"A pure sonic frenzy" (SZ)

Georg Friedrich Haas’ unique and extravagant microtonal work 11.000 Saiten, commissioned by the F. Busoni - G. Mahler Foundation and sponsored by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, continues to fascinate audiences around the world.

In 11.000 Saiten, 50 pianos that have been microtonally tuned against one another play together with a chamber orchestra. Arranged in a circle around the audience, each piano is tuned two cents higher than the last, reaching a semitone higher at the end than the beginning as the circle closes. In his composition, Haas treats the 50 pianos’ 11,000 strings as a single instrument.

After the world premiere in Bolzano, Klangforum Wien presented the work at wien modern, Holland Festival and Prague Spring Festival. On 15 September 2024, 11.000 Saiten receives its German premiere at the Düsseldorf Festival, performed by Klangforum Wien under musical director Tim Anderson. Further performances are planned for 2025, including in the USA, Germany and Poland.

About 11.000 Saiten

“I keep writing music that only develops its full quality in live performance. The difference between 11,000 strings from loudspeakers and 11,000 strings in a concert hall, surrounded by 50 pianos and 25 other instruments, is about the same as the difference between a thunderstorm or a flood on television or in reality (from a safe place, close to the forces of nature)”
Peter Paul Kainrath, director of Klangforum Wien, had the initial idea for the unusual project: "In 2018, I had the opportunity to visit the Hailun piano factory in Ningbo, China. Before each instrument leaves the factory, it is played continuously by automated machines for over 24 hours. I saw this on location – 100 pianos being played simultaneously. I immediately thought that for a composer like Georg Friedrich Haas, this kind of setup would be highly compelling, as he is one of the most enthusiastic proponents of "unleashing" traditional tonality through microtonality."

Chinese piano manufacturer Hailun provided the pianos, and Ricordi, together with its digital partner Newzik, developed the material. The musicians play from tablets, and instead of a conductor automated page turns dictate the meter.

Find out more in the Klangforum Wien blog.

Reviews

"But this piano thunder is something more, you don’t just hear it, but feel it as a force of nature. A flageolet tone disperses the clouds, and the storm returns with the bass drum, violins spread panic with a high holding tone like the spaghetti westerns of the past. [...] It rumbles and threatens and screams… a pure sonic frenzy, Yes, even new music can sometimes be fantastic.“

"Its sound space transforms into an acoustic energy field, which immediately arrests the emotions of those it enshrouds. For just over 60 minutes, atmospherically dense structures are sent through the room, ranging from the most delicate individual statements to cluster-like collective glissandi. [...] One of Haas' qualities, despite all the complexity, is that the sensuality of his sound resolutely encourages association. Is it about the infinite expanse of the cosmos? Is machinic urbanity evoked? The listener, thrown back on themself, is free to decide.”




"With the performance of 11.000 Saiten, a summit has been reached as regards microtonality and spatial music. [...] Certainly (and gladly) expected of Haas were those microtonal pleasures of a special kind; these went far beyond the playful or showful, or even the theatrical (though there was a degree of this too). [...] These 66 minutes of sonic storm were, then, not only exciting in each moment captured, but also in the connection between detailed phases (how wonderfully icy these minimally-shifted triads suddenly sound in context!) and the colossal thunderstorm and striking visual of 100 youngsters’ gloved hands flying over the keys, with these self-produced sounds literally flying about their ears. If chefs like to talk about a sense of umami then here we have an overtone-tsunami. I have never, in fact, heard so many new, newly-designed, and mountainously-piled sounds in a signal hour. Indeed, it was never so easy to write about standing ovations.“


"When the pianists all played a chromatic motif in the bass register at the same time, it sounded like a jet fighter taking off. Haas deployed such effects right at the beginning of his piece and served up an hour of inventive variations: whispery tinkling, swirling around through space, an uncanny quint fall sequence that criss-crossed from one mood to the next. Only at the end did it really become a deafening scourge of sound, when the fifty pianists attacked the keyboards with their forearms.“

Score of 11.000 Saiten