In Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Syrinx evades the unwelcome attentions of god Pan by persuading her fellow river nymphs to turn her into an array of hollow reeds capable of emitting the most wonderful sounds. Pan cuts the reeds, binds them into a flute (the »pan pipe«) and plays on it thenceforward in commemoration of his beloved. In this I see a telling image illustrating the main thematic focus of the 2012 Heidelberger Frühling festival.
Metamorphoses are ubiquitous, not only in nature but also in music. The classical composition process begins with a seminal motif, develops it into a theme, and then transforms, fashions and varies it until the result is first a movement and then a whole work. At a more elemental level, music has always imitated nature. Romantic composers use natural sounds as metaphors for psychological and emotional states, while their contemporary counterparts tend to draw upon them as instances of environmental noise.
Hopefully, this brief reference to some of the ideas behind our choice of the motto for this year’s Heidelberger Frühling may prompt you to join us in the quest for »metamorphoses« in music.
