Violine II (Passacaglia)

Passacaglia as the defining formal principle of this quartet movement refers to a music-historical form of variation whose development is based on a constant bass line that establishes harmony. This compositional genre, which reached its peak in the Baroque period, has its actual roots - I imagine - in the practice of musical street begging. The repetitive basic pattern proves to be extremely expedient, considering that passers-by - in the literal sense - are a passing and transient audience. Any necessary cuts and opportune extensions are in the nature of this form. Its economy makes double sense: it proves to be effective both aesthetically and practically.  

The composition begins with the basic theme of the ostinato bass, a "cross motif" (the first four notes). Although the tone sequence closes tonally with an A minor triad, it is conservatively 12-tone overall. This musical series forms the basis of the entire piece. It not only appears at the beginning as a bass line, but soon wanders freely through all the voices. However, the clearly recognisable quotation from Bach's church cantata "Warum betrübst Du mich Herz" (BWV 138) refrains from giving a comforting answer here. The question is subsequently posed in an increasingly resigned manner. The short, somewhat uncouth jazz-like passages are only intended to form a sharp contrast to the four-part canon to which the basic theme invites.  

The quartet is preceded by the motto "lasciate in pace il nostro mondo", which refers to both our world of music and, of course, our world threatened by war. Today, our Western musical culture is called into question both philosophically and discursively, as well as aesthetically and economically, by a technology that is trivialised as 'digital', but which has long since taken a cybernetic grip on our entire lives. But there is no question: the worst threat to our world is the omnipresent war. Peace would be an alternative. But that would require reason to finally prevail and determine the coexistence of peoples.