Iris ter Schiphorst
And yet...! (2019)
at the WP in 2019, Kleiner Sendesaal Hannover
I take gestures that do not belong to me,
and yet! ...
I pick them up so that I can dwell in them myself.
Rukke di gu – blood is in the shoe ...
In the shelter of spent time.
Beethoven's String Quartet No. 1 was initially my 'inner reference piece' in the composition process. However, in the course of my work, my proximity to it changed repeatedly, and questions about the piece, but also about the process of referring to a work from the past, came to the fore.
In the end, the distance to this 'reference piece' was greater than initially planned, 'and yet ...' there are various references, even if they are not so clear.
The decisive factor for my work remained: how does this 1st string quartet resonate, how does Beethoven's music resonate in me at all (I used to love playing it on the piano, my exam piece was Opus 111)? And what exactly? Are they musical gestures or quasi 'rhetorical figures', are they themes or moods?
At some point, I thought I could recognise certain 'pathos formulas'. I tried to trace these 'pathos formulas' in Beethoven's music and reformulate them in a new and different way.
The term 'pathos formula' was coined by the art historian Aby Warburg (1866–1929).He believed that he could identify certain recurring motifs or 'expressive gestures' in art throughout the ages, which in his view refer to a 'pathic ground', a 'transhistorical treasure trove of human suffering', a 'moulding work of affects'. According to Aby Warburg, 'pathos formulas' are part of a universal cultural history, 'engrams of passionate experience as a memory-preserved heritage'.
In this respect, 'And yet ...' is an attempt to draw a very personal trail of memories with my own means and 'my language'.