ANGELS I - IV
1) …wenn mir zumut ist,
zu warten vor der Puppenbühne, nein,
so völlig hinzuschaun, daß, um mein
Schauen am Ende aufzuwiegen, dort als
Spieler ein Engel hinmuß, der die Bälge
hochreißt.
…when I feel,
in front of the puppet theatre, no,
rather gazing at it, so intently, that at last,
to balance my gaze, an Angel must come
and take part, dragging the bellows on high.
Rainer Maria Rilke
2) noch tastend
still groping
Paul Klee
3) when my heart soars up
it´s the angel who spreads its wings
Shuntaro Tanikawa
4) …imaging them how they only can be when
they are: prompt and limpid forces, sparkling
shuttles, eternally occupied weaving, beyond
all joyfulness, the cloth of light.
Philippe Jaccottet
It´s about angels. I got the idea while reading Philippe Jaccottet. In his book "Landscape With Absent Figures", published in 1970, he describes a wintery landscape. The winter in these regions - he lives in the Provence - would be his favourite season, a season for angels, under the condition to forget about the vulgar images to which the aging religions have debased them. And then follows the quote. He associates the presence of angels with this pale winter light which roams through and above the fields. The view is free to wander far, to mesure the space and disperse the elements.
After that I hurried on to Walter Benjamin, the revered thinker of my years of study. But it turns out: his view is so overshadowed, there is no light at all, let alone a sparkling shuttle; the powerlessness of his angel, blown back into the nothingness by our ruthlessness on earth depressed me.
And how do they shine and glow in the work of the great »preformer« Paul Klee?
In all colours, it seems, or in black and white. His angels are angels for everything, a fetishism of the tender kind, and Klee, seriously ill, suffers silently.
And how do they otherwise look like, these angels?
(The comedian Karl Valentin fantasized them preferably as female creatures up to 30, naked if possible, in no case however as master baker Meier, fluttering around in the clouds with two huge wings, then rather invisible.)
Klee´s angel here is not ready yet, he still fumbles around.
While Tanikawa Shuntaro approached these angels of Klee´s with poems. And his version of an angel still fumbling about nevertheless spreads his wings. And then actually wings, with the help of Philippe Jaccottet: now the angel wings by morphing into light.
"When the spiritual light is stored in formlessness, vitality and energy return to perfect reality. Then the eyes are clear but are not used for looking; the ears are sharp but are not used for listening."
The Masters Of Huainan
The concept of Angels I - IV: It´s one piece but the four parts are self-contained pieces too, each track is related to a slightly different approach.
And the instrument of this »incantation«, the flute, virtually is the body, the two melodions are the wings. But the wings become increasingly important.
There is more to read and to watch:
stimmgang.blogspot.com/2015/12/
Und es gibt den Text auf Deutsch.
PS A change of volume changes the length of the pauses too: when it´s low they seem to be longer, when it´s louder they seem to be shorter. For the delay of several tones is very long and if you turn up the volume there won´t be a pause anymore because you still hear the delay. Therefore - to allow for the intended dramaturgy of pauses - it is recommanded to precisely adjust the volume. For this purpose go to track 4, 1:20: the first tones should be very very tender and far away, barely hearable.
released December 21, 2015
Stefan Hardt - melodion, flute, singing bowls & composition
