Canon for three Voices a cappella
10′
Based on a text by Olga Hohmann.
Listen to the piece (in the German version):
This is the ENGLISH VERSION of the piece. A German version is available here: Dornröschens Staub
The composition is based on a text by Olga Hohmann, inspired by a short quote by Georges Bataille, in which he asks why classic fairy tales do not mention that Sleeping Beauty must have been covered in a thick layer of dust when she awoke. Dust, as we know, consists of over 80% skin particles: Sleeping Beauty is therefore covered in a past version of herself. The cyclical nature of time is thus also a reference to the cycle of life – we are simultaneously in the process of becoming and passing away.
The composition, which comes across almost like an intimate murmur, is rhythmically based on a technique that is supposed to be used to calm down the nervous system — for example, when you can’t fall asleep. You are supposed to inhale for three counts and exhale for six counts, twice as long. We hear a voice that, as in a polyphonic inner dialogue, interrupts itself, as if thoughts were circling as if in a half-sleep. The consequence of this polyphonic dialogue is a long canon.
Text by Olga Hohmann:
After so many years of sleep, Sleeping Beauty is literally a new person when she awakens.
A new person made up of new cells. The thick layer of dust covering her is the remnant of her own body, the person she once was.If you can’t fall asleep, you should inhale for three long breaths and exhale for six long breaths.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it rhymes.
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