1) SUITE THE TRUTH OF J.P.S. – PART I-III
(Composition: Caroline Thon)

An appeal to prove the French existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre wrong with his negative views on mankind!

PART I „Closed Society“
Based on the stage drama “Closed Society”, the confrontation and threat of this negative view is set to music. You can hear quotations based on the stage drama of the main protagonist “Garcin”.

PART II „Naisser“
(Further development of the 1st draft of the composition “Naisser”)
Increasing aggression is expressed by frantic brass sections and a rocking guitar solo. This resembles a description of how it could end, if Jean-Paul Sartre should be right with his pessimistic view on mankind.

PART III „Conclusion“
As the classical final movement of a three-movement suite, a slow movement concludes, and here the opposite position is presented:
what it might be like if we were to engage with the following words of the Buddhist master Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche:

„It is our mind that either chains us or liberates us“.

2) YVES.KLEIN.BLAU (IKB)
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

Yves Klein, the French conceptual artist, is best known for his monochrome paintings, in which he primarily used a monochrome ultramarine blue, which he eventually patented under the name “International Klein Blue.”

The psychological color effect of this blue tone consists in the magnetic pull it causes on the viewer, who literally feels drawn into the picture… the music that was created along with it has the same effect.

A quotation from Yves Klein appears in the piece: He complains about the birds making holes in his best work of art as they fly around in the cloudless, blue sky.

3) SUITE STRUCTURES I-VI
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

This composition is based on six abstract photographs depicting natural structures. Electronic sounds are associated with them and musical structures are composed.

In the spirit of a “Gesamtkunstwerk”, the sounds and associated compositions are arranged in the form of a suite consisting of several parts.

4) MAMOIADA
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

The village of Mamoiada is located in the province of Nuoro in Sardinia. This is where the traditional folk dance “Passu Torrau” originates from. A vocal tradition based on four tenors is also native to the same area.

This piece is inspired by the version “Passu Torrau” of the quartet “Tenore Gòine de Núgoro”. In 2016 Christina Fuchs has won the 1st prize in the International Composition Competition “Scrivere in Jazz” for jazz orchestra there and this is how she got in touch with the region.

1) ENSUITE à MINEUR
(Composition/Arr.: Christina Fuchs)

Based on: Ludwig van Beethoven,
String Quartet No.15, Opus 132 / fragment
1st movement Assai sostenuto
Opus 132 is Beethoven’s second to last string quartet and was composed 2 years before his death, at a time when he had already completely lost his hearing.

Christina Fuchs:

“I was wondering: what might it have felt/sounded like to hear the music deeply inside, but outwardly perceive only a distorted image of it, if at all? Comprehensible all the frustration, anger and despair – fascinating beautiful the music of the inner landscapes.”

2) SPURENSUCHE OPUS 13
(Composition/Arr.: Caroline Thon)

Basierend auf: Ludwig van Beethoven,
Sonate für Klavier Nr. 8 c-Moll, op. 13, „Pathétique“
3. Satz, Allegro

Based on: Ludwig van Beethoven,
Sonata for Piano No. 8 in C minor, op. 13, “Pathétique”.
3rd movement, Allegro

In “Spurensuche” Caroline Thon reworks the “Piano Sonata No. 8, opus 13” (1798), which is a rather early work by Beethoven that strikingly oscillates between bursts of power and sensitivity.
The motives – especially in the tutti parts – are all taken from the original work, only they are either rhythmically condensed or slowed down and sound in a contemporary, jazz harmonic context.

3) IMMORTAL BELOVED LOVELETTER
(Composition/Arr.: Christina Fuchs)

Based on: Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No.7 Opus 92 / fragment
2nd movement Allegretto

Christina Fuchs:

“This slow movement is so insanely beautifully yearning that I re-wrote it as a love letter to his Immortal Beloved (whoever that might have been: Giulietta, Therese, Amalie, Josephine, Dorothea, Antonie, Bettina? )
Myriads of researchers have tried to solve this mystery by some daring theories, however, it might be that the way is the goal:
There is a strong, rhythmic persistence and tension about it, as well as a certain despair, because he will never find her, the immortal beloved…”

4) BEGEGNUNG NR.14, OPUS 131
(Composition/Arr.: Caroline Thon)

Based on: Ludwig van Beethoven:
String Quartet No.14, Opus 131
1st movement. Adagio, ma non troppo e molto expressivo

The open form of the fugue in the original work is adopted in “Begegnung Nr. 14” and the opening motive of the 1st movement is at first embedded in a contemporary jazz context and then developed independently.

To approach the inner dilemma of Beethoven, who was already completely deaf at the time of its creation, a quotation from a malicious critic on the occasion of the premiere of this string quartet is counterpointed with excerpts based on the “Heiligenstätter Testament” (1802), which is considered his intended farewell letter.

1) THERE
(Composition: Caroline Thon)

A piece about “arrival”, as well in the sense of “coming home” as ” reaching oneself”.
A quotation based on Pierre Boulez’ “Guidelines” describes what has to be mastered when unusual sounds want to be embedded in conventional sound structures:

“The influence of outside vectors takes place in two ways: indirectly, when the contribution from outside is not intended to be incorporated into the work in real terms; directly, when one intentionally wants to merge another means of expression, which is capable of being autonomous, with the music.”

