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Wolfgang Rihm’s Will Sound Premieres at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall

Feb. 01, 2006

Wolfgang RihmWritten for the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound, the New York-based eclectici virtuosi (to invent a term), Will Sound bears a resemblance to the performers’ name which, in addition to the pun, also reflects common musical traits of both the group and composer. While Alarm Will Sound routinely draw from a wide palette of repertoire, Wolfgang Rihm’s musical life has itself explored regions diverse and unexpected. Rihm has referred to himself as a “pathless wanderer.” Indeed, Rihm sees his music inapplicable to the notion of “style” altogether:

Style only exists through artists who produce it. No one can "change styles."... Style will only be perceived after it has existed. In my case, where everything arises in my own responsibility, subjectively, without having recourse to any particular theories, it is... nonsensical to talk of "changing styles...Something will sound because it wishes to sound. The composer acts upon its will to be and notes down the spaces in between. There emerges a form, which is the imprint of the energy that demands a form for itself. An imprint? Yes, a trace, a coagulated shadow. Just as this text is an imprint of the will not to write it. I don't understand this. Just as well... It's better to listen to the piece. It is short. It will sound…

Will Sound sounds on February 16 at Zankel Hall in New York. And Rihm seems to think there is no cause for Alarm. 

To learn more about Wolfgang Rihm and his work, please visit www.universaledition.com. To learn more about the performers and the premiere, please visit www.alarmwillsound.com and www.carnegiehall.org.

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