Werder 2005(1)

The recordings were mastered separately and are at very different volumes, so you may need to adjust playback levels. Some are very quiet or use very low frequencies and will be virtually inaudible through laptop speakers. All the realisations are best heard through hi-fi speakers or good headphones.

Submissions welcome

If you make a realisation of 2005(1), you are welcome to submit it for possible inclusion in this project. Send it to <info(at)anothertimbre(dot)com>

Submissions should not be longer than 15 minutes.

‘2005/1’ by Manfred Werder

Manfred Werder is a Zürich-based composer and a long-standing member of the Wandelweiser Composers’ Collective. His compositions have always been challenging and pushed at the limits of our understanding of what music is or might be. His recent works are all short text scores with titles that are simply the year in which they were composed.

2005/1 is perhaps the most well-known of Werder’s recent pieces, and consists of just three words: ort, zeit, (klänge) - place, time, (sounds). There is no further instruction to the musician(s) as to how to realise the score.

In 2012 Manfred Werder helped me select a number of musicians from round the world who we asked to produce new realisations of 2005/1 for this online project. With Manfred’s agreement I added two specifications that are not in the score:

(1) that these realisations should not exceed 15 minutes in length, and

(2) that they should result in an audio recording that is suitable for repeated listening.

To hear the recordings, click on the name of the relevant musician(s) on the list on the opposite column.

And here you can read a long interview with Manfred Werder about his recent work and his ideas about sound/music and its place in the world.

Simon Reynell, May 2013

ort

zeit

(klänge)

place

time

(sounds)

2005/1

manfred werder