Buried Bach
As a musician, I like to engage with the question: Who is my art for?
As a musician, I like to engage with the question: Who is my art for?
In this piece, I want to address non-human species. I want to make music for the underground living creatures of Basel‘s gardens: earthworms, maggots, woodlice.
These creatures nurture the ground I walk on everyday. Pondering this idea makes me feel connected, humble and grateful. I want to give something back to them, taking my time and a piece of music close to my heart and sharing it with them. "Alle Menschen müssen sterben", "All humans must die" is a german chorale work by the 17th century composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Its text tells us the story of how every human has to become earth, "alles Fleisch vergeht wie Heu", must become hay, in order to become alive again, in a different way.
I wondered how I can make this piece a pleasurable experience for soil creatures, since their hearing ability can’t be compared to the human one. Together with a group of like-minded transdisciplinary artists, we gave our amateur voices and recorded the chorale. Then, I decided to transpose the frequencies to their lowest limit. After burying a speaker in the ground, the vibrations of the bass frequencies transfer through the soil and reach their listeners.
In the end, we are all the same, arising from the soil and transforming back to it. Why shouldn‘t we be able to enjoy the same piece of music together?
