Sepia
in series: Schwinden

2008
fl, cl, pno, vn, vc
00:12:00
2008-11-24
Akademie für Tonkunst, Darmstadt, Germany
Ensemble Phorminx

Sepia, a piece for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, and piano, was composed in 2008; it draws on the quartet piece Amnesisch Blau, composed in 2001, which in turn emerged from the trio dis appear, written in 1994. Bornhöft has thus reworked the piece every seven years, adding one instrument to the instrumentation each time. The prime number seven is a number charged with many meanings: the seven days of creation, the menorah, the Seven Wonders of the World, the Seven Brothers of early Christianity, the Seven Sleepers, the Seven Deadly Sins, the seven heroes of Greek mythology who fought against Thebes, the dreaded seventh year of marriage, the life cycle that supposedly changes every seven years. The fact that Bornhöft’s Sepia has now also taken its place in this context of seven was not a deliberate concept, but rather a coincidence. And as luck would have it, counting back from 1994 in increments of seven (1987, 1980, 1973) leads to the year 1966, when, at least for Achim Bornhöft, it all began. The title Sepia refers to an effect of ultraviolet radiation known from photography: the light causes the black areas of old prints to turn brownish and the white of the photographic paper to turn yellowish-creamy. As a result, the photographed motif becomes increasingly blurred, almost disappearing, and only certain elements of the image remain. This is also the case with the note D, the central sound in the series of works Sepia-Amnesisch Blau – dis appear. The d repeatedly emerges and then flows away, steals away; the wordplay in the title of the oldest of the three seven-year pieces, reminiscent of concrete poetry, sets the corresponding trail. Further, now musical traces of blurred memory are, in radio terms, techniques of gradual fading out, e.g., glissandi that fade into nothingness. Other techniques include deliberately omitted chords that should have been played according to the established system, and intentionally designed gaps in certain movement sequences, which the listener perceives as incomplete and is willing to complete in their mind. Sepia, and with it the two preceding pieces, plays with the model of the torso, telling of the beauty and richness of imperfection.

(Text: Stefan Fricke, from the booklet accompanying the CD “achim bornhoeft” in the German Music Council’s Edition Zeitgenössische Musik series, WER 6577 2, 2010), Translated with DeepL.com (free version)