Christian Korthals
Wild und Weit
Duration: 7'
Instrumentation details:
percussion
piano
violin I
violin II
viola
violoncello
double bass
Wild und Weit
Translation, reprints and more
Christian Korthals
Wild und Weit
Available digitally
Orchestration: für Jazz-Piano-Trio und Streicher
Type: Dirigierpartitur
Sample pages
Video
Work introduction
"Wild und Weit" (German: Wild and Free) is an hommage to the unknown, a journey through space and time, through undiscovered territory. Piano, double bass and drums introduce a timeless contemporary jazz theme in 6/8 meter. The piano develops it further into a solo over the changes. Meanwhile, strings have secretly entered the stage. They spin the music further into a fugue and a reflective cello side theme in 4/4. In the reprise, the strings take the lead. This composition wants to bring jazz and classical musicians closer together again, and shows that improvisation and written-out music have only been declared a contradiction in very recent music history, while they never really were. A recording of this music by the Composers' Orchestra Berlin is published on "Exoplanet" (JazzHausMusik JHM 299).
"The listener is further disarmed by conceptions of classical-jazz by 'Wild und Weit', a piece arriving with a complex, syncopated piano-bass-percussion that seems to dare the string section to arrive." (New York City Jazz Record, September 2024)
What is necessary to perform this work?
The piano part requires an improvisation over the changes of the theme. The drum and the double bass part are notated, but should be freely interpreted, as it is customary in jazz. While the string parts are fully notated, there is the possibility of a second solo for cello. Alternatively, the double bass can take that solo. The four string parts can either be played as a classical string quartet, or as a small ensemble (e.g. 4-4-3-2).