Abgesang

The composer writes about the work: "Abgesang" is not a violin concerto. It lacks the concertante dialogue with the orchestra and the virtuoso element. It is "funeral music" - without lamento. The violin part demands a rhetorical articulation, as it were, which approaches spoken speech, especially towards the end. The piu vivo and piu mosso parts are short starts whose energies soon dissipate, culminating in a marcia funebre or a high, fragile smorzando. The chorale that is quoted ("Wenn mein Stündlein vorhanden ist", Frankfurt/M. 1569) does not want to be understood as a subjective-religious memory fragment, but - by appearing in the sound garb of a 17th century cantorial movement - as a sound symbol for theological objectivity. Then the violin monologues, inserted between the chorale lines and grounded only by the percussion, are on the verge of falling silent. Anyone who places the piece in the programme and setting of a concert will know that such music defies applause.