maulwerker performing dieter schnebel

compositions for voice and body by Dieter Schnebel

Kafka-Dramolette (2006-2008) 25 min.
Blinzeln (from: Schau-Stücke, 1995-99) 6 min.
Kopfschütteln (from: Schau-Stücke, 1995-99) 5 min.
Maulwerke (1968-74, Version 2010) 35 min.

In 2010, Dieter Schnebel celebrated his 80th birthday. Occasion enough for the Maulwerker – the ensemble that Schnebel founded and reared and which now, all grown up into a collective of composers, vocalists, performers, directors and music theater-makers, is an integral part of the international experimental scene – to honor their teacher with an all- Schnebel himself has written three new pieces expressly for the ensemble that are devoted to short stories by Franz Kafka: Der plötzliche Spaziergang and Entschlüsse (both 1913) and Gib’s auf! (from the estate). Investigating these stories though a combination of gesture, language and singing, Schnebel has created three intensive works of “chamber-musictheater”.

Kafka-Dramolette (for 2 solists and small ensemble)
Der plötzliche Spaziergang
Entschlüsse
Gib’s auf!
Schnebel’s mini-dramas set three short stories of Franz Kafka to music. The composer dissolves the text into spoken or sung fragments, which he counterpoints with steps and gestures or movement sequences taken for the most part from the stories themselves. The text is presented in episodes so that the audience can follow the subject matter. The first two Dramolette are solos, the third is a duet (with a small ensemble choir). Schnebel here creates musical studio theater that combines narrative and experiment in a compellingly new way.

Blinzeln (for 6 performer)
A composition made up of tics: brief, seemingly involuntary motoric contractions of individual muscles or muscle groups or vocal tics, exactly notated in regularly repeating rhythms, wander through a group of people posed as if for a group photo. Occasionally these are interrupted by soloistic eruptions, which then culminate in a virtuoso polyphony of different areas of the body.

Kopfschütteln (for 5 performer)
Five performers standing next to each other move nothing but their heads – producing gestures that are partly meaningful, partly absurd verging on abstruse. Their voices, simultaneously active, insert idiosyncratic counterpoints. A 10-voice polyphony of five heads and five voices in free and at times strict rhythms.

Maulwerke (1968-74, Version für 6 voices, 2010)
Maulwerke is an open score that presents interpreters not with a finished work, but instead offers them vocal material organized in parts titled: Atemzüge (breaths), Kehlkopfspannungen (laryngeal tensions), Gurgelrollen (throat rolls), Mundstücke (mouth pieces), ZungenschlŠge (tongue strikes) and Lippenspiel (lip play). These are rehearsed in practice exercises and, using formative schemata and behavior patterns, are developed in production and communication processes for presentation in a finished opus.
During their many years of collaboration, the Maulwerker have worked out many different versions of Maulwerke. The major scenic version from 1977/78 was followed by chamber music trio versions, all under Schnebel’s direction. The ensemble composed its own collective version for the first time in 1995. After smaller trio and quartet versions, a new collective version was again created in 2006. In 2008, the Maulwerker dared to embark on a new kind of experiment: improvising on stage with the material they have known for years or, if you will, composing live. The newest composed version of the piece is the film version of 2010, that was developed by the ensemble in collaboration with Susanne Elgeti and published by Wergo as DVD in 2011. It was premiered as part of the project “Visual Music, for the 80th birthday of Dieter Schnebel” at the Berlin Akademie der Künste on 7 December 2010. Presently the ensemble will perform this version live on stage.