Andreas Tsiartas: Memory and Oblivion

Andreas Tsiartas: Memory and Oblivion – Psychological and Musical aspects on Beat Furrer’s Lotófagos I. Part of the 8th International Pharos Contemporary Music Festival

A pre-concert talk by composer Andreas Tsiartas about Beat Furrer’s controversial masterpiece for soprano and double-bass, Lotófagos I, which will be performed immediately after the lecture, at 20:30, by soprano Hélène Fauchère and double-bassist Uli Fussenegger.

A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE TALK:

Memory and Oblivion: Psychological and Musical aspects on Beat Furrer’s Lotófagos Ι for soprano and double-bass

Lotófagos I for Soprano and double-bass (2006), which is based on José Ángel Valente’s poem describing Homeric Ulysses’ companions and their adventure on the island of the Lotus eaters, is musically approached by the composer of the piece, Beat Furrer, in a very particular manner.

Furrer’s works pursue a process of deconstruction, of Oblivion. In the composer’s sphere of imagination there is a space, where memory, social or cultural, ceases to exist and what follows is a state of amnesia. This specific observation comprises various deeply-rooted psychological aspects, which Furrer has already treated thematically on a macrocosmic level: the deconstruction of memory corresponds to the deconstruction of identities. In this case, the identity comes up to a social phenomenon, of which the deconstruction opens the path towards discovering our own self, a confrontation with our true essence, our primeval image, our genuine depiction.

According to Furrer’s comments about Lotófagos I, it is all about a lateral apposition of sounds. The phenomenon of Memory and Oblivion, as seen through Ulysses’ companions, is being represented as the remembrance of specific sounds through their apparently random repetition or even gradual disappearance within the margins of the work’s overall form. The organic development of his sound material is being disordered and re-shaped to such an extent that it assimilates to a new space of memory: an anagram of a person’s remembrances while he/she is at a state of oblivion, or even a person who constantly educes his/her memories within new spaces.

The lecture is based on Andreas Tsiartas’ final dissertation for the Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber" in Dresden, as well as his notes during the summer seminar in 2009 with Beat Furrer at the Hoschule für Musik und Theater in Rostock, Germany and from lectures and interviews held during the Spring Meeting in Darmstadt in April 2009. The lecture will be given in English.

ANDREAS TSIARTAS

Andreas Tsiartas graduated with distinction (Diplom Komponist) from the Hochschule für Musik "Carl Maria von Weber" in Dresden, Germany, in 2010, where he studied composition with Manos Tsangaris and Jörg Herchet and electronic music with Franz Martin Olbrisch and Michael Flade. His works have been performed and commissioned by such renowned ensembles and soloists as the Dresdner Philharmonie, the Studio for New Music Ensemble Moscow, Musiques Nouvelles, Ensemble Courage, Rohan de Saram, having received their premieres in renowned venues such as the BKA Theater in Berlin, the Kulturpalast in Dresden and the ZKM in Karlsruhe.