With von mund zu mund Martón Illés and poet Felix Reinhuber created a work for voice, ensemble and live electronic that explores the basics of human language. Commissioned by Ensemble Modern, Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, SWR Experimentalstudio and Berliner Festspiele/Musikfest Berlin with support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the work receives its world premiere performance on September 18 at the Berlin Philharmonie under the baton of Michael Wendeberg.
Illés and Reinhuber explore the physical and sonic possibilities of language based on substantial questions like “How does language develop?” and “When does a sound turn into a word and so take on meaning?” To emphasize the connection between body, voice and sound, the work uses a special spatial arrangement:
“There will be surround sound. The voices will be distributed throughout the entire space in the Philharmonie. And the ensemble will also have local speakers. This means we’ll have full spatial sounds, but also individual local sounds to convey specific articulations. The audience will be practically right in the middle of the action,” says Márton Illés.
Following the world premiere in Berlin von mund zu mund will be presented on February 4 at the ECLAT Festival Stuttgart and on February 10 at Alte Oper Frankfurt.
For more information see Ensemble Modern.
