Onomatopoeic trio
With "Quamakútsch", René Wohlhauser has created a contrasting chamber music work for flute, double bass and piano.
The trio Quamakútsch for the rare combination of flute, double bass and piano was composed by the Basel composer René Wohlhauser for the Art Ensemble Berlin. Quamakútsch is, as he writes, a work title "that has no concrete meaning, but as sound poetry has a musical effect on those who perceive it, just as music as a non-verbal form of expression has an emotional and subliminal effect on those who perceive it". Right at the beginning, the piano begins to pulsate and is soon contrasted by the tremolos in the flute and double bass, which soar up to the fourth octave and are then led even higher by the piano. For René Wohlhauser, this symbolizes a "chaotic beginning, a symbol of searching, as it were". Between the high and loud sections, recurring, atmospheric "Misterioso" intermezzi by the flute and double bass resound mysteriously. They are interspersed with microtonal glissandi, which create interesting sound colorations. The composer deliberately uses microtonality flexibly, mixing the different systems. Wohlhauser describes his compositional style as "listening to the depths" and wants to counter the surface with meaningful music.
Subsequently, many interwoven figures and gestures develop in the three instruments, which seem to unfold and comment on each other and repeatedly return to the short, quiet intermezzi. The music also often contains mirrored movements, initially as developing synchronized trills in the flute and double bass, then again figuratively in the piano, which merge almost seamlessly into one another. The different types of material return continuously, abandoning the previous and embracing the new, creating a structural diversity. Quamakútsch sounds very varied and interesting due to its strong alternation between dialogic, meditative and pulsating sections and is a great enrichment of the rather sparse literature for this instrumentation.
René Wohlhauser: Quamakútsch for flute, double bass and piano, score, Edition Wohlhauser No. 1785, Ergon 59, Fr. 42.00, www.renewohlhauser.com/
