aus Partitur 'Vier Figuren'

Miroirs

for mezzo-soprano and ensemble

Concerning her composition "Miroirs", written in 2000, Bettina Skrzypczak tells a story from ancient China that she found in Jorge Luis Borges: Chuang Chou dreamed that he was a butterfly, and when he woke, he wondered: Am I a man who dreamed he was a butterfly, or am I a butterfly dreaming that he is a man? In "Miroirs", similarly, reality and an imaginary world intermingle. Sound and speech mirror a hidden reality, which in exceptional circumstances, as in dreams - or perhaps in attentive listening? - can be experienced for just a moment.

The texts shed light on this theme from various perspectives. "El bacedor" (Borges) is located at the transition from history to myth, the fragments from Li Taibo evoke an ecstatic moment of transcendence, and in the lyric quatrains of the provençal troubadour Ventadorn, another person's eyes are the mirror of the self; in the Persian poem by Sarmast - an interesting case of a male poem with a female perspective - self-reflection leads to questions about infinity.

The musical attitudes of this vocal cycle range from lyrical introspection to dramatic outbursts; the eight instruments unfold a rich spectrum of timbres and atmospheric states. The expressive vocal line is closely interwoven with the instrumental writing, yet leaves the music plenty to scope to express what remains unsaid.

Max Nyffeler

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