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- Eivind Buene
Schubert singt II (2019)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
A Vinyl/LP is required for performance, this can be hired via Zinfonia or via mail to hire@ewh.dk.
Sound files are played from a turntable located in front of the choir,
visible for the audience, with loudspeakers on either side of the
choir. The vinyl records, side A, B and C, are available from the
publisher. Three singers from the front row take turns operating the
records, played back at 45 rpm.
The turntable should be of professional standard, Technichs 1200-series
or similar. Fine-tune running speed to ensure playback in concert pitch.
(Technichs has a slider for this purpose, other models may have a knob).
Please contact Edition Wilhelm Hansen regarding the vinyl records
for performance.
Programme Note
Schubert Singt II is part of my ongoing work with the voice and Schubert's songs. I have worked with juxtaposing my own untrained voice with trained classical voices in pieces like Schubert Lounge (ensemble version premiered in Stuttgart in 2019), and in Schubert Singt II, I work with the choral voice. My starting point has been an image of Schubert sitting at the piano, singing his owns songs to a group of friends. And the fact that we'll never know what Schubert's voice sounded like is the most intriguing thing with this image. There does, however, exist fragments of his diary, where he displayed a talent for the aphorism. These diary-fragments serve as text in Schubert Singt II, adding to the attempt to evoke Schubert's voice, in an imaginary, metaphorical sense. The work is in three movements, three songs, played attacca. In the second song, we hear Schubert's choral voice, in the form of a quote from his Gesang der Geister über den Wassern. I heard this piece for the first time in a performance lead by Grete Pedersen, and when I started to work on Schubert Singt II, the Gesang insisted to find its way into the score.
However, my first meeting with Schubert's music was not in a concert hall, but listening to an LP somewhere in my teens. And the format of the vinyl record plays an important role also in this work: As the recording technology of the 20th century transformed our way of listening, the intimate listening situation was no longer the house concert of Schubert's time, but your own living room; maybe with Dietrich Fischer Dieskau on the stereo, singing Schubert's songs in private for you alone, accompanied by a pianist. In Schubert Singt II the piano plays a part in the form of a fragment taken from one of Schubert's most popular songs. This piano-fragment is transformed and pressed on vinyl-records operated by the singers on stage. In the meeting with the choral voice, it makes Schubert sing in yet another way.
EB. Oct. 2020
However, my first meeting with Schubert's music was not in a concert hall, but listening to an LP somewhere in my teens. And the format of the vinyl record plays an important role also in this work: As the recording technology of the 20th century transformed our way of listening, the intimate listening situation was no longer the house concert of Schubert's time, but your own living room; maybe with Dietrich Fischer Dieskau on the stereo, singing Schubert's songs in private for you alone, accompanied by a pianist. In Schubert Singt II the piano plays a part in the form of a fragment taken from one of Schubert's most popular songs. This piano-fragment is transformed and pressed on vinyl-records operated by the singers on stage. In the meeting with the choral voice, it makes Schubert sing in yet another way.
EB. Oct. 2020
Media
Scores
Excerpt
Features
- The Investigating Composer: 50 years of Buene
- In 2023, we celebrate the 50th birthday of Norwegian composer/writer Eivind Buene. 25 years ago, Buene was among the Norwegian pioneers of the artistic movement called “Retromodernism.” “Retromodernism” focuses on how the past is used to shape the present, a focus that is a cornerstone in Eivind Buene’s composing.