Viola (Evening at the Window II)

Composer's Notes

Evening at the Window was first composed for viola solo commissioned by the ARD Competition 2018. The soloist is also supposed to play small percussion instruments.

In 2020, a version Evening at the Window II was created for viola and piano with small percussion instruments. In this version, the percussion instruments are played by the pianist. The piano mainly produces different timbres that sound in dialog with the viola. In the published score (2024), the percussion is newly arranged, but the viola part remains unchanged.

Marc Chagall’s painting “Evening at the Window” has accompanied me for many years. I admire the color combinations, the enigmatic meaning of his subjects and the placement and representation of the objects in space - as if there were no gravity.

The composition reflects the closer inspection of the parts of the painting and combines them into a connective mode. Thus, the seven pieces can be understood as miniatures of a larger picture, connected by short pauses of tension.

The composition starts with the yellow moon.

a rooster in the sky, smoke from the chimney and in your arms show different musical perspectives and are each connected by the yellow moon. Four variants of the yellow moon are composed in different interpretative ways like a distorted refrain with different timbres, thus building a bridge between the other pieces.

a rooster in the sky is characterized by a connection between melody, rhythm and percussion colors of the intense dialogue sounds between viola and percussion.

smoke from the chimney starts with the light barcarole character of a lullaby, which is interrupted by contrasting rhythmic actions. However, it ends as a lullaby again, but changed from the beginning.

in your arms there is a frequent change of bars, creating flexibility of a melodic motion connected under a longer flowing arc.

The piece ends with the fourth variation of the yellow moon.