VUH (2001)

The title „VUH“ refers to a personal experience, which in this piece is in connection with the moment when the percussionists have to smash bottles. However a more precise explanation would not contribute to a more in depth understanding of the music.

There are two important aspects in the piece: The first is a certain „tense restlessness“ which is evident during the whole piece. But it has nothing to do with a dramatic linear development. Second, there is a kind of play between the various individual musical elements. They are in a continuously process of changing communicative relations.

„The tense restlessness“ is the background of these different communicative relationships of the musical elements, which – if one wishes – symbolically represent persons and their interhuman relationships. Because only the abstract type of these relations is of importance, there is no certain program. Moreover the expressive content on a pure musical level might be much more multifold and even different compared with reality.

Seen from that point of view, also the role of the soloist is not considered in the sense of „solo with accompaniment“. It is more an ongoing interactive acting with oneself, with and against the other musical characters or individuals. The main difference is that those other „musical individuals“ do not correlate directly with one special player because they are only signified by their pure music immanent characteristics. They only appear as musical material. But for the soloist, his musical material and his personality are closely related, and the latter has a reasonable influence on the musical result of his part. For example, the solo part is often not notated with dynamics. Therefore the soloist is challenged to determine his position towards the other „musical individuals“ (the music played by the orchestra). A conductor has to take care of this fact.