Discourse Programme & Space for Knowledge Exchange
Library of MaerzMusik
Library of MaerzMusik, 2023 © Berliner Festspiele, photo: Camille Blake
Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Radialsystem, silent green, daadgalerie
Free admission
The Library of MaerzMusik at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele always opens one hour before a concert begins at the Festspielhaus.
Now in its third year, the Library of MaerzMusik will be open throughout the festival as a place for collective reflection, facilitating encounters between artists, musicians and festival visitors, open to the public free of charge. It aims to create a space for the co-existence and exchange of knowledge(s) while fostering new and shared experiences.
This year’s Library will emphasise connections between the festival programme and the various aesthetics presented with a selection of reference materials – including books, music recordings, scores and films – that continue to resonate through the festival. As well as artist talks, there will be panels and conversations about many of the themes that occupy the artists’ minds, ranging from AI as a creative tool and new intertwining constellations of dance and music to works that question the role of societal and political engagement in the arts and stories about the considerable historical importance of brass instruments across many cultures. Pamela Z and Joan La Barbara are two pioneering figures in contemporary American vocal music and composition. In addition to their concerts, we also honour their work with two video installations in the Library of MaerzMusik, which can be found in the Upper Foyer of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele.
The Library of MaerzMusik seeks to mediate between practice and theory and between situated and formative systems of knowledge. The Library’s purpose is therefore not merely to (re)present knowledge but also to suitably interweave history with referential practices. With the ongoing loss of third places in the public sphere, we wish to transform the Upper Foyer of the Haus der Berliner Festspiele into a space of informal conviviality: roam around, grab a cup of tea, find a moment’s peace, listen to some music, read a book, or just do nothing, lie down and take a break.
– Hannes Wagner, Assistant Curator, Library of MaerzMusik
Saturday 22.3.
Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Bornemann Bar
14:30–16:00 | Library of MaerzMusik – Opening and Vinyl Release
Conversation with Kamila Metwaly, Brigitta Muntendorf and others
In English
Related event: MELENCOLIA
Brigitta Muntendorf, together with Christian Fausch, releases the vinyl album “MELENCOLIC MEDLEY” on Ensemble Modern Medien: a post-digital medley based on the music theatre show “MELENCOLIA”, with media theorist Geert Lovink performing his own texts. We celebrate the release as part of the opening of the Library of MaerzMusik, discuss and listen to it together.
16:00–16:20 | Positionen – Release of the New Issue “Bühnen bahnen”
With the editors Patrick Becker and Bastian Zimmermann
In German
The new Positionen issue is out! Brigitta Muntendorf and visual artist Dagmar von der Ahe have teamed up to design a pop-up card for Positionen that allows you to direct music theatre yourself using augmented reality. Together we want to assemble and perform the 3D pop-up cards.
Sunday 23.3.
Radialsystem / daadgalerie
12:30–13:30, Radialsystem | Weather Report – Publishing on New Music in the Next Generation
Panel with Patrick Becker, Ulrike Hartung, Julia H. Schröder and Svetlana Maraš
In English
Books about new music? Whether it’s artistic research, essays, photo books, theoretical writings, or editions of specific works, the question repeatedly presents itself: what will we publish about advanced music in future and how will we do it? A panel put together by the Wolke Verlag, with contributors from the music scene as well as from the arts, academia, and publishing, will discuss new models, challenges and opportunities.
14:00–15:00, Radialsystem | Book Presentation: “13 Ways of Looking at AI, Art & Music” by Jennifer Walshe
With the composer and author Jennifer Walshe
In English
Related event: Minor Characters
Jennifer Walshe presents her new essay, in which she takes a playful and penetrating look at the latest technical achievements and asks how Artificial Intelligence might work as a tool and source of inspiration for music and the arts.
15:00, daadgalerie | Artist Talk
with Ting-Jung Chen and Salomé Voegelin
In English
Related event: Here On the Edge of the Sea We Sit
Monday 24.3.
Radialsystem
19:15–20:00 | Artist Talk
with Nguyễn + Transitory
Moderated by Ong Keng Sen
In English
Related event: Drifting to the Rhythms at the Southeast of Nowhere
Following the performance of “Drifting to the Rhythms at Southeast of Nowhere”, the creative team and performers will take the audience through the thought processes that shaped the work and gave it a direction.
Tuesday 25.3.
Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Bornemann Bar
18:15–19:45 | Music Between Engagement and Autonomy
Open discussion with Wojtek Blecharz, Nguyễn + Transitory and Mark Barden
Moderated by Marcus Gammel
In English
Over the past years, we have witnessed a strong politicization of music, with artists grappling in their work with topics as war, climate crisis or the rise of right-wing extremism. Now, however, a number of artists seem to be shifting their focus back to the purely aesthetic. But is this an expression of escapism, or rather a form of resistance against the growing pressure for artistic legitimization and the (hyper-)instrumentalization of the arts (which has become increasingly evident in debates surrounding drastic cuts to cultural budgets)? We invite you to an open discussion on the role of music in a social context and the challenges this poses for composers, performers and curators.
Co-presented by field notes / inm, continuation of the conversation “‘Engagierte’ vs. ‘Absolute’ Musik” (Ultraschall Berlin)
Wednesday 26.3.
Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Bornemann Bar
14:30–15:00 | The aesthetic politics of entanglement: practicing an expanded listening
Keynote by Salomé Voegelin
In English
This talk approaches the “Salon of Touch” deliberately attempting to avoid critical distance. Following the skin into a “fleshly music”, it tries to find criticality close-up, in an expanded listening and in the shared space of the in-between. Thus, it eschews a criticality that is removed from the work or the body; that finds its source and meaning in reference and methods of analysis. Instead, it seeks a rigorous understanding from the body as a porous and leaky corpus, of music and of the listener, whose listening is distributed: that is a listening with of a being with that understands the relationality and reciprocity of the heard through the political and ecological reality of an interdependent world.
15:00–16:00 | Reflections on Music and Touch
Discussion with Kuba Krzewiński, Aliénor Dauchez, Bastian Zimmermann and Salomé Voegelin
In English
Related event: Salon of Touch
Touch is an intense and ambivalent topic: when and where is who allowed to touch whom? There are conventionalised forms in sport and sexuality – they help to reflect on the self and the other, body and mind. Music is also touch. Two materials are set in motion towards each other and resonate, they sound. “Salon of Touch” would like to place these practices in an artistic context and discuss them with the theorist and artist Salomé Voegelin.
Thursday 27.3.
Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Side Stage
20:05–20:35 | Artist Talk
with Joan La Barbara
Moderated by Nina Guo
In English
Related event: Voice is the Original Instrument
This artist talk aims to explore the multidisciplinary dimensions in Joan La Barbara’s oeuvre. Going beyond simple analogisms, Joan La Barbara’s work is always interested in what is to learn from the broad spectrum of human-made discoveries and revelations, be it in art, science or quotidian life. This conversation on sound and voice will be moderated by fellow vocal artist Nina Guo, who recently sang Morton Feldman’s seminal “Three Voices” in Berlin, originally dedicated to Joan la Barbara.
Friday 28.3.
silent green, Atelier 2 / Kuppelhalle
17:45–21:30, Atelier 2 | Global Breath. World of Trumpet Sounds
Sound Installation
In English
Related event: silent green 1 & silent green 2
Trumpet pioneers from around the world were interviewed about their perceptions of sound, their social, geographic and political environments, and their specific playing techniques and musical genres. From these experiences, Marco Blaauw composed a global trumpet sound from an enormous variety of trumpet-like sounds from many cultures. This radio play was awarded with the EBU Palma Ars Acustica. The jury praised “its outstanding approach to travelling the world using trumpet instruments, incorporating not only man-made instruments but also sounds from the environment, such as animals and birds. A subtle journey through the ancient rituals of the horn or trumpet.”
20:00–20:45, Kuppelhalle | Take a Deep Breath – Artist Talk with the Composers of Global Breath 1
Related event: silent green 1
In English
The after concert talk “Take a Deep Breath” maps the composers’ very different approaches to the trumpet, the instrument that is featured heavily in the two MaerzMusik days at silent green. From questions of codified musical communication to the intrinsic acoustic properties of the instrument, there is an abundance of ways to elicit its singular qualities.
This artist talk can only be attended with a ticket for the concert “silent green 1. Mazen Kerbaj // Ty Bouque // Marco Blaauw / Global Breath 1”.
Saturday 29.3.
silent green, Atelier 2
12:00–12:20 | Impulses
from Kamila Metwaly and Global Breath initiator Marco Blaauw
In English
Related event: silent green 3 & silent green 4
Artistic director Kamila Metwaly and Global Breath initiator Marco Blaauw talk about the breath and its sheer endless possibilities to transform into organized and non-organized sound. Both the political-cultural aspects and the musical shaping of sound will be discussed in two impulses.
12:30–12:50 | I Can’t Breathe: A Virtual Dialogue
by George Lewis
In English
Related event: silent green 3
13:00–14:00 | Calls and Responses – the Brass Instrument in Environmental and Creation Process Interplay
Discussion with Elena Rykova, Dai Fujikura and Claudia Molitor
In English
Related event: silent green 3 & silent green 4
The echo of the (horn or trumpet) fanfare is rich in allusions. In this encounter, we discuss how trumpet sounds are in symbiotic contact with the environment and how the materiality of the instrument ping-pongs back and forth from composer to performer, navigating the artistic processes and in-between states thereof.
14:00–15:00 | BreathExperience
A breath therapy session
In German
Related ebent: silent green 3 & silent green 4
Prof Ilse Middendorf’s BreathExperience conveys vitality and resilience. The previously unconscious effects and inherent self-healing powers are sensitively experienced through stretches, the sounding of vowels and movements from the breath.
15:00–15:20 | Shallow Grave / Tongue of the Land
A lecture by Liza Lim
In English
Related event: silent green 3 & silent green 4
Liza Lim shares insights into her compositions in the Global Breath series and their connection to ecological perspectives.
15:30–16:30 | A composers’ conversation
with Liza Lim and George Lewis
In English
Related event: silent green 3 & silent green 4
Liza Lim and George Lewis discuss their specific approaches to composing for wind and brass instruments.
17:00–21:30 | Global Breath. World of Trumpet Sounds
Sound Installation
In English
Related event: silent green 3 & silent green 4
Trumpet pioneers from around the world were interviewed about their perceptions of sound, their social, geographic and political environments, and their specific playing techniques and musical genres. From these experiences, Marco Blaauw composed a global trumpet sound from an enormous variety of trumpet-like sounds from many cultures. This radio play was awarded with the EBU Palma Ars Acustica. The jury praised “its outstanding approach to travelling the world using trumpet instruments, incorporating not only man-made instruments but also sounds from the environment, such as animals and birds. A subtle journey through the ancient rituals of the horn or trumpet.”