MONADOLOGIE XV (2011), para cuarteto de saxofones, 2 percusiones y 2 pianos
La pieza forma parte de la serie de obras Monadologie, que en la actualidad incluye cerca de 25 obras.
Este ciclo consta principalmente de Meta-composiciones, es decir, procesos compositivos de síntesis. Estas operaciones son destruidas por procesos granuladores y electrónicos y vueltos a ensamblar nuevamente, a modo de las técnicas cinematográficas utilizadas en el cine experimental destructivista de Raphael Montañez Ortiz.
En este caso hay citas de fragmentos, entre otras, de John Coltrane, Iannis Xenakis y materiales propios que se encuentran en el punto de partida de estos procesos.
Sólo el Interludio Veneciano queda fuera de este contexto, y comprende una textura completamente libre.
La pieza fue encargada por Marcus Weiss, con quien tengo una larga trayectoria de cooperación. (B.L)
Bernhard Lang (February 24, 1957 in Linz) is an Austrian composer, improvisationalist and programmer of musical patches and applications. His work can be described as modern contemporary music, with roots, however, in various genres such as 20th-century avant-garde, European classical music, jazz, free jazz, rock, punk, techno, EDM, electronica, electronic music and computer-generated music.
His works are performed on all relevant festivals of modern music and range from solo pieces and chamber music to large ensemble pieces and works for orchestra and musical theater. Besides music for concert halls, Lang designs sound and music for theater, dance, film and sound installations.
Bernhard Lang came to prominence with his work cycle “Differenz / Wiederholung” (“difference / repetition”) in which he illuminated and examined the themes of reproductive and DJ cultures based on the philosophic work of Gilles Deleuze. Socio-cultural and societally critical questions, as in “Das Theater der Wiederholungen”, 2003 (“The Theatre of Repetitions”), are as closely examined as intrinsic musical and music-cultural problems (“I hate Mozart”, 2006).
Another focus is the “recycling” of historic music, which Lang performs using self-programmed patches, applying filter and mutation processes (as in the “Monadologie” cycle). Alongside classical European instruments, Lang also makes use of their amplified electrical counterparts (e.g. electric viola) as well as mutually microtonally de-tuned ensemble groups. Analogue and digital synthesizers, keyboards, rock music instruments (electric guitar and bass, drumset), turntables (the trailblazing instrument of the reproductive culture), rappers, Arabian singers, speech and live-electronics (mainly the self-programmed “Loop Generator”) are similarly used.