Georg Friedrich Haas - in vain (2000) für 24 Instrumente

in vain (2000) für 24 Instrumente
Composer: Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953)
Performers: Klangforum Wien, dir. Sylvain Cambreling
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"To approach [Haas]’ composition in vain, one can begin directly with the spotlights. The light intensity in the concert hall is annotated in the score and ranges from “concertlighting as for podium and lectern” to complete darkness. It is the music, to be played in complete darkness according to the score annotations, that puts not only the audience and the performer in an unaccustomed position, but above all the composer himself. [...]
“Microtonal music has no tradition. Until late in the 20th century, all composers writing microtonal music had to begin anew every time. Even today, using microtones is considered out of the ordinary. You need to justify the use of tones from outside the tempered system.” (Haas) This lack of familiarity is often the starting point for compositions by [Haas]. Not that he purports to having reinvented microtonality; quite the contrary [...] Similarly, Haas does not intend to “improve” the tempered system by moving toward the obvious euphony of “Just intonation”, of pure mood. [...] The reduction the ear often discerns in the music of [Haas] - the absence of ordinary melodies, the melting away of rhythm in acceleration and deceleration, the limitation to only a few pitch levels and modes of articulation - unfailingly refers listeners to the sound and the form, allowing in-between tones to become heard once again.
Some examples for the use of microtones from in vain, for the record: In the “normal” tempered intonation the piece sets out with, individual (high) tones initially sneak in nearly unnoticed; the more densely these sound spectra are formed, the more the counter-world emerges with the natural series of partials and their intervals, which increasingly contract as the pitch rises, contrasting these wonted regular partials of the tempered mood. As in Violinkonzert, two harmonic starting points are contrasted: on the one hand, extracts of pure overtone series, on the other hand, chords in the tempered piano mood made of thirds, fourths, and fifths [...]. The difference between these two tone systems blurs after the end of the second dark phase with a renewed acceleration of the tempo in the increasing density of the sound.
Right at the transition to this second and last dark phase a combination of various overtone spectra sets in - and thus audible friction. For instance, horns and trombones play the third C#-E simultaneously - however, from the overtone spectrum of A, on the one hand, and from F sharp, on the other, implying, in this case, that the two small thirds are of different sizes and can virtually be fitted into each other, with 1/6th or 1/12th of a tone difference respectively - and with abrasive friction resounding together. [...] the fundamentals of in vain are derived from the tempered system - and let nothing but the microtonality hidden within be heard.
[...] In a now famous lithography, M. C. Escher combines the upper and lower ends of a staircase and thus presents a microcosm of aimlessness. The curious pictures of Escher also seem related to in vain etymologically: “Vanitas” as a former common description for a certain type of still life in painting. in vain contains such delusive spirals in several ways. Large parts of the piece are characterised by mutually interlaced, “infinitely” descending pitch levels, even the hardly perceivable details. Near the end, an extended accelerando withdraws into itself. Vast, extensive processes with gradual transformations, deceptive spiral formations - both in the organisation of pitch levels and in the time structure - and the “return to situations deemed
to be overcome” (Haas) are the form principle of in vain.
The hearing experience of the overall sound is decisive for Haas: “I don’t trust in sound analyses nor in row charts”, he explains, [...]. [Haas] really has a bent for numbers; the implicit symbolism of numbers in in vain applies even to the relation between the size of orchestration (24 instruments in the dark, plus the director in the light) and the microtonal 24 : 25 interval. Over and beyond construction, [Haas] tends to cultivate Alois Hábas’ ideal concept of form, described as “free rambling without thematic context”. And Haas does not refer to contemporaries such as Tristan Murail as the source of instrumented overtone series, but rather to the repetitive sevenths of Franz Schubert."
~Bernhard Günther
Source: CD booklet
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For education, promotion and entertainment purposes only. I do not own rights to the score or the performance. If you have any copyrights issue, please write to unpetitabreuvoir(at)gmail.com and I will delete this video.

[@unpetitabreuvoir]

This is a video I originally made and uploaded at the very end of 2020. It was striked for the audio a few months later, and then reuploaded by another channel using a Bilibili copy. Since this copy has been here for quite some time, I want to try to reupload it in a new version with a higher resolution than the original post (although still not optimal due to a loss in quality during the original cropping of the pictures that I don't have time to do again). As I had said back then, the editing was rather difficult and the fast scale-like passages are obviously somewhat approximative.

[@BlueArcStreaming]

This is amazing, Love it, thank you

[@derheimlichlauschet]

Thank you ❤

[@user-dj4id7wi3w]

insane.

[@SaintDeus]

Great!!