Rihm
Klangbeschreibung I
This movement of about 20 minutes duration is scored for three orchestral groups. The slow music is weighty in character, with rather dark timbres. Woodwinds are in low register, e.g. contrabass clarinet, bass clarinet and contrabassoon, or are often used in their low range (e.g. clarinet); the contrabass clarinet produces some growling tones, later on at times countered by sounds of similar character in lower strings. Brass outbursts, including those in higher registers, are of a complex, somewhat muted and restrained color. The sound colors contribute to create a brooding, at times even menacing atmosphere.
Initially, individual instrumental groups or instruments play lines that are mostly dominated by long notes and restricted or slow in pitch motion. The lines often contain just a few notes, yet they can still considerably stretch out due to the length of the notes. Importantly, there is constant gradual and restricted dynamic swelling and abating, also resulting in timbre fluctuations. Lines of such character alternate, overlap, or run in parallel for some time. In combination with the timbres of muted, darkened color, a texture arises that gives the impression of viscous flow.
As the music progresses, there are less dynamic changes within the sounds and, instead of lines of a few notes, there tend to occur close successions of individual sustained sounds, often played by different instrumental groups and in different registers, causing constant shifts in color. These successions of sustained sounds extend the thick flow of the texture that at times evokes a stream of molten lava.
While in the first several minutes there are constant fluctuations in dynamics, the overall dynamic range is constrained during this time, hardly rising above mezzoforte. Later on the music allows for higher dynamic levels, but fortissimo outbursts are restrained in duration and frequency. Brass screams imbue the texture with power, or pierce it like massive, sharp objects.
Heavy percussion, while underscoring or introducing dramatic elements, is sparsely used. Instead, the agility of light wooden percussion, like wood blocks and xylophone, sets some vivid accents among the generally slow-moving music, as does percussive piano. In the second half of the movement, there are moments of faster commotion within the orchestra, some of them sending tremors through the texture, yet the slow undercurrents in the music remain.
Towards the end a remarkable sound is heard, developing over more than one minute. A subdued piano tremolo in middle register is surrounded by a halo of softly excited tubular bells. Very slowly, the overall sound becomes louder and louder, and then is supported by other metallic percussion. Finally it climaxes and dies away. The previous music resumes for a while, gains in agitation and eventually subsides.
Klangbeschreibung II
This movement of about half an hour duration is for four women’s voices, five brass players and six percussionists. The music keeps on moving slowly, but the fabric of this movement is quite different from the first one. Now, rather than being embedded in a viscous texture, the generally long-stretched sounds stand more alone, often separated by pauses. The music, dominated by the brass, moves somewhat like a glacier, in steely and glassy colors.
The long-stretched tones and chords in the brass invite to listen into the single sounds, which now become all-important. This also opens up the ear to the remarkably rich palette of brass colors, produced by diverse instrument combinations and harmonies. The alternation in the brass of single tones with chords, or of chords of varying richness, creates compelling and beautiful textures.
The four soprano voices match the penetrating, often bright colors of the brass, and their predominant singing of long-stretched notes corresponds to the extension of brass notes and chords. While there are also solo parts, often the sopranos sing together. The combination of four voices of the same register range on stretched-out notes allows for the creation of what is perceived as single sounds with a rich inner life, similar to the chords in the brass. Yet at times greatly different expressions are packed into these bundled sounds, such as shouting timbres in one or two voices combined with serene tones in others.
There is often an arresting correspondence of soprano harmonies and brass chords. A number of times brass echoes the pitch of the sopranos, yet at some points it does so with a variant on normal echo effects, as the brass chords swell in volume above the previous soprano sounds. At other times the soprano voices arise as a reaction to brass chords.
While the sopranos mostly sing, there are also moments in which they engage in speech-song or speaking. Around 10 minutes into the movement the German word ‘fassen’ (grab) is repeated numerous times in this mode, almost as a conjuring ritual. The texts are from a poem by Nietsche, yet instead of the sentences only single words selected from the poem are used in the music, as if to emphasize the fragmented nature of the musical flow on the level of word succession.
As in the first movement, light wooden percussion plays a prominent role. The range of percussion now is extended more into the realm of light metallic percussion. Its colors supplement those of the brass. Heavier drum percussion is heard as well, but is employed sparingly. In the middle of the movement there is a period of about a minute duration that features only percussion sounds, somewhat breaking up the usually steely surface of the music. Another episode towards the end features just metallic percussion, cymbals and hi-hats.
Klangbeschreibung III