Iris ter Schiphorst answers questions about her music theatre works
Interview as part of the Spor Festival 2015
on the occasion of a performance at the Spor Festival 2015 (motto: "STAGING THE SOUND")
The following is an excerpt regarding "Silence moves" (1997) (with Helmut Oehring) for voice, violin, cello, electric bass, prepared piano/sampler, tapes, video installation, and live electronics:
Question: When did you compose this piece with Helmut Oehring?
ItS: I believe it was in 1997.
Question: What was the initial impulse?
ItS: At the time, I was working extensively on the concept of "writing." In a broad sense, Silence moves is a piece about the history of writing in all its facets—drawing also on the concept of "writing" as used by Jacques Derrida or Lacan.
Question: Composing alongside another composer can be quite challenging. How did you divide the roles?
ItS: I have composed 13 major works with Helmut Oehring. We designed the collaborative process in many different ways, and it always felt very effortless because we shared a fundamental aesthetic alignment and, consequently, unconditional trust in one another.
Question: Who selected the text, and why this specific one?
ItS: The text is mine, with the exception of a few quotes by Sigmund Freud and a longer passage by Ingeborg Bachmann. For me, this text is linked to writing but also to biographical elements and death—death and writing have always been inextricably linked in my mind.
Question: How did you work with the text?
ItS: Part of it was written after the music was composed; other parts were already finished beforehand, such as the "Ice-Texts," which function like a transitional hinge.
Question: Why did you choose this linguistic duality—soprano in English and speaking voice in German?
ItS: I find it particularly difficult to have text sung in German because it immediately lands you in the genre of the "German Kunstlied" (art song). It is somewhat easier with English because that immediate association isn't there. On the other hand, it was important to me that the spoken parts remained easily understandable.
Question: How do you treat the text within this composition?
ItS: The text was written specifically for this piece and almost always emerged simultaneously with the music.
Question: One can hear elements of "quasi-jazz" or "quasi-klezmer." Does that have a specific meaning?
ItS: Klezmer would surprise me—that would be purely coincidental, as I am not familiar with the genre. It is more likely echoes of rock or funk music. This is partly due to the instrumentation (electric bass and electric guitar) but also to my own biography, as I played in rock bands for a long time.
Question: How did the audience react?
ItS: Enthusiastically! Back then, it was quite extraordinary to show a multimedia work that was so thoroughly through-composed. The set-up featured two small screens and one large gauze screen in front of the stage - essenttially three three video films running, at times simultaneously, with constant shifts in perspective - alongside live music and ever-changing stage choreographies. We were honored with the "Blaue Brücke" Prize in Hellerau/Dresden for this piece.