Professor Andrea Bedetti

www.musicvoice.it

One of the many points that connects ancient music to contemporary music is the fact that both genres see the use of musical instruments and the human voice in an incessant and mutual role reversal. This means that contemporary music, beginning with post-Webernism, increasingly considers the relationship between instrumental music (especially wind instruments) and vocal music as an expression of [artistic] exchange (and mutual exploration / substitution). From a vocal point of view, stringed instruments are preferred, in conjunction with the human voice, since the timbre is very similar. This reciprocal exploration / replacement takes the context of imitation in  the contemporary musiclanguage. These are techniques that are fundamental to the development from antiquity to the Baroque, but in comparison to our time they must be understood as elements of "transmigration" between musical instruments and voice (or between voice and musical instrument). This migration does not have an exquisite tone color value in some areas of contemporary music. This means, that it’s based on sound reproduction and how [and whether] a musical instrument can replace the voice - or vice versa. Likewise, the will may be [simply] to perceive and manifest continuity in the artistic message. The message can also be a spatial and temporal extension of a musical form. Or it can juist combine instrumental and vocal sound [or combine] and thus contribute to the realization of a whimsical, [and / or artistically intended] that has to be worked out.

Among the current composers, who are very sensitive to this kind of musical creation, is certainly the German musician Hans-Jürgen Gerung who has worked for several years [in this field]. Gerung studied and explored the guitar on all its possible aspects of sound and on the other hand he exactly worked with the above described process through a series of CD-productions, in which the central theme was the transfer from the musical instrument to the voice (and vive versa). All of these CDs were published by Gerung-Arts & Music.

In this sense, the last two CD productions by Gerung, to say the least, are exemplary: The first CD is titled Gegenüber and contains three compositions (Bahubali, The Wolf of Gubbio and The Rainmaker) for reciter and two cellos, while the second CD puts German accordionist Valentin Metzger at the center. Metzger interprets a triptych of song arrangements under the title Letzter Frost (here in the version for solo accordion - there is also a version that is intended for the guitar).

The first recording is based on the texts of the German religious scholar Dr. Melanie Barbato, a specialist in the field of interreligious dialogue, which addresses three different religious facets in three moments of faith. First the Hindu conception (Bahubali), then the Christian faith (Der Wolf von Gubbio) and the Taoist way (Der Regenmacher). In all concepts, the principle of non-violence is pointed out. In addition to the studio recording, this work was also premied at the last edition of the international festival forum of contemporary music - oberstdorf, which took place in March of this year in the parish church of St. Johannes Baptist in Oberstdorf (Germany).

The recitation by Oliver Mannel is flanked by the cellists Dmitri Dichtiar & Pavel Serbin, who play baroque cellos. The three pieces are divided into six parts, each of which is divided into three recitations and three cello duos. Thus, the listener becomes a direct witness to the development and transformation process from text to music.

The change between the recitation of the voice and the instrumental development strongly and symbolically reminds of the typical expressiveness of an oratorio. [An artistic form] in which also spiritual and artistic energies [and presence] are worked out with equal strength. Both, the human voice and the instrumental sound, can do this. In this way, a kind of magical, meta-verbal and metaclassic system emerges in which the dimension of the recited text assumes a value that goes beyond simple linguistic understanding and communication. It is, as if the listener could be involved in the phonemic expression. The two baroque cellos answer out from the rhythm of the German language - and they not only amplify the range of sound of the human voice, but they work with the stated goal of expanding the scope of the logos as well as of the word, the lexical construction of the story - they even go to convert it.

The parabolism becomes an echo again, in which the verb continues to be music and thus embodies a value that is exquisitely metatestual, lulls, peacefully attuned and calmed.

And that is the true meaning of the [composition-] title given the fact that the German term Gegenüber can be translated as Gegenstück (counterpart). This means that both, the textual recitation and the instrumental dimension are different - but at the same time inseparable, two halves, two parts, forming a single and indivisible unity.

Last Frost dates from 2017 and Gerung created the work in two independent versions. One for the Finnish guitarist Patrik Kleemola and the other for the German accordionist Valentin Metzger. Both versions were presented by the two artists during the edition of the international festival forum of contemporary music – oberstdorf, 2018. With this work, the German composer transcends the formal boundaries of a particular setting, defined by a text and a score, in which he creates a conceptual score that demands a great investment of creativity and ingenuity from the interpreter. This means that Gerung [almost] asks the player: 'be more recreational artist and less interpreter!' - basis for this creative process are three old folk songs of Finnish tradition: Aamulla varhain, Tule mun ystäväni rantahan and Kun lauttamme puomia heilutteli

And although notes of the Nordic popular tradition serve as a basis, it is the interpreter himself who, with the help of [his] voice, extends the range of expression of his executive action. Here are sounds, phonemes, intonations, which Valentin Metzger combines in the course of his instrumental reading with a twofold goal: On the one hand, the barrier between past and present, between the old and the contemporary, must be perpetuated and canceled out. [He, Valentin,] becomes instrument in the instrument. With his voice becoming an element that interacts with the timbre of the accordion, adding to the context of tradition the interruption of the now, the "contemporaneity". It is the voice that adapts what the tradition conveys. On the other hand, it is the composer's willingness (in the sense of the above-mentioned transmutation) to delegate, in order to give the interpreter the opportunity to expand with his own voice [and creative power] what Gerung has currently defined in the score. And with that the composer gives room - creates an unfinished work! - from which [on the other hand] it can never be said that it is completed. Like the sound that can never end (whether external or internal). Just as the nature, that is gloryficated in this way, cannot end. Three Finnish folk tunes, adapted by the German composer for guitar and accordion, which create to a no longer linear, in the past / present / future interrupted, but a cyclical continuity. A new concept of time (and at the same time a new concept of sound), not fixed in itself, but always flowing ... indistinct from the timbre of the musical instrument to the echoes of the voice of the same performer / composer.

In both recordings, all the participating artists are proponents of an interpretation that perfectly suits the artistic requirements. Undoubtedly, Valentin Metzger plays the hardest part, as he fulfills the author's role as well as the interpreter; it is the role of the artist, who is also a composer, without falling into the trap of an extraverted behavior [or rather, a disordered personality] for its own sake.

Finally, the sound recording of both recordings is good and characterized by a more than acceptable dynamics, which allows a [spatial] experience of the sound event (as it would be on stage, for example). Artists and their instruments can be ideally reconstructed.

Andrea Bedetti

go to e-magazine MusicVoice.it

Hans-Jürgen Gerung – Gegenüber

Oliver Mannel (reciter) – Dmitri Dichtiar & Pavel Serbin (Baroque Violoncelli)

CD Gerung-Arts&Music

Artistic assessment: 4/5

Technical assessment: 4/5

Hans-Jürgen Gerung – Letzter Frost (Version for accordion)

Valentin Metzger (Accordion & voice)

CD Gerung-Arts&Music

Artistic assessment: 5/5

Technical assessment: 4/5