J&J
for mezzo-soprano, piano & live-electronics  1996

composed in 1996
total duration: 19'

The first version of this piece was premiered by Bettina Bruns (voice) and myself (piano and electronics) in the "Akademie der Künste" in Hamburg/Germany in november 1996. The revised version was premiered by Janice Jackson (voice), Marion von Tilzer (piano) and Marko Ciciliani (electronics) at the Ysbreker in Amsterdam/Netherlands in april 1998. 'J&J' is a meditation on songs in their various forms. I am using two very different texts that probably have only in common that they are both describing a situation where one person desperately tries to find or reach another. I discovered that this dilemma served as a major source of inspiration for the invention of innumerable song-texts, let it be in folk-, pop-, or romantic music. In this sense I mainly looked at these texts as 'models of a genre' and placed them next to each other in an unresolved way. I wanted them to rather go along with the piece instead of being mirrored directly in the music. I tried to reflect this situation of an unresolved duality on multiple levels; in the texts, in the use of the texts, in the musical textures, in the relationship between the two musicians and in the relationship between the interpreters and the technical part. The texts were written by Bettina Bruns and the Grimm Brothers. Both were originally written in German. I did not want to use translations for this performance, as I consciously chose this language for its association with the tradition of "Das Romantische Lied".

Performance by Janice Jackson and Marion von Tilzer:

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