Ceremonial act
Aus dem Nichts – Fritz Hauser & Neophyt Vokalensemble
Voltahalle
Voltastrasse 27, 4056 Basel
Fritz Hauser’s *Aus dem Nichts* uses percussion and a vocal ensemble to explore the origins of communication—from sounds and rhythms to the threshold of language.
Fritz Hauser, Composition & Percussion / Conductor
Basel University of Music Percussion Ensemble
Neophyt Vocal Ensemble
The work *Aus dem Nichts* (*Out of Nothing*), newly created for Interfinity by Basel-based composer and percussionist Fritz Hauser, explores the acquisition of language and the origins of human communication. Together with eight percussionists and the Neophyt Vocal Ensemble (conducted by Tobias Stückelberger), a multi-layered soundscape emerges in which communication develops, as it were, “out of nothing”: From what is initially a diffuse web of sounds, the first noises, calls, and rhythmic patterns emerge. Gradually, repetitions, relationships, and vague structures emerge, from which the first, still disjointed thoughts eventually take shape.
But just before the first concrete word is uttered, this development comes to an abrupt halt—the path from pre-linguistic sounds to articulated speech remains deliberately unfinished. In an epilogue, the work instead makes a radical leap in time and leads directly into a quasi-digital form of communication.
In this way, *Aus dem Nichts* makes elementary processes of communication musically tangible while simultaneously posing the question of how meaning and understanding arise from sound, rhythm, and repetition.
Concert duration: 45 to 60 minutes (per performance)
Bar service available at the Voltahalle
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.
Basel University of Music Percussion Ensemble
Neophyt Vocal Ensemble
The work *Aus dem Nichts* (*Out of Nothing*), newly created for Interfinity by Basel-based composer and percussionist Fritz Hauser, explores the acquisition of language and the origins of human communication. Together with eight percussionists and the Neophyt Vocal Ensemble (conducted by Tobias Stückelberger), a multi-layered soundscape emerges in which communication develops, as it were, “out of nothing”: From what is initially a diffuse web of sounds, the first noises, calls, and rhythmic patterns emerge. Gradually, repetitions, relationships, and vague structures emerge, from which the first, still disjointed thoughts eventually take shape.
But just before the first concrete word is uttered, this development comes to an abrupt halt—the path from pre-linguistic sounds to articulated speech remains deliberately unfinished. In an epilogue, the work instead makes a radical leap in time and leads directly into a quasi-digital form of communication.
In this way, *Aus dem Nichts* makes elementary processes of communication musically tangible while simultaneously posing the question of how meaning and understanding arise from sound, rhythm, and repetition.
Concert duration: 45 to 60 minutes (per performance)
Bar service available at the Voltahalle
Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.