The composition NACHTS intensively engages with the texts of the Austrian poet Georg Trakl – it is already my third work dedicated to his poems. Trakl describes an emotional world that fascinates me in a special way, as it unites elements of downfall and hope. With musical means, I aim to create a soundscape that corresponds to the texts, without directly illustrating or setting them to music – rather, I use the language itself as sound material.
For the tape, recordings of the original instruments (cello, bass clarinet, percussion) were used, along with recordings of the Trakl texts performed by various speakers and singers, as well as purely synthetic sounds. Four layers were composed and recorded for each solo instrument, which move around the audience over the course of the piece. Together with the soloists, this creates the impression of five cellists, five bass clarinetists, and multiple layers of percussion. The treatment of the texts is also carried out in a four-part polyphony that describes a rotation around the listeners.
The entire musical material is based on three quartal chords that together form the twelve-tone scale. NACHTS was written for three musicians of the ASKO Ensemble Amsterdam – cellist Taco Kooistra, bass clarinetist Harry Sparnaay, and percussionist Peppie Wiersma – and was premiered in Amsterdam on January 25, 1994.