Michael Reudenbach
Works
In chronological order
In chronological order | 1 to 5 performers | 6 performers or more | Vocal | Varia
2
Drei Klavierstücke
1983-84 | duration: 5'
Premiere: Cologne Musikhochschule | 22.05.1984
Randall Bush
10
mirlitonnades
pour petite flûte 1991 | duration: 3'
Premiere: Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart | 01.03.1991
Pierre-Yves Artaud
A mirliton is a membrane that is held between one's fingers and alters the voice of the person speaking or singing into it with its vibrations (comb-and-paper effect). There is also the French term »vers de mirliton«, which means doggerel verse, »throwaway« verse. My short composition is based on such a piece of verse by Samuel Beckett from his collection »Mirlitonnades/Flute tones« (1978): »rêve / sans fin / ni trêve / à rien«.
- CD Stimmhaft. Werke für Flöte solo. Astrid Schmeling. WERGO Schott Music ARTS 81132. 2008.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
12
Choral
for voice and five instruments 1991 | duration: 8'
Commissioned by the city of Schwäbisch Gmünd Soprano, harp, violin, viola, violoncello, double bass Premiere: Johanniskirche Schwäbisch Gmünd | 24.08.1991
Sinfonietta Tübingen, Stefan Blunier
The chorale is the epitome of everything religious, sublime, ritualistic and archaic … – My music addresses that which could today perhaps be understood, and/or not understood, as sacred music from various perspectives (history, aura, material, compositional technique). I composed Choral in 1991 for the »Festival of European Church Music« in Schwäbisch Gmünd.
- CD Musica sacra nova II. SDR SACD 9027-3. 1992.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
- Arpad Dobriban. In aller Stille. 16-mm-Film. 1992.
14
Szenen, Standbilder
for four instruments 1992, 1993-95 | duration: 12'
Clarinet, trombone, violoncello, piano Premiere: Institut für Neue Musik Freiburg | 18.01.1995
Quartett Avance
»For me, such inconspicuous, trivial and random impressions contain all insight into the real state in which our life is situated and which surrounds us (…) To be clear: I do not mean an identification, but I mean that such tiny impressions rapidly springing past us are symbols. All of fragmented reality is suddenly and unexpectedly crowded together in them. (…) Between these exceedingly precise but relatively seldom perceived still images [Standbilder] and scenes [Szenen] (…) move glittering notions, sounds ...« [from: Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, »Rom, Blicke«]
- Konzertmitschnitt DLR 1996.
- CD Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik 1998, Col Legno wwe 2cd 20055. 2000.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
15
duo pianism
for two pianos 1993 | duration: 9'
Premiere: Städtische Museen Heilbronn | 29.08.1993
James Avery und Sven Thomas Kiebler
In duo pianism, only 2 x 6 of the 2 x 84 available piano keys are used, spread over the entire keyboard. This restriction brings fundamental elements to the fore: one note played on two apparently identical instruments, one note played with and without use of pedal, with and without resonances, repeated rapidly and slowly, an unending note …
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
16
… Zitate, Berührungen …
1993, revidiert 2000 | duration: 9'
Commissioned by the festival »Tage für Neue Musik Stuttgart« in 1993 Bass clarinet, harp, double bass, percussion and CD Premiere: revised version: Cave Dîmiere Paris | 05.03.2000
Ensemble L'itinéraire
Simultaneously with excerpts from Arno Schmidt's impromptu lecture »Vorläufiges zu Zettels Traum« (»Preliminary Notes on Bottom's Dream«), various other events in the form of speech and music occur: sound-related quotes from different Arno Schmidt novels, a trio ensemble that quotes Giacinto Scelsi's »Okanagon« (1968), a faded-in musical interlude … – I wrote … Zitate, Berührungen … in 1993 at the request of the »Tage der Neuen Musik Stuttgart« on the theme »Literature & Music«. I extended it with a bass clarinet solo in 2000 and am still thinking about further additions.
17
Standlinien
for solo organ 1985, revidiert 1994 | duration: 3 x 2:30'
Premiere: St. Lucia Stolberg (Rhineland) | 16.11.1994
Andreas Rosenberger
»Standlinien« is German for »lines of position«, which are used in navigation to identify one's own location; this is determined as the intersection of two or more such lines. My piece consists of three versions that use the same notes but differ from one another in being set in different predetermined registers. Between the versions, a different kind of music or something else is meant to occur, as in a kind of geopositioning process.
