Iris ter Schiphorst answers questions about her music theatre works
Interview as part of the Spor Festival 2015 (complete version)
on the occasion of the Danish premiere of "Forget Salome!" at the Spor-Festival 2015 (motto: "STAGING THE SOUND")
Question: We would like to begin with a few questions about 'Vergiss Salome'(Forget Salome) for solo voice and electronics (2012). What was the impulse for you to compose this piece?
ItS: It was a commission from Sarah Maria Sun, the soprano of the Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart, after I had previously written a piece for the ensemble that premiered in Donaueschingen in 2011.
Question: What do the instruments – soprano, electronics, and voice – as well as the text symbolize?
ItS: It was intended to be a very short solo piece with many performative elements, referencing a classic female figure from the dramatic repertoire. This was the specific request from Sarah Maria Sun and the NDR. In this respect, I wanted to create a theatrical setting for the singer.
Question: Why did you choose this particular text by Karin Spielhofer?
ItS: I had decided to work on the figure of Salome and, in that context, to reflect on female desire (traditionally, Salome is primarily about male desire). I then had an idea for a text about a female ice skater who lonely carves her circles, so I asked the writer Karin Spielhofer – a good friend of mine – if she would be willing to write a text for me based on my ideas. She was, and after a few corrections and adjustments, the text was finished. In the piece, it forms the temporal framework for all the singer's actions, both for the voice and for the choreography of steps and undressing.
Question: Does the chalk (when I heard the sounds, I thought it was tape) that the singer uses at the beginning of the performance have a special significance?
ItS: The score does specify chalk, but during the second performance in Stuttgart, tape was used because of the floor. So you heard correctly. At the beginning, the singer uses it to mark a line on which she then has to balance back and forth according to the score.
Question: You often incorporate a staged singer into your compositions. Is that an autobiographical element?
ItS: No, although I very much enjoy writing for voice including scenic elements. Music and movement have always fascinated me.
Question: In 'Vergiss Salome,' we hear the narrator from the recording. Her voice is very haunting, but at the same time monotonous. I feel the declamation very strongly here. Then comes a soprano voice that is somehow in opposition to it. Is that the case? If so, why?
ItS: As I indicated above, the piece was also about the attempt to give a voice to female desire through a text. On the playback, we hear the wonderful voice of Almut Zilcher. She addresses an imaginary 'you', indeed, she almost conjures it. The singing voice reacts to this text, thwarts or heightens it, and only in this multi-layered nature of these two voices do we perhaps grasp something of the desire at stake here. At the same time, this recorded voice is the formal framework that provides the live singer with a temporal sequence and enables her to perform this piece by heart. She must time all her live actions according to the text from the tape. The text is formally and temporally precisely structured according to my specifications and simultaneously forms the matrix for the soprano.
Question:You also use grand pauses in the piece. Is this just a compositional device, or does it have a conceptual meaning?
ItS: The text at that point says: 'As if everything were starting from the beginning.' And then the composition pauses for a moment, as if there were actually the possibility of being able to start over.
Question:How did you compose this piece? Was it first about the idea of the text, or first about the soprano voice? Or did everything appear in your head at once?
ItS: From the beginning, I was concerned with the figure of Salome – and from the start, I knew that performance would play an important role in this piece. The idea and the elaboration of the text and the composition took place sequentially: after this initial idea, which included the vision for the text, Karin Spielhofer wrote the text as explained above, which in turn formed the temporal template for the composition. That is exactly how I had planned it from the very beginning.
Question: How was the audience's reaction?
ItS: The audience was very moved and reacted very strongly in both performances. The reviews were correspondingly excellent. The piece evidently unsettled people in a positive way."
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Question: Let's also discuss 'Silence Moves' (1997) (with Helmut Oehring) for voice, violin, cello, electric bass, prepared piano/sampler, tapes, video installation, and live electronics. 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.
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Question: You frequently work with texts and voices in your compositions. Why do you choose this path? What does text represent for you within your music?
ItS: Text invariably brings meaning into play, which I find fascinating. Furthermore, I find it compelling to involve language as an additional medium—particularly because of its semantics.
Question: Many of the texts in your compositions were written by Karin Spielhofer. Why is that?
ItS: We have been close friends for decades. I greatly enjoy working with friends; I consider it an absolute luxury.
Question: Two texts in your compositions are by Helga Utz. What led to your collaboration with her?
ItS: We met while working on the children's opera Die Gänsemagd (The Goose Girl); the Wiener Taschenoper brought us together. I hold Helga Utz in high regard as a librettist. She has a profound understanding of music and is therefore able to pre-structure texts exceptionally well in terms of dramaturgy.
Question: You have adapted numerous other texts: the novel Effi Briest (2000), the poem ‚Live or die’ by Anne Sexton (1998), Die Gänsemagd (2010) and Odysseus (2013) by Helga Utz, Euridice (2002) Der Blick des Ohrs (1995), Engeltropfen (1993), Und was, wenn die Schlange ein Schwein gewesen wäre? (1989) by Karin Spielhofer, and Inside-outside II (1989) based on a text by Gertrude Stein. Why did you choose these specific texts? Which of the aforementioned compositions holds the greatest value for you? Do the texts carry a particular message?And why do you often choose women as authors for your compositions? Is this a coincidence or a rule? If it is a rule, why is that the case?
ItS: Every text is important to me. It is very important to me to give space to the female voice—both in a literal and metaphorical sense. After all, I am a woman, and I often feel underrepresented in my perception of the world within mainstream art.
I find the texts of Anne Sexton particularly exceptional; to me, she is a great poet. At that time, she was not yet well-known in Germany. The piece Live or Die is one of my favorite compositions. The works with Karin Spielhofer are significantly more "experimental" regarding their format and the treatment of text; for the most part, they also belong to a different genre.
Question: How do you work with text within your music?
ItS: It varies greatly; it depends on the format. The texts by Helga Utz are theatrical, meaning they are written for a stage character, and the music is composed accordingly. It is different in the audio pieces with Karin Spielhofer, which are structured quite freely. In those, the text plays a completely different role—it "narrates" much less in the conventional sense. The texts by Anne Sexton, on the other hand, are composed more as "songs," a format for which they are very well suited.
Thank you for the conversation!