iris ter schiphorst

Brief introduction to the concert installation BLECHE in the context of the festival theme ORTNUNG (Iris ter Schiphorst)

The role of music?
Music is often used extensively in places for which it was never originally intended. In some cases, it takes on a whole new function: it becomes an instrument of discipline, used to enforce a certain order. In large shopping malls, for example, it is intended to have a calming effect, encouraging people to linger and consume.

Recently, however, another variant has been making headlines, one that aims to achieve the exact opposite: music for suppression! It is now being used in train and underground stations as continuous background noise to keep away so-called 'undesirable persons' such as homeless people and junkies.

In Hamburg and Leipzig, they tried 'classical music'. In Berlin-Neukölln, on the other hand, they opted for 'atonal music' – whatever those responsible may understand by that. The hope was that this would drive homeless people, junkies and punks away from the Hermannstraße S-Bahn station.

However, the project was quickly stopped by railway manager Friedemann Keßler after he himself had to listen to this 'atonal music' – apparently involuntarily. Apparently, he disliked it so much that he is now considering playing nature sounds at the station instead. How this will restore the public order he envisions remains his secret for now.

BLECHE: The space as an instrument
Here and now, we find ourselves in a place that was never intended to host music: in the Schwankhalle, here in this huge railway hall.
But you have come here voluntarily, you have even paid for it, and so you do not want to be driven away, but rather to experience the sound design of this unusual place.

BLECHE 'plays' this entire space. All of the sound actions of soloist Olaf Tzschoppe – on the timpani and with his voice – are transmitted via transducers by the sound directors to the thunder sheets and metal buckets distributed throughout the room. These are made to resonate in a variety of ways, according to the score.

BLECHE is therefore less a traditional work than a composed 'room setting' or 'room instrument' in which the soloist and sound directors interact ad hoc with the materials and playing techniques.

The dialogue: players and audience
It is no coincidence that I use the plural 'players' here: The piece only works if all those involved actually enter into a dialogue – with each other, with the sounds and with the space. Although there are performance instructions based on long periods of experimentation, these findings are not fixed in a rigid work. Rather, these performance instructions enable us to respond flexibly to the specific conditions of this performance. There is no 'original' and no finished interpretation. BLECHE will always sound different. Your role,

dear audience, is also different than usual. You are free to move around, change your perspective, observe the soloists or simply walk on by.

The concert as a democratic exercise
Can a performance of BLECHE still be called a real concert? Musicologist Elena Ungeheuer expressed an interesting thought on this: in its heyday, the bourgeois concert was also a place to practise democracy – because it was there that people learned to listen: to be quiet until the end, in contrast to the immediate articulation of feelings.

Following this thesis, one might ask: is there a connection between the erosion of democracy we are currently experiencing and the decline of this particular form of listening? Do we perhaps need a new form of practice today? A more 'active' listening that encourages dialogue and does not merely seek contemplative immersion?

What can new venues and formats contribute to this? And what would then still be the task of music? Would this designation even be appropriate anymore? Perhaps this festival will provide a few answers to these questions. Thank you.

copyright Iris ter Schiphorst, Bremen, 21 September 2018