"Every composer should be locked in" - a message from the BNOKdown

„Every composer should be locked in,

but in a comfortable way of course“, wrote Giacinto Scelsi, himself a composer, once.

There is also a famous case in music history where this happened to a composer against his will: Because Johann Sebastian Bach wanted to leave the service and take up another position, his employer, Prince Wilhelm Ernst von Weimar, threw him in jail for almost a whole month. However, since Bach did not change his mind in the meantime and continued to work on his "Orgelbüchlein", the prince ultimately had to release him.

The corona pandemic probably gives us the first opportunity to test the Scelsian imperative in practice for its suitability with some statistical relevance .

Certainly, the lockdown does not mean a big change in the way composers work unless you want to compose an entire trio during a billiard game like Mozart. I think that many composers are sorely missing social contacts at the moment.

However, some, like me, finally have an excuse not to leave the apartment and sit relaxed at the desk and be creative.

Since the new security measures came into force in Austria, and entirely for my own pleasure, I have started a cycle for two pianos, which shall consist of four books of six pieces each.
Fittingly, or perhaps in the absence of a better title, this cycle will be called "home office".

So far, three of the four books are already finished. As far as I can already say, the total duration will be about 65 to 70 minutes, the length of an entire concert or a CD.

Between books 2 and 3, I composed a small a cappella cycle for the girls' choir of the Singakademie Berlin based on late poems by Friedrich Hölderlin, which is now already being rehearsed via video conference.

Even if the BNOKdown inspires me artistically, I still hope that the development of the pandemic will soon enable a normal life outside of your own four walls.