Composer Georg Friedrich Haas, who’s 11.000 Saiten is featured this Holland Festival, will talk about his autobiography Durch vergiftete Zeiten: Memoiren eines Nazibuben, which recounts his complex family history and its ties with national socialism. The central question in this programme is how he freed himself from his family’s Nazi ideology, what the role of art is to find liberty and how to deal with generational trauma. He is joined in conversation by artists and documentary makers Eline Jongsma and Kel O’Neill who created the artwork His name is my name that deals with this subject.
Haas‘ memoirs constitute a rare and important historical document that recounts a complex Austrian family history in the context of post-WW II national socialism, and Haas’ determined struggle against Nazi ideology in particular. With great precision, emotional strength and lucid social analysis, Haas offers a detailed look at a community influenced by German nationalism and national socialism. Haas describes how his break was also a way out from the toxic environment which also deeply influenced his work as a composer.
Jongsma + O’Neill created the documentary His name is my name. An instagram-based documentary about family secrets and the legacy of WWII. The documentary can be watched in De Balie prior to the programme.
More about 11.000 Saiten
11.000 Saiten, ‘11,000 strings’, is the title of this new disproportionate composition by grandmaster Georg Friedrich Haas. Klangforum Wien asked Haas to compose a piece for the ensemble and fifty pianos. The idea was born when ensemble director Peter Paul Kainrath visited a Chinese piano factory and was blown away by the sound of dozens of pianos that were mechanically played at the same time for testing. Haas was immediately enthused and turned the idea into a striking emotional journey into sound, like music for an invisible film.
