ORGELZYKLUS (1984 – 87)
For organ solo
My composition ORGELZYKLUS consists of three pieces – MAU, PUSAT and M 3 B – each of which can be played alone as well. The titles are related to personal aspects and have nothing to do with the music itself.
The second piece was composed last; therefore MAU and M 3B are more similar in gesture and expression. All three pieces have similar structural devices. In MAU and M 3 B these structural aspects can be recognized on a more abstract level (see also the more unspecified suggestions for registration). In both pieces I try to approach a kind of music which, on the one hand, can only be realized with the organ, but, on the other hand, avoids all typical „organ-like“ specifications. Both, the compositorical process and the realisation call for a kind of meditative concentration, free from emotional and expressive individual elements. Extreme contrasts, like the „empty“ passages and the ecstatic virtuoso sections are not oppositions but rather different results of the same basic attitude.
In my music I always use very concentrated „formula-like“ elements which in spite of their contrasting temporal characters are always present. For example, a short melodic motive which appears as an ostinato is „coloured“ by another process of a different temporal structure; this motive is then later stretched to a longer duration (same relations) thus causing an effect, totally different from the previous one.
Even if this connection is not always audible in the foreground, these formulas continue „to work“ in the background. They are the basis for the overall coherence.
PUSAT was composed last and is clearly different in character. In this piece, sound-colour plays a central role, and I have organised it following the criteria similar to those used in MAU and M 3 B, (as far as that was possible). Again, there are different overlapping levels which create the effect of an organ similar to a „living organism“. PUSAT was especially composed for the organ at St. Martin in Kassel (Germany). Every new performance (new church and organ) requires a special preparation of the organ according to the character of the instrument.
