27 November 2013

WALTER ZIMMERMANN "LOKALE MUSIK" (Edition Theater am Turm, 1977 - 1981)


Walter Zimmermann (born Schwabach, Germany, April 15, 1949) is a German composer associated with the Cologne School.

Zimmermann studied composition in Germany with Werner Heider and Mauricio Kagel, the theory of musical intelligence at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht (now located in The Hague), and computer music at Colgate University in New York.

Zimmerman's works are infused by a personal adaptation of minimal technique. Whereas many early American minimalist composers were influenced in their works by rock, jazz, and world musics, Zimmermann has drawn a great deal of inspiration from his Franconian heritage. A number of his works, particularly his groups of pieces known as Lokale Musik, use the traditional music of this area as source material. These works frequently begin with melodic material derived from Franconian folk songs, which are rearranged and transformed in novel ways.

In 1976, Zimmermann published a collection of interviews with American musicians and composers entitled Desert Plants: Conversations With 23 American Musicians. (source: Wikipedia)
See also his own webside - recommended readings...here.

If you like this music I urge you to buy CDs from him. Especially a new recording on Mode Records were parts of this LP are presented in new interpretations. Very fine version of "10 Fränkische Tänze" with two string quartets. One playing the composition presented here plus a quartet playing a drone.
Also another recent release on Maria de Alvears label World-Edition which has four works with greater ensembles/orchestra.


Lokale Musik - local music.
A kind of anti-"world-music" but sublimated, substituted, transformed and "transcended" as Walter Zimmermann has put it in the description of the four parts from "Leichte Tänze" (airy dances but also "easy").

Some rough translations/explanations by the custodian of the fountain :

Kärwamelodien - "Kärwa" means in franconian dialect church anniversary but also country/parish fair.

Wolkenorte - "Wolken" means clouds and "Orte" means place/location/site/scene/lieu.

Riuti: hard to translate - refers to the landscapes of wine cultivation.

Wüstungen und Rodungen - also hard to explain (for me) - a "Wüstung" refers to a settlement or an agraic area which was abandoned before the modern times (ca.16th century), but is still remembered in field-names, old charters/documents, in local oral tradition/lore.

"Rodungen" connotes to the clearing/uprooting of an area for farming purposes.
The word "Rodung" is also related to the term "ausrotten" - to extirpate or to eradicate.

Keuper: shell limestone - a geological formation and a form of soil which is characteristic for the franconian wine district.

Ländler: a slow dance in the beat of 3/4.

Phran + Topar: no clue at all on my side...

Streichglasspiel - an instrument made of glass which is (gently) bowed (also with the fingers).

Stille Tänze - silent dance(s).

Namenlose Zwiefache: "Namenlos" means simply nameless and "Zwiefache" is a fast south-german folk dance which alternates constantly between a spinning/rotating movement and a waltz-like dance.

And finally - "Der Tanz und der Schmerz" - dance and pain/sorrow.


Lokale Music is a landmark, not only as a remarkable body of music, but as a model of a composing as a project that connects the musical to the historical, ethnological, social and psychological, and one in which these connections are never musically trivial.
Daniel Wolf (http://renewablemusic.blogspot.com)

(CD 1)

PROLOG:
1. Ephemer   (18:19) für Klaviertrio
Geschrieben für das Clementi-Trio:
Konstantin Gockel, violin
Manuel Gerstner, cello
Deborah Richardis, piano

LÄNDLER TOPOGRAPHIEN   (41:02)
für Orchester
2. Phran   (17:02)
3. Topan   (24:00)

LEICHTE TÄNZE
4. 10 fränkische Tänze   (11:47)
sublimiert für Streichquartett

5. 25 Kärwamelodien      (05:29)
substituiert für 2 Klarinetten
John Corbett & Michael Riessler, clarinet

(CD 2)

1. 20 Figurentänze       (06:58)
transformiert für 6 Instrumente
John Corbett & Michael Riessler, clarinet
Bruno Piroth, trumpet
Konstantin Gockel, violin
Gerhard Köhn, violin
Martin Ingenhütt, double bass

2. 15 Zwiefache          (06:13)
transzendiert für Gitarre
Hubert Machnik, guitar

