Instrumentation: for violoncello

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for 4 clarinets, 2 pianos, vibraphone and marimbaphone

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (2.2.2.2/2.2.2.0/2perc/pf/10.10.8.6.2)

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for 2 pianos

Duration: 11' 00"

Instrumentation: for mezzo-soprano, guitar, piano and marimba

Texts: Pablo Neruda

Duration: 20' 00"

Instrumentation: for string orchestra

Duration: 12' 00"

Duration: 21' 00"

Instrumentation: for soprano and chamber ensemble (fl.2cl/2tbn/2-3perc/pf/vc(2 or more).db(1 or more))

Texts: Arthur Rimbaud

Duration: 20' 00"
Manuscript

Instrumentation: for flute, oboe or saxophone and clarinet

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for xylorimba, marimba and vibraphone

Duration: 9' 00"

Instrumentation: for 2 violoncelli

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (4.3.4.4/4.2.4.1/2perc/pf/12.12.8.8.6)

Former title: "Tsunamis".

Duration: 12' 00"

Instrumentation: for 2 violoncelli

Duration: 14' 00"

Instrumentation: for mixed choir (4444) and orchestra (3.2.4.3/4.3.3.1/2perc/2pf.eorg/4.4.6.6)

Texts: Pablo Neruda

The text does not evoke the longing for a time past but is an expression of despair after a disastrous occurrence. Affliction as the mute witness of the Mapocho river: born from snow, flowing from the beak of the eagle, dancing through the 'ember valley'. It stands accused of inexorability and complacency. The ever-haunting call of the poet, the fearful questions, the frantic accounts answered only by silence. Naruda's text is not to be understood here as a programmatic model for the musical composition. Because only fragments of texts were used, it was possible to subordinate the language with the musical composition. The orchestra tutti, a synchronised process dependent on the conductor, the dynamic of which oscillates primarily between ppppp and p, is able only to force its way through in very limited parts forming a strata of sound from the process of which individual voices 'branch off', compress into a web and push the (synchronous) tutti sound into the background. These voices, independent of the conductor, are assigned their own tempo rates. It is thus possible to overlay extremely divergent tempo rates and long bows of tension and with individual time processes.

Duration: 16' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano

Duration: 10' 00"

Instrumentation: for 3 guitars

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for violin, violoncello and piano

No programme – it is made clear from the outset: The title was given after completion of the composition. – I speak not of myself – nor of you, now long lost to the eyes – I speak of the hours before our encounter – those that sparkled like glass shards on the riverbed, continually stirring our desire, descending to newer depths to raise them and view them on the surface as being nothing more than mere glass shards. – I speak of the way to you, Fata Morgana, whose narrowing spiral keeps me from you, forever circling an imaginary centre.
The image of the spiral signifies a state of weightlessness, created by the balance between similar and new – static and dynamic goal-orientated models.
I. Hesitant, step-by-step examination of the continually developing harmonic space
The tripartite form is a result of the breech in continuity I – III
II. The sound and metrical complexity is suddenly polarised
III. Advanced state of I – several voices gain ground – diverge but never totally lose their points of contact.

Duration: 14' 00"

Instrumentation: for chamber ensemble (1.0.2.0/0.1.2.1/2perc/pf/1.1.2.1)

Duration: 12' 00"

Instrumentation: for mixed choir (4.4.4.4 or 8.8.8.8) and 3 percussionists

Texts: Giuseppe Ungaretti

Duration: 40' 00"

Instrumentation: for ensemble (fl.cl/perc/pf/vn.va.vc)

In Gaspra, Furrer has divided the instruments into small groups within the ensemble. First, "two extreme sounds" pierce through the tutti passages: the grating, rhythmical, over determined piano and the rhythmical, rather more ambiguous string trio. The violoncello and clarinet duo and the percussion and piano duo operate between. The story committed to these groups by Furrer is told as a gradual transformation of the initial sound.
In Furrer's oeuvre, Gaspra is in many ways a new beginning; it is the first piece within which he works undeviatingly with noises. Additionally, the piece is "a concept in such a way so strictly executed as I have never actually implemented before". – And with a rigidity Furrer discounts today. It is also one of the first pieces where the voices are synchronised in a uniform measure.
In Gaspra, Furrer also works for the first time with rhythmical patterns, which, as the piece progresses, run through the transformation of a given starting constellation. Between this, the initial rhythmical form dissolves in an unforeseeable, quasi-chaotic field, however, the visualised form remains in continual development. The quality of the rhythmical fields "suddenly flips, becomes erratic and develops again into one direction: towards the target sound".
Gaspra is named after an asteroid with a diameter of five kilometres – "a boulder, the remains of an exploded star, erring in the gravitational force of our solar system".

