Harald Weiss - Trommelgeflüster (1982)

Trommelgeflüster (Drum Whispering) is a drum ritual which had been set to music within 1979/80 and was recorded by the composer and percussionist Harald Weiss in 1982. The music is based upon a constantly felt pulse, and uses, aside from rhythmic-metrical overlappings, above all the parameters of tone colour and dynamism to create numerous climaxes. Weiss, winner of various national and international composition contests, carries out Trommelgeflüster as a theatrical work. Sitting in the centre of a square built by an array of percussion instruments, Weiss moves, as the music progresses, in short sequences from one piece of his equipment to another, until he gets back to the instrument he began with and becomes full 'circle'. "I think," explains Weiss, "music has always been more than just music – it is a unity of sound, movement and language, centred by the expression of human existence." Weiss approaches his instruments on Trommelgeflüster from various points of view, alternating between impressionistic and expressionistic moods, between melodic and rhythmic conceptions. Despite its lack of visual aspects, the performance has lost nothing of the intriguing character.