Die Stücke der Windrose (1989)
(Süden)

Seen from Central Europe, the south beyond the Alps is often like a synthetic entity that is mainly imagined with a clear sky in a relaxed pastime. However, the concern that the idyllic model could be even further removed from reality than before is a recurring theme in the warmer months of the year. Such speculation leaves little room for the music of the Mediterranean south.
In this piece, rhythms are confronted all the more resolutely with melodies that come from different regions and are likely to be considered acoustic anecdotes in character. The tempo is used here as a deliberate opportunity to bring forth transformations of freely invented folk music. Thus the unambiguous tarantella at the beginning of the piece, which loses its dance-like momentum simply by slowing down to reveal many a hidden facet. Tempi can almost effortlessly express the fact that the boundaries between revelry and melancholy, between cheerfulness and gloom are often fluid. The same music, rendered in a different time scale, changes abruptly, perhaps distorted beyond recognition, and then continues to thrive in an opposite atmosphere without effort.
And so the messages that can be made with music are as numerous as the nuances of verbal language. Its essence, however, fortunately remains changeable at any moment.

M.K.
(Translation by Edition Peters)