Work descriptions
"...grains...loops..." by Otto Wanke
“… grains… loops…(grains of wheat) is based on the poem “Grains of Wheat” by the Jewish poet Abraham Sutzkever, which was written in the Vilnius ghetto during the Holocaust. Abraham Sutzkever was an outstanding Yiddish poet whose work represents one of the most important artistic reflections on the suffering of the Jewish people during the Holocaust.
Based on this poem, grains or small particles of the poem itself – i.e. individual letters, syllables and words – were used as a template for the musical structure of the composition. The individual letters that appear in the words of the poem were assigned different pitches. Thus, individual letters appear as short, punctual sound events, syllables as intervals and words as chords. The letter combinations in the words in turn form rhythmic cells that generate different pulsations in the course of the piece.
The result of this compositional model is also an interplay between vertical and horizontal interpretation of the letters: A word can be interpreted both as a chord and as a melody. This principle can be extended from syllables (intervals) to entire phrases (harmonic aggregates or clusters). The composition is thus a kind of reflection of the original text and an attempt to capture the structure and moods of the
"Friling" by Danielle Lurie
Danielle Lurie’s Friling for viola, accordion and timpani is inspired by the extraordinary history of the Vilnius ghetto and its rich cultural life despite the harsh and inhumane conditions. The piece is based on the Yiddish love song Friling (Spring), which Shmerke Kaczerginski wrote in the Vilnius ghetto in 1943 to express his grief and longing for his deceased wife. The tango rhythm of the original song emphasizes the contrast to life before the war. Vilnius, or “Jerusalem of the East”, was an important spiritual and religious center of Judaism until the Second World War.
Only around ten percent of the Jewish community in Vilnius, once one of the largest in Europe, survived the Holocaust. The form of the composition follows the Hebrew proverb “The seven circles of hell” and depicts the change from the threat of war, via the massacre of Ponary, to life in the ghetto. Elements of the song Friling accompany this process, initially as a distant memory of life before the war, later as a search for hope in the midst of the unimaginable circumstances of the ghetto.
As the climax of the seven circles, the original song Friling appears for the first time in its complete form. The music then returns to the initial mood and invites the listener to question the role of music in these difficult times.
