I stumbled across a recording of the young Klaus Kinski interpreting Goethe's poem Totentanz. At the beginning of my compositional work, however, the content of the poem was actually secondary. The musical aspects of Kinski's voice were far more important to me. I was fascinated by the tonal quality of his voice, the rhythm of his delivery, the way in which ins- especially consonants but also vowels are "made to speak" by his voice as isolated sound elements. In addition, the voice has a timbre whose color moved me musically. Under the impression of this consistently sonorous perspective, a process of metaphorical transformation of Goethe's Totentanz then began. From then on, the literary component, that is, the content of the poem and my personal reception of it also became important to the work. On the one hand as a macabre, hu- morous and fantastic dramaturgy at the same time and on the other hand as a sound material now detached from the voice of Kin- ski, but bound in the words of the poetry and available through its own reading. Also, of course, came purely musically related compositional questions, such as the rhythmic and linear organization, divided, at least at the beginning, into different temporal grids, as individual layers, yet interlocked in the interplay, or the almost minimalist instrumentation, which allows composing with clearly defined pitches only to a limited extent and at the ex- tremes of high (crotales) and low (timpani). Composition and interpretation complemented each other in a free decision and created a dramaturgical and tonal basis.

PERCUSSION 1 :

• 7 Woodblocks (low to high)
• 1 Log Drum
• 1 Tam-Tam
• 1 Glass bottle
• 12 Crotales from G to G ( G6 - G7 )

PERCUSSION 2 :

• 7 Tempelblocks (from low to high) - 1 Wooden Drum
• 1 Tam-Tam
• 1 Glass bottle
• 1 Sandblock (rather large)


PERCUSSION 3 :

• 3 Pedal Timpani ( I - 32'', II - 29'', III - 26'' ) - 1 Tam-Tam
• 1 Sandblock (rather large)
• 3 Cymbals (low, medium high)