19
Alter Klang
Reading piece 1995
23
Noch nicht – Nicht mehr
for voices and CD 1998, revidiert 2014 | duration: 13'
Commissioned by the Vocalensemble Kassel Soprano 1 – 3, alto 1 -4 , tenor 1 – 3, bass 1 – 3 (one or several singers per part) Premiere: Martinskirche Kassel | 13.06.1998
Vocalensemble Kassel, Hans Darmstadt
»Nonetheless: even if we are condemned to fail in the end, like the wise and the scientists, we are still capable of playing with our own failure.« (Vilém Flusser) The contradiction formulated in this sentence perhaps led me to a score in which »chance [could] by chance turn into intention«. Consequently, the role of the singers is uncertain, and the musical realisation of Noch nicht – Nicht mehr is not so much to be sought in a strict adherence to the notation. Rather, there should be an exploration of the luminous wealth of sound offered by the human voice, a finding, selection and exploitation of the diverse individual expressive possibilities ranging from ***, breathing, air noise, …, whispering and speaking to humming and singing. In the process, it is not the absolute that is to be looked for, but that which is in-between, in a sound environment that is not unfamiliar yet changeable, unstable. I composed Noch nicht – Nicht mehr in 1998 for the Kasseler Musiktage festival, which had the theme »Visionen gegen die Zeit« (»Visions against Time«).
Score under revision
24
Zählergesang
for ensemble 1997 | duration: 11'
piccolo, clarinet, xylorimba (with radio), violin, cello, piano Premiere: Kunsthaus Zürich | 04.12.1997
Ensemble für Neue Musik Zürich, Jürg Henneberger
»At night, especially between 2 and 3, when it's very quiet, the electric meter sings – you can stand in front of it for minutes, with closed mouth, squinted eyes: […].« (Arno Schmidt)
- Konzertmitschnitte hr 2006 und WDR 2009.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
25
FOND III
for bass flute (with radio), cello and piano 1998 | duration: 12'
Commissioned by the Stiftung MuseumSchloss Moyland / Van der Grinten Collection / Joseph Beuys Archive of the state of NRW Premiere: Museum Schloß Moyland | 27.11.1998
Wolpe Trio
Joseph Beuys gave the title FOND to several installations and environments from the years 1960 to 1980. These works are complexes of objects that allude to various physical phenomena. FOND III (1969) consists of nine monumental batteries made of slabs of felt, each covered by an equally large sheet of copper: – -- … the idea of stored energy …
- Konzertmitschnitt DRS Schweiz 2008.
26
(Bruch)Stück(e)
for six instruments 1999 | duration: 9'
Commissioned by WDR Cologne for the festival »Archipel« Flute, oboe, clarinet, viola, cello Premiere: Funkhaus Wallrafplatz Cologne | 29.01.2000
Ensemble Recherche
Notes from my working book: --- … a sequence of musical moments … while enquiring after an internal or external musical connection or coherence --- Bruchstücke [Eng: fragments] = accepting the gap between the moments as a given … a whole piece: perhaps fill up the gap between one or the other moment with apprehensions, surmises and inventions … or join up everything in retrospect --- »If the size or tone of the work should lead readers to assume that the author was striving to create a total sum, point out to them without delay that they are being confronted with the opposite attempt, namely that of a relentless subtraction.« (Julio Cortázar, Rayuela) ---
- Konzertmitschnitte WDR 2000 und hr 2004.
- CD 13. und 14. Dresdner Tage der zeitgenössischen Musik 1999/2000. Dokumentations-CD. Hg. Dresdner Zentrum für zeitgenössische Musik (DZzm).
- CD Musik in Deutschland 1950–2000, Spiel-Kritik-Parodie, Instrumentale Kammermusik. Deutscher Musikrat RCA. 2007.
27
Abdruck
for five speakers, 41 instrumentalists and CD 2000-01 | duration: 13'
Commissioned by hr Frankfurt am Main 5 spkrs. - 2.0.3.2. - 0.2.2.1. - 0.3. - hp. pf. - str.: 0.0.10.8.6 Premiere: Broadcasting hall at Hessischer Rundfunk Frankfurt am Main | 09.03.2001
Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester Frankfurt, Sian Edwards
The notion behind Abdruck was to write a piece that engaged with both the possibilities and the impossibilities of an orchestral apparatus. In this situation, the contradictory character of the »Abdruck« (Eng.: imprint) becomes apparent: the contact with the source (the foot pressing into the sand) and the loss of the source (the absence of the foot in its imprint). What one hears aspires to both conditions: on the one hand, the concentration on a few single sounds and noises and, on the other, their absence in the ever-increasing level of noise in our environment that swamps everything. During my work on Abdruck, I by chance came across an exhibition catalogue with the »Wandabnahmen« by Dorothee von Windheim.. There, I found her reference to the »wall passage« from Rainer Maria Rilke's diary novel »The Notebooks of Malte Laurid Brigge« that I use in my piece.
