Between sound and silence

Make-up date Saturday 12.11.22 at 7.00 p.m.
Artothek Hanover, Voßstrasse 11a/Hinterhaus, 30161 Hanover
Pay what you can

"This true silence... is the foundation of all thinking, on which all creative things of value grow. Everything that lives and lasts arises from silence. He who carries this silence within himself can calmly meet the loud demands from outside."
Yehudi Menuhin

"Silence all around -
penetrating the rocks
Cicada voice"
Matsuo Bashô
Japanese poet (1644 - 1694)

Content

The performance moves in the border areas between sound and silence with the aim of feeling, hearing and perceiving silence in music. It is a venture and an attempt to make the various facets of silence tangible and to experience silence as an aesthetic, contemplative, but also political place.

The compositions and sounds oscillate between music and silence, classical and modern, noise and melody, notation and improvisation. To explore and deepen sensory perception, some pieces are sounded twice in a concert dramaturgy: first the audience listens with open eyes, later with closed eyes. To intensify this experience, we bathe the room - in a light control - in a soft dimmed light. The musicians are placed between the audience and make music in the midst of the listeners. In this way, the visitors experience sounds and tones at close quarters. They can hear the rustling of the bow or the inhalation of the clarinet and perceive them more clearly.

The aim of the concert experience is to sharpen the ears and senses, to perceive silence as a "precious" window of time and to experience how important silence is for music and for life as a whole.
The programme includes works by J. Cage, G. Kurtag and M. Feldman. The second part will feature works by musicians who become composers themselves.

Participation of the audience

The audience is an important part of the performance. They are encouraged to participate and are included in the concert. Based on the graphic notation "Paper Music" by Ben Patterson and on their own concepts for the haiku poems, the musicians develop versatile sound collages together with the audience. They will use various types of paper - in different thicknesses and densities - as well as pebbles and everyday objects as instruments, which will be distributed to the audience before the concert. Guided by the musicians, a sonic panorama is created that opens the ears and senses to hidden possibilities and facets of noise and sound, and at the same time represents an invitation to the world of contemporary music.