FUCHSTHONE RELOADED#1 (2020)
PROJECT
On September 10, 2020, the FUCHSTHONE ORCHESTRA started its concert series on a regular basis titled “FUCHSTHONE RELOADED#1″ at the “European Center for Jazz and Improvised Music”, Stadtgarten/Cologne.
The line-up:
Caroline Thon, Christina Fuchs (composition, conduction, arrangement),
Roger Hanschel, Tobias Haug, Matthew Halpin, Benjamin Steil (saxes),
Christian Mehler, Marvin Frey, Matthias Knoop (trumpets),
Philipp Schittek, Matthias Schuller (trombones),
Wolf Schenk (basstrombone, tuba),
Zuzana Leharovà (violin),
Filippa Gojo (vocal),
Lars Duppler (piano),
Andreas Wahl (guitar),
Alex Morsey (bass),
Jens Düppe (drums),
Eva Pöpplein (electronics, live samples)
Due to the Corona-related closures and restrictions on concert events, these concerts take place almost a year after the celebrated premiere concerts. Christina Fuchs and Caroline Thon used this period to write new compositions for the orchestra. In doing so, they further explore the potential of a “soloist ensemble”, something the FUCHSTHONE ORCHESTRA considers itself to be in the meantime.
In all compositions the soloists are given a lot of space to improvise, up to collective improvisations in selected orchestral instrument combinations. In addition, compositions from the premiere program are continued, as well as works whose compositional process has deliberately not yet been completed, in order to allow the input from the concert performance to be incorporated in turn into the composition that continues to be written.
A particular challenge for these performance dates is the minimum distance between the musicians that must be maintained due to hygiene regulations. This is in addition to the separating walls, which make it extremely difficult to hear each other. As a result of the increased spacing, again based on space constraints, the instrumentation had to be reduced. An additional re-arranging of the compositions therefore becomes necessary.
The following pieces are on the program:
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)
In a broader sense, it is also an analysis of the current situation caused by the pandemic.
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.
Details auf Wikimedia Commons
(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
FUCHSTHONE ORCHESTRA RELOADED#1
With their RELOADED# concert series, the FUCHSTHONE ORCHESTRA, in cooperation with the European Center for Jazz and Contemporary Music / Stadtgarten Cologne, pursues the consistent ongoing development of their compositions in a direct exchange with the orchestra.
Press says:
“Finally awake and performing again: The Fuchsthone Orchestra left the Corona forced break behind in Düsseldorf and Dinslaken … The caught-up performances felt like waking up from a bad dream. The liberated playing of this collective of musicians under the double leadership of Caroline Thon and Christina Fuchs was once again an audible and tangible reality.”
“Landscapes were created at the concert in Dinslaken…”
“Christina Fuchs and Caroline Thon launched the new jazz season in Dinslaken in the auditorium of the Gustav Heinemann School Center…”
“The circle of life is completed … Focusing on strong ideas with such a large number of instruments and timbres and to never drift into labyrinths, that is the asset of the Fuchsthone Orchestra, whose potential is guided into amazingly stringent directions by Christina Fuchs and Caroline Thon. That’ s how imaginative “musical theater” works!”
