Instrumentation: Flute (doubling Bass flute), Baritone Saxophone (or Bass Clarinet), Violin, Viola, Violoncello
Duration: ca. 10‘
Publisher: Schott Music
FP: Jan 31, 2008, Munich
FP (revised version): Jan 28, 2012, Düsseldorf, notabu Ensemble/Mark-Andreas Schlingensiepen
Further performances:
Detmold 25.9.2013
Marienmünster 20.10.2013
Winterthur 10.5.2014 (Swiss premiere), Ensemble Horizonte, Dir. Jörg-Peter Mittmann)
Bern 11.5.2014
Dresden 12.3.2017
Commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera with funds of the „Friends of the National Theatre“
Introduction:
One of the most bodacious episodes in the Kalevala, the finnish national epic, tells how Joukahainen challenges the old, wise singer Vainamoinen into a competition, during which Vainamoinen sings him up to his neck into the swamp.
This scene, combining stunning and comical elements, is a great subject for a musical composition, but holds also a certain risk: nothing would be more evident than depicting it by an ample, romantically expressive cantilena. This, however, seems quite dull and conventional to me – instead, Sumpfgesang is based on the imagination of Vainamoinen’s chant as anything else but melodical (in a traditional sense) and ostensibly clamant.
The paradoxical idea of the piece could rather be described as „chant without melody“, characterised by an inner tension, power and diversity and a partly fragile and bizarre musical language that avoides everything superficially ‚melodic‘, yet still creating a ‚breathing‘ dramaturgy and suspense.
The quintet is mostly being split into even smaller instrumental units, but there is never a dominating single voice – in fact, the few solos are the most sparse episodes of the composition. The sections are often marked by clear cuts and harsh contrasts rather than smooth transitions, but in the details, the musical language is colourful and sophisticated, building more and more tension that culminates in an unexpectedly massive tutti