Vier Elementar­phantasien

Four dark humoured scenes on cataclysmic poems by Christian Morgenstern

Meeresbrandung (Breaking of the Waves) (2017) Sop + Cl

Der Erdriese (the Earth Titan) (2018) Sop + Pno

Der Sturm (The Storm) (2021) Sop + Cl

Die Flamme (The Flamme) (2017, rev. 2021) Sop + Cl (+ Pno)

Premiere Cast

“[…] complex, surprising, and groomed and with all sorts of stylistic means, Thierry Tidrow’s “Earth Titan” grumbles, snorts, and in the end somehow still remains cute.”
Mannheimer Morgen, Stefan M. Dettlinger, 16. April 2018
“Sarah Maria Sun’s performance of “The Flame,” a playful piece by Thierry Tidrow, made space for both the sass of Weimar cabaret and the tightly wound vocal acrobatics characteristic of late Stockhausen.”
New York Times, Seth Colter Walls, 14.09.2018

These Lieder were written for soprano Sarah Maria Sun and are rethinkings of the quartet Elementarphantasien, in which the eccentric late nineteenth-century poet Chrisan Morgenstern depicts each of the four elements in an extremely dark humored manner. Instead of depicting their grandeur and awe, he attributes each element with very typical negative human vices, including greed, anger, vanity, and even death drive.

Although the texts all possess a goofy, dandy-like quality, they also have an extremely violent undertone, as each element is described as wanting to annihilate humanity. As the singer is seen as the story teller, much freedom is given to the artist to control the narrative tension and drive. In this way, these pieces are very theatrical and could almost be thought of as a hybrid between lied, cantata, and opera.

2017—21
Sop + Cl/Sax + Pno
18 min
Sarah Maria Sun, soprano Kilian Herold, clarinet Jan-Philip Schulze, piano
Composer
Compositeur
Komponist

Vier Elementar­phantasien

2017—21
Sop + Cl/Sax + Pno
18 min
Sarah Maria Sun, soprano Kilian Herold, clarinet Jan-Philip Schulze, piano
Four dark humoured scenes on cataclysmic poems by Christian Morgenstern