Die Stücke der Windrose (1991)
(Nordwesten)

In this piece I refer for the first time to the autochthonous music of the South American Andes, which I have often heard at first, second and, if you like, third last hand both over there and in Europe. The fact that in this case this happens by means of an ensemble whose instrumentation is far removed from a rendition based on the authentic sources, I find quite appropriate at a time when permeability and mutual influence have become central concepts in the consideration of musical languages and cultures. On the other hand, illusion and the evocative are part of the essence of salon music. If, even after just a few bars, one feels transported to the geographical point indicated, then the listener himself enriches the atmosphere of the piece with fragments of his musical memories or experiences on the spot.

At the same time, Die Stücke der Windrose deal with the changing significance of the celestial directions and their inherent relativity. The examination of this conditionality in connection with a changing location is one of the main concerns of this cycle. I was quite surprised some time ago when I read a musicological treatise on the cultrun shaman drum, a single-headed drum with a semi-circular resonating body used by the Machis of the Araucanian-Mapuche culture from southern Chile. Maria Ester Grebe describes the symbolic microcosm of the instrument, which “simultaneously represents the universe of this indigenous people and its transcendental functions.” Colors and drawings on the surface of the skin symbolize the four levels of the vertical (sic!) world view, the four cardinal points the horizontal gradations between good and evil.[1] The result is an ethical surface orientation of the earth.

In describing this imaginary world, I was fascinated by the vertical view of the world. This aspect in particular is important in my salon pieces. I assumed that the various points of the compass are positioned upright in front of us like on a map: North at the zenith, East on the right, South at the bottom and West on the left. This is why each of these pieces ends with a silent contemplation of the target point, as if the performers' gazes were frozen signposts.

And in Nordwesten, after the first part, where an imaginary Indian procession approaches the concert podium, a final dance takes place, which I have written in flawless polypentatonic as an homage to a tonal system that has certainly remained foreign to us. May the gods who inspired the depiction of the cultrun forgive me for this strange music.

M.K.
(Translation by Edition Peters)