Block Beuys - Raum 4 bis 7

24 vitrines for 21 instrumentalists (1998-2000)
20 minutes | no.19

Block Beuys - Raum 4 bis 7 is the final part of the eighty minute cycle Block Beuys. Rooms 4 to 7 (together 101 m2) are set in one musical composition, as they consist of a uninterrupted succession of glass cases (vitrines) displaying objects.

The continuum is represented by the two percussionists.

Then there is music representing the vitrines: a 'neutral' music which begins monophonic, quiet and slow and gets more polyphonic, softer and faster with each vitrine.

Finally there is music portraying the  objects. In this music the instrumentalists perform as soloists, independently from the conductor. They dispose of freedom as to when and how to play their musical material.

The overwhelming, claustrophobic complexity emanating from these rooms, eventually ends in a stationary, saturated tremor.

photo: Block Beuys, Raum 6 (Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt, 1990) by Claudio Abate

Scoring

2(II=picc).1.3(II&III=bcl).1-0.3(III=btrp).0.0-perc(2)-pf(=cel)-pf(=synth)
str(1.1.2.2.1)

flute 1 (also piccolo), flute 2, oboe, clarinet, 2 bass clarinets, (double) bassoon,
2 trumpets, bass trumpet, percussion 1, percussion 2
piano 1 (also celesta), piano 2 (also 2 synthesizers),
2 violins, 2 violas, 2 cellos, double bass

commissioned by & written for

Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris, France)

dedicated to

Frank Zweers

première

17 June 1999
Grande Salle de la Cité de la Musique, Paris (France)
Ensemble Intercontemporain, David Robertson (conductor)

première (revised version)

6 May 2000
Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
Ives Ensemble,
Richard Rijnvos (conductor)

Audio Fragments

Performance

Ives Ensemble

recording

4 May 2000, Maria Minor, Utrecht (Netherlands)
by Eclat Music Productions

Score Excerpts