Minnesang
Musivus

“Don’t expect anything simpler from me!” – Emmanuel Nunes (1941-2012) was an artist of almost intimidating ability and self-confident stubbornness – much like his teachers Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.

Apart from early works and large musical drama projects, his output consists primarily of two large-scale cycles. The first contains nine works, including Minnesang (1975–76) for twelve vocal soloists: a mystical and spiritual work that translates the medieval art of Minnesang into modern terms and whose musical effects are founded on the intelligibility of the texts.

Nunes also composed a number of pieces not included in these cycles, among them the orchestral work Musivus, which was written for Expo ’98 and premiered in a revised and expanded version in Cologne in 2001. Musivus is “a monument of spatialization” that can make the listener dizzy with its tiny fields of musical activity that bloom into a gigantic visual and acoustical mosaic that is extremely changing to a traditional, process-oriented way of listening.

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Recording: Konzerts vom 20. Oktober 2017, Donauhallen, Mozart-Saal, Donaueschingen; Uraufführung der revidierten Fassung, 31. März 2001, Philharmonie, Köln (Musivus)