- Konzertmitschnitte hr 2001 und SWR 2006.
28
kommen – Überschreibungen für 5 Stimmen
2001 | duration: 13'
Commissioned by Schola Heidelberg Soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, bass Text: Text: Emma H., Prinzhorn Collection HeidelbergPremiere: Prinzhorn-Museum Heidelberg | 13.09.2001
Schola Heidelberg, Walter Nußbaum
In 1909, Emma H., who was ill with schizophrenia and catatonia, wrote several letters to her husband and pleaded with him to take her out of the psychiatric clinic. In several columns, she pencilled single words over one another in tiny handwriting (»kommen«, »komm« or »Herzensschatzi komm«, …). The words can now barely be deciphered anymore, but in their variation between density and lightness, they draw the viewer in with almost physical power. Everything heard in my piece is connected in various ways with these obsessive »overwritings« (Ger.: Überschreibungen) by Emma H.. However, I was not interested only in an expressive interpretation of this directly moving source material. Rather, I deliberately tried to circumvent it and modulate it, thus venturing into regions that can no longer be subsumed under any direct form of expression. I composed kommen – Überschreibungen für 5 Stimmen for a concert given for the opening of the museum housing the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
32
Schnitt & Fortsetzung
for flute, harp, guitar, piano and timpani 2003 | duration: 11'
Commissioned by the HGNM Hannover Premiere: Eisfabrik Hannover | 24.09.2003
Ensemble l'art pour l'art
I composed Schnitt & Fortsetzung for the ensemble l'art pour l'art under the impression of Rolf Dieter Brinkmann's diary »Schnitte« and having been inspired by Matthias' timpani.
- Konzertmitschnitt WDR 2009.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
34
und aber. Musik für Streichquartett
2004 | duration: 14'
Commissioned by the Kunststiftung NRW Premiere: Orangerie Darmstadt | 17.08.2004
Kairos Quartett
Composing a string quartet means moving into a space characterised by the pull of tradition and the rejection of it. Both the seemingly nonsensical title und aber (Eng.: and but) (taken from a volume of poetry by Felix Philipp Ingold) and three other quotes I have prefixed to the musical text have relevance to the paradoxical situation that arises when writing a string quartet today: »starting something as though continuing something« (Jürgen Becker), »in the rearview mirror always never remember« (Felix Philipp Ingold) and »you remove yourself to a present that is somewhere else« (Jürgen Becker).
- Konzertmitschnitt hr 2004.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
- CD Darmstadt Aural Documents Box 3 – Ensembles. NEOS 11230. 2016.
35
Zug um Zug
Three aural exercises to be carried out during and after a train trip 2004
37
Madrigal
for ensemble 2005-06 | duration: 14'
Commissioned by the Wissenschaftsstadt Darmstadt Soprano, bass flute, baritone oboe, contrabass clarinet, bass drum, piano, violin, viola, cello Premiere: Orangerie Darmstadt | 06.08.2006
Petra Hoffmann, Ensemble recherche
In general, it could be said that the act of listening to music is always an act of permanent remembering, as music being played is transience itself and the past and the future combine as the present while it is sounding. While working on Madrigal, however, I looked for musical, compositional possibilities that can trigger memories going beyond the fundamental act of remembrance involved in listening to music. My piece refers to and draws on Antonio Tabucchi's catalogue text »Messaggio dalla penombra« (»Message from the Half-Light«) about pictures by his painter friend Davide Benati. In this text, Tabucchi addresses the barely communicable transition between »eye open/eye closed«, that short moment on the brink of disappearance and the shadowy memory associated with it.
- Konzertmitschnitt SWR 2006.
Score under revision.
38
Stück=Werk
for various intrumental combinations 2006-...
Commissioned by the Kunststiftung NRW Trumpet, trombone, percussion (2), guitar, piano and cello (as of 2019)
Note f: perc. (2 players)
Note i: trp. trmb. - perc. (2 players) – gtr. pf. - vc.
Note m: trp. trmb. - perc. (2 players) – gtr. pf. - vc.
Note s: trp. trmb. - perc. (2 players) – gtr. pf. - vc.
Note y: perc. (2 players) – pf. - vc.
Première:
Note i and s: Sporthalle am Böllenfalltor Darmstadt | 14 August 2006 | Ensemble Ascolta
Note m: Theaterhaus Stuttgart | 28 July 2007 | Ensemble Ascolta
Note y: E-Werk Freiburg im Breisgau | 28 February 2010 | Ensemble SurPlus Freiburg
Note f: Theaterhaus Stuttgart | 17 July 2010 | Boris Müller and Martin Homann, percussion
Stück=Werk is a musical notebook bringing together ideas from various times that formed or still form the focus of my musical work. From time to time, new impulses and quotes, ruminations on the musical craft and comments on things I have encountered have been added to the existing notebook entries. Stück=Werk (the word »Stückwerk« means »patchwork« in English) has an open form, meaning that the individual entries (notes) can each be played in any number and order as wished and that the letters preceding the notes do not specify the order for a performance.
- Konzertmitschnitte hr 2006 und SWR 2007.
39
Trio. Studie für Klavier, Violine und Violoncello
2007 | duration: 11'
Commissioned by the Landeshauptstadt München for the Munich biennial festival »Klangspuren Plus« Premiere: Black Box München | 21.03.2007
The first time I engaged compositionally with a major chamber-music genre of the 19th century was in 2004 with und aber. Musik für Streichquartett. My Trio. Studie für Klavier, Violine und Violoncello is another work operating amid the same tensions caused by the reference to tradition and the rejection of it.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
40
Nachlauschen
Interlude music to be performed during the waiting, pausing and/or strolling in the foyer of a theatre 2007
41
ahto. Musik für 8 Instrumente
2008 | duration: 12'
Flute, cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, double bass Premiere: Zehntscheuer Rottweil | 19.04.2008
Ensemble Aventure
Composing a piece for four woodwinds, three brass instruments and double bass is a double challenge. First, there is the fascinating »Octandre« (1923) by the musical visionary Edgard Varèse. Additionally, this unusual combination of eight instruments initially seems recalcitrant and does not of itself appear to suggest any particular structures. It was only when I engaged with it at a deeper level, only during the process of composition, that it developed its own dynamic in me. The title ahto, which seems almost like a magical incantation, is mainly just a description of the number of the instrumentalists involved: eight (in Old High German).
- Konzertmitschnitt SWR 2008.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
42
Stratton
for ensemble 2009 | duration: 12'
Commissioned by WDR Köln Flute, clarinet, bassoon, trombone, percussion, piano, viola, double bass Premiere: Funkhaus Wallrafplatz Cologne | 28.03.2009
Ensemble Aventure, Bernhard Wulff
At the 3rd International Congress of Psychology in Munich in 1896, George M. Stratton reported on a days-long self-experiment with a system of lenses that flipped the position of the retinal image in the fundus of the eye by 180°. Stratton was investigating whether the retinal image, inverted in comparison with the external world, was a necessary condition for seeing things in an upright position. He negated this but left open the question of whether the world was on its head when upside-down goggles were used or whether his brain remembered how the world had looked previously. Stratton for ensemble is a first compositional experiment looking at (inverted?) perception and the interpretation of perception.
- Konzertmitschnitt WDR 2009.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
43
Trio 3
for basset horn, bass clarinet and piano 2009 | duration: 12'
Commissioned by hr Frankfurt am Main Premiere: Broadcasting hall of Hessischer Rundfunk Frankfurt am Main | 21.11.2009
Bärmann Trio
I see Trio 3 as a labyrinthine continuation of my works und aber. Musik für Streichquartett (2004) and Trio. Studie für Klavier, Violine und Violoncello (2007) at the interface between the reference to tradition and the rejection of it. The initial notion behind the composition is Bruno Maderna's idea of an indissoluble link between the music of the past and present. I composed the piece for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony's new-music festival »klangbiennale_2 Satellit Maderna«.
- Produktion hr 2010.
- CD Michael Reudenbach. Szenen, Standbilder. Werke 1991–2009. Edition RZ Berlin, Reihe »Parallèle«. 2013.
44
Still
for five instruments 2012-13 | duration: 13'
Commissioned by the ensemble l'art pour l'art Guitar, harp, cimbalom, piano, double bass Premiere: Broadcasting hall of Norddeutscher Rundfunk Hannover | 17.05.2013
Ensemble l'art pour l'art
The title Still pertains less to musical volume than to the vacillating, inexact musical moments that leave their traces between the sounds. These unceasing and unobtrusive »transitions are not just unnoticed, but occur unexpectedly, without drawing attention to themselves, ›in the stillness‹.« (François Jullien)
- Konzertmitschnitt NDR 2013.
Score under revision
45
white radiation. LichtKlang-Abtastungen
for robot, objects and 16 strings 2013-14 | duration: 53'
Commissioned by the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg 7 violins, 4 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses Premiere: Philharmonie Luxembourg | 20.11.2014
Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop Berlin
white radiation. Lichtklang-Abtastungen was a joint production by the Stuttgart light artist Joachim Fleischer and me for the Luxembourg festival »rainy days 2014«, which had the theme »switch the light on«. The Berlin Solistenensemble Kaleidoskop also played a large role in the creation and realisation of the music.
