Hilfe! Der Homolu kommt! (Help! The Homolu is coming!) (2024/2025)
for speaker, children's and youth choirs + instrumental ensemble
Text: Helga Utz
Duration: 45 min.
Ein Auftragswerk des Förderkreises für Neue Musik Heilbronn, gefördert von der Stadt Heilbronn und der Kulturstiftung der Kreissparkasse Heilbronn
WP: 18.10.2025, Heilbronn, KilianskircheSpeaker: Udo Grunwald, children's and youth choirs of the Evangelische Singschule Heilbronn / instrumental ensemble / conductor: Judith Wiesebrock
Performance material available from Boosey & Hawkes
A musical theatre piece about friendship based on a fable from the ancient oriental collection "Kalila and Dimna"
Reviews
Heilbronner Stimme 21.10.2025, About friendship by Lothar Heinle
Musical theatre piece for children by Iris ter Schiphorst premiered in the Kilianskirche
...Many participants are contributing to bringing the musical theatre piece "Help! The Homolu is coming!" to the stage in the Kilianskirche as part of the 78th Heilbronn Church Music Days. The premiere of the piece, commissioned by the Förderkreis für Neue Musk Heilbronn for the Evangelische Singschule, was a well-deserved success. ...
The composer Iris ter Schiphorst brings her extensive experience in the field of scenic composition to bear. Based on a text book by Helga Utz, she writes with a sensitive feel for the remarkable abilities of children and young people, bringing together sophisticated artistry and easy singing. ...
Homolu, an evil hunter who stalks all animals, is only sung and spoken about. He himself never speaks, not even through narrator Udo Grundwald, who holds the thread of the story together. His presence manifests itself musically through the fear expressed in the singing and visually through chunky blue jaws that stomp across a screen as animation. ...
It goes without saying that Raven Nikolai (Jonathan Kalisch), Dove Ornella (Marieke Wiesebrock), Gazelle Aysan (Amelie Junt and Luise Schneider) and Tortoise Walentina (Carolina Sunten) don't have to go through the world alone. The Evangelische Singschule accompanies the journey to friendship with complex rhythmic vocalisations, naturalistic animal sounds and the question: "Should I really trust him?" Because not all animals automatically like each other.
Iris ter Schiphorst also has tricky tasks in store for the two-part gazelle, some of which are reminiscent of archaic tone sequences à la Arvo Pärt. An instrumental ensemble emphasising the low register contrasts perfectly with the predominantly high children's voices...
