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The music of Klaus Lang (Austria, 1971) spanned a broad range of styles,
but mostly originated from
Alvin Lucier's stationary sound.
Der Weg des Prinzen I/ The Path of the Prince I for chamber ensemble (1996), one of his earliest compositions, sets in motion a group of
understated bass drones that initially simulate a death murmur but then,
littered with "dripping" percussive sounds,
become a mythical landscape and even a living organism in their own.
Klaus Lang exported Alvin Lucier's ideas into
chamber music, thereby producing the equivalent of melody and harmony
with drones instead of notes as the fundamental elements.
Der Schlafende Landmann, der Baum des Lebens und die Schalen der Finsternis/ The sleeping farmer, the tree of life and the pools of darkness for solo piano (1998) is one of his hyper-minimal pieces: the pianist hardly touches the
keyboard.
Die Uberwinterung Der Mollusken/ The Hibernation of the Mollusks (Durian, 1999) contains
Der Weg Des Prinzen I/ The Path of the Princes (1996)
for flute, saxophone, mezzosoprano, viola, two percussion, and accordion;
Die Drei Spiegel Der Schoenen Karin/ The Three Mirrors of the Beautiful Karin (1998) for solo contrabass;
Cetus Candidus (1996) for trombone, flute, strings, saxophone, percussion and clarinet;
Der Herr Der Insel/ The Lord of the Island (1999) for solo flute.
Trauermusiken (Edition RZ, 2002) contains
the colossal quartet The Sea Of Despair (1995).
Sei-jaku (2003) contains another string quartet.
The hyper-sparse Lichtgeschwindigkeit (C+P Grob, 2003) was a
collaboration
with jazz avant-bassist Werner Dafeldecker.
The mood is funereal in
Zwillingsgipfel/ Twin Peaks for flute and piano (2003).
He also composed the
Missa Beati Pauperes Spiritu (Col Legno, 2006), premiered in 2005.
Einfalt Stille (2007), composed in 1999, is a four-movement composition
for flute, percusion, viola and voice.
Geschrieben in Wasser/ Written in the Water (2007) is a short work for piano quartet.
The Book Of Serenity (2008) contains
The Book Of Serenity for chamber ensemble (2008), a subliminal concerto
of barely audible hisses and buzzes,
the similarly bashful piano quintet Drei Goldene Tiger/ Three Golden Tigers (2007),
Der Fette Hirte Und Das Weise Kaninchen/ The Fat Shepherd and the White Rabbit for flutes and percussion (2001),
and
Die Goldenen Tiere/ The Golden Animals for flute, french horn, violin, viola and two performers (1999), a piece that stages a sort of call and response act by mixing a small crowd of droning instruments and individually plucked instruments.
His droning works include:
Marias Mantel for organ (2005), a work of shifting drones,
The Ocean Of Yes And No for chamber ensemble (2008), in which the
instruments seem to simulate human laments,
Weisse Aepfel/ White Apples for string trio (2009), a work of alternating anguished drones,
The Thin Whale/ Der Duenne Wal for oboe and ensemble (2012), that instead combines the sustained tones for the purpose of suspense,
Hungrige Sterne/ Hungry Star for clarinet, horn, viola, violoncello and contrabass (2012), another work for overlapping and colliding droning instruments (and perhaps the best one),
etc.
Origami for flute, cello and accordion (2011) is a work of minimalist repetition whose fluttering pattern, skilfully elongated after many mutations, begins to sound soulful and polyphonic.
By his standards, there is a lot of movement in
Schwarzes Licht/ Black Light for zither and orchestra (2013).
The highest point is probably not when
the whole orchestra assembles a wind that blows away the zither's lonely song;
but when a few seconds later the zither is riflected and refracted by the
other instruments to become a million zithers. The zither eventually regains
its solitude and delights with its simple chant. The orchestra rises one more
time in menacing fashion, a tidal wave surging over the entire Earth but this
catastrophe passes too, and the zither can resume its simple strumming.
SAIS (Maria de Alvear, 2014) is a concept album about cows, scored
for flute, percussion and piano.
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