ALPINE SYMPHONY

Starting from the very first sketches in 2021, I have been working on a series of compositions and performances that explore, on a musical level, the transformation of the Alpine region, and especially its glaciers, through global warming. Two common threads connect these pieces: the direct reference to the symphonic poem An Alpine Symphony by Richard Strauss - for me, a symbol of the Romantic idealisation of nature in the 19th century - and the experimentation with the acoustic possibilities of ice, frozen carbon dioxide, and various items of mountaineering gear, presenting an acoustic and visual contemporary contrast to this romantic reference.

An[other] ALPINE SYMPHONY
for seven voices after Richard Strauss | based on POEMS by leta Semadeni

ECLAT 2024, Stuttgart, DE

Composition | Severin Dornier

Performance | Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart

In 2023/24, the vocal septet An[other] Alpine Symphony was developed and premiered as part of the project Poetry Affairs at ECLAT Festival 2024 together with the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart. The work features a text based on poems by the Swiss poet Leta Semadeni, written in Vallader, a variety of the Romansh language, bringing another contemporary perspective to the topic at hand.

The project was curated by Musik der Jahrhunderte and generously supported by the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung.

ALPENSONFONIE 2079
Excerpts for a Music theatre

Fondation jan michalski, Montricher, Ch

Composition | Severin Dornier

Voices | Sonia Loenne & José del Avellanal Carreño

Strings | Aline Sarah müller & Lucie Chollet

Horns | David Inniger & ERwin FOnseca

After initial experiments with the material in a more performative and theatrical form during the evening A Day in the Alps at the Swiss Alpine Museum in Bern, the first excerpts of an upcoming full-length music theatre work on the topic were presented in a performance at the Fondation Jan Michalski in Montricher as part of the nationwide exhibition Regarder le glacier s’en aller in November 2024.