Münchener Biennale

For a long time now, Dieter Schnebel has been planning a piece for the Stuttgarter Vocalsolisten where the voice artists move about within a space. He considered Processions  as a title, but rejected it because he felt it was too tightly connotative. The term "utopia" was deliberated during the discussions on the concept; it appealed to the "Blochian" in Schnebel, it reminded the composer of Geist der Utopie ("The Spirit of Utopia"), an early work by Bloch with a hauntingly expressive language, and it reminded him of the ending in Prinzip Hoffnung ("The Principle of Hope"): " … thus something is created in the world that appears to everyone in their childhood and where no one has been yet: “homeland" – a translation and interpretation of the word u-topia (ou topos), no place.

A historical journey through humanity's utopias was not an option – its history is too extensive and multifaceted. In the end, deliberations concerning the music, text, and scenes were condensed into the following concept: Three pieces for the entire six voices in the vocal ensemble correspond to the trigonometry of the Christian utopia: faith, hope, love. The entire ensembles are surrounded by soli, duets, and trios, which also measure the antonyms of faith and hope. Not the antonym of love; this appears more or less as "quinta essentia" (the fifth essence) in the sense of the ancient doctrine of the elements, beyond the existential fractures – as a utopia. The utopia, however, coalesces with and is defined by memory. With Schnebel it becomes audible through quotes and echoes from Wagner's Tristan, from Schubert, from Bruckner. The work of the 82-year-old man is not narrative theater, but rather primarily a theater of space, sound, and movement, which also moves from the stage and into the audience.