TRACES

The chamber music works of Detlev Müller-Siemens presented here were created between 2002 and 2009. In them, the serenity and thoughtfulness of the form contrast with the inner turbulence that comes from a musical language that is “on its own” and does not follow any pre-existing patterns.

Müller-Siemens said about his “String Trio” which he dedicated to the Mondrian Ensemble: “The first movement is torn, disjunct, often motoric, and in its course characterized by sharply contrasting sections which are parts of several very different structural layers. In contrast, the second movement is more unified: a fragile, hesitant, ascending melody upon which a ‘presto-lamento’ passage is briefly superimposed toward the end.”

“distant traces” and “...called dusk”, both “in memoriam György Ligeti”, are dedicated to Müller-Siemens' former teacher of composition who died in 2006. In “distant traces” the piano has an ingenious dual function: first, as a background for the fragmented string melodies with chordal sounds tending toward clusters, then as a melodic, “speaking” actor. “...called dusk” is based on a Kaddish, “that remains inaudible as such, because – like light fragmented through a prism – it is projected into the overtone spectrum. The notes of the Kaddish divide the strings of the cello to produce the corresponding overtones. As both instruments – violoncello and piano – proceed each time from this melodic and harmonic basis, though they then develop it in different directions; a kind of chimera is created – different creatures that belong to the same body.” (Müller-Siemens)

In the piano quartet “lost traces”, also dedicated to the Mondrian Ensemble, “the music searches for traces in order to find its way. It follows these traces, but loses them again, so that the music must pause, disoriented – moments in which the music seems to be entirely by itself and to have found itself – before taking up the search again.” (Müller-Siemens)

co-production: Radio SRF 2 Kultur