3. WOLKENORTE            (24:59)
für Harfe
Gabriele Emde, harp


STILLE TÄNZE
4. Erd-Wasser-Lufttöne    (08:27)
für Klavier, Streichglasspiel und Posaune
Stephan Sauvageot, trombone
John McAlpine, piano
Hubert Machnik, streichglasspiel

5. Riuti, Wüstungen und Rodungen  (07:30)
für einen Schlagzeuger
Martin Schulz, percussion & voice

6. Keuper. Namenlose Zwiefache    (06:30)
für Streichquartett
Konstantin Gockel, violin
Gerhard Köhn, violin
Horst Enger, viola
Manuel Gerstner, cello


EPILOG:
7. DER TANZ UND DER SCHMERZ   (08:10)
für 13 Instrumente
John Corbett & Michael Riessler, clarinet
Bruno Piroth, trumpet
Stephan Sauvageot, trombone & alto trombone
Gabriele Emde, harp & voice
Hubert Machnik, guitar
John McAlpine, (hammered) dulcimer
Martin Schulz, percussion & voice
Martin Ingenhütt, double bass
Konstantin Gockel, violin
Gerhard Köhn, violin
Horst Enger, viola
Manuel Gerstner, cello

Walter Zimmermann, conductor


Dates of recording:
Prolog - 18 Feb. 1982
Ländler Topographien - 28 March 1981
Leichte Tänze - 9 Feb. 1982
Wolkenorte - 10 Jan. 1982
Epilog - 9 Jan. 1982

Edition Theater am Turm (1982)

(lp rip)

18 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. This looks very interesting. Thank you.

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  3. Hi!
    well if you download before the new year!
    RS speed:3mbs

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  4. I've been doing a bit of research on RS download speeds, testing the variations between the three different options downloaders have. If you have a paid account, download speed is about 2 mb/s on the home computer (but very much faster on the office machine (which is part of a university network - up to 9 mb/s). So if you have a 100 mb file, it will take you about 50 seconds on a home computer, depending on what deal you have with your ISP - usually a broadband connection - and possibly also on the capacity of your machine.

    If you have a registered free account, the download speed drops to about 50 kb/s, so again assuming a 100 mb file, it will take you about 33 minutes to download the file. I set up a separate free account with RS to test the speed.

    However, if you do not have any account, download speed drops to less than 4 kb/s, but if we assume 4 kb/s for the sake of simplicity, it will take you close to seven hours to download the same file. If the file is 300 mb or more, it may take a day or so.

    So I would advise users to consider at least the registered free option. For non-registered, RS is practically useless as of now.

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  5. thank you for the music! Great to hear this and the other contemporary composed music posted here recently. For followers of IS who like this sort of thing, and who have not stumbled across it yet, the Wolf Fifth archive is now up on ubu-web (in mp3), http://ubuweb.com/sound/wolf.html. msj

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  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  7. Thank you very much!
    Zippyshare works very well!

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  8. i must admit i didn't know Zimmermann but i'm intrigued by the descriptions of his music.Thank you very much Onxidlib

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  9. Thank you very much!
    I would be happy if some sort of a good man filled this:

    Günter Sommer - Ascenseur Pour Le 28 (NATO 329 LP)
    http://inconstantsol.blogspot.de/2008/12/gnter-sommer-ascenseur-pour-le-28-nato.html
    Group Ongaku - Music Of Group Ongaku
    http://inconstantsol.blogspot.de/search/label/Group%20Ongaku

    and recorded(riped):
    THE RELATIVE BAND - The Relative Band ’85
    http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.de/2011/07/relative-band-85-lp-1985-australiausa.html

    Thank you in advance, your user!

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  10. ....listen to almost the second day and I can not come off, your blog is a window into another world!
    Very grateful to all those who do it!

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  11. Thanks.
    With a RS registered free account i just downloaded in 8 minutes (4+4).
    So, RS, for the moment, works very well for me.
    Saluti dall'Italia

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  12. Links are dead, can you reups please

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. Nice!
    I only knew "Festina lente" for string quartet (Arditti Quartet Edition 18 on Audivis)
    Thanks!

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  15. Is there any chance of this getting uploaded again?

    Thanks for any help you can provide.

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  16. Hi Herb Levy,
    both links are still good. A little upstream is my comment from 19 March 2015 with the links.

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  17. Deleted the links. The complete 3 x vinyl and some more music was reissued (plus more aIsb) on Mode Records.

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