... moments, instants... inspired by Goya’s phenomenal Caprichos, and yet directly finding new form in their own musical cosmos, going further ... taking off... evolving ... finally transcending themselves ...
as for instance in “Nadie se conoce“ ( nobody knows himself, the ’ World as a Masquerade’); a kind of musical reflecting on Substance and Accident, which becomes the artistic impetus for the musical form, essentially allowing the composition to hatch out of the ever recurring, varied modifications of the self-same material ... constantly appearing different, and yet in the end always remaining fundamentally the same ... though ever hiding, concealing the structure ... showing almost absentmindedness towards its own material.
... and yet at the same time ... ever thirsting after high definition in the constructive development of the composition, delicate light – nuances of shade ... fascination for aquatints (?)
... and yet moments of disguise, contortion, distortion, ever playing a fundamental role in the concrete shaping of material, determining the composition, of course not just superficially, on a technical level of instance, but above all though the internal structural processes and interrelated strands within the work ... and with this come time and time again completely unexpected wanderings, byways, detours, organic expansions or ... sudden cuts to something new ... / familiar?
... or in the ultra- compact “Tantalo“ ( Tantalus) the notion of struggling against one’s own impuissance as a structure-determining force – moving in a very different direction from that which Goya’s Capricho would seem to suggest at first glance – a movement where short phrasal interjections – based on a microtonal passus duriusculus – from a freedom – desiring fantastical sound – world alternate abruptly with elements of mechanical relentlessness, momentarily revealing, it would seem, the discreet first signs of loosening tension in structure, sounds and gestures ... yet all the while rapidly gaining in power, energy, density and inner momentum ... and with this an ever greater paring down of the material structure ... and ... at the final point of compositional self-destruction ... plunging into an ever intensifying whirlpool-frenzy until finally ... inevitable self-collapse within the more or less continually shifting gravitational field of the form
or in “Lo que puede un sastre“ ( what a tailor can do!), where the clearly-defined, fixed sound material – ever being modified and differently combined – ultimately brings maximal diversity to material, which in itself otherwise remains strictly unchanged ... a kind of compositional ’disguising’ of the Substance and with this, movement towards a static structure – interrupted by a continual interweaving of phases (seemingly) expanding on the sound material –
... until suddenly, unexpectedly, the movement topples over into the utterly identical material with which it began, though this appears ( by means of performance- technique) in heavily modified form.
and finally in “El sueño de la razon...“ (the dream of reason...[produces monsters] ) (the dream slightly favoured over the sleep of the voúc, though both finally reaching essential synthesis on an utopian plane), where, from the outset, the objectivistic structural principles – construction – thirsty Fibonacci ever hovering in the background - are breaking, bending, distorting ... thus from the beginning, objectivity is solely an approximation ... and naturally deviation, and at the same time ... a systematic expansion of the space trough the Category of the Contradictory ... a world of tolerated ’opposing ideas’ or ... momentary glimpses of a world of category- contradicting metroplexes ... reason (?) ... and yet ... running into – as a kind of Nemesis (?) – Gebser’s integral Worlds – (of – Consciousness) ...
Snapshots / Caprichos- reflections on Goya ... and beyond... are dedicated to Jürgen Ruck and were premiered by him.
Michael Quell