- Michael Reudenbach. white radiation. LichtKlang-Abtastungen – Werkstatttext über eine Gemeinschaftsarbeit. In: MusikTexte. Heft 151. Köln 2016, S. 55–59.
47
5 Raumetüden
for voices 2015-16 | duration: 14'
Commissioned by Klangforum Heidelberg Alto, 2 tenors, 2 basses Premiere: Tankturm Heidelberg | 26.02.2016
Schola Heidelberg, Walter Nußbaum
Much of the 5 Raumetüden (Space Studies) consists of verbal instructions. The performance space plays a role as a space per se, as do the conditions under which music can be made in particular performance and listening venues. Because I was preoccupied with both of these aspects in 2015 in view of a large-scale commissioned work that I was to write, these études are to be understood in their original sense as »studies« within a compositional process. Their individual titles (Linie – quer – Modulation – unendlich – Messung) [Line – Oblique – Modulation – Infinite - Measurement] are a mixture of geometric and musical terms. I wrote the 5 Raumetüden for the Schola Heidelberg on the occasion of their moving into their new domicile at the Tankturm.
48
Fragmente ohne Titel
for 2 x 3 instruments 2016 | duration: variable, at least 9'
Commissioned by the Ensemble Aventure with kind support from the Kunststiftung NRW piano, percussion, bass clarinet – viola, cello, double bass Premiere: Elisabeth-Schneider-Stiftung Freiburg im Breisgau | 02.07.2016
Ensemble Aventure Freiburg
Fragmente ohne Titel is a compositional examination of interactive relationships between disappearance and appearance, bringing into existence and removing from existence, construction and deconstruction, securing and deleting. I wrote this music for 2 x 3 instruments for the festival »30 Jahre Ensemble Aventure« (»30 Years of Ensemble Aventure«).
49
Hossdorfs Laboratorium
5 model experiments for ensemble in a 360° concert hall 2016-17 | duration: 26'
Commissioned by ZeitRäume Basel – Biennale für neue Musik & Architektur Flute, cor anglais, (bass) clarinet, 2 pianos, violin, viola, cello Premiere: Maurerhalle Basel | 21.09.2017
Solistes de l’Ensemble Contrechamps Genève
Hossdorfs Laboratorium was, in the first place, a new challenge for me: learning to musically and compositionally exploit a 360° concert hal. The first musical step towards Hossdorfs Laboratorium was made with the decision to have the »Gitter Projekt« (360° concert hall with central listening positions) take place in the Maurerhalle at the Allgemeine Gewerbesschule Basel as part of the 2017 Biennale für neue Musik und Architektur. With its almost 10-metre-high glass walls and spectacular folded concrete walls and ceilings, the Mauerhalle (Masonry Hall) is an imposing presence amid the seven buildings making up the school campus (1956–61) designed by Hermann Baur. The architect Quintus Miller, while showing me around, drew my attention to Heinz Hossdorf (1925–2006), the construction engineer who was responsible for it.
In 1957, at the age of 32, Hossdorf had set up a private laboratory for model experiments in which he, together with other engineers and physicists, investigated various materials such as concrete, steel, wood and plastic, as well as carrying out elaborate load tests, using scale models, to research complex shell structures. In my piece, the physiognomy of the performance and listening space – a room inserted into the Maurerhalle – plays just as great a role as the exploration of the historical contexts that loom behind the building, as it were. Further, my musical investigation looks at the conditions under which music can be made at all in this unusual system of musical-architectural coordinates.
Hossdorfs Laboratorium is a conceptual work that consists partly of instructions guiding performance and communication. Different listening and performance configurations are tried out in five model experiments in this special 360° space in Basel. Inspired by Hossdorf's love of experimentation, I, as a non-expert in the engineering field, probe some of his ideas and thoughts in relation to music. Everything that can be heard is possible examples of my probing.
- Anna Katharina Scheidegger. Gitter-Bau Film. 2018
50
Was noch.
for 24 voices with texts by Jürgen Becker 2023 | duration: 36'
Commissioned by the SWR for ECLAT – Festival Neue Musik Stuttgart soprano 1 – 6, alto 1 – 6, tenor 1 – 6, bass 1 – 6 Premiere: Theaterhaus Stuttgart | 03.02.2024
SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, Einstudierung: Michael Alber | Regie: Hans-Ulrich Becker
51
Flockenlesen
für Orchester 2017 -...
Commissioned by musica viva Munich