Mirror and Circle (2013)
(for pipa, violoncello and Chinese orchestra)

The Yellow Emperor said:  When my spirit goes through its door,
and my bones return to the root from which they grew, what will remain of me?
Chuang Tzu

The orbit of our planet, the mushrooms in the forest, the geometric tool, the stone falling into the water – large and small, important and unimportant things draw circles. What is immediately obvious for the visible was transferred to poetry and music:

Poem and song cycles, groups of works and programme concepts seek unity and cohesion, as ideally symbolized by the circle. Even the inner structure of (not only musical) works is governed by the law of striving for perfection in cyclical roundness.
Cultures meet, mirror each other, one's own life experience is reflected in the mirror of the other person, everything is transformed, changed, channeled into new paths and altered cycles.

On my study trip through Taiwan at the beginning of September 2013, I often encountered the symbols of circles and mirrors in temples, houses, in everyday life, in shops, in the emotional view of nature – Sun Moon Lake!

Lines become sound, sounds dissolve back into lines, Far Eastern thinking and music-making combine (perhaps) with Western structures and emotions to form a new whole.

In my composition Mirror and Circle, a Chinese and a Western solo instrument meet: the pipa and the violoncello, the marvelous Ya Dong from Shanghai / Leipzig and the great Peter Bruns from Berlin.

The background, the echo, the mirror for these solo instruments, for the competition, the dialogue, is formed by an orchestra with Chinese instruments.

I have been interested in other, foreign cultures since my student days and have been travelling intensively and increasingly to Southeast Asia, India, Japan and now also Taiwan since the 1990s.

I had already composed for the pipa player Ya Dong from Shanghai in 2001, then also for Sho, Sheng, for a project in Kolkata in India.

But now a whole orchestra with Chinese instruments! A completely new world of sound opened up to me, a great challenge for inspiration and craftsmanship! A great benefit for my own work.

During my study trip to Taiwan in September 2013, we also visited Sun Moon Lake and stayed for two days near the lake in a small but very nice and welcoming homestay. One of my companions was an emeritus professor from Taiwan, who gave me countless tips on the history of Taiwan, the many ethnic minorities and the resulting historical background. Many ethnic minorities in Taiwan, so-called aboriginals, still live around this lake today. During our delicious barbecue, I asked him about a special song from one of these groups and, after a moment's thought, he began to sing me a Tao song that is said to have a special meaning at the turn of the year.
I immediately saved this song as a video and spontaneously had the idea of using this melody as the basis for Mirror and Circle. From this song I then spun further individual lines at home in Germany, developed motifs, reduced them, stretched them, compressed them, built sounds and chords, created the basis for my entire composition.

And only in the EPILOGUE does this melody sound once again as I heard it at Sun Moon Lake...

Bernd Franke 2011 (Translation by Edition Peters)