Live-Mitschnitt der Aufführung am 04.06.2023 in der Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche in Marne

Karin Pawolka, Sopran
Isabell Czarnecki, Alt
Fridolin Wissemann, Tenor
Sönke Tams-Freier, Bass
Neue Philharmonie Hamburg
Der Mozart-Chor Marne
Leitung: Peter Heeren

Krönungsmesse von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The organ composition from 1995 depicts the journey from purgatory to the heavenly realm. The left hand gradually ascends from the bottom to the top, ultimately landing only on the black keys. Professor Hans Gebhard plays the organ.

Nearer my god to thee

Durch eine bestimmte Fingertechnik wird erreicht, daß der Ton kommt, oder nicht.
Der Interpret spielt auf eine Weise, daß der Ton zum Klingen kommt oder eben nicht.
Er muß eine ganz bestimmte Technik anwenden, durch die erreicht wird, daß der Ton nur mit einer gewissen Wahrscheinlichkeit überhaupt erklingt.
Das Handgelenk und die Finger sind so locker und schnell, daß die Tasten manchmal nicht ganz heruntergedrückt werden. Oder die Taste wird so langsam heruntergedrückt, daß die Mechanik des Instrumentes nicht mitkommt.
Komponiert ist die Wahrscheilichkeit des Erklingens eines Tones, die sich aus der Gewichtung des Handgelenkes und der Lockerheit der Finger ergibt.

Eine der Inspirationsquellen zu diesen Kompositionen waren Schriften der Philosophen Karl Popper und Carl Friedrich von Weizäcker zu der Quantentheorie. Dokumente zeigen die Welt "diskret" (d.h. die Dinge sind unterscheidbar), die Zukunft ist offen. 

Through a specific finger technique, it is achieved that the sound either occurs or not. The performer plays in a manner that causes the sound to resonate or not. They must employ a very particular technique that results in the sound emerging with a certain probability. The wrist and fingers are so relaxed and swift that sometimes the keys are not fully depressed, or the key is pressed down so slowly that the instrument's mechanics can't keep up.

The composition is structured around the probability of a sound occurring, which arises from the weighting of the wrist and the looseness of the fingers.

One of the sources of inspiration for these compositions were writings by philosophers Karl Popper and Carl Friedrich von Weizäcker on quantum theory. These documents portray the world as "discrete" (meaning things are distinguishable), and the future remains open.

Am Klavier: Peter Heeren (Kompositionsexamen)

kann sein / kann sein nicht | can be / can be not (1997)

Orphée for 6 trombones, 3 turntables, and a hunting horn ensemble (1997)

Performers: Frank Krivanek: bass trombone / Guido Laurich: bass trombone / Christoph Gottlob: trombone / Heinrich Auhage: trombone / Carsten Paap: trombone / Gerald Baumgarte: trombone / Marne and Surroundings Hunting Horn Ensemble / Birte Brunhoeber: turntable / Yorck Kronenberg: turntable / Reso Kiknadze: turntable

The inspiration for this composition came from a television program about the mentally ill August Walla, who garnered public attention through his artistic activities. At the end of the report, in the concluding scene, they showed Walla playing the trumpet on his bed.

Orphée (1997)

The section "Monaden" was inspired by some of Goethe's letters on musicological topics, such as a letter to Schlosser:

"My conviction is this: just as the major tone arises from the expansion of the monad, it exerts a similar effect on human nature, driving it towards the object, towards activity, towards the expanse. The same holds true for the minor tone; as it springs from the contraction of the monad, it also draws together, concentrates, propelling it towards the subject, and there, it knows how to find the most cherished nooks in which the dearest melancholy prefers to hide."
(Goethe to Schlosser, Weimar, May 5, 1815)

"[...] When the sound monad expands, the major tone emerges; when it contracts, the minor tone comes into being [...]"
(Goethe to Schlosser, Weimar, May 5, 1815)

The string sextet 'Wanderer's Night Song' was premiered on September 12, 1999, in the Maria Magdalene Church in Marne by the Brahms Sextet (Stefan Wagner, Mayumi Shjimizu: Violin / Hirofumi Fukai, Jakob Zeijl: Viola / Jury Bertelmann, Michael Katzenmaier: Cello) and is dedicated to the Brahms Sextet.

