2002
Piano Solo
UA: Heilbronn, 27/9/2003, performer:Nicolas Hodges; Festival “antasten”
CD: Konrad Boehmer, (Position, Il Combattimento + Ouroboros) BVHAAST 0504, Performer: Nicolas Hodges
OUROBOROS (2002) is one of the cryptic symbols of the alchemists: a serpent which begets and devours itself. This symbol seems to be the invention of the female Egyptian alchemist Kleopatra, who lived some centuries before our era. The word is a neologism: ‘he oura’ is ‘the tail’ and ‘he bora’ is ‘the feed’.
Ouroboros is the symbol of the cosmos itself, it is to be situated beween being and nothingness. In this respect, this serpent-symbol has much in common with music, the most immaterial, metaphysical of all arts. In contrast to the other arts who depend on or present rather concrete forms of material, music is nothing else than a specific form of articulation of time.
We know nothing about the essence of time with the exception of it being a product of motion. Time is considered something which brings itself fourth and which devoures itself: no being can escape from that vicious circle.
The idea of a process which incessantly generates and annihilates itself, has been the basic idea of my piano piece. Seven parts (‘brain’, ‘mouth’, ‘lungs’, ‘stomach’, ‘intestines’, ‘sexual organs’ and ‘legs’), all with specific musical characteristics, are fragmented more and more, until they intermingle up to their individual irreducibility.
OUROBOROS has been written for Nicolas HODGES. I began the composition shortly after the release of the CD of my piano works (december 2001) which Hodges had recorded in December 2000 and August 2001.
‘The’ piano works on one CD appeared a too definite idea to me. So OUROBOROS is an addition to my collection of piano pieces and it destroys the idea of a ‘closed’ piano work.
You can download the score here: Ouroboros.pdf