Category: Chamber Music
The destruction of our planet by humans has led to the drastic extinction of insects. Not only the bees, which we demonstrably need for fertilisation and for the preservation of the plant life that protects us vitally, are part of God's meaningful creation, but also the wasps, spiders, beetles, flies, cockroaches, butterflies or grasshoppers, - also the viruses and bacteria. We like to call these "vermin" or "pests" and thereby obtain permission to destroy this world marked by beauty and a fantastic wealth of forms. Yet humanity, with its aggressive seizure of the earth, has thrown the ecosystem into such disarray that the intelligence of this incredible biodiversity has been lost... We are the vermin!
With the unconventional instrumentation of surprise percussion (beatboxing) and string quartet - initiated by the Gropius String Quartet - this REQUIEM wants to shake things up: not only with resignation and larmoyance, but also with sensuality, with vital humour (for example in the associations to tango, ragtime, czardas) and above all the reference to the wealth of colours and creative forms.
Movements: REQUIEM. About Insects & The Microbiotic World
for string quartet, beatboxing and sound design
(video ad libitum)
1: ALIENS AMONG US!
2: SPIDER & FLY
3: FROM UGLY TO BEAUTIFUL (CATERPILLAR & BUTTERFLY)
4: BEETLES RAG
5: IN THE CITY OF ANTS
6: REQUIEM FOR A DYING WORLD
Duration: 19 Minutes (3’-3’-2’-2’-4’-5’)
Publisher of notes/sheet music: Ries & Erler Musikverlag (Berlin) , 2022
Instrumentation: for string quartet, surprise percussion/beatboxing and Video with sound design
Beatboxing claims not only the classical techniques of mouth percussion, but also singing and vocal challenges.
Surprise Percussion uses scrap metal, household tools, bottles, pans and a lot of unusual things to create minimalistic sounds.
The Videos and Playbacks were composed and produced by Enjott Schneider, available directly from the composer or the Publisher bRies & Erler (Berlin). For the performance you only need a beamer and a stero setup with two seperated loudspeaskers behind the ensemble.
Introduction: The destruction of our planet by humans has led to the drastic extinction of insects, especially in recent decades. Not only the bees, which we demonstrably need for fertilisation and for the preservation of the plant life that protects us vitally, are part of God's meaningful creation, but also the wasps, spiders, beetles, flies, cockroaches, butterflies or grasshoppers, - also the viruses and bacteria. We like to call these "vermin" or "pests" and thereby obtain permission to destroy this world marked by beauty and a fantastic wealth of forms. Yet humanity, with its aggressive seizure of the earth, has thrown the ecosystem into such disarray that the intelligence of this incredible biodiversity has been lost... We are the vermin!
With the unconventional instrumentation of beatboxing and string quartet - initiated by the Gropius String Quartet - this REQUIEM wants to shake things up: not only with resignation and larmoyance, but also with sensuality, with vital humour (for example in the associations to tango, ragtime, czardas) and above all the reference to the wealth of colours and creative forms. The world of insects & co is carried by an enigmatic beauty and magic of strangeness, which we completely overlook in our heedlessness.
At the last minute, humanity must rethink and reduce its destructive impulses: The pollution through artificial light, the use of fertilisers and pesticides, the haphazard urbanisation with the trend towards the mega-city and the concreting over of the earth's surface, with the cutting down of forests, with the domestication of rivers and waters. It is already five past 12!
Dedication: Cordially dedicated to Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt
and the Gropius String Quartet
World premiere: 04.03.2022, Berlin / Philharmonie
Performers at world premiere: 4th of March 2022 in Berlin Philharmony with Stefan Blum (Surprise Percussion) and the Gropius String Quartet: Friedemann Eichhorn, Indira Koch (Violinen), Alexia Eichhorn (Viola), Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt (Violoncello)
