A Honnoverian drama in four pictures and an interlude

Texts: Julie Schrader

Score: pic.1.1.2.2/2.1.1.1/3perc/hp.pf/2.0.2.2.2;btpt on the stage
Cast:
Wilhelm II, Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia: baritone buffo
Hugestines: bass buffo
Adolphine Plückerjahn: alto
Adelkurt: tenor
Vevchen: soprano
The Angel Hesekiel: coloratura soprano

Duration: 60' 00"

Instrumentation: for violin and piano

Duration: 8' 00"

Instrumentation: for 19 instrumentalists

Duration: 13' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon

After Paul Verlaine.

Duration: 10' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (3(3.pic).3(3.ca).3(3.bcl).3(3.cbn)/4.3.3.1/2perc/str)

Duration: 8' 00"

Instrumentation: for chamber orchestra (2.2.2.2/2.0.0.0/1.1.1.1.1)

Duration: 9' 00"

Instrumentation: for wind and string quintet

dedicated to György Ligeti.

Duration: 18' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (pic.3.3.3.3(3.cbn)/4.3.3.1/perc/str)

Duration: 17' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (pic.3.3.3.3(3.cbn)/4.3.3.1/perc/str)

Duration: 45' 00"

Instrumentation: for chamber orchestra (1.1.1.1/1.1.1.0/field dm/pf/eorg/1.1.1.0.1)

Duration: 14' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano and orchestra (3.3.3.3/4.3.3.0/2perc/eorg/str)

Duration: 22' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano

Duration: 36' 00"

Instrumentation: for viola and orchestra (2(2.pic).4.2.asx.2/4.3.2.1/2perc/pf/6.0.0.4.4)

Duration: 20' 00"

Instrumentation: for soprano or tenor and orchestra (3(3.pic).3.3(3.bcl).3(3.cbn)/4.3.3.1/str)

After fragments from notebooks and loose pages by Franz Kafka.

Duration: 35' 00"

Instrumentation: for nine instruments (1.1.1.1/0.0.0.0/pf/1.1.1.1.0)

Duration: 11' 00"

Instrumentation: for soprano, tenor, solo horn, four choir groups and orchestra (pic.2.2.ca.2.bcl.2.cbn/4.3.3.1/str)

After a fragment by Franz Kafka.

Duration: 8' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (3.3.3.3/4.2.3.0/2perc/14.12.10.8.6)

Duration: 24' 00"

Instrumentation: for horn and orchestra (pic.2.2.2.bcl.2.cbn/2.2.2.1/perc/12.10.8.6.4five stringed)

Duration: 20' 00"

Instrumentation: for clarinet, horn, bassoon, 2 violins, viola, violoncello and double bass

Duration: 20' 00"

Opera in two acts

After the play bearing the same title by Walter Hasenclever.
Score: 3(3pic).3(3.ca).3(3.bcl).3(2.&3.cbn)/4.2.3.1/4perc/str; onstage ('Bar-Trio'): ebcl, pf, db)
Birth, death, power, suppression, law, murder, fear, loneliness - the existential experiences of the human being is the theme of this opera. The libretto is based on the theatre piece 'Die Menschen' by Walter Hasenclever, whose mnemonical, often single-worded suggestive dialogue fascinates the composer. Müller-Siemens eliminated in his adaptation of the text the redemptive theme intended by Hasenclever and the partly very mystical colouring of the piece in such a way that the libretto became somewhat peculiarly crude. The character of the music develops between the two poles of the text: on the one hand side the atmosphere is of constant, latent or direct force within which things simply happen - unpsychologic, lapidary, drastic, imminent, grotesque, on the other hand side islands, silkiness, quiet parts - weightless plant-like rampant lines circle and combine.


Duration: 2h 00"

Duration: 28' 00"

Instrumentation: for vocal sextet (2SMezTBarB) and chamber orchestra (1(pic).1(ca)1(bcl)1(cbn)/1.0.0.0.0/1.1.1.1.1)

Based on an anonymous poem from the 17th century.

