Iris ter Schiphorst

...meine-keine lieder - die aufgabe von musik

Iris ter Schiphorst understands her piece as an homage to the writer Inge Müller (1925 - 1966), whose poems were included in this work, and as a 'scientific-artistic examination of the intellectual climate of her life', especially of the Nazi era as well as her reception in the 1960s by Hannah Arendt, among others. The idea of abandoning the Lied as a constitutive unity of text and music and working with different text genres (including so-called folk songs) opened up the possibility for the composer to think theatrically and to be able to create narrative, sometimes 'scenic' connections between the elements: Sometimes the music comments on the text, sometimes it contradicts or questions it, and vice versa. Most of the texts are spoken, singing is almost exclusively done on vocalises. The composition is explicitly written for a female solo singer, and the musicians accompanying her should ideally be male. 'The sung parts are designed like a commentary . . . The performer/singer must be trained in theatrical bodywork and has to assimilate and embody the texts. '