Mathias Logo MS
Works & Sounds

My Music

messages.Discover a selection of works, recordings and sound fragments.

2024 Audio

GROUNDS, op. 40 (2024)

from “Tectonic Tales”

Duration

13'00"

Flute clarinet oboe bassoon horn 2 violins viola cello double bass playback
GROUNDS is essentially a journey through a soundscape of stone, wood, metal, hair, and breath.
Heading toward the end, inclined to the roots… and doesn’t a soft music-historical resonance swing along?
From tape (Felix Perret plays stone tables and an orgalitho by Beat Weyeneth), purely natural, electronic-free stone sounds emerge. I arranged them, listened deeply, and imagined from them musical structures that enclose, color, and counterpoint the stone sounds.
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2022 Audio

Canti in forma di ritratti appesi a fili sottili, op. 39 (2022)

Duration

12'00"

Two cellos
The individual portraits are linked by delicately spun “sound threads.” The portrayed people, whose melodies form the basis of the work, are: Tsega (Eritrea), Regula (Zwei Härze, Valais), Carmen (Mis Derfi, Valais), Mursal (Love song, Somalia), Sonam (Prayer, Tibet), Weldeselase (Love song, Eritrea), Regula (Mis Gletscheralphitje, Valais).
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2022

Le Château imaginaire, op. 37 (2021/2022)

Of people and spaces

Duration

20'00"

Saxophone duo harp viola
Co-creation by Mathias Steinauer and Slide Ensemble.
To the audience: “Imagine a castle – YOUR castle – with park, lake, forest, and of course all the essential details. We’ll do the same. Maybe we’ll help your imagination, maybe we’ll disrupt it. Let’s spend time together in spaces – dreaming.”
2021 Audio

Archaeopteryx, op. 36 (2021)

from “Tectonic Tales”

Duration

3'30"

6 percussionists with eggs chirping stones
In 1860, while splitting a 150-million-year-old limestone slab, a worker in Solnhofen found a fossil resembling a bird feather in every detail. The find was named Archaeopteryx (“Ancient Feather”).
Solnhofen, 150 million years ago, resembled a tropical island paradise. Archaeopteryx could fly, but not far.
Birds gradually conquered the skies and now count over 10,000 species. Archaeopteryx, icon of this evolutionary success, is now the most famous fossil in the world.
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2020

MOSAIC, op.35 (2020)

10 portraits, 5 stone strikes and 2 other pieces

Duration

35'00"

Flute quartet percussion duo additional performers
A project with people, sounds, stones, and images on the theme “The Matterhorn – an immigrant from Africa.”
The 17 pieces are suggestions. The overall form is shaped and defined by the performers. In addition to these 17 works, many other musical “mosaic pieces” by participating composers, improvisers and/or other contributors are welcome and should be integrated.
2020

Einfalt, op. 33 (2020)

11 songs on text fragments by 柱甫 Du Fu (712–770)

Duration

35'00"

Voice/synthesizer recorders projection
“Einfalt” denotes a certain limitation of understanding and straightforwardness of judgment (...). Our species too is probably only granted a limited time. For millennia, we seem almost incapable of true development. What changes is the way individuals among us are able to express this. Projection visuals: John Lavery (1856–1941).
2017 Audio

Bells and Chants for Benjamin, op.32 (2016/17)

Duration

7'30"

Electric guitar video projection
This is a rather quiet homage to Benjamin Britten. Britten is present through his cinematic image and his own reflections on instrumental music, electronic music, and cantability. My music rubs against these thoughts, but also engages with them.
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2019

Nun schlägt dem Ü5/6 das letzte Stündlein, op. 31/4 (2019)

Duration

1'30"

cello mini harmonica reception bell
Additionally with mini harmonica and reception bell.
2018 Audio

L'arpentage des ondes, op.31.3b (2017/2018)

Duration

19'

3 pianos celesta 6 percussionists
Mr. Palomar stands on the shore and observes the sea. Perhaps an inventory of all possible wave motions might be the key to grasping the complexity of the world: by reducing it to the simplest mechanism.
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2017

