Hans Tutschku: Moment (review)

Hans Tutschku is a German composer born in Weimar in 1966. He has been involved in electronic music and the creation thereof from an early age. At 16, he joined the Ensemble für Intuitive Musik Weimar and later accompanied Karlheinz Stockhausen for three years to study sound diffusion. Moment is a collection of electroacoustic compositions by Mr. Tutschku. This compact disc features the subtle blending of vocal, instrumental, and environmental sounds to create rich sonic textures. Although all of the works on Moment were created to some extent through computer programming, manipulation of recorded material, and digital signal processing, it is Mr. Tutschku's precise craftsmanship in compositional techniques that allows the listener to hear only the voice of the music he has created and not the technology. It is both his ease of knowledge and skill that allows his passion and personality to be present in his compositions. His accomplishments have been acknowledged worldwide with numerous awards and honors for his works. Since 1997, Mr. Tutschku has held a teaching position at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/ Musique).

In the composition extrémitiés lointaines (1998), the composer takes the listener on a sonic journey through Asia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Recordings of various cities, churches, temples, and children singing can be heard in this soundscape. In the creation of this composition, Mr. Tutschku used real-time granular synthesis to divide and reorganize the sounds to create new sonic relationships among the sources. Throughout extrémitiés lointaines the composer is vigilant in maintaining connections to the specific cultures from which the sound sources originated. It is this passion and dense compositional structure that creates the intensity of this fascinating work. extrémitiés lointaines was originally composed for eight-channel dispersion and was commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture in collaboration with INAGRM (Institut National de l'Audiovisuel—Groupe de Recherches Musicales) in Paris. This work was a finalist in the 1998 Bourges International Electroacoustic Music Competition in France and was given the award of Distinction at the 1998 Prix Ars Electronica competition in Austria.

Most of the compositions on Moment feature the human voice in one form or another. Mr. Tutschku's . . . erinnerung. . . (. . .menmento. . .) (1996) is no exception, as unique gestures of the human voice are used to create richly colorful and sometimes quite dense textures. The piece is based on the poem ". . . erinnerung. . ." by Antonio Bueno Tubis. This collection of words provides the starting point for the transformation of the human voice later interspersed with bells and tamtams. The intensity created by the juxtaposition of these sound worlds is then interrupted by the clearly spoken text: "Yo/ os lo aseguro,/ la cárcel existe,/ la recuerdo como untrallazo en la sien" ("I/ assure you/ the prison is there/ I recall it like a lash to the face"). In this recording the poet is also the male voice featured reading the text of the poem. . . .erinnerung . . . (. . .menmento. . .) is a highly dramatic composition full of truly evocative sounds which are well suited to the intentions of the poem.

Les invisibles (1996) is a composition for tape without live performers derived from an earlier work, Freibriffür einen Traum (1995) for soprano, flute, cello, percussion, and computer-generated sound files. The work featured on Moment uses 25 short melodies and five longer sequences for instruments, as well as a four-voice counterpoint for soprano. The text for the soprano comes from the poem "Es wird später" ("It's getting later") by Austrian poet Karl Lubomirski. The musicians who made the recordings for Les invisibles include Donatienne Michel Dansac, soprano; Catherine Bowie, flute; Antoine Larette, cello; and Jean Geoffroy, percussion. All the recorded sound material was later reorganized and given different spatial placements within the new composition. The sound...