Wolfgang Rihm
Gesungene Zeit
Short instrumentation: 2 2 2 2 - 1 2 1 0 - perc(2), hp, vln(2), vla(4), vc(4), cb(2)
Duration: 25'
Dedication: Anne-Sophie Mutter gewidmet
Solos:
violin
Instrumentation details:
1st flute
2nd flute (+picc)
1st oboe
2nd oboe
clarinet in A
bass clarinet in Bb
bassoon
contrabassoon
horn in F
1st trumpet in C
2nd trumpet in C
trombone
1st percussion
2nd percussion
harp
1st violin
2nd violin
1st viola
2nd viola
3rd viola
4th viola
1st violoncello
2nd violoncello
3rd violoncello
4th violoncello
1st contrabass
2nd contrabass
Rihm - Gesungene Zeit for violin and orchestra
Printed/Digital
Translation, reprints and more
Wolfgang Rihm
Rihm: Gesungene ZeitOrchestration: für Violine und Orchester
Type: Dirigierpartitur
Sample pages
Audio preview
Work introduction
At the very moment when I was in conversation with Paul Sacher, and he was encouraging me - actually commissioning me - to write for Anne-Sophie Mutter, I remembered in a flash high notes that I had heard her play with uncommon energy and animation. I had never encountered in her playing that attenuation and impoverishment in SLOW playing in the highest regions that is typical of some virtuosos: on the contrary, precisely in remoteness her playing is richest and most alive. Especially then, when I want to give form to what is most remote, I want its representation to be the act of a living being. From that I began to spin. The thread? Until it was all spun?
The orchestra is small, and plays the role of doppelganger. The violin speaks its nerve – line out into the resounding space – inscribes it there. In essence, this is monophonic music. And it is always song, even where beat and pulse shorten the breath and press it hard.
The line, is it a whole? It is all only a part, a segment, a fragment; it is delivered up to our observation without beginning and without ending - and as we listen we draft the outline of a whole that isn't there. But it must be there....
Wolfgang Rihm