Der Eisblumenwald – Avantgarde Music Theater for Children

Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar GmbH, Staatstheater Thüringen, Weimar, Germany

Based on the modern fairytale “Der Eisblumenwald” (Frost Flower Forest) written by Jörg Steiner and illustrated by Jörg Müller an avantgarde piece of music theater is to be created for children aged five to eight. Composer Jörn Arnecke, whose composition commission is being supported by the EvS Music Foundation, would like to join forces with the participating artists to develop a tonal language arising from the poetic narration to then extend it and thus open up for children a new space for sound and imagination, also via interactive elements. The piece tells the story of Princess Salicha and the boy Samir who decide to take an iceberg into the desert to stop plants from withering and to make the land fertile. The narrative offers not just content-relevant pointers for music theater for children but also a variety of possibilities for experimenting with sounds and music.

In addition to soprano and mezzo soprano the chamber music line-up – featuring flute, trombone, violin, viola, double bass – offers great tonal potential to open up to children the greatest possible scope for sound and imagination by presenting this as a space for experimentation. In part the composition process is to be participative, actively involving the musicians and singers. Here Jörn Arnecke as the composer wishes to sound out the new possibilities for sound production and generation that the individual instrumentalists can realize on their instruments as well as the vocal challenges that the individual singers can master. These sound experiments are to be carried out in workshop phases accompanying the composition process. At the same time, during the composition process educational theater activities are already planned at training institutions. After the premiere further performance dates are planned for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 seasons.

May 21, 2019
Studiobühne DNT, Weimar, Germany

Further information:
nationaltheater-weimar.de