Wie der Euro nach Bern kam und wie er wieder verschwand (2012)

4′
Work commissioned by the Camerata Bern
WP: 4.11.2012, Kulturcasion, Bern (CH) | Antje Weithaas (conductor), Camerata Bern

Orchestra instrumentation

strings: 4,4,3,2,1

Programme note

Wonderful sounds can frequently be created on the threshold to audibility: sounds which open up entire new worlds and are capable of moving the innermost of human emotions.

For example: if a two-euro coin is utilised to create a tremolo effect on the strings of a string instrument, sounds are produced which are reminiscent of a mandolin, but appear to come from far away.

It is of course somewhat bizarre for a Swiss chamber orchestra to pick up such soft coins as euros (these coins are in fact genuinely made of softer metals than Swiss francs and therefore have a better tone). This explains why all the euro coins are dropped on the floor at the end of the piece. I am however sure that somebody will have the compassion to pick them all up again …

Thomas Larcher