DIE LÄNGSTE BRÜCKE DER WELT

2009

 

8 min.

 

Symphonic Wind Orchestra

 

commissioned by "Holz und Blech"

a project of the Linz09 Cultural Capital of Europe

 

published by Orchestral Art

 

premiere: Schlossberg Linz, 13.6.2009

Militärmusik Linz

 

Program Notes:

 

“Do you know about the longest bridge in the world?” – The Nibelungen Bridge in Linz. Once it connected Russia with America. My Grandma used to astonish me more than once with this fact.

After the occupation period one was able to move freely again. The Nibelungen Bridge again was a normal Danube bridge. Simply connecting the Mühlviertel with the remainder of Austria. The Mühlviertel, the buffer zone to the Soviet Union. At the boundary to the Czech Republic the world used to end in our imagination. I must admit to my shame that in my mind the world still extends far westwards, while towards the East it still is dark and gloomy. Yet the Nibelungen Bridge is leading into the open again since 1989. Mühlviertel, Böhmen, Prague, Poland ... the gate to an entire subcontinent.

Taking the recent history as a starting point, I brought up the question about freedom and bondage respectively how much freedom humans can take.The composition begins as a monotonous, actually somewhat too fast march.

The resulting compulsivity, should show the absurdity of authoritarian structures. In between there are almost naive and misty-eyed passages. I believe that the freedom we usually strive for, is only a mere reflection of the actual freedom: the freedom of heart.  

The second part was intended to transform the opening two musical ideas. But during the process of composing the music was heading into a totally different direction.  Instead of the indicated transformation a somewhat slower and seemingly melancholy music evolved. I believe that underneath lays the question: How much freedom do we actually have in today’s western world, which apparently should lack all (or almost all) external restrictions?  

This is why the marching pulse begins to infiltrate the new music and will eventually take over again. Is it not our own minds limitation, which has us (as a society) create bondages that limit our personal freedom or even threaten our life?