Construction kit for orchestra
The kit for orchestra is an orchestral work by Georg Katzer from 1972. The instrumentation includes 3 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in Bb, 2 bassoons, 4 horns in F, 3 trumpets in Bb, 3 trombones, percussion, vibraphone, bells , Piano, harp and strings (12 1st violins, 12 2nd violins, 10 violas, 8 cellos, 6 double basses).
history
The work was performed for the first time in the concert hall on November 29, 1973 in the Komische Oper Berlin under the direction of Gert Bahner . A West Berlin performance took place in January 1974. In 1982 the work was included in the curriculum of general schools in the GDR .
Georg Katzer understands the original meaning of composing as putting together . He uncompromisingly performs this compositional technique in a modular system for orchestra, mostly with his own acoustic means invented for this work. The exact sequence of the composition can be found in the detailed tables by Georg Katzers and Frank Schneider . The basic compositional idea is to first bring together and finally dismantle the individual elements ( building blocks ) of the musical structure . The form is a symmetrically structured tripartite with two peaks and a declining recapitulation . The building blocks , each musically individually characterized , which in turn are also thematically composed of 10 bars , are each conveyed by a family of instruments.
Metric aleatorics , scale aleatorics, short impulses, cluster-like sound surfaces, fast repetitions, glissandos and numerous sound effects are to be mentioned as important, special properties of the composition . These are also part of the standard repertoir of new music in the early 1970s. Acoustically, clearly recognizable from bar 154, is the cantus firmus melody of the double basses that crystallises out of sustained tones and is declared by Frank Schneider in the second half of the work, within the second climax . This can be heard three times, slightly modified. The first six notes of the cantus-firmus melody are slowly taken over by the glockenspiel, vibraphone, bells, piano and harp. Like the entire construction kit , this melody also finally dissolves into play figures . Frank Schneider interprets this process as a liquefaction and blockage of the construction kit. In the end, only the initial building blocks remain.
Georg Katzer sees his work as a very consistent, logical and consistent stage of development in music . From his point of view, it could be a logical turn away from a disguised musical idealism , as it was previously called for as partisan . In addition to the musical dice games , Georg Katzer tries to point out comparable modern problems in material production and the economy of time in the interpretive rehearsal process : On the occasion of the performance of one of my orchestral music, I asked myself what a piece should look like that would take three two hours of rehearsal time with the current one Our orchestras stand regarding contemporary music. The serious compositional task would be to lead Georg Katzer back to the rationalizations, for example, of the construction industry and their use of standardized parts . Exaggerated socialist realism seems to play a major role here. The composition process was relocated to the construction site .
literature
- Niana Noeske: IV.2.2.3.3 Katzer : Construction kit for orchestra (pp. 302–305) from: Musical deconstruction. New instrumental music in the GDR . 3. Edition. Cologne: Böhlau. 2008.