Untitled (Tagelied)

2022
speaker, bass drum. 6m
part of Songs (Book 1)

Reading of part of an 1853 Joseph Joachim letter to Gisela von Arnim alongside music for bass drum. The bass drum material is modeled on the four strings of a violin (represented by degrees of timbral brightness or darkness) and set in the formal proportions of the medieval German Tagelied (one of many historical varieties of poetic “dawn song”). A possible succession of string crossings for one theme from the Brahms violin concerto is ‘quoted’ towards the end of the piece.

(note February 9, 2023)