29. September 2019. For this year’s art festival Ortstermin 19, ITINERANT INTERLUDE #33 presented 3 unique programs by 3 internationally renowned vocalists at 3 different church towers with repertoires directly inspired both by the festival theme – FATA MORGANA – as well as by the unique settings of the venues. From high atop the respective church towers – via megaphone – each performance cycle began with From the Inscrutable Incantations of Morgan le Fay (2019), a work specially composed for the occasion by Laurie Schwartz. As an illusion of a “call to prayer”, the piece in this case functions as a “call to performance”, the “inscrutable incantations” playing with allusions to ancient languages and chants, mutating between Norwegian herding calls, Gregorian chant and cowboy yodels: Morgan le Fay of the title is the shape-shifting fairy of Celtic and Arthurian legend, the source of the term fata morgana.

The itinerary began with soprano Sunniva Unsgård performing 2 works from the tower of the Kaiser Friedrich Gedächtniskirche: Rebecca Saunders’ O (2017) and Julius Eastman’s Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc (1981). The text of British composer Rebecca Saunders’ O is based on Molly Bloom’s monologue from the final chapter of James Joyce’s Ulysses. The words flow between moments of absence and presence, with the voice switching back and forward between fragments of an inner and exterior monologue. As the composer notes: “for a moment, words surface and become visible, audible, comprehensible, like the emergence of an image or tale… and then submerge again into the flow of time.” The simple text of Julius Eastman’s Prelude to the Holy Presence of Joan d’Arc (1981) refers to the trial of Joan of Arc in 1431 and specifically, to the voices of the three saints who – as Joan relates – encouraged her to reply boldly to the questions of her interrogators:
Saint Michael said / Saint Margaret said / Saint Catherine said/ They said / She said / He said: Joan_____ Speak boldly.

The program presented by soprano Esther Kretzinger at the Heilandskirche was comprised of 3 works: Vivienne Olive’s Whispers of Heavenly Death (1992), Alleluia from Giacinto Scelsi’s Three Latin Prayers (1972), and Younghi Pagh-Paan’s Ma-am (“My Heart”) for voice and claves (1990). Vivienne Olive’s Whispers of Heavenly Death is based on text from Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”, while Giacinto Scelsi’s Alleluia is a clear reference to the unadorned simplicity of plainsong, one of the few in this enigmatic composer’s ouevre to use text as raw material. Younghi Pagh-Paan’s Ma-am, based on a verse by the Korean poet Jeong Cheol, was composed in memory of Luigi Nono and dedicated to his widow, Nuria. The composition is clearly inspired by traditional Korean music and reveals moments of passionate, spiritual introspection.

Countertenor Georg Bochow made use of widely different spaces in the tower of the Reformationskirche: His rendition of the Greek Orthodox chant composed by St. Nectarios of Aegina in the late 19th c. Agni parthene despina (O Pure Virgin), in “ancient Russian” and in a falsetto voice, lent a more abstract quality to the hymn, all the more since only his voice could be heard reverberating from the stairway as he traced his steps from high atop the bell tower into the first balcony. This was followed by a performance of No. 3 from Aribert Reimann’s 5 Lieder nach Gedichten von Paul Celan: Ein Ring, zum Bogen spannen, nachgeschickt einem Wortschwarm, der wegstürzt hinter die Welt, mit den Staren. Finally, in a nod to the festival’s theme, Bochow reinterpreted the role of Claudio Monteverdi’s Speranza from Orfeo as illusion itself, appearing and reappearing among seats in the choir loft.

To conclude Ortstermin 2019, the 3 vocalists came together for a performance (G3) summit at Galerie Nord | Kunstverein Tiergarten to envelope the expanse of Galerie Nord with a contemporaneous mash-up of From the Inscrutable Incantations of Morgan le Fay and a sampling of works from their individual programs.

The 3-day Art Festival Ortstermin 19: FATA MORGANA was curated by Claudia Beelitz and Karen Scheper.

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Thus, for ITINERANT INTERLUDE #1851, the works in the exhibition dark, liquid. find a sonic counterpoint in Two Poles, which is the latest expression of the sound artist’s ongoing research at the nexus of art and science, music and technology.

dark, liquid. Works by Angela Glajcar, Rona Lee, Reiner Maria Matysik, Jenny Michel, Gergor Peschko and Roger Wardin.

