Spiritual music close to people

What does an artist who is used to living and working as a conductor, composer, singer and teacher do when musical creation comes to a forced standstill over a long period of time?

Many musicians have asked themselves this question and had to find answers.

Schongau

- Christoph Garbe, artistic director of the “Festive Summer in the Wies” until spring 2020, didn't want to let his creativity slow down either. Garbe has long been enthusiastic about improvising solo with his own voice and has gained experience with it, especially in sacred spaces. His enthusiasm for experimentation opened an astonishing door for him during the lock-down, which until now is more known in jazz and rock, and is also used again and again by pop guitarists. Garbe discovered the "loop" singing for himself.

“I just wanted to sing, I missed that extremely. I found the idea of ​​being completely on my own, not having to make any compromises, which are otherwise always required when making polyphonic music. I find it extremely exciting to focus solely on my voice and the current situation, ”he says.

Fascinated by polyphony since childhood, the versatile musician created a loop technique based on classical singing, in which - always live - he superimposes his own singing layer by layer, while improvising new lines, texts and sound fields. He made amazing discoveries in the process. “In the loop, I hear all the voices very present through headphones. I sing for and into the microphone and not for the room around me. That demands a distinctly different way of singing from me. "

What comes out of the loudspeaker cannot be heard by him, it just surrounds the listener.

The body's own resonance to the voice, which is otherwise noticeable for every singer, also changes, while Garbe sounds between bass blackness and tenoral highs.

“I have liked the modes, ie church keys, for a long time, they enable singing with stable intonation.

The polyphonic clarity without vibrato, a perfect stylistic device in the heyday of the Renaissance and early Baroque around 1600, simply impressed me. "

Garbe has chosen Latin measurement texts as the basis.

Also short baroque two-line lines from the pens of Angelus Silesius and Daniel Czepko von Reigersfeld, whose “Sexcenta Monodist are designed as sound improvisation.

"In the spiritual texts of these mystics there is always an unexpected joke, I admire their brevity and conciseness very much."

From Monday to Friday, August 6th, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Christoph Garbe can be heard under the title “Spiritual music close to people” in the Heiliggeist-Spitalkirche in Schongau.

There are four blocks of 30 minutes each for four groups of currently a maximum of six households, which are invited as listeners with free admission.

Garbe himself picks up the audience at the church portal, is also responsible for ventilating and disinfecting the numbered spaces and for recording personal data.

It is necessary to wear an FFP2 mask.

Pre-registration for this unusual experiment is not required.

Further information at www.klangsucher.de.

DOROTHE GSCHNAIDNER

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