Friedhelm Döhl Edition Vol. 11
Chamber Music - Lyric

withChristiane Edinger, James Tocco, Judith Kamphues, Angela Firkins, Christian Ruvolo, Ulf Bästlein, Friedhelm Döhl, Hartmut Gerhold, Werner Selge, Trio Pleyel

catalog number 21046

For Friedhelm Döhl chamber music and lyric are two perspectives which complement each other, one might almost say: necessitate each other. This has been clear ever since the ‘7 Haiku’ 1963 for Soprano, Flute and Piano or Soprano and Piano (friedhelm Döhl edition Vol. IV). However, the ‘lyrical’works are not merely parallel musical settings of the literary content, but rather autonomous musical compositions where text, voice and instrumentation are equally-weighted factors in the structure, each very individual and diverse, such as in the ‘Sonne-Hymnen’ or the ‘Celan-Liedern’. - On the other hand: The ‘Chamber music’ works are most certainly instrumental in their conception, instrumentally challenging and idiosyncratic, and yet, at the same time, they are interwoven with and characterised by lyrical aspects, even though these are quasi ‘unspoken’. The ‘Concerto a due’ has definite lyrical components: the song quotes in the first movement, the ‘Lied‘ and ‘Ballade’ in the third and fourth movements, ‘Abschied’ in the short, island-like third movement. The Duo for Flute and Cello ‘Der Abend/Die Nacht’ alludes in its title to a (verifiable) connection to poems by Trakl. (However, nobody needs to know the poems to ‘understand’ the music.) - As Döhl witnessed several productions of plays by Beckett in Berlin, the Beckett quote at the beginning of the (Berlin) score of ‘Sotto voce’ is most certainly not there just by chance. The Beckett text can surely lead one to draw a certain musical association, but this is by no means explicit, just as the Beckett text itself is not meant to be explicit. Conversely, the music can lead one to view the Beckett text in a new, unforeseen way. However, text and music can also well do without each other. They are as independent as they are ambiguous. It is remarkable that Döhl - as is apparent from the sketches - wrote the text after the composition of the score, perhaps as one possible perspective of the musical idea.