Monaden | Excerpt from 'Wanderers Nachtlied' for string-sextet (1999)

This composition has been inspired by Goethe's Fragments on his Tonlehre (theory of tones) - Paralipomena:


Becoming aware of
the inside
The outside
Identifying the respective.
Language, regularity, coincidence.
First raw attempts.
Coincidences
Culture.
Increase.
Rough ground.
Setting of (illegible word)
Some discomfort that cannot be bettered.
Really great inconvenience.
Different label.
Tones.
Relations of them.
Found.
Determine.
Named.
Series of tones.
Sound relationships.
First line starting from C
Second line starting from D
Inserting the so called half tones.
Each line in a different sequence.

_________________

Determine.
Five lines of the staff.
Four spaces.
Above and below the latter.
Sketches.

_________________

Going back to the first origins.
Determination according to current survey.


Fragmentarische Aufzeichnungen zur Tonlehre (Paralipomena)

Gewahrwerden
des Inneren
des Äußeren
Bezeichnen desselben.
Sprache, Gesetzmäßiges, Zufälliges.
Erste rohe Versuche.
Zufälligkeiten
Cultur.
Erhöhung.
Roher Grund.
Ansetzen des [unleserliches Wort]
Manche Unbequemlichkeit die nicht zu verbessern ist.
Sehr große Unbequemlichkeit.
Andre Bezeichnung.
Töne.
Verhältnisse derselben.
Gefunden.
Angegeben.
Bezeichnet.
Tonreihe.
Tonverhältnisse.
Erste Reihe von c an.
Zweite Reihe von d an.
Einschieben der sogenannten halben Töne.
Jede Reihe in anderer Folge.

_________________

Bezeichnen.
Fünf Linien.
Vier Zwischenräume.
Über und unter der letzteren.
Vorzeichnungen

_________________

Zurückgehen in die ersten Ursprünge.

Paralipomena | Excerpt from 'Wanderers Nachtlied' for string-sextet (1999)

Kallisto wanders eternally alone around Jupiter.

Kallisto for Gong

Bazon 1
by Peter Heeren
performed by Prof. Jacob Leuschner

Dedicated to Bazon Brock

This composition refers to an interview with Prof. Dr. Bazon Brock:

"[...] So, I sat at the piano in the auditorium of the Kaiser-Karl-Gymnasium in Itzehoe and played music as it seemed right to me. Eight years later, I actually encountered such music as a composer's achievement. That made me incredibly proud, although, in the true sense of the word, musically uneducated, I had managed to be productive in making music. The fact that as a student, in the afternoons in the auditorium, I was able to achieve this out of my own emotional state was a musical key experience that continues to this day. [...]"

Conversation with Werner Klüppelholz, in: What is Musical Education?
Musical Time Issues 14, Kassel/Basel/London 1984

Unknown Title

Bazon 1 for piano (1997)

My first attempt to compose a tonal piece was 'North sea for Viola,' and I kept in mind the tradition of the Second Viennese School and what followed . The work should be meta-avant-garde. This recording is the world premiere performance by Diego Naser in 2015 at the Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche in Marne.