L'arpentage des ondes, op.31.3a (2017)

Duration

5'30"

14 instruments 3 individual orgalitho stones
Mr. Palomar stands on the shore and observes the sea. Perhaps an inventory of all possible wave motions might be the key to grasping the complexity of the world: by reducing it to the simplest mechanism.
2016 Audio

Tempora metimur, op.31.2 (2016)

Duration

4'

soprano piano
"Tempora metimur sonitu, umbra, pulvere et unda, nam sonus et lacrima, pulvis et umbra sumus." ("We measure time by sound, shadow, dust, and water, for we are sound and tear, dust and shadow.") This anonymous inscription cannot be dated. It could be of Roman or medieval origin. NB: the piano uses 4 e-bows.
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2012

...like a theatre ON tracks..., op. 31/1 (2012)

a travel-play

Duration

6'

flute clarinet piano percussion violin cello film projection
Musical theatre.
2015 Audio

A part of the flock (so nicely brightly), op. 30.2 (2014/15)

a hypnotic light theatre

Duration

13'

flute clarinet percussion piano violin cello projections
Video: "Electric Sheeps", assembled computer screensavers. Totalitarianism is marked by a massive propaganda machine convincing people that black is white and white is black. It simply lets dumps disappear under imaginary flower beds.
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2015 Audio

Kaleidoscope (so nicely brightly), op. 30.1 (2014/15)

a hypnotic light theatre

Duration

13'

flute clarinet percussion piano violin cello projections
Video: The Splendor of Color. Totalitarianism is marked by a massive propaganda machine convincing people that black is white and white is black. It simply lets dumps disappear under imaginary flower beds.
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2013 Audio

Seven Last Meals, op. 28 (2013)

Record 11 of the Royal Bavarian Executioner Bartholomäus Ratzenhammer

Duration

17'

recorder(s) tenor
Additionally: various acoustic and visual ingredients. Text: Herbert Rosendorfer (Last Meals).
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2012 Audio

Quasi idilliaco, op. 27 (2011/12)

heterotopic idylls

Duration

17'

solo Hang string orchestra
HANG is dangerously close to IDYLL. Simple scales, repetitive patterns, and a lulling sound can easily evoke Arcadia, with all its attributes, personnel, and sound. Nature and art seem to merge in this artificial construct, time and space seem to stand still. Add strings and do not pay hellish attention, and you may unwittingly create ESCAPISM.
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2011 Audio

A.S.I.A. – Aspettie Senza Illusione Amplificata, op. 26 (2011)

Duration

15'

solo organ*
* and additional instruments to be played by the performer such as melodica, various wind chimes, a talking calculator from China... I wish for ideology-free, pure listening in space. Therefore, I largely renounce church pomp, virtuosity, and refined counterpoint, often following traces of monophonic movements.
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2010

con sordino – fadenscheinig, op.25 (2010)

like a sound-installative projection surface

Duration

ca. 8 min.

solo clarinet (B♭)
Performance note – staging: the piece must be played by heart and completely veiled in a burka!
2009 Audio

kurzkurz© (Live at Carnegie), op.24b (2009)

a monochrome "shanzhai-recital" in the form of a puzzle clip

Duration

7'30''

piano small tuned lithophone
A Chinese brand product sounds as a shanzhai bootleg: calculated botch from a small mountain village, produced in a workshop in the southernmost province of Switzerland.
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2009 Audio

kurzkurz© (Live at Carnegie), op.24a (2009)

a monochrome “shanzhai-recital” in the form of a visual trick-clip

Duration

7'30"

piano simultaneously played 5 temple blocks 2 Chinese woodblocks
A Chinese brand product plays as a shanzhai bootleg: calculated sloppiness from a small mountain village, manufactured in a workshop in Switzerland’s southernmost canton.
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2014 Audio

Come un meccanismo mentale, op. 23b (2009/14)

