NOTES ABOUT THE MUSIC OF Lizzy Scharnofkse
I have intensively studied the theme and content of the piece. The approach is very emotional. Thus, the music is also emotional. The book “Be loud!” had an effect on me, as well as the people, the women for peace. And of course I was inspired above all by the performance text. The original sound recordings from the Stasi archive and images from the archive of the Robert Havemann Society also play a big role, both as inspiration for the creation of the music, and also as part of sound collages.
The ideas are there, but a lot of it develops in rehearsals. Some of the music is created in real time at rehearsal. By being there during the rehearsal process, I can respond directly to the scenes, the actresses and moods, and capture and implement the atomic spheres for the music. The music is strongly inspired by the space, by the history of this place. By the moods that are created here. All of that colors the musical ideas.
Especially for me, as a jazz musician, it is in my nature to create and shape something out of the moment. Improvisation plays a major role in jazz, so I approach the preformed ideas very openly and freely during rehearsals. I let myself be inspired and at best inspire my fellow players with a sound or a melody. It’s about songs, atmos and soundscapes that support the play and the plot. That’s how the compositions came about.
The music lives and lives through the dramaturgical moments.
To classify the music into styles is always difficult. The music represents a wide range of emotions and styles and the musical tool is large. You can hear a mixture of acoustic and electroacoustic atmospheric soundscapes, played with various live instruments, synthesizers and with the use of voices and original sound recordings (partly alienated) from the Stasi archive. The centerpiece is a drum set and various percussion instruments, kalimba, glockenspiel, a trumpet, voice and live synthesizer. In addition, also analog, effect chains. Among other things, original compositions can be heard, minimalist, spherical, minimal poppy, electronic, and the 80s are reflected with synthesizer sounds. The songs of Bettina Wegner get an individual garb and shape the whole performance. In addition, there are musical quotations of well-known songs of the 80s or pioneer songs in their own style to hear and own interpretations of music of the 70s.
Hopefully the music hits the heart.
Lizzy Scharnofkse
November 2022
ABOUT BETTINA WEGNER
The first time I heard a Bettina Wegner song, I was deeply moved. It was during the research for our play. The music, this female voice, her singing style, and especially the lyrics had reached something deep inside me, that I didn’t know it existed. I felt directly and emotionally connected to an artist, whose name I hadn’t heard before.
As I was gradually discovering her work, I was able to see a world, a period in time, a country and its people, a way of life, a political situation, and what was striking, an attitude to life that was far from anything I knew before. Bettina’s songs were just different to those of other singer-songwriters of the time, especially to those written by men. Bettina was writing about similar subjects, but her songs were heartbreakingly honest, sensitive, simple, and bold. Bettina, just like the “characters” of our play, the Frauen für den Frieden, was a woman living and creating in the 1980s in the GDR. Through her artistic creation, she showed me a path to approach and understand these women better, their life as well as their political action.
I always listen to music when I write, and for every scene I find the songs that inspire me, set the mood and the pace. Bettina’s music became the soundtrack of my dramaturgical work. But it was so organically connected, that it quickly found its way into the narrative itself. It felt natural to incorporate the songs into our story, adapt them and interpret them from our perspective today. There is a lot of music in our performance. And the songs of Bettina Wegner are its musical and emotional spine.
Nancy Biniadaki
November 2022