In the second of four performances at Beethovenfest Bonn, Alarm Will Sound presents the Bonn-born composer Hans Thomalla’s Harmoniemusik.
From the composer:
Harmoniemusik was written during a period of both political as well as personal grief. It is the attempt to create a “happy place” for an hour, even though it can never entirely escape the experience that it tries to leave behind. “Harmoniemusik expresses an existential experience of sadness, but also a desire to overcome it,” said composer Hans Thomalla, “trying to create a happy, joyful place for one hour. It was written during a period of both political as well as personal grief. Harmoniemusik holds a unique place among my works—in a way, it remains untouched by the discourses of new music that usually make the context for our music.
Alan Pierson, AWS Artistic Director, says of the piece, “For 60 minutes, surrounded by musicians in a darkened hall, the chaos of the world fades away, and we’re immersed in Hans’s harmony. While the music reflects Hans’s wide-ranging passions—the cleanness of Reich, the sonic specificity of Lachenmann, the boundlessness of a James Turrell installation—Hans has created something profound here that is entirely its own, something which takes me deeper in each time I encounter it.”