Duration

14 minutes

flute clarinet percussion grand piano (+ Hohner Clavinet) violin cello quadraphonically amplified music boxes
In midlife, the “Dvořák syndrome” hits us. We trace our own path in thought, search for our roots, and succumb to idealization.
Tribute to Ephesus, childhood imagination of music boxes, and a “re-ligio” to my op.1.1.
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2009

Come un meccanismo mentale, op. 23a (2009)

Duration

14 minutes

electric guitar Hohner Clavinet percussion two electric violins electric viola electric cello ten music boxes
In midlife, the “Dvořák syndrome” hits us. We trace our own path in thought, search for our roots, and succumb to idealization.
Tribute to Ephesus, childhood imagination of music boxes, and a “re-ligio” to my op.1.1.
2019

Schlussstein, op. 22.2c (2008/18/19)

Duration

4' 00"

string orchestra drone tone
“The keystone is the topmost stone of an arched vault.”
Note: The drone tone can be an electric tuning device set to A4 (440Hz), matching the frequency of the string instruments.
2018

Schlussstein, op. 22.2b (2008/2018)

Duration

4' 00"

cello octet drone tone
“The keystone is the topmost stone of an arched vault.”
Note: The drone tone can be an electric tuning device set to A4 (440Hz), matching the frequency of the string instruments.
2008 Audio

Schlussstein, op. 22.2a (2008)

Duration

4' 00"

string trio and drone tone (4 performers)
“The keystone is the topmost stone of an arched vault.”
Note: The drone tone can be an electric tuning device set to A4 (440Hz), matching the frequency of the string instruments.
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2007

Bananamanga I–III, op.22.1 (2007)

Three short pieces, a quasi comic-style sequence, for Daniel Fueter.

Duration

3' 00"

soprano horn piano double bass speaking-eating Japanese woman
Texts, in Japanese and German, by Banana Yoshimoto (from “Moonlight Shadow” and “Full Moon”).
2006 Audio

...WOAMM..., op. 21 (2006)

Five audio strips

Duration

8' 00"

baglama (saz) string quartet
Fragments of missed opportunities based on themes from Mozart's "Alla Turca".
1. Mozart’s ball vs. an authentic image of Turkey
2. Missed chances in the gunpowder fog
3. Orient in the mind (whirling dervish, belly dance, coffee house)
4. Vision of a hymn
5. Siege of the kebab stand in the rain, with sticky dessert.
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2008 Audio

Keyner nit, op. 20 (2005–2008)

Chamber opera in five acts

Duration

approx. 110' 00''

7 singers flutes clarinets (also saxophone) horn percussion piano (also Hammond and Clavinet) violin cello amplified sound recordings
Libretto by Mathias Steinauer with texts by Luigi Malerba (“Pataffio”), Julien Offray de La Mettrie (“The Man Machine”) and Stefano Benni (“The Greatest Chef in France”).
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2002 Audio

TimeOutMachine, op. 19.3 (2001–2002)

Duration

12' 00"

flute clarinet percussion piano violin viola cello double bass guitar video projection and playback CD
My TimeOutMachine is a musical-visual machine which, through pulsation and flashes, attempts to generate a suspension of time. Film: Reinhard Manz
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2001 Audio

Es kommt mich..., op. 19.2 (2001)

Duration

3' 00"

soprano or alto and hammer piano (with large mallet)
Text by Robert Walser “Laughter and Smiling”. Perhaps the shortest poem by Walser, taken from his early works.
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2001

I monatti, op. 19.1 (2001)

Duration

3' 00"

saxophone horn trombone piano percussion
...Midnight in Milan, late August, at the height of the plague, the Monatti*, or other scoundrels disguised as Monatti with bells on their feet – as required to signal their presence – entered homes and helped themselves to anything...
2002 Audio

La dimensione dello strappo, op. 18 (2000–2002)

