2004

(An introduction to)

In Search of Lost Time

While straddling an uncertain future and a realised past, we all spend our allotted time. Each of us has various ways of doing this and, as much of my time is spent travelling, literature has evolved as my constant companion.

As I became increasingly aware of the musical citations in literature contrasted with the literary citations in musical scores, the concept of developing a polyphonic collage dawned on me and I was driven to conceive a production to display the artistic synergy of both media.

The objective of the on-going, international effort that is In Search of Lost Time is to re-capture the intensity and complexity of the literary, dramatic and musical art forms, presenting them as equal partners on stage and highlighting how they have inspired and influenced one another and thus ultimately allowed art to be re-born of art.

Gwendolyn Masin

2010

Paul Klee Splitter

Download "Paul Klee Splitter" flyer here

March 21st 2010 saw the world premiere of Thorsten Encke's Monodrama entitled “Paul Klee Splitter - Vom Klang der Gedanken” in the Paul Klee Zentrum's Auditorium Martha Müller in Bern, Switzerland. It was performed by Gwendolyn Masin (vln), Julia Bartha (pn), Julian Steckel (vc), Thomas Schindl (perc), Peter Grünenfelder (actor), and Luise Rist (staging), who together form Ensemble Inter Pares. Just prior to the concert, an introduction to Encke's composition was presented by music journalist, Torsten Möller, who interviewed Thorsten Encke and Luise Rist in the Auditorium.

“Paul Klee Splitter” is about the writer, philosopher and thinker Paul Klee; the texts are based on his diaries, letters, poems and extracts from his writings on aesthetics in the arts. These reveal Paul Klee to be a man in search of the most elusive elements of existence, his own deep sentiments, the frontiers of the comprehensible, not only in painting, but also in music and in poetry. Klee's fragments of writings form the basis for a work of music theatre for small ensemble and one actor, and express the many facets of Paul Klee’s thinking by employing a combination of speech and music.