Der Schimmelreiter

‘For me, Der Schimmelreiter (The Dykemaster) forms the second part of a major trilogy which began with Rattenfänger (The Pied Piper) and ends with Eduard auf dem Seil (Eduard on the Tightrope). In all three works, a figure comes from the East and sets the story in motion; […] in Schimmelreiter, it is a fiddler from Slovakia who persuades Hauke Haien to buy his white horse. […] I have specifically noticed how through the opening up of Eastern Europe, particularly in the case of composers from Latvia, Lithuania, Russia and Georgia, elements appear in our Central European music which were frowned upon post-1945: emotion, humour and an unbroken relationship with melody. […] As I was formulating my initial concepts for Schimmelreiter, I heard the legend of the horse-head violin. I was fascinated by the idea of the Mongolian rider who, after his horse was killed by the Khan because he did not receive it as a present, fashioned a staff from the backbone of the animal, strings from its hair and a bow from its tail and attempted to reproduce the mournful cries of his beloved animal with his new instrument. As I repeatedly read Theodor Storm’s novella Schimmelreiter, and was further drawn into the scene of the tale with the aid of reference literature, my mind returned again and again to the horse-head violin with its mournful trills and glissandi. It was soon clear that the violin must be the central instrument in Schimmelreiter and its singing melody would permeate the entire work and appear at both its opening and culmination.’ (Wilfried Hiller; source: Bühnen der Landeshauptstadt Kiel, 1998)