iris ter schiphorst

exact instrumentation:
fl.ob(=corA).cl(=bcl).bn-pft/sampler-vln.vla.vlc

Programme text

For a while now I have been writing a series that I call 'Dialogic Composing'. This means that, as the starting point for a composition, I enter into an inner dialogue with works that touch, interest or even repel me in relation to my project - and incorporate this 'inner dialogue' into the compositional process. So there are explicit references to selected works by other artists in these pieces. In 'Klang-Erzählungen', these include works by Wolfgang Mitterer, Clara Maida, Olga Neuwirth, Helmut Oehring, but also Chet Baker and an older work of his own.

However, the term 'dialogue-based composing' is even broader in 'Klang-Erzählungen'. When I realised how important 'other' music is to me and what a big role it plays in my compositional process, I became interested in how and why other people listen to music and what music means to them. This gave me the idea of conducting interviews and asking people about their approach to music. The answers I received were as varied as the people I asked. I wanted to incorporate some of these answers into the composition or use them as a possible 'guideline' for the composition process. So my piece is indeed based on a wide variety of 'sound narratives'...

Here are some of the answers:
I love music that is beautiful. Simply beautiful. - I like sad music. Or film music. Mostly sad film music. - Music is the best way to comfort me in certain situations. - I have to recognise something in the music. It has to sound familiar to me. If I don't recognise anything, I feel lost. - Music shouldn't be too long for me. I love short songs, 3 minutes or so. - I always want to hear something I don't know yet, otherwise I get bored very quickly. - I listen to a piece that I like quite a few times in a row and each time I hear something different. - I can dream well with music. Think about something nice. I actually like melancholic music best. - I like very calm music. It's important to me that there is variety in the music. And that sometimes something unexpected happens. - I like beautiful colours in music. And I like it when I can follow several events that complement each other, but in such a way that these combinations and constellations are always different. - I always listen to music as music, I never listen to music semantically, on the contrary, that rather bothers me. - When I listen to music, I'm immediately more 'in the swing' - for me it's totally interesting when there are sounds that I don't know. - The form, the shape of a piece of music should be coherent in itself. That touches the aesthetics. But there also has to be a technical plausibility for me. - I like the moments of surprise in a piece of music, I think every surprise is a direct hit for the attention.

Iris ter Schiphorst