Nebelsplitter (2007)
(for piano, violin, viola and violoncello)

Nebelsplitter represents an instrumental postlude to the music theatre piece Niebla. Parts of it are based on material from the dramatic work, particularly on a section of concise elements that reappear in all four movements, but those formal status becomes increasingly unclear. Perpetually oscillating between parametrically fixed sonic material and diffuse noise, they engage in a game involving masking and identity, which is continued on the level of timbre: The use of sounds created by wiping and rasping, produced through the use of malles, glasses and brushes in the piano's interior, unexpectedly transforms the keyboard instrument into a string instrument. The four mouvements are conceived as reciprocal commentaries; continually correcting one another, they invent sonic realities only to cross them out again. In this way they keep an horizon open, translating into sensuous experience the philosophical question of whether "real reality" in fact has a higher reality content than the reality of fictional play.

Markus Böggemann