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4 July 2018. An investigation of the city as a phenomenon of social interaction and the possibilities of individual and communal participation – as reflected in the exhibition STADT ALS ORNAMENT – can surely find no better musical expression than in rap and hip hop culture. More than perhaps any other genre of music, rap is an art form with its roots firmly in the urban space. From its origins in late 70s NYC it has been absorbed and reinvented around the world, bearing witness to the social, economic and political realities of the times. Hip-hop music that emerged from the Arab Spring transcended borders and resonated throughout the region: Arabic rap in particular embodies both an expression of the rich Arabic poetic history as well as a voice of protest and resistance.

The songs presented by Mohammad Abu Hajar in the context of the exhibition “Stadt als Ornament” bear witness to the political realities of today’s Syria as well as to the artist’s life in exile. “We Fed Up” is dedicated to all political detainees and their mothers; “Down With the Homeland” is a response to the Syrian political situation three years after the revolution; “Uncertain State” sees a collective hope for a better life in Syria, or a better life in Europe, vanishing. The number of the evening’s ITINERANT INTERLUDE #15311 refers to the date of the civil uprising in Damascus – March 15, 2011 – which marks the beginning of the Syrian revolution.

The group show STADT ALS ORNAMENT was curated by Veronika Witte. Works by Juliane Duda, Tatjana Fell, Jörn Gerstenberg, Fernando Niño-Sanchez, Mariel Poppe, Inken Reinert, Birgit Schlieps, Sencer Vardarman und Gabriele Worgitzki.

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4. Juli 2018. Die Stadt als Phänomen sozialer Interaktion zu erkunden und die Möglichkeiten individueller und gemeinschaftlicher Teilhabe zu testen, könnte wohl keinen besseren musikalischen Ausdruck finden als in der Kultur des Hip-Hop und Rap. Mehr als fast jedes andere Musikgenre ist Rap fest im urbanen Raum verwurzelt. Seit seinen Ursprüngen im New York City der 70er-Jahre, wurde Rapmusik in aller Welt aufgenommen und neu erfunden; sie zeugt von der sozialen, wirtschafltichen und politischen Realitäten der Zeit. In der arabischen Welt erfährt Hip-hop – aus dem arabischen Frühling entsprungen – eine Resonanz weit über ihre Grenzen hinaus: Arabischer Rap ist somit Ausdruck der reichen Tradition arabischer Poesie als Stimme des Widerstands.

Die von Mohammad Abu Hajar im Kontext der Ausstellung “Stadt als Ornament” vorgetragenen Lieder zeugen von den politischen Realitäten im heutigen Syrien sowie seinem Leben im Exil. “We Fed Up” ist allen politischen Häftlingen und ihren Müttern gewidmet – es handelt sich um einen Ausdruck von Widerstand, um die Fortsetzung einer Revolution, um einen Kampf für Freiheit und Würde angesichts jahrzehntelanger Unterdrückung. “Down with the Homeland” ist eine Antwort auf die politische Situation Syriens drei Jahre nach der Revolution; “Uncertain State” reflektiert das Verschwinden jeglicher Hoffnung einer besseren Zukunft für Syrien sowie Europa. Die Nummer des  ITINERANT INTERLUDE #15311 bezieht sich auf den Tag des Bürgeraufstands in Damaskus am 15. März 2011, dem Beginn der syrischen Revolution.

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The 14 Récitations were composed by Georges Aperghis in 1982 and represent a veritable tour de force in the contemporary literature for solo voice. According to the composer, the basic idea of Récitations was to work with syllables and phonemes as if they were notes or pitches, i.e., using the building blocks of language to create melodies. In Aperghis’ own words, “A moment I love very much in listening to music is when we don’t have time to think about what is actually happening. The speed of the music, of the acoustic happenings, is higher than what our brain is able process. As if languages, words and syllables would be living their own life on another level than the logical functioning of the brain. So if this music works out as it should, we first feel something and start to think about it only later on, like the way we perceive colors and objects in our childhood or the way we dream.” The text of Récitation 9 chosen for the evening reads: “Parfois je resiste à mon envie vé san tujé parfois je lui cède. Pourquoi donc ce désir.”

the coquetteries (2015) was composed by Laurie Schwartz for Sharon Kivland’s “The Natural Forms, Part II.” and developed in close collaboration with vocalist and performer Anna Clementi. The work, which is an amalgam of musical and physical gesture, draws both inspiration and source material from the fascinating multi-referentiality of Kivland’s art – with musical cells and text fragments tracing back to the tracts of her installation as well as that wonderful French Agit Disco mix-tape, considerations on the nature of duration, the construction of gender, stereotype… and the subversion thereof.

