Category: Organ / Sacred Music , Symphonic / Orchestral
Movements: 1: Prologue: In the dark of the matrix
2: Dialogue: „...there is freedom“
3: About the soul
4: We all believe
5: Meditation: The Luther-Rose
6: „Here I stand!“
7: Final: „About charity“
Duration: 20 minutes
Publisher of notes/sheet music: Strube Musikverlage (music publisher) Munich , VS 6743 , 2017
Instrumentation: Instrumentation (the score has been written in C):
2 flutes,
oboe,
English horn
clarinet (B)
bass clarinet (B)
bassoon
3 horns (F)
kettledrum
percussion
string orchestra
Introduction: Enjott Schneider (*1950)
»... there is freedom«,
Kaleidoscope based on texts by Martin Luther for soprano, baritone and orchestra
The Reformation 500 years ago freed people especially from their world of ideas: no paternalism by dogma or religious decrees, self-responsibility instead of paternalism by the ecclesiastical moral and ethics code, freedom of one's opinion controlled by self-criticism and never ending supply of knowledge... The musical kaleidoscope tries to emotionally convey something about this "freedom". Less by means of the rational perception of the textual content than by the sensuality of the pure music: freedom of the art, aesthetic movement without a template and stereotyped expectations. The texts only provide keywords, room for associations and pictures in a very fragmentary way without a closed logical frame. The instrumental "comments" on the individual text fragments play a special role. It is about "Reformation", not about understanding, but about dreaming and feeling.
Texts:
2: Dialogue: „...there is freedom“
„The Lord is the Spirit, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom“.
(2.Kor. 3, V4)
"A Christian man is a free lord over all things and subject to no one"
"A Christian is a subservient servant of all things, and subject to every man"
"You should be free from all things!" (Luther: Freedom of the Christian Man)
3: About the soul
"How does it help the soul, if the body is free, fresh and healthy, eats, drinks and lives as it likes? - How does it harm the soul, if the body is trapped, sick and faint, is hungry, thirsty and suffers? None of these things can reach the soul, in order to free or trap the soul, to make the soul pious or evil."
"If the soul, however, has the say, the soul does not need any other things, but it then is full of sufficiency, food, joy, peace, light, art, justice, truth, wisdom, FREEDOM.
4: We all believe
"The Christian reaches this honors exclusively by faith and not by work. (Fragments of the Luther choral)
We all believe in one God, creator of heaven and earth...
... who sacrificed himself to the Father, so that we become his children.
5: Meditation: The Luther Rose
6: Here I stand!“
Luther during the Reichstag in Worms: "I cannot help it - here I stand!"
"Christ liberated us to freedom! Now stand firmly" (Gal. 5:1)
7: Final: „About charity“
"... that all works should be intended to benefit your fellow people...to serve your fellow people from free love".
"...that a Christian man does not live in himself, but in Christ through faith, in the fellow man through love."
"... Love is freedom in its most beautiful form (Landesbischof Frank Otfried July)
Dedication: Dedicated to my friend Mark Mast
Additional remarks: When I wrote this composition I discovered (increasingly in pain) how close the Luther text is to one's own life: We live in a false world, in a prison of heteronomy, programming, illusions, with meaningless goals without roots in our own lives... We are tied to schemes and cartels (without realizing it), tied to economic system of banks and groups, to the dependence on computer programs, to the hypocritical reality of advertising, movie and television... briefly: WE LIVE IN A MATRIX... which pretends a reality that is different from the real own reality, which pretends a "ego" that is different from our real "ego". FREEDOM... said Martin Luther... is the freedom of the soul and our "inner self", a freedom that is independent of external things such as prestige, appearance, health, wealth and material equipment... The inner FREEDOM without lying to one's self is the highest value of man. That's why I called the prologue of my composition "GET OUT OF THE MATRIX!...see through the tissue of lies of our world of facades and property...
... like Martin Luther freed the people from the matrix of clergy and the tyranny of the aristocracy and also of the banks (the Fugger's banking house was behind the indulgence trade among others)... we shall also free ourselves again. "About the freedom of the Christian man" is a highly topical text!
World premiere: 19.05.2017, Protestant Stadtkirche (town church) Freudenstadt. Opening concert of the BLACK FOREST MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017
Performers at world premiere: Judith Spiesser (soprano) - Florian Götz (baritone), Philharmonic Orchestra Baden-Baden, conducted by Mark Mast
