Jun 22, 2012 Grosser Saal, Hochschule für Musik Basel (Switzerland)
Chamber Music
Lingua Ignota
for Soprano, Trombone, Piano, Percussion and Cello
Recording
Note
“Lingua Ignota” (Latin for "unknown language") is the name of the first known artificial language, invented by the 12th century abbess of Rupertsberg, Hildegard of Bingen, who apparently used it for mystical purposes.
In this piece, the reference is to the unknown language created frequently in mass media, a saturation of information forms a semantical texture whose elements cannot be perceived independently.
During the piece the players narrate texts in Hebrew that are taken from comments (“Talk-backs”) of readers collected from the Israeli news website “Ynet”. They are all comments on political articles. The “talk-backs” in Israeli news websites, have become in recent years a main arena for revealing suppressed violent and racist opinions anonymously.
In contrast to the classical music-text relation, in this piece the music is written against the text. Instead of providing a descriptive parallel to the text, the music is composed in order to express resentment towards the texts being narrated.
In the end of the piece a quotation from Albert Camus' "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" (1942) is read: "If I were a tree among trees, a cat among animals, this life would have meaning or rather this problem would not arise, for I should belong to this world. I should be this world to which I am now opposed by my whole consciousness […] If the world were clear, art would not exist."
In this piece, the reference is to the unknown language created frequently in mass media, a saturation of information forms a semantical texture whose elements cannot be perceived independently.
During the piece the players narrate texts in Hebrew that are taken from comments (“Talk-backs”) of readers collected from the Israeli news website “Ynet”. They are all comments on political articles. The “talk-backs” in Israeli news websites, have become in recent years a main arena for revealing suppressed violent and racist opinions anonymously.
In contrast to the classical music-text relation, in this piece the music is written against the text. Instead of providing a descriptive parallel to the text, the music is composed in order to express resentment towards the texts being narrated.
In the end of the piece a quotation from Albert Camus' "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" (1942) is read: "If I were a tree among trees, a cat among animals, this life would have meaning or rather this problem would not arise, for I should belong to this world. I should be this world to which I am now opposed by my whole consciousness […] If the world were clear, art would not exist."
Performances
Nov 17, 2013 Musikerwohnhaus Basel (Switzerland)