Duration: 17' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra in 3 groups

Instrumentation:
Group A: 2.0.2.2/2.2.2.1/str(4.4.4.4.4)
Group B: 3perc
Group C: (electronically amplified) afl(G).bcl/vl.vc.db

Duration: 25' 00"

Instrumentation: for 3 violoncelli

Duration: 10' 00"

Duration: 10' 00"

chamber opera in 1 act

After Maurice Maeterlinck's " Les Aveugles", adapted by Beat Furrer.
Cast: 3 mezzo-sopranos, 2 female and 6 male voices, choir (4S4A4T4B)

Duration: 60' 00"

Instrumentation: for large orchestra (4.4.4.4.tsx/4.4.4.1/2per/8-10.8-10.8-10.6-8.6)

Duration: 13' 00"

Instrumentation: for ensemble (fl.2cl.tsx/tpt.tbn.tba/2perc/pf/vn.va.vc.db)

Duration: 17' 00"

Instrumentation: for string quartet

Duration: 1' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano, clarinet and violoncello

Duration: 13' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute, clarinet, piano and orchestra divided into four groups

The divided orchestra distributed in the room:
Group A: 2tpt.2tbn/2vn.va.vc.db/perc
Group B: afl(G).2cl/2vn.va.vc.db/perc
Group C: 2afl(G).cl/2vn.va.vc.db/perc
Group D: 2tpt.2tbn/2vn.va.vc.db/perc

Duration: 18' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (3.2.3.2/4.3.4.0/4perc/pf.hp/12.12.10.8.6)

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute, harp, violin, viola and violoncello

Furrer outlines his composition "cold and calm and moving" in an associative sequence:
"Four initial sentences of a Petrarca sonnet – images of solidification – are audibly perambulated – spiralling outwards from an imaginary centre – here movement is a displacement of perspectives, respectively a continual deformation of the initial constellation – the displacement of rhythmic, respectively harmonic constellations are perceived by the listener in the same way perspectives and lighting conditions continually change for a viewer walking through the inside of a church."

Duration: 25' 00"
Manuscript

Instrumentation: for violin and piano

The violin and piano can find no mutual meter – they approach and recede from one another in ever so slightly differing tempi.
Sounds appear to remember – the initial motive from Schubert's lied "auf dem Flusse" (Winterreise) seems – without being quoted – to be audible in the distance.

Duration: 12' 00"

opera in 6 acts

After Ovid's "Metamorphosis". German by Beat Furrer.
Cast: Soprano, 2 speaking voices, 8 voices (2S2A2T2B)
Instrumental ensemble: 2.0.2.1.sx/2.2.2.1/3perc/pf.hp/2.2.2.2

Duration: 80' 00"

Instrumentation: for 2 speakers and 26 players (2.0.2.1.sx/2.2.2.1/3perc/hp.pf/2.2.2.2)

After the "Metamorphoses" of Ovid. German by Beat Furrer.
From tense, unstable sequences of events: a continual, restless search as a certain gesture: the achieved is immediately relinquished, the establishing orders are immediately fragmented, mirrored, contorted, duplicated. New perspectives, new reference points alter the sequence of events – quasi echoes in ever-changing spaces.

Instrumentation: for percussionists

Duration: 24' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute, harp and strings

Repetition – modification
Precise – process-like aspirations continually interrupted
Movement – hesitation – returning again
Searching for another sequel
Snapshots of slowly altering surfaces – multilayered – interlocking
"A song, which beyond the end of the song searches for another ending…" (Kafka)

Duration: 16' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute, harp and strings

Duration: 14' 00"-15' 00"

Instrumentation: for 2 pianos and ensembe (2.1.3.1.sx/2.2.2.0/3perc/2.2.2.2)

Duration: 17' 00"-18' 00"

Instrumentation: for mixed choir and four percussionists

Excerpt from the "Prophecy" by Leonardo da Vinci and two texts from Christine Huber.
Can also be performed by a percussion quartet without the choir.

Duration: 20' 00"

Instrumentation: for eight-part a-cappella choir (SSAATTBB)

Duration: 5' 00"

Instrumentation: for baritone

Text from "Leonce und Lena" by Georg Büchner.

