"square & round"
CD-Booklet text:
Dennis Kuhn (*1957)
Okseano (1998/2008)
Youn Jin Cho, Marco Dalbon, David Panzer, Thomas Weigel, Mingu Yoon
Okseano is basically part of a larger orchestral piece called “Prometheus”, which Dennis Kuhn wrote in 1999, a commission by the ballet company of the National Theatre in Mannheim. In this excerpt however, there are only the five percussionists. They use a common group of instruments, but tuned at different pitches: this creates a percussiveness which cuts across a vast space like a powerful chorus but then again also reiterates structure. Conversational, commenting and explaining away like a fascinating game driven forwards by imaginary waves, waterfalls and rapids.
Claude Vivier (1948-1983)
Pulau Dewata (1977) - arranged by Dennis Kuhn for vibraphone,
marimba and piano (2001)
Vibraphon: Dominique Civilotti, Marimba: Youn Jin Cho, Klavier: Hye-Rim Ma
„Pulau Dewata“ means Island of the gods. And just as the Balinese call their home, Claude Vivier (who died in 1983, shot under unsolved circumstances in a Parisian hotel) named this piece as a compositional homage to the pacific island, whose atmosphere and tonal language influenced his entire output over the last 6 years of his life. The Canadian composer, born in 1948, studied in Montreal, Utrecht and also in Cologne with Karlheinz Stockhausen. He counts as one of the most important Canadian composers. He travelled widely, occupying himself with learning many different types of art and folk music outside of Europe. “Pulau Dewata“ is an episode of nine melodies, each one written with an increased number of notes. The first melody is made up of just one note, by the ninth, the melody is based on nine notes. Vivier evokes Balinese dances and rhythms, particularly engaging an almost explosive vitality, which for him was the essence of the island and its people.
Per Nørgård (*1932)
Square & Round (1985) - Two dances for Percussion sextet.
I. In black and white - II. She comes in colours
Youn Jin Cho, Marco Dalbon, Dennis Kuhn, David Panzer, Thomas Weigel, Mingu Yoon
The title is referring to both a square dance and a rondo- the dance-like and cyclic structured movement in a piece of Baroque music. It’s also about opposites, angular and round which the title suggests, or ying and yang for example, male and female, or as the subtitle hints at, black, white and colour. In the second movement one of the performers functions in a sense as a leading dancer. They mark the beat on different instruments, the strong beats of the bar on wooden instruments, the off beats on metal ones. Three players of the ensemble follow with the wooden-struck instruments on the down beat, two others play the metallic ones on the off beat. This leads to a tight interweaving of complex sequences, an interlocking which is known as hoketing (Hoketus technique). Who is on, and who is off the beat? Finding the order in seeming chaos, to hold on to it and feel it, makes for an exciting aural experience.
Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist (1920-2000)
Sisu (1976)
Youn Jin Cho, Dominique Civilotti, Marco Dalbon, David Panzer, Thomas Weigel,
Mingu Yoon
Sisu is a word, which describes a part of the Finnish national character and means something like steadfastness, endurance or fighting spirit. It might be worth noting at this point that Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist once wrote a piece called “Dual for accordion and percussion”. In this case it has nothing to do with duals or battle cries. In spite of some loud and stormy passages, the Swedish composer manages to entice especially melodic qualities in his work. The xylophone, vibraphone, marimba and the such like are perfect for showing this which he brings off in exemplary style. After a highly challenging technical opening, a refined but striking quaver motif ensues that accompanies all the musical events up to the next high point. Developing immediately out of the furore, comes a slow and again very melodically shaped section. Also the next part runs seamlessly out of the previous segment: a strong, now perhaps a rather militant statement, definitely loud, fast, rebellious, well - Sisu.
Siegfried Kutterer (*1954)
Angel’s Smile Interlude No.1 (2011) - performed in five parts.
