Located in the UK
Located in the USA
Located in Europe
- Karsten Fundal
The Fountain Water (1989)
- Edition Wilhelm Hansen Copenhagen (World)
Programme Note
The titel contains two layers of meaning which describe two aspects of the music. Both layers concern the fountain and its water.
In alchemists' symbolism the fountain is the renewing force of life (aqua labis), a concept of a profound natural force that both renews life and has healing properties. In my way to prepare the material of the piece a parallel is drawn as ascending tone-cascades constantly replace each other and by that all the time create new formations but with an over all formed consistency and a very openly ascending direction. This touches the other symbolic layer namely a kind of Zen-interpretation or 'tantric' understanding of a certain aspect of the fountain, more explicit the turning point, exactly the moment before the water begins to fall and grativity starts to work.
The core in the above mentioned spiritual directions are that in the moment that the water is exactly in the turning point it is in fact weightless. In a figurative sense this is the 'transcendental' point. Transferred for instance to the image of human mind this corresponds to a mental accumulation, where one at the culmination itself refrains to release the tension but instead tries to contain it. In this way tension can be endured and one escapes the traditonal decline that normally follows after the relaxation. In other words one 'transcends' an otherwise brief moment and cancel in a certain 'Zen' meaning time.
This is what I try in this piece; this should not be understood as the only right way, but only as a valid alternative to the traditional curve of relaxation.
In alchemists' symbolism the fountain is the renewing force of life (aqua labis), a concept of a profound natural force that both renews life and has healing properties. In my way to prepare the material of the piece a parallel is drawn as ascending tone-cascades constantly replace each other and by that all the time create new formations but with an over all formed consistency and a very openly ascending direction. This touches the other symbolic layer namely a kind of Zen-interpretation or 'tantric' understanding of a certain aspect of the fountain, more explicit the turning point, exactly the moment before the water begins to fall and grativity starts to work.
The core in the above mentioned spiritual directions are that in the moment that the water is exactly in the turning point it is in fact weightless. In a figurative sense this is the 'transcendental' point. Transferred for instance to the image of human mind this corresponds to a mental accumulation, where one at the culmination itself refrains to release the tension but instead tries to contain it. In this way tension can be endured and one escapes the traditonal decline that normally follows after the relaxation. In other words one 'transcends' an otherwise brief moment and cancel in a certain 'Zen' meaning time.
This is what I try in this piece; this should not be understood as the only right way, but only as a valid alternative to the traditional curve of relaxation.