Instrumentation: for viola and piano

Duration: 18' 00"

Instrumentation: for flute and piano

Duration: 10' 00"

Instrumentation: for ensemble (fl, ob, bcl, tsx, tpt, tbn, 2perc, pf, 2vn, va, vc, db)

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano and string quartet

Duration: 17' 00"

Instrumentation: for soprano and six instruments (cl, perc, pf, vn, va, vc)

Texts: Günter Eich

Duration: 18' 00"

Instrumentation: for cello

Duration: 18' 00"

Instrumentation: for ensemble (2.1.2.1/1.1.1.0/2perc/pf/2.2.1.1)

Duration: 3' 00"

Instrumentation: for choir (SATB) and ensemble (1(pic).1.1(bcl).tsx(ssx)/tpt.tbn/2perc/pf/2vn.ca.vc.db)

Duration: 13' 00"

Instrumentation: for choir and orchestra (1.1.1.bcl.sx(tsx,ssx).0/0.1.1.0/2perc/pf/str soloistic: 8.8.6.6.4)

Texts: Cesare Pavese, Ovid, Vergil

Duration: 15' 00"

Musical theatre

After texts by Cesare Pavese, Günter Eich, Ovid and Vergil. Libretto by Beat Furrer, Christine Huber and Wolfgang Hofer.
Cast: She (female voice), He (male voice), speaker, mixed choir (12 voices)
Orchestra: 1.1.2(bcl,2.cbcl).sx(tsx,ssx).0/0.1.1.0/2perc/pf/2vn.va.vc.db

Duration: 90' 00"

Instrumentation: for voice and flute

Texts: Friederike Mayröcker

Duration: 10' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano

Duration: 16' 00"-18' 00"

Opera

After texts by Marguerite Duras ("Moderato cantabile"), Ovid, Cesare Pavese et al. Libretto and translation by Ilma Rakusa in collaboration with Beat Furrer
People: Anne [she] (high soprano), Anne (actress), Chavin [he] (reading voice)
Choir 3S3A3T3B
Orchestra: 2(1.bfl).1.3(1.and2.bcl).tsx(ssx).1(cbn)/1.1.1.0/3perc/pf/str: 2vn1va1vc1db
A city somewhere beside the sea: A woman, Anne Desbaresdes, wife of a factory owner, is with her young son visiting a piano teacher. Screams are heard in the street, in the pub below a man has shot a woman; it was said she wanted him to do it. Anne enters the pub, and returns day after day, conversing in short sentences with a stranger about the murder and how it came to happen. The border blurs between the destiny of the one murdered and her own. In her relationship with the stranger it is as though the relationship between the murderer and the murdered is want to repeat. "Thin ice" separates the world of this member of the educated class, symbolised by a performance of the Diabelli Sonatina repeated in a weekly piano lesson, from the abyss of a destructive libidinality the scream, the scent, the magnolias, the wine, the night. The drama is sketched in powerful images and curt sentences, the starting point of which is the scream that interrupted the "moderato cantabile" of the Diabelli Sonatina during the piano lesson. This still anonymous murder then appears to repeat itself on a different level. The sound is already a constituent of this curiously timeless image: the sound of the sea, Diabelli's Sonatina, the scream, the noise, the anonymous mass of people on the street, in the pubs etc. The form of narration, the anticipation of the scream, which seems to be a quasi anticipation of the end of the lineal narration, leaves this quasi in the room as a theme: the narrative time as the perspective of a room. It is left to the music to create these changing perspectives (camera angles), this corresponds to my idea of the temporal densification (simultaneity) of linear processes (movement sequences): everything is present from the beginning; things (figures) emerge and recess.
While the narration broaches the issue of desire (the skin of the protagonist), the focus of my compositional "view" is Anne's voice, its intimacy, the "dramatic" space between cultivated opera voice and the immediacy of a corporeal expression (such as breath, scream etc).

Duration: abendfüllend

Instrumentation: for soprano and bass flutes

Texts: Juan de la Cruz

Duration: 10' 00"

Duration: 2' 00"

Duration: 12' 00"

Concertante version of a scene from the opera "Invocation"

Instrumentation: version for soprano and flute

Texts: Anonymus

Duration: 12' 00"

Concertante version of a scene from the opera "Invocation"

Instrumentation: for soprano and ensemble (fl.2bcl/tpt.tbn/1perc/pf/2vn.va.vc.db)

Texts: Anonymus

Duration: 12' 00"
Manuscript

Duration: 40' 00"

Instrumentation: for violine and orchestra (2.1.2(bcl).tsx.0/2.2.2.0/3perc/pf/6.6.4.4.3)

Duration: 17' 00"

Instrumentation: for two bass clarinets

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for voice and ensemble (1(bfl)1.2(bcl).tsx.1/0.1.2.0/2perc/pf/1.1.1.1.1)

Concertante version of the 3rd scene from the musical theatre "FAMA".

