Utopia/Origin

Klangverein Stuttgart, Germany

Together with Bachakademie Stuttgart, ensemble ascolta and Musikfest Stuttgart 2014 will be organizing a concert program on the topic of ‘Herkunft’ or ‘Origin’. The program is to include works by Iannis Xenakis, Younghi Pagh-Paan and Dieter Mack. Pagh-Paan and Mack will be issued composition commissions with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.
In their work all three composers time and again explore the question as to the origin of human culture and the origin and creation of individual collective identities. Younghi Pagh-Paan draws on the ritual music of Korea, uses the rhythmic principle of repetition from the folk music of her home country and utilizes Korean instruments and playing techniques. In more recent times she has increasingly looked to Ancient Greek mythology.
When explaining the work he developed here Dieter Mack says: “What was central for me was the long-term experience of a culture still impacted by collective consciousness that, at the same time, permitted or indeed promoted individuality. Or to put it the other way round: the awareness of life I experienced on Bali a priori gave me a sense of individuality in which individual-ness was still transformable into the collective-ness and still is. This interplay, or rather the continually reciprocal penetration of two quite contrary social forms, was for me one of the most fascinating experiences. […]” Origin for him here is “the entirety of all life experiences that have impacted me.” 

September 2, 2014 
Stuttgart Wagenhallen/Music Festival

May 8, 2015
WDR Broadcasting Studio, Cologne

Further Information
www.ascolta.de