shut up and listen! 2024
Thursday, October 10, 2024 @ echoraum
Ludmila Frajt: Srebrni zvuci (Silver sounds)
for String Quartet and Silver Spoons
with Koehne Quartett
Srebrni zvuci (Silver sounds)
The string quartet Srebrni zvuci (Silver Sounds) was composed in 1972. It expresses the idea of merging the sounds of silver spoons and a string quartet in an innovative way. The composition consists of a movement in free polyphony based on the principle of controlled aleatorism. The duration of the individual sequences is given in seconds and is left to the free interpretation of the performers. The arrangement of the contrasting tempi – slow-fast-slow – gives the impression of a three-part compositional form. The first part – Lento – begins gently with a bright, ringing tone produced by the striking of silver spoons hanging in pairs from the musicians’ music stands. This silver sound, which gives the composition its name, is joined one after the other by the four string instruments with barely audible high harmonics and rustling chords in the lower register. In the second, middle section – Poco agitato – the strings develop lively playing with large intervallic leaps and expressive tremolos of dissonant chords in the viola and cello. The climax of the composition is reached by striking the wooden bodies of the instruments, which is left to the free interpretation of the composer’s intentions. The silvery sound of the spoons points to the final slow section, which differs from the first in that there is a subtle tonal interweaving of the voices, which dissolve into the trembling silvery sound and gradually disappear.
[Ludmila Frajt]
Ludmila Frajt
Ludmila Frajt (Belgrade 1919-1999) was born into an musical family with diverse cultural roots. Her father was of Czech origin and came from Pilsen, her mother was of Sudeten German and Romanian-Vlachian descent, whose ancestors had settled in Belgrade in the mid-19th century. These multicultural influences undoubtedly shaped Frajt’s artistic work and her sensitivity to different forms of musical expression.
She began her music studies in 1937 at the Academy of Music in Belgrade, initially in piano (in the class of the Czech pianist Emil Hajek), and from the following year also in composition (first with Miloje Milojević and then with Josip Slavenski). She completed her studies in 1946 with the Symphony in D.
The desire to explore new sonic tendencies led her to Darmstadt in the early 1960s and later to the experimental studio of Czech Radio in Pilsen, where she created her first electro-acoustic composition Asteroids (1966). However, it was her work in the music department of Avala Film and composing numerous film scores as well as music for radio plays that best realized her ambition to broaden her musical horizons. This undoubtedly influenced her decision to expand the sound palette of traditional musical ensembles – she added the sound of silver spoons to the string quartet, the sounds of children’s toys to the human voice and later, after rich experience in electronic studios, tape recordings to the choral parts. Her style is characterized by a certain asceticism, one could say, in all compositional parameters. Her works, especially those composed in the 1970s and 1980s, are all short and rarely last longer than ten minutes. They are mainly aimed at smaller ensembles, apart from numerous choral works.
The reference to traditional folk music is innovative and of decisive importance for the aesthetics of her works. The emphasis is not on quoting folk melodies or rhythms, but on the sonority of folklore as an acoustic phenomenon, often with reference to the surrounding environment. This is particularly evident in the compositions Tužbalica (a ritual of lamentation for the dead) for women’s choir, Kres for mixed choir and percussion (a ritual of fire jumping and wreath weaving) and in Ekloga for wind quintet, strings and percussion.
Other important works: choral works (Pesme noći for female choir, strings, harp and piano; Zvona for choir and tape), chamber music (Dubrovačka lirika for baritone, lute and instrumental ensemble; Nokturno for flute and guitar, Muzika za 13 gudača), concertante works (Svirač i ptice for clarinet and orchestra) and electro-acoustic works (Nokturno, Figure u pokretu, Asteroidi).
[Hristina Medić]
Koehne Quartett
Joanna Lewis, violin | Anne Harvey-Nagl, violin | Lena Fankhauser, viola | Arne Kircher, violoncello
The Koehne Quartet, founded in 1987 by Joanna Lewis, is one of the outstanding interpreters of contemporary music in Central Europe. The quartet’s repertoire spans a wide musical spectrum from classical composers for string quartet to works of the 20th and 21st centuries. From the very beginning, the quartet has sought to work closely with the composers whose music it plays in order to achieve the most authentic and lively interpretation of their works. What began with works by Graeme Koehne – one of Australia’s most renowned and multifaceted composers – has since continued consistently with Austrian contemporaries such as Friedrich Cerha, Kurt Schwertsik, Francis Burt, Thomas Pernes, Gerd Kühr, Thomas Larcher and Wolfgang Liebhart. The Koehne Quartet’s working principle of breaking new musical ground together with the composer has been significantly influenced by their participation in master classes with the Alban Berg Quartet (Günter Pichler), the Amadeus and Brodsky Quartets, Hatto Beyerle and György Kurtág. The Koehne Quartet also works regularly with international jazz musicians such as Dave Liebman, Wayne Horvitz, Peter Herbert, Anthony Braxton, Georg Graewe, Max Nagl and Otto Lechner and with artists from the world music scene such as Marcel Khalife, Marwan Abado and Dhafer Youssef.