stolen windows

The Swiss new music duo UMS'nJIP is one of the most distinguished ensembles for contemporary new music. Over 1400 concerts, 300 world premieres in 40 countries, including at the Venice Biennale, and more than 35 international prizes line their musical path. In this program, they explore the genre of the art song and present a song cycle based on poems by Rolf Hermann.

PROGRAM

UMS'nJIP

stolen windows

Song cycle for voice, recorders and live electronics (audio & video), 2024/25, text based on the poem cycle of the same name by Rolf Hermann from the poetry collection In der Nahaufnahme verwildern wir

PROGRAM NOTES

the were-me is messenger material on offer

that goes illusory blazing towards the window

and protects a tear

that will not wait there

from: Rolf Hermann, stolen windows

entwendete fenster is, after im störgarten (2022) and neophyten (2023), the third cycle from Rolf Hermann's poetry collection In der Nahaufnahme verwildern wir (2021), which UMS'nJIP set to music and is a musical interpretation of a literary adaptation of Rilke's poems.

In entwendete fenster, the lines glow pale-bluish in the shimmer of the monitor, which is the window into the world: "take-off / into the invisible periphery". The frame suddenly encloses a reality in which the ego mutates into an enormous "were-me" as a "messenger in the offer". In short two- to four-liners, Rolf Hermann varies how Rilke's cycle "Les fenêtres" is unraveled and turned around, how memory fades and a new world becomes visible in the twilight of the monitor. Beat Mazenauer, quoted from:https://www.viceversaliteratur.ch/book/22824

UMS'nJIP and the art song. UMS'nJIP have performed over 300 commissioned works and 1400 concerts in over 40 countries since 2007, performing individual works over 100 times - which is almost unique in new music worldwide. Parallel to their work as performers, they are also active as composers and have received 35 international awards for their works. In their work, they repeatedly question classical genres - in this case the art song. The inherent sophistication of the art song on a compositional and textual level is a particular challenge. The duo's personal affinity and approach (voice, recorders and elect


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.