Zwei Szenen (2019)
(for viola solo and instrumental groups)

Elena Mendoza
Zwei Szenen
for viola solo and groups of instruments

In Zwei Szenen, the ensemble is thematized not only as a body of sound, but also as a social group. By playfully examining the relationships between the soloist and her instrument, the soloist and the group and the members of the group among themselves, two small stories are told that are independent of each other but at the same time connected. To this end, I have transferred musical-scenic procedures that I have tried in recent years in my stage works to the concert situation.

In the first part, Dum mors nos dividat (Until death do us part), which is based on material from my music theater piece La ciudad de las mentiras, a marriage ritual of the soloist with her viola is staged through a constant transfer between language and instrument. A group consisting of piano, trombone, violin and cello acts as “master of ceremonies”, whispering, speaking and instrumentally imitating text fragments from the Latin marriage liturgy in constant alternation with the soloist.

The second part Kafkas Gemeinschaft (Kafka's Community) begins in the same group constellation and with the same musical material, but soon transforms into a completely new scenic situation: the movement of the instrumentalists in the space gradually dissolves the soloistic position musically and spatially. Gradually, a five-member “soloist collective” crystallizes, which from then on behaves hermetically towards the rest of the ensemble. The piece is based on Kafka's short story Gemeinschaft a universal parable about the arbitrariness of social exclusion:

"We are five friends, one day we came out of a house one after the other, first one came and placed himself beside the gate, then the second came, or rather he glided through the gate like a little ball of quicksilver, and placed himself near the first one, then came the third, then the fourth, then the fifth. Finally we all stood in a row. People began to notice us, they pointed at us and said: Those five just came out of that house.
Since then we have been living together, it would be a peaceful life if it weren’t for a sixth one continually trying to interfere. He doesn’t do us any harm, but he annoys us, and that is harm enough; why does he intrude when he is not wanted? We don’t know him and don’t want him to join us.
There was a time, of course, when the five of us did not know one another, either, and it could be said that we still don’t know one another, but what is possible and can be tolerated by the five of us is not possible and cannot be tolerated with this sixth one. In any case, we are five and don’t want to be six. And what is the point of this continual being together anyhow? It is also pointless for the five of us, but here we are together and will remain together; a new combination, however, we do not want, just because of our experiences.
But how is one to make all this clear to the sixth one? Long explanations would almost amount to accepting him in our circle, so we prefer not to explain and not to accept him. No matter how he pouts his lips we push him away with our elbows, but however much we push him away, back he comes."

Zwei Szenen is dedicated to Ensemble Modern on its 40th birthday in deep appreciation.