Die Stücke der Windrose (1991)
(Südosten)

In line with my intention to frequently change the location of my acoustic observations, I look from Cuba across the Caribbean in the chosen direction. This area, which begins in Colombia and stretches from Venezuela, Suriname and the Guianas to the Amazon, is home to folk and popular music of the most diverse cultural origins. They only appear to coexist, but in reality they influence each other, merging into strange mixtures and forming trends that can last for a long time or soon be forgotten. African-American dance rhythms and melodic twists of Spanish tradition, Creole dialects and sharply pointed percussion instruments, subversive transformations of pious ceremonies and European ballads from the 16th century in Indian languages: which of these ingredients can hold its own in the long term in a scene that is constantly changing through invention and use?

When writing my piece, it was far from my intention to imitate such complexity. So I limited myself to two characteristics. One is introduced right at the beginning and is based on a typical accompaniment figure which, accompanied by a second figure, becomes the main voice. A little later, another motif appears which – similar to diatonic melodies for balafon and zansa in some regions of Africa – is based on the repetition of a single interval and always ends on the same root note with a downward tendency. Both thematic elements are embedded in a choral polyphony.
In the course of the piece, the playing of the participants continually takes on a life of its own until only the rhythmic variations of a single tone row remain. A parallel polyphony emerges from the ever-same melody: Southeast has migrated across the Atlantic to Africa to the ethnic sources, and it is these that ultimately systematically infiltrate the score.

M.K.
(Translation by Edition Peters)