Beschreibung
“Yonsei” was composed after a longer period of writing mainly for orchestra or solo instruments. However, chamber ensembles of such medium size have always been the main focus of my musical thoughts over the last 20 years. Aspects of collectivity, musical “individuals” or “personalities” and the ongoing relationship between collectivity and individuality have been the signature elements of all those previous pieces. “Yonsei” still owns a lot of these elements, but rather on a secondary level. The title refers to “Yonsei-University” in Seoul, where most of the piece has been written during my stay as guest-lecturer in September 2010.
Formally the piece is based on a short rhythmic phrase which then was developed into various rhythmic layers. The most important procedure was the augmentation of the main rhythmic phrase in various ways. The double augmentation became the frame for another detailed and “speech-like” rhythm, which again was augmented in different ways. Both, the basic rhythmic phrase as well as the new “micro”-rhythm had been designed in regard to speech-like constellations, without being based on a certain text. I strongly believe in the abstract rhetoric quality of such rhythms.
The macro-form is then based on various cycles of the largest augmentation structure and deals with long melodic lines, including peculiar instrumental combinations but also solo-passages.
