IN DEINER HAND? - eine Konzert Installation zu Luther (IN YOUR HAND? - A concert installation on Luther) (2016/2017)
for a timpani player, 6 resonating thunderbolts distributed around the room, 4 resonating tin buckets, a "source timpani"
in another location, as well as feeds and sound direction.
Duration: ca. 10 min.
Co-production: SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg, Goethe-Institut Ljubljana, Ljubljana Castle
WP: 29 May 2017, Ljubljana Castle, Slovenia (within the Luther-Trugar project)Olaf Tzschoppe: timpani, SWR Experimentalstudio Freiburg, sound direction: Dominik Kleinknecht, Iris ter Schiphorst
Performance material available from the composer
Video: YouTube
"Our deity, history, has ordered us a grave" - I thought of these words by Ingeborg Bachmann when I was asked to write a piece for the Luther Year 2017.
Luther's contribution to the German written language is undisputed. Equally undisputed, however, is the disastrous role that Luther played in German history through his anti-Judaism. As we know, the resonance of his texts - e.g. 'On the Jews and their lies' - has had serious and fatal consequences over time and space. The Church played a more than inglorious, indeed in some cases horrific role in this, and especially the self-described 'German Christians' under National Socialism, a fact that has still not really been dealt with by the Protestant Church. Certain aspects of these and other resonances with Luther's texts are taken up in 'In deiner Hand?' and thrown back into the room.
Everything that is played on the timpani in this piece is transferred via transducers to thunder sheets and tin buckets. They transform the sound and carry it further - a resonance across space and time.
Why a timpani? It is said that Luther always struck the wood on his pulpit to keep the congregation awake. And again and again he would 'give his congregation a lecture'.