Quodlibet (1986)
(for female voice and orchestra)

When I first encountered the Spanish term for “quodlibet” in an early music concert, I found it at least appetizing: “ensalada”. The French synonym of the time, however, spurned vegetarian food in favor of “fricassée”. Instead, the German “Bettlermantel” contains neither salad nor meat; melodic fragments and textual delicacies are woven into a poor patchwork. The only thing that is certain is that the Latin term “quodlibet” (“what is popular”) has been used in music since the middle of the16th century and is probably the oldest form of collage. Scholarly research has proven that there is a direct connection between the “Disputationes de quodlibet” originally held at the Sorbonne and the musical “durcheinander-mischmäsch” (Roth, 1571). What is exciting is the fact that the shaping of musical ideas was once again based on an extra-musical model and that the musical texture was derived from areas of rhetoric. After all, this is how Renaissance composers created condensed anthologies of well-known melodies of their time. One of the astonishing – and as often anonymous – examples combines fragments from 39 chansons into a four-part ragout in just 58 bars, a kind of reader's digest for listeners at the time.

For my Quodlibet I have used exclusively French chanson texts from the 15th century. In contrast, none of the original melodies appear in this composition. Two sources were available to me for the montage of the original. In terms of origin, the character and verses of the chansons are either of courtly or popular origin. However, the boundary between the two is by no means strict, but rather fluid. The content and subject matter are not interchangeable, but appear again and again in many chansons in a modified form. Lifestyle and custom, – too much or too little – of morality, love as etiquette and a measure of politeness, chastity and its opposite, everything that concerns the business of the heart is given generous space in the Renaissance. Relics from the love poetry of the troubadours are recognizable in the lyrical sentiment as well as in the description of virtuous sensuality or one's own life story. Politics and warfare are not excluded. They are always part of the staffage of that chivalry which knew how to justify every action through a standardized attitude.

In the vocal part of Quodlibet, I have tried to realize some of the double meanings of the text unambiguously, but I have also interpreted some drastic unambiguities in a broken way, thus giving them ambiguity. To this end, the performer often transforms her usual voice into a male organ. The result is clearly defined monologues that almost imperceptibly and instantly become dialogs.

One of the most striking features of reading the original verses is the sincere – and sometimes somewhat distorted – need for candor. Yet no confessional is required. In this poetry, however, the distant or close partner is always omnipresent. It is therefore logical for the listener to take on this role here and not remain excluded like an acoustic voyeur.

M.K.
(Translation by Edition Peters)