MEDIATHEK

“Pills or Serenades” is a study on moods and the “mood-making” of music, and at the same time a play with the paradox of “editing”: a montage of volatility and a confrontation of different atmospheres. Recitative material of different styles and textures is cut up and put together again in such a way that the listener feels exposed to a whimsically moody chimera.

That music has the potential to manipulate moods is a well-known fact. “Pills or Serenades” explores two interlocked levels of impact: experiencing emotion – music influences our inner mood, recognizing emotion – a musical experience is accorded an inner mood. The work resembles a sensuous test assembly that enables comparative listening. Ambiguous text sequences are set to music in a “vowels-generated” way: a certain sound of a modus or scale is assigned to each vowel. In this way, the text determines the melody and the implied assessments of traditional melodic phrases are set to music multiple times so that the texts can seem happy, sad, even-tempered or exaggerated. The viewer is observer and witness of this emotional rollercoaster between natural participation and enjoyment of a highly artificial language, moods as artefacts.