Duration: 27' 00"

Instrumental version

Instrumentation: for ensemble (1(pic).1(ca).1(bcl).ssx.asx.tsx.1(cbn)/1.0.cnt.1.bar.0/2.0.1.1.1)

Duration: 27' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (3(3.pic).3(3.ca).3(3.bcl).3(3.cbn)/4.3.3.1/3perc/pf/str)

Duration: 20' 00"

Instrumentation: for violin, viola and orchestra (2(2.pic).2(2.ca).2(2.bcl).2(2.cbn)/2.2.0.0/perc)

Duration: 24' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute (piccolo), oboe, clarinet (bass clarinet), violin, viola and violoncello

Duration: 24' 00"

Instrumentation: for 13 instrumentalists (1.1.1(bcl).1/1.1.1.0/pf/1.1.1.1.1)

Can be performed separately.
Phoenix I (14') (1993)
Phoenix II (16') (1994)
Phoenix III (14') (1995)

Duration: 45' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (3(3.pic).3.3(3.bcl).3/2.2.2.0/12.12[10].8.8.4)

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for alto saxophone and ensemble (ebcl.bn/hn/perc/pf/1.0.1.1.1)

Duration: 10' 00"

Instrumentation: for 11 instrumentalists (1.1.1.1/1.0.0.0/pf/1.1.1.1.1)

Duration: 11' 00"

Opera

For two speakers, two sopranos and orchestra (2(2pic).2(2.ca).2(1.ebcl, 2.bcl).2(2.cbn)/2.2.0.0/2perc/2pf tuned a ¼ tone deeper/2.0.2.2.2.2 with H string)
BING (=Ping) is based on the text bearing the same title by Samuel Beckett (in the translation into German by Elmar Tophoven). It describes a singular situation: a naked human is portrayed standing in a one-yard square white cube. The maelstrom of text consisting of a limited number of sentences which are permutatively combined to form ever new superordinate sentences is irregularly punctuated with two words: 'Bing' (mostly connected with the question of a sense, a picture, another person, a way out etc.) and 'fixed', followed by the word 'elsewhere' which refers to an apparent change of location.
I had in mind a quasi-congealed musical theatre distributed over three levels:
- The main figure, who in his/her/its isolation listens to itself as another, is split into two female singers.
- Two speakers, who classify the 'development' from without rather like a concurrent commentary.
- The chamber orchestra as pure 'environment', like the cube with its white walls, where the elusive 'senseless figure' appears and whose room is filled with 'senseless buzzing'.
My music uses a repertoire of forms (e.g. 'breathing', 'oscillation', 'fleeing', 'fumbling', 'congealing', 'sliding', 'klanging', 'meandering', 'stumbling', 'bumping', 'lightning', 'arpeggio', 'pedal', horizontal lines', 'islands' etc.) whose characters vary in detail and appear in the main as ever changing 'aggregate forms'. A recursive process runs in the background which controls the appearance of these forms in the musical room and exhibits similarities to the hopeless-circling character of the Beckettian text. Despite the 'deep-frozen' basic configuration of BING I believe that primal human themes such as loneliness, love and death nevertheless shine through, a quasi-reflection of 'opera'.


Duration: 60' 00"

Instrumentation: for 11 instrumentalists (pic.1.0.ebcl.2.bcl.0/0.0.0.0/pf/1.1.1.1.0)

In memory of Olivier Messiaen.

Duration: 8' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute and percussion

Duration: 14' 00"

Instrumentation: 8 voices (SSAATTBB) and 13 instruments

Texts: Friedrich Hölderlin

Duration: 11' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (3.3.3.3/4.3.2.1/str)

Duration: 12' 00"

In memory of György Ligeti

Instrumentation: for violin, viola and piano

Duration: 9' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano quartet

Manuscript

Instrumentation: for cello and piano

Manuscript