Duration: 17' 00"

Sound theater in eight scenes

Instrumentation: for large ensemble, eight-part (SSAATTBB) and actress

Texts: Ovid, Arthur Schnitzler

Ensemble: 2(1.bfl,cbfl,pic,2.pic).1.2(bcl).tx.1(cbn)/0.2.2.0/2perc/pf.acn/str(2vn.2va.2vc.2db)
The third scene can be performed concertante.
A young woman before a mirror "Am I really so beautiful? – Is that me there who speaks?" She experiences herself though the projections of the society around her, reflects in the image of others. Her nakedness shows her exposed, defenceless, an object of desire. An obsessive view from without: she has not yet found herself, remains a stranger to who she is. In Schnitzler's novel, Fräulein Else is sent out into the fine world of a glitzy Italian hotel in the Dolomites. She has a hopeless, demure sense of the direction in which this society is leading her, a society whose women are kept on the end of leads attached to pearl collars. "When I marry, I will most probably do it cheaper" – marriage is another form of prostitution. Her mother's beseeching letters pressure her: Else must find money to support her debt-ridden father, first thirty and then fifty thousand guilders. The sponsor's price is high and leads Else to a world of self-destruction, a further "victim on the altar of a world of total reification" (Furrer).
A breathless monologue, blurted out in great distress: "I want to leave"… Existential danger is the starting situation of Beat Furrer's "Fama" – a volcanic explosion, as described by the Roman poet Lukrez – pure status quo, an overpowering pressure which can lead only to flight. "I hear the screaming, the fire, the breath…" a massive, glistening sound.
A complimentary vision of a distant, serene garden, "with nothing but dreaming trees, united in one thought…" (Carlo Emilio Gadda). Beat Furrer positions this utopia at the centre of the eight scenes: a sense of longing is brought to sound by the echo of a distant, pulsating sigh.
Sounds of man and earth, distant mumblings and rumblings resonate in the house of Fama. Fama, the mythical figure, has built a house "entirely of sounding ore, resonating ubiquitously it hurls back in imitation what it hears", like Ovid described, "with overwhelming sensuality" (Beat Furrer). The indefatigable monologue of Else is a human's destiny, reverberating – as a scream, as a desolate whisper, as a breathless babble. This figure, whose thoughts are language, oscillates between the rapture of a dream and a harried existence. "How curious my voice sounds" – the voice and its alternating tonalities is increasingly approached as the piece progresses, from 'close-ups' to a unification with the instrumental sound and finally a complete loss of voice: "Fama reveals the ensuing catastrophe in an instrumental aftershock."

Duration: 50' 00"

Instrumentation: for soprano and double bass

Texts: José Ángel Valente

Duration: 7' 00"

Instrumentation: for mixed a-cappella choir (divided into four groups)

Texts: Leonardo da Vinci

Duration: 4' 00"-5' 00"

Instrumentation: for 14 strings (distribution: 2 string quartets, trio [2 vn,va], duo [2 vn], db)

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for two sopranos and orchestra (bfl.0.0.2bcl.0/2(2tbn).2.0.0/2perc/pf.acn/8.8.6.6.4)

Texts: Carlo Emilio Gadda

Duration: 8' 00"

Instrumentation: for orchestra (2(1.bfl and pic, 2.pic)1.3(2.,3.bcl).tsx.2(2.cbn)/2.2.2.0/3perc/pf.acn/8.8.6.6.4)

Duration: 17' 00"

Instrumentation: orchestral instrumentation: 2(2pic).1.3(2.,3.bcl).tsx.2(2.cbn)/2.2.2.0/3perc/pf.acn/8.8.6.4.3

Duration: 18' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano and orchestra (2(both pic).1.3(2&3 bcl).1tsx.2(2 cbn)/2.2.2.0/3perc/pf/acn/1.2.2.2.1)

Duration: 18' 00"

Instrumentation: for soprano and guitar quartet

Texts: José Ángel Valente

Duration: 10' 00"

Instrumentation: for 2 sopranos and ensemble (cbfl, acn, 2vn, va, vc, db)

Texts: Klaus Händl, Antonio Machado

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for ensemble (1.1.2.sx.cbn/1.1.1.0/2perc/pf.acn/2.1.1.1)

Duration: 13' 00"

Instrumentation: for speaking voice and orchestra (2.1.2.sx.2cbn/2.2.2.0/2perc/pf.acn/8.8.6.5.4)

Texts: Klaus Händl

Duration: abendfüllend

Musical theatre

Instrumentation: for 2 sopranos, vocal ensemble, speaking voice and small orchestra (2.1.2.1.sx/1.1.1.0/2perc/pf.acn/str)

Texts: Klaus Händl, Ingeborg Bachmann, Antonio Machado, Lukrez, Papyros Berlin 3024

Duration: abendfüllend

Instrumentation: for 2 percussionists and string ensemble (6.4.4.2)

Duration: 11' 00"

Instrumentation: for piano solo

Duration: 7' 00"

Instrumentation: for mixed a cappella choir

Texts: Leonardo da Vinci

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: for bass flute and double bass

Duration: 15' 00"

Instrumentation: für grosses Orchester

Duration: 9' 30"
Manuscript