Thorsten Gellings, Siegfried Kutterer
Letzgi Interlude No. 3 (2011)
Thorsten Gellings, Dennis Kuhn, Siegfried Kutterer
The angel smiles from one piece to another on this album. These five short pieces which make up the Interlude No.1 and “Letzgi” are both based on themes from “Indigo” a piece for 9 percussionists and piano by Siegfried Kutterer written in 2008. The piece with synasthetic associations in the title is written in the carnatic traditional style, a highly complicated compositional technique from southern India, which Kutterer studied during one of his many visits to India learning with T. V. Gopalkrishnan. The composer sees the variation here as a possibility to show some thematic material from his piece “Indigo” in a new context: concentrated for 2 small groups. “Angel’s Smile” as a duet uses the basic tonal material from “Indigo”, incorporating a very popular mode from Balinese Gamelan music. The trio with the title “Letzgi”, opens with the percussion solo from the original composition and goes through intricate rhythmic jumps to a smaller version of the finale. Kutterer, like Dennis Kuhn, also played in Paul Sacher’s celebrated Basel Percussion Ensemble. This brought together various important influences into his own musical language. He has been influenced by top level exponents of 20th century classical music but just as much by musical traditions from other cultural circles, the aforementioned music from Southern India especially, and Balinese. Siegfried Kutterer studied with Siegfried Schmid in Basel – he has performed with such renowned names of modern music as Heinz Holliger, Vinko Globokar, Earle Brown, Pierre Boulez und many others whom have also influenced him greatly. Kutterer’s music is published by “Verlag Neue Musik”(Berlin).
Fobia (2009/12)
Thorsten Gellings, Dennis Kuhn, Siegfried Kutterer, Heidi Merz
The composer Siegfried Kutterer describes the atmospheric span of his evocatively titled piece “Fobia” as “feeling around in the dark until you find the light switch”. Such an idea inevitably is accompanied by such feelings as trepidation, fright, but then once again hope and the belief that goodness will prevail in the end. The expected sound from normal percussion instruments is alienated here by being combined with “exotic” ones such as bell cymbals, spring coil or rin. The expected sound melts as it were with the new, unexpected. A sound structure is thereby created in which the timbre of the instruments melt together homogeneously. Simple rhythmic structures are played over an ostinato pulse, like in a ritual, in small continuously repeated variations until a sudden interruption leads them into a new context, and then continues through to a “heart beat” and the end.
Dennis Kuhn
Dennis Kuhn has gained his international reputation as a composer particularly through his ballet music. However his output spans the whole spectrum from chamber music, through orchestral pieces to electronic music. The rhythmic element is central to his interest in composition, but goes way further than what would be expected of a percussionist. He cites Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as the work which ignited the initiation of his musical journey. Dennis Kuhn’s works are published by “Ricordi München”.
This career path has not only led to working as composer and director of his ensembles, but also as a top class percussionist. He has been invited as guest performer on tours throughout Europe, Japan and the Middle East and worked with symphony orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic Orchestra and Radio Symphony Orchestras of Hessen and South West German Radio. Dennis Kuhn has played under such renowned conductors as Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, Simon Rattle, Roger Norrington, Sylvain Cambreling, Leonard Slatkin, Neeme Järvi, Georges Prêtre, Günter Wand, Peter Eötvös, Matthias Pintscher and many more. He is a guest performing artist with Ensemble Modern, an institution of new music.
Dennis Kuhn was drummer for various rock and jazz groups from 1969 to 1975. Already during this time he composed and arranged music and worked on productions for radio, television and record companies. From 1973 to 1979 he studied percussion at the “City of Basel Music Academy” with Siegfried Schmid and was a member of the Basel Percussion Ensemble directed by Paul Sacher. Kuhn also attended courses on composition and interpretation with Vinko Globokar, Earle Brown, Rainer Bösch and Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
From 1980 till 1995 Dennis Kuhn was co-principal timpanist and percussionist at the opera orchestra of the National Theatre in Mannheim. In 1995 he became professor for timpani and percussion at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Mannheim. He has been tutor for the Young German Philharmonic Orchestra on a number of occasions and he still is external examiner for the City of Basel Music Academy. In 2009 and 2010 Dennis Kuhn gave masterclasses in China and was together with Keiko Abe und Bogdan Bacanu in the jury for the “International Percussion Festival and Competition of China”. He has given masterclasses also in Italy (Verona and Trieste), Poland (Krakow), Lithuania (Vilnius), and in Korea (Seoul).
Apart from being awarded the music prize from the Swiss canton of Solothurn in 2000, the percussionist, composer and ensemble leader is also one of the team of directors for the concert series for contemporary music in the “Alte Feuerwache” arts centre in Mannheim.
(English translation by Janine Zillmann from the original German text by Martin Kunzler)
