Performers:
Ensemble Kontrapunkte/ Peter Keuschnig
the sun stood still. the moon drifted
for ensemble (2004)
Author(s) Norbert Sterk
die sonne stand still. der mond trieb davonfür Ensemble(2004)
Instruments: Altflöte, Englischhorn, Klarinette, Bassklarinette, Sopransaxofon, Tenorsaxofon, Horn, Trompete, 2 Posaunen, 3 Schlagzeuger, Harfe, 2 Violinen, 2 Violen, Violoncello, Kontrabass
Duration: about 14 min.
The title is derived from a myth of the Achumawi from California, which tells of the rotation of the earth and the god “World’s Heart” (“World’s Heart makes the world turn over, setting in motion the Sun and the Moon“):
„Then the old man reached down and drew out something from under him and shook it over the East, and threw it to the West. The ground shook; the world began turning over;
the Moon drifted, the Sun stood still […].”*
The simultaneousness of standstill and motion,
the apparent irrationality of creativeness,
as well as the poetic- musical power (the “sound”) of the wind and the breath
is the source of inspiration of the composition:
With the Navajos the wind wings all the living,
inspires thought and speech.
“When the winds appeared and entered life, they drove through the bodies of men and living creatures and created the lines of the fingers, the toes and the heads […] The windset nature intomotion […]”**,
music develops.
Myth of creations are told during the night.
Contents develop slowly, similar to the Californian “Utentbe”- style, that is coined by repetitions of the same, which are fanciful and rich of variants: An event, a situation is considered from many sides, thoughts are connected with each other by moments of medidating. Motion occurs nearly imperceptibly…
“die sonne stand still. der mond trieb davon“ is a „Hommage“ to the fascinating and manifold cultures of the Native Americans and moreover also a „reminder“ of „forgotten“ (because of colonization destroyed) nations.
*”Annikadel – The History of the Universe” told by Istet Woiche (William Hulsey), The University of Arizona Press, 1992
** “The Holy Way of the Red Ant Chant”, told by Hastiin Dijooli (Weißer Kegel), Museum of Northern Arizona, Flagstaff 1936