Xenolith

A xenolith (literally "foreign stone") is an inclusion of a stone in cooled volcanic material. But the beautiful Greek term can of course also be translated more freely as "foreign stone": a stone that is in a place where it does not belong - or that is not where it should be. The Seven Stones of Preußlitz have only been six for some decades. This raises questions and opens up mythological associations: If the legend is true that they are petrified people - did one of them de-stone himself again and make off? Was the seventh stone (magic number!) really just a simple sandstone?

My composition for the Mitteldeutsche Kammerphilharmonie deals with fossilised material, with inclusions of foreign material in other material - which also leads to the question of whether it is really the inclusion that is foreign or perhaps its surroundings? - and with empty and missing spaces. 

Externally, the piece is laid out as a sequence of seven movements that take their starting point from the materials and the proportions of the stones of Preußlitz. The movement titles allude to this materiality:

I. Blows II. Rattling III. Blows (Variation) IV. Trickle V. Vibrate VI. Blocks

The seventh movement ("Siebenstein") draws on the material of the first six as if from a quarry - but since the order of movements in the performance is free, the self-quotation can also appear like an original and vice versa. The number seven, often resolved into six similar and one dissimilar element, is also reflected in many compositional details.