Music and history, in other words

History – in the sense of a society’s collective memory and understanding of the past – is constructed based on decisions made by older generations about what is worth preserving (in the form of texts, images, icons, monuments…) and what is not. The authors of these decisions (politicians, archivists, benefactors), who are subject to the cultural forces of their time and traditionally to the obligation – implicit or explicit – to advance the metanarratives of the powerful, therefore act as the curators of the past, with the power to embellish and exalt, but also to misrepresent and delete.

In Europe, history is largely perceived as a landscape that is punctuated with periods of political, cultural and institutional upheaval, conflict and resolution. Our system for the preservation of knowledge is, however, poorly-suited for conserving aspects which exist outside of these spheres: the communal, the experiential, the feminine. History as we know it is therefore only one of many discourses about the world.

In our Other Histories project, three composers with vastly different backgrounds and creative outlooks present their creative reflections on the history of histories, on the contemporary tendency to challenge accepted wisdom, and on new approaches to interacting with the records of the past.

With works by
Monthati Masebe, Sara Stevanović and AJ Villanueva

ENSEMBLE RECHERCHE
Anja Clift, flute
Eduardo Olloqui, oboe
Shizuyo Oka, clarinet
Klaus Steffes-Holländer, piano
Christian Dierstein, percussion
Adam Woodward, violin
Sofia von Atzingen, viola
Åsa Akerberg, violoncello
Lukas Nowok, sound direction

Tickets available at www.reservix.de, Badische Zeitung Ticketservice and at the box office.

With the support of the International Coproduction Fund of the Goethe-Institut e.V..