Encompass
Hommage to Mahler’s 1st Symphony
for small orchestra (2020)
12 min
Premiere: November 29, 2020, via Livestream. Broadcast from Gretchen, Berlin, Germany
Commissioned by and performed by the STEGREIF.orchester
“Encompass” is an hommage to Mahler’s 1st Symphony, written for small orchestra of variable instrumentation with at least eleven players: high and low woodwind, high and low brass, electric guitar, drums/percussion, and string quartet plus double bass. It was commissioned by the STEGREIF.orchester as a part of their #freemahler concert.
| #FREEMAHLER – WHAT THE EARTH TELLS US Interactive online concert A chamber music program by the STEGREIF.orchester More than a hundred years ago, Gustav Mahler insistently described the beauty of nature in his music – a beauty that could largely be lost in another hundred years if the earth were to continue to change so drastically by then due to man-made climate change. The STEGREIF.orchester presents Mahler’s melodies from symphonies No. 1 and 3, the Lied von der Erde and the Wunderhorn Lieder, among others, with improvisational ease, but contrasts them dualistically, as with Mahler, at the same time as the aspects of transience and destruction. A reflection of Mahler’s musical world at today’s apex of time. Climate change affects the existence of all human beings, their health and nutrition. It permanently destroys fields, causes water to dry up, and animals and plants to die out. Scientists all over the world are investigating the causes and consequences of climate change – solutions are being developed and international initiatives are drawing attention to this. As artists, we ask ourselves in this program: how can we make our contribution through music, stimulate thought, wake up and contribute to a change in awareness? #bechange On November 29th, 2020 the STEGREIF.orchester will play the premiere of #freemahler as an interactive online concert. With a ticket you acquire access data to a video conference in which musicians and spectators meet like in a virtual concert hall. Here we create space for sharing a new concert experience. Connected via image and sound, viewers see and hear the musicians, as well as vice versa: you too will be visible to the musicians during the concert, your reactions, facial expressions and applause will be part of the barriers of the screens this interactive evening. We cordially invite you to an online concert full of shared moments of discovery. #freemahler – what the earth tells us, an interactive online concert is created as part of the #made-to-measure project, funded by the Government Commissioner for Culture and Media |
Evelyn Saylor 