Triptych for Baritone, Choir, Organ, and Electronics
I Of True Obedience
II About Brother Heinrich, Burned in Ditmar
III I Am Black / Song of Songs
Music: Peter Heeren
Word Collage: Nikola Anne Mehlhorn
Original Texts: Brother Eckhart, Doctor Luther, Song of Songs

Sönke Tams Freier: Baritone
Marner and Poppenbüttel Kantorei
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 Dithmarschen Church District for the Luther Year. It premiered on June 10, 2017, at St. Petri's Main Church in Hamburg as part of the "Night of Choirs," performed by the Poppenbüttel and Marner Kantorei under the direction of Church Music Director Michael Kriener.
In this musical work, the composer Peter Heeren designs a three-part altarpiece of sounds. The connection to the Reformation year 2017 is established through the combination of selected texts: pre-Reformation, Reformation, and timeless passages from Master Eckhart, Martin Luther, as well as excerpts from the Song of Songs in the Old Testament.
Master Eckhart, like Luther later, was one of those church teachers whose beliefs were viewed with suspicion by the church authorities of the time. His core statement was, "Know nothing, want nothing, have nothing." According to Peter Heeren, this practice of abstinence results in a transcendent state in his music: cross-shaped ascending, tonally graphic scales lead to a key change symbolizing the transition to the afterlife. Ultimately, these scale runs culminate in an orgiastic climax.
A modern element is introduced into the Triptych with Luther's text "About Brother Heinrich, burned in Ditmar" (musically accompanied by Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"). It recalls the barbaric "adolescent phase" of Christianity, drawing a connection to the current crisis in another religion: Islam, whose extremist branches contaminate our present with brutal terror.
"God's will knows no 'why'"—this gravestone inscription contradicts our need for assured knowledge. The searching and groping of people are depicted in the "middle altarpiece" through never-ending, unclassifiable scales that move within a narrow framework.
Who doesn't know the dictate of love? Who doesn't know the feeling of being at love's mercy? Who doesn't know the desire to be liberated from love? In the third part of the Triptych, the listener experiences a catalog of love feelings: the music can be brutal, blissful, seductive by turns. At the end, the choir joyfully exclaims, "I am black" (instead of "I love you").
And the organ mimics the overly blissful passages of the choir: being blissfully happy down here is not so easily achieved without consequences.
A distinctive feature of Heeren's composition style is a sine tone that is played from a separate tape parallel to the choir's sounds, penetrating the scale structure on one hand and paradoxically enhancing all the sounds on the other.
Nikola Anne Mehlhorn

Triptych for Baritone, Choir, Organ, and Electronic

inspired by the edits of detones - sextape detuned/reverb on tiktok.

gut feeling

Call Me

For All The Dogs

IDGAF (feat. Yeat)

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

Originally, my Track „Gischt“ was a 40-minute-long live improvisation or meditation as there are breaks as long as some ambient tracks out there. Under „Pyrmont“ I take advantage of the possibility we have nowadays. Before the emerge of the internet, tracks had to fit on a physical medium, like vinyl/cassette/CD for selling. We often seem to forget that conventions have been formed through historical developments. Almost to counteract this, my tracks under this pseudonym tend to be extensively long. If you discover ethereality in an ambiance, linger within its embrace.

By revisiting the original version, a part of it was released as a track on Markus Masuhr's label "insectorama", especially with this sonical extension, I have carefully selected two exceptionally long field recordings that complement the title and the aural spectrum. With a playing time of 40 minutes, field recordings are more suitable in that they can unfold more, reproduce an atmosphere in greater detail and have more time to mesmerize the listener. Thunder and the subsiding rain of summer 2020 accompany you throughout the track. After the first break, you find yourself in Numana, near Monte Conero, whose midnight wave breaking seems to be driven by the pulsing of the kick. In this amalgamation, the cancellation of temporality becomes clear, which falls into each other through the composition of field recordings at different times and spaces. Where else can we be in several places at the same time, even if only sonically, but more and more resonates when we hear such original sounds as those of the sea or the rain. A cycle that closes. A new sensation that is evoked. And we haven't even taken into account the expansion of space, which is achieved through reverberation effects and sometimes swells, mixes with all elements, and then develops structure again. Transformations and  metamorphoses of what is heard.


Mastered by Sebastian Zinner

Pyrmont - Gischt (Extended Field)

for soprano and piano (2015/16)

Sommerkinds Kirschen
Elene Khonelidze, soprano
Albert Mena, piano

der Trompetennasenhund & in meinem Haar
Tania Lorenzo, soprano
Albert Mena, piano

Lila Nachtigallen
Janina Ruh, soprano
Albert Mena, piano

sieben lila Nachtigallen

in meinem Haar

der Trompetennasenhund

Sommerkinds Kirschen

for string instrument and organ (2017)
Kuno Kyaerbye, violin and Erik Hildebrandt, organ
Ansgar Kirke, Flensburg 29.04.2017

Triptych for Baritone, Choir, Organ, and Electronic

Lian Novara