Work · 1993
Über Kurz oder Lang, Von der Weite und der Enge
Über kurz oder lang, von der Weite und der Enge; Ueber Kurz oder Lang von der Weite und der Enge (AKM)
String quartet in three movements, dedicated to Dr. Hans and Andrea Haumer, 25 minutes according to mica (Austria's music information centre). Heckel devotes a chapter of its own to the work, with a movement-by-movement analysis.
- Authors
- Harry Pepl
- Genre
- string quartet (Instant Composition)
- Line-up
- string quartet (2 violins, viola, cello), three movements; Pepl recorded the material partly with a MIDI keyboard, partly with MIDI guitar
- Commission
- Artis Quartet Vienna (idea from Werner Pirchner's circle)
- Premiere
- 6 May 1993, Brahmssaal of the Musikverein, Vienna, Artis Quartet; ORF live recording, Ö1 broadcast on 12 May 1993 (programme booklet) or in summer/autumn 1993 (Heckel)
- Publisher
- Pepl Daniel Musikverlag (Fullmax Publishing)
- ISWC
- T0011517706
- AKM work number
- 2045430
- Sheet music
- Full score: Score edited by Georg Pepl (Notator, Atari); full score in the appendix of Heckel's dissertation (p. 283).
- Archive ID
- HP-W-0182
During a quiet passage at the premiere a thunderstorm set in, whose rushing rain Pepl described as an incredible atmosphere. The newspaper Kurier judged the fragile, hesitantly beginning work too good to serve as a „Sandwich-Einlage“ [“sandwich filler”] between Beethoven and Brahms.
The movement titles
First part: “Schwebend, in die Ferne guck mal” (“Floating, look into the distance”), then “zerfahren, erfahren, zerfranst” (“scattered, seasoned, frayed”). Second part: “Breit, hymnisch weit, dann schrill” (“Broad, hymnically wide, then shrill”), then “dahinflitzend” (“whizzing along”). Third part: “Mikromäßig, durchhängend” (“Micro-ish, sagging”), “Die mit dem Bogen tanzen” (“Those who dance with the bow”) and “Hurtig, in die Groove einbiegend” (“Briskly, turning into the groove”). According to Georg Pepl, “Die mit dem Bogen tanzen” alludes to Kevin Costner's film “Dances with Wolves” (1990), known in German as “Der mit dem Wolf tanzt”. Ö1, ORF's cultural radio station, broadcast the recording of the premiere in the weeks after the concert; the presenter announced that “the whimsical movement titles may provide a contrast to the music” and mentioned that the work referred to current events, which according to Georg Pepl probably meant the war in the former Yugoslavia.1
Notes and sources (1)
- Heckel 2024, pp. 126 f. (movement titles, Ö1 announcement, Georg Pepl on current events) and p. 133 (Georg Pepl on “Die mit dem Bogen tanzen”); quotations translated from the German. ↩