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Holliger Heinz
Aitken, Robert
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Sonate (in)solit(air)e for flute solo
Sonate (in)solit(air)e for flute solo
Heinz Holliger: Sonate (in)solit(air)e for flute solo was written between 1995 and 1996. The piece is dedicated to Aurèle Nicolet for his 70th birthday. This followed the tradition of (é)cri(t), which was written for Nicolet's 60th.
Like much of Holliger's flute music, it was premiered by Nicolet at the Internationale Musikfestwochen (now the Lucerne Festival) in Switzerland on August 21, 1996.
The title is a quintessential Holliger "linguistic puzzle." By using parentheses, he embeds multiple meanings:
Sonate: The traditional musical form.
Insolite: French for "unusual," "strange," or "uncanny."
Solitaire: French for "lonely" or "solo."
Air: Referring both to the musical "aria" and the literal breath (air) required to play.
During the mid-1990s, Holliger was preoccupied with the "ghosts" of musical history and the physical decay of sound. He was deeply exploring the "internal" life of a single note, an obsession shared by the Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi. In Sonate (in)solit(air)e, he deconstructs the flute’s sound into its constituent parts: noise, breath, and pitch.
This period of Holliger's life involved a heavy dialogue with the past. The sonata contains "spectral" references to the Partita in A Minor by J.S. Bach. Holliger treats the Bach Partita as a distant memory that is constantly interrupted by modern "shouts" and mechanical noises.
Holliger was increasingly interested in the "resistance" of the instrument. He wanted to show the effort of the performer, the gasping for air, and the clicking of keys, as an integral part of the music rather than a byproduct to be hidden.
While the piece is technically a "Sonata," Holliger structured it as a series of 12 miniatures. In the Schott Music score, these are labeled as 12 Versets. The titles of these versets refer to the compositional techniques or poetic subtitles for each of these 12 sections.
Holliger Heinz
Heinz Holliger (1939) is a Swiss oboist and composer. His work is characterized by a relentless exploration of the physical limits of instruments and a deep fascination with literature and mental states.
Born in Langenthal, Switzerland, he grew up in a culturally rich environment. His father was a doctor and an amateur musician, providing an early foundation for his dual interests in the "physicality" of the human body and the art of sound.
He began playing the recorder at age six and the piano at age ten. However, it was his transition to the oboe at age eleven that defined his career. He studied at the Bern Conservatory while still a teenager, showing equal aptitude for performance and theory.
In the late 1950s, he moved to Paris to study oboe with Pierre Pierlot and piano with Yvonne Lefébure. More significantly, he studied composition with Pierre Boulez, a central figure of the musical avant-garde, who deeply influenced Holliger's rigorous approach to structure. Holliger is credited with expanding the technical vocabulary of the oboe more than any other 20th-century performer. He pioneered the use of multiphonics, glissandi, and circular breathing.
His compositions often push other instruments, such as the flute in (é)cri(t), to similar extremes. His style is frequently linked to "linguistic music," where musical gestures mimic the phonetics of speech or the "cries" of human emotion.
A significant portion of his output is inspired by "outsider" literary figures, most notably Samuel Beckett, Friedrich Hölderlin, and Robert Walser. His opera Schneewittchen (Snow White) is a prime example of his dark, psychological aesthetic.