Straightforward

for string sextett [1994/2017] | duration: 13’00”

The spectrum of different musical styles has never been as broad as it is today. As a composer, I feel attracted to numerous tendencies and worlds of sound and always strive to combine the most diverse influences in a personal way. Occasionally, I have found myself oscillating between a more top-heavy and a gut-heavy way of working, though never completely excluding one or the other.

After some rather constructive compositions, I returned to a “spontaneous” approach when writing in a “straightforward” manner. I was concerned with the examination of traditional musical structures and the attempt to reconcile them with contemporary language. This, of course, resulted in an exciting balancing act: permanently counteracting the danger of a certain banality resulting from the use of familiar sound effects (such as combinations of major-minor triads), I strove to maintain the balance through a targeted interaction of harmony and rhythm. Where, for example, triads evoke familiar elements, the regularity of meter is deliberately broken. Hence, through asynchronous progressions of the individual voices, distance from traditional elements is established and the necessary neutralization is achieved, so that the impression arises that familiar elements show up unintentionally, or by chance.

Martin Lichtfuss

 

INEO-QUARTET:
Nadia Kalmykova, Liuba Kalmykova – Violins
Yan Lok Hoi – Viola
Constantin Siepermann – cello
Anna Firsanova – 2nd viola
Alina Isabel Morger – 2nd cello

 

Version for string orchestra – Chamber Orchestra Stuttgart, Dennis Russel-Davies