100 Cymbals
The ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg will be performing two projects at HELLERAU in April: “100 Cymbals” by Ryoji Ikeda (April 7) and the world premiere of Chaya Czernowin’s “POETICA” (April 12). The ensemble had already presented Karlheinz Stockhausen’s music theater “Music in the belly” as part of the Dresden Days of Contemporary Music in January 2023.
With the composition “100 Cymbals” by Ryoji Ikeda, Les Percussions de Strasbourg demonstrates the polyphonic potential of the cymbal instrument, treading the fine line between noise and harmonic resonance. The seemingly rudimentary instrument, a curved disc made of a copper-brass-bronze alloy, is transformed into a powerful polyphonic sound source, an endless crescendo that leads from a barely perceptible murmur to the roar of the final fortississimo.