Prayer

Gebet, a fragment from the string quartet Stille Mauern (ED 9963 and ED 9964), has been arranged by the composer for solo violin and string orchestra. ‘Do not be afraid of going slow, be afraid of standing still!’ says a Chinese proverb. The tempo indications in Gebet range from between 40 to 60 beats per minute. This is very slow compared to today’s zeitgeist. In addition, there are consistently low dynamics which shall give both the musicians and the audience the possibility to listen to the reverberation of the sounds. The work is ideally performed inside a church where the natural reverberation causes an acoustic ‘enhancement’. Harald Weiss