Drawing Circles – Canons from Seven Centuries

Rümlingen New Music Festival, Switzerland

This year’s international festival for contemporary music in Rümlingen focuses on the classical art form of the canon. However, the festival would not be Rümlingen if it did not use exceptional forms and formats to achieve this. “Drawing Circles” plays here on widening circles on water just as it does on the rings of a tree and the circling of a bird. The program is planned in three parts: a concert, a banquet and, a typical aspect of the festival, a landscape walk or “Landschaftsbegehung”. All three parts combine old and new canons.
By looking to the canon this year the focus is shifted onto a compositional form that today is often only associated with folk music and children’s songs. “Kreise ziehen” unlocks the historic tradition for the present day – particularly with new canon compositions – and the festival funded by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation helps us rediscover a music form that combines the popular with the highest compositional claim placing it in unusual contexts. This generates a fascination allowing access to audiences who might otherwise find New Music suspect.

August 29, 2015
Rümlingen Kirche, Rümlingen Halle

August 30, 2015
Rümlingen Landscapes, Various Venues
Rümlingen Kirche

Further Information:
www.neue-musik-ruemlingen.ch