brigitta muntendorf

CRACK

for large orchestra

premiere (2009)
Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln, Michael Luig / 1. Prize of the Composition Competition

revised version (2017)
Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Hubert Soudant

Duration
10:00 min

Instrumentation
1 picc, 3 fl, 3 ob, 1 engl. hrn, 3 cl, 2 bsn, 1 c-bsn, 4 hrn, 3 trp, 2trb, 1 bass-trb, 1 euph, 1 cb-tba, 4 perc, 1 harp, str

about

CRACK is an early orchestral piece (2009) that refers to “Ein Heldenleben” by R. Strauss and uses the same instrumentation. CRACK is a critical examination of the heroic epic and questions the “heroic” in music. In CRACK the companion, whom Strauss places at the hero’s side in the poem in the form of the solo violin, experiences an emancipatory process. Peak performances on the part of the musicians in extreme heights, depths and volumes seem to go round in circles and serve no goal. Fanfares appear as fragments and whimsical machines, from which, however, fragile moments and polyphonic interweavings emerge, forming small inner communities.