit, but still he manages to pull himself together time and again. The violin reflects the changing swell of the waves, at times big, small, light or heavy.
2. Part B, piano: The protagonist becomes even more aware of the current and future situation in France and Brazil, and his emotions overwhelm him.
3. Part A’, piano and violin: The emotional situation calms down again, but the swell of the waves is higher than ever, as the violin tells us, rising by an octave. What the crossing will result in remains open to the listener, and each one is left to interpret for her- or himself. We only know for sure that the passage succeeds.