Sing für mich, Tod

That life and Art occaisonally become interwoven to the point of inextricableness, is for an observer a phenomenon with a special attractiveness. The relevant people are not always aware of this, and do not always experience it as being uplifting. The French/Canadian composer Claude Vivier, who was murdered at the age of 34 and was found collapsed over his unfinished score of – „Crois-tu en l’immortalité de l’ame? /Do you believe in the immortality of the soul“ is one of these special kinds of artist.

He was adopted at the age of 3 as a „parentless“ child, and never felt at home anywhere throughout his school period. He began a music degree at the age of 16 in Montreal and was awarded a scholarship to go to Holland and Germany in 1971, where he studied, amongst others, with Karlheinz Stockhausen. He continued, however to develop his own personal and unique style that peaked at a very high level after a study visit to Asia and Bali in 1976. „The harmonious aura“ wrote Paul Griffith for the New York Times, “is suddenly more complex, and the impeccable instrumentation is very different from anything else that he has written up until this point”. After his trip to Asia, not only was his incomparable compositional style to emerge powerfully, but he also rethought the role of the artist in society.

The Ensemble Musikfabrik will perform a very special portrait concert of this exceptional artist at the Ruhrtriennale 2009. This is because Claude Vivier is an example for the thematic direction of the new Ruhrtriennale series that is searching for the original source of art, religion and love avoiding concrete terminology and looking to share the experience of musical examples that cannot be expressed in words. The staged project „Sing für mich, Tod“ follows the fusion the life and art of Claude Vivier. The dramatist and lyricist Albert Ostermaier put together a monologue based on Vivier’s biography that takes place in the hours before his death. David Hermann will be the director and Christof Hetzer created the production space in the Machine Hall Zeche Zweckel in Gladbeck. Christoph Poppen will conduct the Ensemble Musikfabrik.