Gefäß des Geistes, für (leicht verstärktes) Klavier

It sometimes occurs to a composer to write a work that is neither prompted by a commission nor motivated by the desire of a comrade from the musical milieu. A work that simply arises from inner need.

This is the case with this piano piece, which owes its title to a very beautiful statement by Robert Schumann about musical form: „Die Form ist das Gefäß des Geistes“ ("Form is the vessel of the spirit" – "Sinfonie von H. Berlioz," in: Schriften über Musik und Musiker. Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag, 2009, p. 34). And so this irrefutable assertion sounds like a post-Goethean principle, for we read in the poet:

„Laß den Anfang mit dem Ende

Sich in Eins zusammen ziehn!

Schneller als die Gegenstände

Selber dich vorüberfliehn.

Denke, daß die Gunst der Musen

Unvergängliches verheißt,

Den Gehalt in diesem Busen

Und die Form in deinem Geist“

(Goethe, aus „Dauer im Wechsel“, in: Sämtliche Gedichte. Frankfurt a.M.: Insel Verlag, 2007, S. 407).

Even though the piece is based on carefully calculated materials, especially as far as the harmonies are concerned, the process of composing was mainly determined by my free spirit. Gefäß des Geistes is in fact my homage to the piano, my instrument and comrade since always: without any preparation; without any sound modulation or processing. Exclusively a bit of amplification, so that one perceives all the details of the musical, sonic writing. So pure keyboard music that has shaped my mind, just as my mind has formed its form here.

Gefäß des Geistes had its premiere on November 9, 2012 at the Kleiner Saal at the Tonhalle during my appearance as Guest Composer of the Tage für neue Musik in Zurich by Michael Mahnig.