World premieres by Carola Bauckholt, Fritz Hauser, Leonardo Idrobo, Camille Kerger, Iñigo Giner Miranda and Mike Svoboda
Staging: Iñigo Giner Miranda / Marion Rothhaar
September 6 2021 Montags um Sieben, Biel (CH)
March 6 and 8 2020 Kulturhaus Niederanven, Luxemburg (LU)
April 23 2019 BKA Theater Berlin Unerhörte Musik (DE)
January 25 and 26 2019 Théâtre National du Luxembourg (LU)
March 13 2018 Musik der Jahrhunderte, Stuttgart (DE)
February 23 2018 Flute Trends Atelier, Niederrohrdorf (CH)
January 25 2018 Fabrikpalast, Aarau (CH)
January 18 2018 Gare du Nord, Basel (CH)
Excerpt from the programme from the première in Gare du Nord Basel on January 18 2018:
Fritz Hauser (*1953) about “Shong“ (2017, Premiere) for snare drum
A request for a percussion piece is always a delight! Even more so when the commissioner is a colleague, who is fully dedicated to the complexity of the instrument.
In this case the additional challenge was to study the tradition of the “Hämmelsmarsch”. The “Hämmelsmarsch” plays an important role in traditional Luxembourgish popular music. Already as a child, Louisa was determined to perform this piece once in her lifetime.
I created a piece for Louisa Marxen that also draws a connection to my relation with the drum. Although I did dress up as a child for Carnival, including a metal drum and drumsticks, the Basler Trommel was never my goal. I did not feel attracted to this rather loud universe. Though the drumming in itself was kind of great! Drumming on all sorts of materials, eventually also on a proper drum. In the meantime some decades have passed and this ritual slowly becomes more important in my musical work. das rituelle Moment (falscher Artikel?) This is when I thought that I should write a piece where the drum, is at the centre of the creation, but different. Not only a drum that is noisy. A drum that smiles, that pulses, that breathes, that sings. The piece is called „Shong“ combining „Sheep“ und „Song“. A piece where the “Hämmelsmarsch” and childhood songs meet and combine.
Carola Bauckholt (*1959) about „Vakuum Lieder“ (2017, Premiere) for Solo Vacuum
The piece was created as a commission from Louisa Marxen, whom this piece is dedicated to. It directly links to the musical theatre project «The Vacuum Pack», developed with the Eunoia Quintett.
Since quite some time now I am interested in suction noises for example the gurgling of a fountain, the slurping of a drain or the magnificent bubbling noise of water in a cave, created by waves and currents. In music, the exploration of this universe has not yet been extensively studied. Our usual set of instruments is based on the principles of sound creation through friction (string instruments…) or exhalation (voice, wind instruments…). The suction is not represented. But still it is a fundamental part of our lives, like inhaling and exhaling.
In close cooperation with Louisa, we studied this new instrument of the mouth and sucking pipe and developed „Vakuum Lieder“.