EBENBILD
2014
for fourteen musicians: flute/piccolo, oboe, clarinet, Kontraforte (or contrabassoon), horn, trombone, three percussionists (cimbalom, vibraphone, marimba, triangle, thunder sheet, cymbal discs, three-toned samba whistle, wood block, bass drum), two violins, viola, violoncello, contrabass
commissioned by Sound Icon
duration: ca. 17 minutes
Ebenbild is a work for fourteen musicians based on a microtemporal analysis of Pablo Casals’ recording of Bach’s Sarabande in D minor, BWV 1008, made at Abbey Road studios, London, on 23rd November 1936. 'Ebenbild' translates as from German as the physical or visual equivalent of something that cannot be seen; an exemplar; colloquially used to mean 'spitting image'. The copying and duplication in the piece extends from the largest level (the microtimed source performance) to the smallest (interior repetitions, canons, repeats). The epigraph is a couplet by Emily Dickinson: "Perception of an object costs / Precise the Object's loss —"