It is thus a matter of equal, coexisting but dissimilar sound events or about their fusion.

2) NAISSER SEEMS TO BE …
(Composition: Caroline Thon)

3) ICELAND II – DOOMSDAY – CORONAKOLLER
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

An updated and rearranged version of the composition ICELAND and extended with the parts DOOMSDAY- CORONAKOLLER. It is an image of the status quo in 2020:
Glaciers continue to melt, faster than ever before, but climate issues have been put in the back seat, politics is too slow to respond, and economic interests ultimately hold the upper hand globally..

Christina Fuchs:

“Therefore, in ICELAND II, I gave the basic mood a different urgency, condensed it, made the tempos faster- and the general tone of the sounds more aggressive.”

„This is an emergency!“ is the headline of this work, an alertness is supposed to arise and be transmitted.

4) KHO BA
(Composition: Caroline Thon)

5) SYRINX
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

Christina Fuchs:

“This composition was created during the Corona Lockdown Spring of 2020 during my regular walks in the woods. While doing so, I repeatedly heard the birds in certain places and “visited” them, so to speak.
The birdsongs vary amazingly, even birds have a daily pattern and the variety of songs is huge: some birds have a seemingly infinite variation in their repertoire, some can only repeat a certain sequence at a time, some “chatter” without pause, others are more sparse.”

They all share the syrinx, the vocal organ responsible for singing. No larger than a lens, it’s composed on a dozen bony rings as well as two dozen muscles. The lips of the voice can contract up to 200 times per second – high-precision vocal work.
Human vocal organs can hardly keep up, so the bird voice transcriptions are only vague approaches. Individual bird or instrumental voices are brought into a harmonic and rhythmic context, which are eventually the basis for improvisations.

The village of Mamoiada is located in the province of Nuoro in Sardinia. This is where the traditional folk dance “Passu Torrau” originates from. A vocal tradition based on four tenors is also native to the same area.
This piece is inspired by the version “Passu Torrau” of the quartet “Tenore Gòine de Núgoro”. In 2016 Christina Fuchs has won the 1st prize in the International Composition Competition “Scrivere in Jazz” for jazz orchestra there and this is how she got in touch with the region

1) 1. SUITE High Fidelity of Materialism – what about the Nature?
(Composition: Caroline Thon)

Part I Ouvertüre
Part II The Beauty
Part III Materialism/The Black Swan
Part IV Reprise „Tsueltrim“

A 4-part suite “High Fidelity of Materialism”.
The OPENING introduces the main motifs, THE BEAUTY is an an ode to nature (with quotations from Lucretius and from Buddhism) and MATERIALISM describes the coldness of our materialistic world. REPRISE is a musical appeal to compassion.

Caroline Thon:

“A big dream was the realization of my 4-part suite HIGH FIDELITY OF MATERIALISM, which is inspired by political actions and my collaboration on radio play productions.”

2) ICELAND
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

Addressing the current topic of climate crisis, the melting of glaciers in Iceland, in particular the glacier Oksjökull, which has died in 2019.

Also a tribute to Greta Thunberg and her courageous speech in front of the European Parliament on 4/16/2019.

Christina Fuchs:

“It is important to me to make it audible and tangible what is happening such as how the ice is melting, to transform the drama of the processes into music.”

3) IS IT YOU?
(Composition: Caroline Thon)

Inspired by the composition “The Unanswered Question” by Charles Ives (1874-1954), this composition addresses the question of why two people recognize each other and say “yes” to each other. Love letters written in vain are discovered here as sound sources in their own right.

4) NEWTONS CRADLE
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

Five small steel balls are suspended from a metal frame. For a while, no office desk lacked such an accessory: the ball impact pendulum or “Newton’s Cradle” – simple and ingenious alike.

If you bounce one ball against the other four, one ball swings up on the other side; if you bounce two, two swing up: Newton’s law of the conservation of energy, cause and effect, momentum and energy.

Christina Fuchs:

“… and these physical laws became quite real for me in 2014: it was this composition that got me the WDR Jazz Prize!”

5) POSCHTI
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

This is an tribute to the Swiss post bus, affectionately referred to as Poschti in Schwyzerdütsch. In the mountains, the bus driver honks an A major triad in every serpentine as a warning to oncoming traffic!

Christina Fuchs:

“I could hardly believe it and, above all, I couldn’t resist the temptation to write a piece about it.”

6) TEXTURES OF MEMORY
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

• How do neuronal circuits work in the brain, how does memory work in relation to musical parameters?
• Is a musical motif recognized by the brain in a completely different form or not?
• Does the brain recognize that a piece is built from only one small motif and chord, but in different shapes and forms?

These are questions that Christina Fuchs explores in this piece as if it were a field experiment.

7) KRONOS
(Composition: Christina Fuchs)

Christina Fuchs:

“The subject of “time” has been fascinating me for a long time. It becomes audible here with the sounds of church bells, the ticking of a clock, setting the timing of this composition.”