MORITZ GAGERN (*1973) Nigunim for orchestra(2017) Commissioned composition by JCOM
CHRISTOPH BRECH (*1967) Video film aboutNigunim(2023) premiere
Daniel Grossmann, conductor
In 2017, Berlin-based composer Moritz Gagern wrote the full-length work Nigunim , a fully composed Jewish wedding, for the JCOM, incorporating melodies that go back to the origins of Klezmer in the Jewish shtetl of Eastern Europe.
On behalf of the Goetz Collection, the video artist Christoph Brech, in collaboration with the Munich Marionette Theater, created a new film that, on the one hand, goes back to various traditions from the silent film era, but on the other hand also makes the production process visible: a Jewish wedding in shadow play scenes is mixed with recordings of musicians from unexpected perspectives, the production of the rod puppet figures from the sketch to the painting is shown, as are the puppeteers who operate hidden beneath the recording screen.
A certain kind of soulfulness and lightness connects the various pieces that have been handed down to us as wedding music of the Eastern European Jews. If, as a composer, you want to engage with this music, not just to depict its broad spectrum, but to create something new from it from today's perspective, it makes sense to examine the playing style of influential instrumentalists. My investigation therefore began with an archaeological experience. I listened to various noisy recordings from the early days of sound recording again and again, sometimes in extreme slow motion, to find out what was actually happening. Some things happen that, according to orthodox understanding of music, should not happen at all. Physical boundaries are shifted. The characteristic playing techniques are instrumental approximations of the human voice. (Composer Moritz Gagern on Nigunim )
The premiere of the cooperation project between the Jewish Chamber Orchestra Munich and Christoph Brech will take place as part of the exhibition (Not) a Doll's House. Old role plays and new images of man (April 22, 2023 - January 7, 2024 in the Munich City Museum).