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Angesichts des Titels der Ausstellung HEAD, wie konnte man der Versuchung widerstehen, ein Werk mit dem Titel “Spleen” in das Programm aufzunehmen? Das Stück ist aber natürlich vielmehr. Die österreichische Komponistin Olga Neuwirth (*1968) hat “Spleen” für Solo-Bassklarinette im Jahr 1994 geschrieben. Inspiriert wurde die Komposition vom ersten “Spleen” Gedicht in Charles Baudelaires Les Fleurs du mal und ist eine regelrechte tour de force, verlangt dem Solisten nahezu Unmögliches ab. “Zahlen die stillstehen, irgendwo in einem fernen gewöhnlichen Sommer” für Kontrabassklarinette wurde von Theo Nabicht (*1963) im Jahr 2008 komponiert und ist Wolfgang Stryi gewidmet. In fast unhörbaren, flüchtigen Tönen, liefert Nabicht eine Hommage, gar eine Art Porträt der Klangwelt des viel verehrten, zu früh verstorbenen Kontrabassklarinettisten-Kollegen. Der Abschluss des Abends bildet eine Improvisation: Musiker und Tänzer treten in einen Dialog miteinander und mit den hier ausgestellten Werken um Klang und Raum neu auszuloten.

With music and dance, ITINERANT INTERLUDE #71 brings a spatial dimension to the musical-acoustic one for this evening’s exhibition opening. Bass and contrabass clarinet virtuoso Theo Nabicht joins forces with dancer/hip hop artist extraordinaire Jhomar Besmens to enter into dialogue with HEAD, the musical compositions, the space and the audience.
With a show entitled HEAD, how is it possible to resist programming a piece with a title such as “Spleen”? The piece is, of course, much more than that. Austrian composer Olga Neuwirth (*1968) wrote “Spleen” for solo bass clarinet in 1994.The work was inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s poem “Spleen” from “Les Fleurs du mal” and is a veritable tour de force, demanding almost the impossible of the player. “Numbers that stand still, somewhere in a distant ordinary summer” was composed by Theo Nabicht (*1963) in 2008 and is dedicated to Wolfgang Stryi. In barely audible, ephemeral sounds, Nabicht presents an homage, indeed, a portrait of the sound world of the widely revered contrabass-clarinet colleague who passed away in 2005. Concluding the evening is an improvisation: musician and dancer will enter into dialogue with each other and the art works in the show to explore the limits of sound and space.

The group show HEAD was curated by Ralf Hartmann. Works by Harald Birck, Matthias Hamann and Kai Teichert.

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Die gezupfte Kurzhalslaute Ud, gilt als “Königin der Musikinstrumente” in der arabischen Welt. Al Ud – von dem arabischen Wort für Holz stammend – hat einen großen, gewölbten Resonanzkörper in Form einer halben Birne und einen kurzen Hals. Sie ist normalerweise mit fünf Doppelsaiten bespannt. Bei Farhan Sabbaghs Instrumenten ist jeweils ein weiteres Saitenpaar im Bass und im Diskant hinzugefügt, wodurch der Tonumfang von zweieinhalb auf dreieinhalb Oktaven erweitert wird. Bei ITINERANT INTERLUDE #17 wurden zwei eigene Kompositionen Sabbaghs für Ud zur Aufführung kommen: “Gazellenflucht” und “Suq Sanaa” [bezieht sich auf den Markt von Sanaa, Haupstadt Jemens]. Im Laufe des Abends, hat Sabbagh auch zwei Werke für Perkussion präsentiert: “Solo Riqq Nr. 2” für die einfellige mit Fischhaut bespannte Rahmentrommel mit fünf Schellenpaaren, und “Solo Mazhar” für die größere einfellige Rahmentrommel ohne Schellen.

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