North sea for viola

Triptych for Baritone, Choir, Organ, and Electronics
I True Obedience

Music: Peter Heeren
Word Collage: Nikola Anne Mehlhorn
Original Texts: Brother Eckhart, Doctor Luther, Song of Solomon

Sönke Tams Freier: Baritone
Marner and Poppenbüttel Cantor Choir
Samuel Nauck: Organ
Conductor: Michael Kriener

Prolegomenon
The composition Triptych for Baritone, mixed choir, organ, and electronics was created in 2017 as a commissioned work for the Luther Year by the Church District of Dithmarschen. It premiered on June 10, 2017, at St. Petri Hauptkirche in Hamburg as part of the 'Night of the Choirs,' performed by the Poppenbüttel and Marner Cantor Choir under the direction of Church Music Director Michael Kriener.
Composer Peter Heeren designs a three-part altarpiece of sounds in this musical work, with the connection to the Reformation Year 2017 established through the combination of selected texts: pre-Reformation, Reformation, and timeless passages from Master Eckhart, Martin Luther, and excerpts from the Song of Solomon in the Old Testament.
Master Eckhart, like Luther later on, was one of those church teachers whose beliefs were considered suspicious by the authorities of that time. His core statement was "Know nothing, want nothing, have nothing." According to Peter Heeren, this practice of abstinence translates into paradisiacal states in his music: cruciform cascading scales lead to a change of key, symbolizing the transition into the afterlife. Ultimately, these scale runs culminate in an orgiastic climax.
A modern element is introduced to the Triptych with Luther's text 'Brother Heinrich, Burned in Ditmar' (musically accompanied by the Luther hymn 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God'). It recalls the barbaric "adolescent phase" of Christianity and draws parallels to the current crisis in another religion: Islam, whose extremist branches contaminate our present with brutal terror.
"God's will knows no why," a gravestone inscription contradicting our desire for secure knowledge. The searching and groping of humanity are depicted in the "middle altarpiece" through endless, unclassifiable scales that move within a narrow framework.
Who does not know the dictate of love? Who does not know the feeling of being at the mercy of love? Who does not know the desire to be redeemed from love? In the third part of the Triptych, the listener experiences a catalog of love feelings: sometimes the music is brutal, sometimes blissful, sometimes seductive. The choir joyfully declares at the end: "I am black" (instead of "I love you").
And the organ mimics the overly blissful passages of the choir: being truly blessed is not so easily attainable down here.
A distinctive feature of Heeren's compositional style is a sine tone, played in parallel to the choir sounds from a different realm via tape. This electronic color, penetrating the scale fabric, both tonally paints the human chants and paradoxically enhances all sounds.
Nikola Anne Mehlhorn

Postscript
Peter Heeren's composition Triptych is a unique work. Authentic modern music is characterized by confronting the listener with completely new, unheard auditory impressions. In this sense, Triptych by cantor and composer Peter Heeren is an exemplary piece of art, capable, like the spearhead of evolution, of inducing the open-minded listener into an unknown state of neurological excitement. Listening, eavesdropping, and feeling this three-part acoustic brain storm go hand in hand with the necessity of renewing the conventional encounter with what a cultured, educated person perceives as reality. Thus, Triptych provides an escape from the dubiousness of the obligatory constraints of digital modernity and provokes redefinitions of an hitherto unknown aesthetics, presenting a compelling reorientation beyond the conventional entanglements of traditional senseless repetitions. A brilliant coup by a grand composer!
Jens Zygar

Triptych for Baritone, Choir, Organ, and Electronics | True Obedience

In 1996, I played the organ at the funeral of the German writer Helmut Heißenbüttel. The family had requested a Contrapunctus from Johann Sebastian Bach's "Art of Fugue." Following this, I delved into the works and life of Helmut Heißenbüttel. During the performance of "Ave Maria - Pray at the Hour of Our Death" I accompanied it with a film. In this film, I showcased photos from Helmut Heißenbüttel's life. Towards the end, I illuminated the audience with a bright, all-encompassing light (the spotlights had produced a constant hiss throughout the entire performance). Helmut Heißenbüttel was present at the performance. The piece was a rebellion against death.

Ave Maria - Pray at the Hour of Our Death for electronic piano, choir and electronics.

This section is based on contrapuntal assignments that Schönberg gave to his students

counterpoint II

The music of Bach (9te Sinfonie) is being recycled. It shines through the fabric.

Lian Novara

Pinned to spotlight

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