Thomas Stiegler: Inferner Park 5

Since 2005, I have had recurring series of works. These have always ended after 6 pieces (no idea why, probably due to the standard size of egg cartons).

 

Inferner Park was actually not intended as a series. In fact, the first piece consists of 16 ½ picture descriptions for violin and piano, which refer to the eponymous cycle by Paul Klee. Klee created the 16 pencil drawings in 1939, one year before his death, and listed them in his oeuvre catalog under numbers 238–253 as a continuing series. The title refers to the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy. However, in Klee’s case, the sequence of images does not lead to Purgatory or even Paradise, but rather resembles groping into the inevitable abyss.

 

The violin-piano piece Inferner Park 1 is also written with pencil, like the Klee drawings, and spans 59 pages. On the back pages of these sheets, brief Dante quotes have sneakily appeared (specifically one line per canto of the Divine Comedy, a total of 100 lines). These can be whispered and flicked through as an independent piece (Inferner Park 2), which promises great ASMR potential. Piece 3 is the synthesis of these two forms, which can also be performed in an installative way (ideally with two musicians per instrument).

 

Inferner Park 4 is actually titled Bilderbuch and is an orchestral piece. Inferner Park 5 begins where the comic ends, and thus leaves Klee’s image world far behind. My cello piece Arboretum from 2023/24 could perhaps also be called Inferner Park 6, though it has not yet made a final decision in this regard.

(Thomas Stiegler)