AUSTRIA
Composer
name
date of birth
Work
Title
year of composition
duration
instrumentation
names of performers
Recording
Johannes Maria Staud
17.8.1974
On Comparative Meteorology (revised version)
2008-2009/2010
16‘ 52‘‘
orchestra
ORF Radio Symphonieorchester, conductor: Peter
Eötvös
29.10.2010, Konzerthaus Wien
Johannes Maria Staud: On Comparative Meteorology (2010)
for orchestra (revised version)
The work is my attempt to trace the mysterious world of the
Polish-Jewish author Bruno Schulz in a musical way, without
duplicating or illustrating it. The title is taken from the short
story A Second Autumn, in which the father of the narrator
conducts the most peculiar studies of the parasitically rampant
autumn wildlife and the specific climate in his area.
Using fantastically exaggerated memories of his own childhood,
Bruno Schulz creates a bizarre world that is a law entirely unto
itself, with a hyper-realistic language of incomparable
colourfulness. Outside temporal causality, Schulz dissects
reality into its individual components and puts them together
again in new combinations like a kaleidoscope, fractured by an
individual consciousness for which prosaic literalism seems not
to exist.
Hypertrophic descriptions of nature and weather and their
unique reflections in the inner life of humans; questionable acts
of demiurgism and uncharted realms of existence; byways and
blind alleys in time – these are his themes, the foundations of
his bizarre world, which is made up of the little narrator Józef, his enigmatic father Jakub, the lascivious servant
Adela and a series of other peculiar figures. The heat of an August day, the violence of a stormy night (in the
company of an unhinged and fulminating aunt), the fertility of the arrival of spring (and its interpretation with
the help of a stamp album)... I do not exaggerate when I say that I have seen all these things with new eyes and
experienced them with new senses since I started reading Bruno Schulz.
On Comparative Meteorology is made up of six variously short pieces, which follow each other without pause
and which are set off by short fragments of text by Schulz.
Johannes Maria Staud
Born 1974 in Innsbruck (Tyrol). 1994 – 2001: composition studies at the University of Music and Performing
Arts in Vienna with Michael Jarrell und Dieter Kaufmann and at the 'Hanns Eisler-Hochschule für Musik' in
Berlin with Hanspeter Kyburz. Masterclass with Brian Ferneyhough and Alois Pinos. Co-founder of the
composers group 'Gegenklang' in Vienna. International Rostrum of Composers 2003: First Price (category:
composers under 30 years)
AUSTRIA
Composer
name
date of birth
Christof Dienz
12.10.1968
Work
Title
year of composition
duration
instrumentation
names of performers
Recording
Hey Driver, Cool Down the H´s
2008
3’ 12’’
two bass clarinets
Petra Stump & Heinz-Peter Linshalm - bass clarinet
19.6.2010, Großer Sendesaal, ORF RadioKulturhaus
Christof Dienz, Hey Driver, Cool Down
the H’s (2008) canon for two bass
clarinets
At the request of the clarinet duo Petra
Stump and Heinz-Peter Linshalm to
compose music for their “ShortCuts”
collection of 34 miniature pieces, Christof
Dienz wrote a three-minute long
composition for two bass clarinets.
“The title comes from a song by a Latvian
postpunk band from the early 90s.
Unfortunately, I forgot their name, the
original song was called Hey Driver, Cool
Down the Horses. Though only Germanspeaking listeners will catch the ambiguity
of my title (in German H = B), it is
nevertheless programmatic for the piece.
On the one hand, it starts with the note B
but is soon thrown out of joint through
the wild overblowing and squealing clarinet sounds. On the other hand, the “horse” is a central theme in the
composition as expressed by the eighth-and-two-sixteenth-note rhythm, a typical motif simulating the
galloping of a horse. In addition, the piece also incorporates a well-known theme from the signature tune of a
western series.”
Christof Dienz
Christof Dienz was born in Innsbruck (Tyrol) in 1968 and grew up in Kitzbühel. He studied bassoon with Milan
Turković at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 1991–1999 and played with the
orchestra of the Vienna State Opera from 1997–2000. As the leader and composer of Die Knödel he released
four CDs, created the soundtracks for two films and performed with the ensemble throughout Europe,
America, and Asia from 1992–2000. Since 2000 he has been working as a freelance composer and bassoonist.
AUSTRIA
Composer
name
date of birth
Work
Title
year of composition
duration
instrumentation
names of performers
Recording
Peter Jakober
13.6.1977
Trio
2007
8’ 12‘‘
quarter tone accordion, flute, violoncello and tape
Krassimir Sterev - quarter tone accordion, Sylvie Lacroix
- flute, Michael Moser - violoncello, Peter Jakober - tape
19.3.2011, Großer Sendesaal, ORF RadioKulturhaus
Peter Jakober, Trio (2007) for quarter-tone accordion,
cello, flute and tape
When I composed Trio, a piece commissioned by the
trio Amos, the focus was on finding the most
interesting arc of sound for the ensemble’s
instrumentation. Aeolian sounds produced with the
flute flow into air sounds produced with the
accordion’s bellows and mix with the sul ponticello
sounds of the cello. It all comes down to the
interlinking of sounds that are produced in the most
diverse ways within the range of given instruments.
The piece also specifically focuses on the tonal
possibilities of the quarter-tone accordion developed
by Krassimir Sterev. The fascinating sounds of this
instrument coalesce with prerecorded, static spectra
of tone colours drawn from the accordion. By and by,
these textures are fed at higher speed, thus mixing
additional facets of floating veils of sound into the live instrumental music.
Peter Jakober
Peter Jakober was born in Kaindorf an der Sulm (Styria) in 1977 and studied composition with Georg Friedrich
and Gerd Kühr at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz from 1998–2006. In 2003 he co-founded
the annual performance series “Hörfest Graz”, which he curated and organised until 2008. This was followed in
2008/2009 by his work for “compone”, a co-operation between the Academy of Media Arts and the University
of Music in Cologne. He is a recipient of the art scholarship 2011/2012 awarded by the Akademie Schloss
Solitude.