Herbert Eimert: Epitaph für Aikichi Kuboyama & Sechs Studien

Studio für elektronische Musik im Westdeutschen Rundfunk Köln

Günther Anders (translation of the epitaph), Richard Münch (speaker) & Leopold von Knobelsdorff (sound realisation)

Studio für elektronische Musik im Westdeutschen Rundfunk Köln

Release Date: 8th Apr 2013
Catalogue No: WER67732
Label: Wergo
Series: studio reihe neuer musik
Length: 41 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Eimert: Epitaph für Aikichi Kuboyama

Work length23:29

Album only

Leopold von Knobelsdorff

Eimert: Sechs Stücke

Work length17:49

$6.00

$8.40

Leopold von Knobelsdorff

Elektronische Musik I

Track length2:56

$1.00

$1.40

Elektronische Musik II

Track length3:03

$1.00

$1.40

Elektronische Musik III

Track length2:35

$1.00

$1.40

Elektronische Musik IV

Track length3:09

$1.00

$1.40

Elektronische Musik V

Track length4:00

$1.00

$1.40

Elektronische Musik VI

Track length2:06

$1.00

$1.40

About
Explore

About

In view of recent events, especially in Japan, Herbert Eimert's piece 'Epitaph für Aikichi Kuboyama' has taken on a sad topicality. When in 1954 the first hydrogen bomb, the so-called Bikini bomb, was tested in the South Pacific, the Japanese fishing boat Fikuryumara was approximately 130 km from the epicentre. All fishermen on board required months of medical treatment; the fisherman Aikichi Kuboyama died of radiation poisoning after five months and became the first long-distance fatality of the nuclear age. The poetic epitaph for Kuboyama, or more precisely the sound material drawn from the inscription spoken in German, forms the basis of the present tape composition: “Of all the sound spectra known to us, that of the spoken word is not only the richest and most complex, but also the one most similar to electronically produced sounds.” (Eimert)

By using electronic equipment such as loudspeakers, tape recorders, amplifiers, and filters the stream of spoken words is always present under the surface as though the inscription on the gravestone constantly flows past the listener’s ears in ever-shifting transformations of sound.

Eimert’s 'Sechs Studien' [Six Studies], composed immediately after 'Epitaph', was created from the same source material. In contrast to 'Epitaph' 'Sechs Studien' uses only abstract musical sounds: that is, sounds in whose spectrum the spoken word can no longer be recognised.

The recordings were originally published on LP in 1966 (WERGO, WER 60014).

Herbert Eimert: Epitaph für Aikichi Kuboyama & Sechs Studien

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue