Category: Chamber Music
In 1982, a young Turkish poet SEMRA ERTAN in Hamburg had burned herself publicly in the street in Hamburg in protest against xenophobia in Germany. I wanted to set a monument to this shameful incident and had composed this work - also with reference to a Turkish folksong in the Adagio.
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In 2013 Semra's sister Cana Bilir-Meier made a touching film in her memory in which several poems by Semra Ertan were recited and the entire first movement of the octet served as the film music.
Movements: Adagio / Scherzo
Duration: 13:00 (movements 8:00, 5:00)
Instrumentation: 2 clar. (B-flat), 2 horns, 2 bs., percuss., double bass
Dedication: Dedicated to the Turkish woman, Semra Ertan, who, on May 26 1982, set herself on fire in the Hamburg marketplace to protest against growing xenophobia.
Additional remarks: Turkish folk songs is used in the Adagio and it has an archaic texture: plaintive lament. The Scherzo (as 'Homeric laughter') is in the chromatic style
World premiere: 12.12.1984, Munich Academy of Music, large concert hall
Performers at world premiere: Im Sung-Hyak, Keiko Kinoshita (clarinets),
Shinsi Yayiura, Hans Peter Vogel (bassoons),
Thomas Hartmann, Max Hochwimmer (horns),
Alexander Lang (percussion), Wolfgang Hessler (double bass);
direction: Sergio Mirabelli
Movie: 2011