Duration

12' 00"

flute clarinet violin cello piano percussion with fabric installation
Both movements explore aspects of “rips”: 1: “Champ d’aviation” Near Bolzano, on 3.2.1998: an armored US combat jet (EA-6B), accidentally flying outside its field, hits and cuts a cable car line. 2: “Champ de mai” On an imaginary May meadow: a couple, a seemingly timeless long tone, icons of memory. An oversized red fabric strip hovers over the audience and is torn from back to front.
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1999

DIE EINE - freely adapted from Heine, op. 17.6 (1999)

Duration

4' 00"

clarinet violin cello (Celtic) harp
Secret infatuations, shifting relationships, angry jealousy and unrequited love: broken hearts as far as the eye can see...
2000

Corrente. Luminosa, op. 17.5 (2000)

Klangfäden. Bundled

Duration

8' 00"

4 violins 2 violas 2 cellos double bass percussion
This hymn to speed(s) lies somewhere between dazzling light stream and baroque pomp.
2000

Aquarium für S.K*., op. 17.4 (2000)

A Portrait

Duration

9' 00"

piano percussion
I transcribed fragments of S.K.'s improvisations and assembled them into a collage. The only element I added was the framework of this sound portrait: the percussion. *Sergey Kuryokhin (Leningrad, 1954 – St. Petersburg 1996) was, according to his former professors, a “talented good-for-nothing.” He himself considered music the most important, utterly indispensable thing. He was a pianist, composer, improviser, actor, nonconformist, pop star and invented his own system of conducting gestures.
2023

Sott'acqua, op. 17.3b (1999/2023)

For Gregorio, Armando, Sho, Luca, Simone, Andrea and Alberto

Duration

10' 00"

percussion sextet orchestra freely improvised solo
Composed, pre-conceived, notated music meets non-notated, mostly unnotatable, improvised music created in the moment. The boundary can be very fine, nebulous, or hazily blurred.
2023 Audio

Sott'acqua, op. 17.3a (1999/2023)

In memoriam Giorgio Bernasconi

Duration

10' 00"

percussion sextet and freely improvised solo
Composed, pre-conceived, notated music meets non-notated, mostly unnotatable, improvised music created in the moment. The boundary can be very fine, nebulous, or hazily blurred.
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1999 Audio

Sott'acqua, op. 17.3 (1999)

Duration

10' 00"

soprano saxophone horn trombone percussion piano freely improvised solo
Composed, pre-conceived, notated music meets non-notated, mostly unnotatable, improvised music created in the moment. The boundary can be very fine, nebulous, or hazily blurred.
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2021 Audio

fossils&shadows, op. 17.2d (1999/2021)

Duration

8' 00"

accordion tape
Five aspects largely shape the form of the 15 short pieces and the internal nature of the music: Stone as sound: exploration of the tonal possibilities of this new instrument. Stone as formal and microformal inspiration: individual pieces, almost juxtaposed.
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2018 Audio

fossils&shadows, op. 17.2c (1999/2018)

Duration

10' 00"

lithophone violin viola cello piano stones
Five aspects largely determine the shape of the 15 short pieces and the inner nature of the music: stone as sound, as formal and microformal inspiration. Individual pieces, almost juxtaposed.
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2016

fossils&shadows, op. 17.2b (1999/2016)

Duration

9' 00"

lithophone orgalitho other stones
Five aspects largely determine the shape of the 15 short pieces and the inner nature of the music: stone as sound, as formal and microformal inspiration. Individual pieces, almost juxtaposed.
1999 Audio

Steinschlag, op. 17.2a (1999)

Duration

8' 00"

lithophone (c-c4) or marimba
Five aspects largely determine the shape of the 15 short pieces and the inner nature of the music: stone as sound, as formal and microformal inspiration. Individual pieces, almost juxtaposed.
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1999 Audio

Klangfäden – einzeln, op. 17.1b (1999)

Duration

4' 00"

flute clarinet violin cello piano percussion
From an initially colorful tangle, individual sound threads are pulled: silver – black – red/yellow – green/blue – barbed wire I and II – without wire.
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1999

Klangfäden – einzeln, op. 17.1a (1999)

Duration

4' 00"

saxophone piano percussion
From an initially colorful tangle, individual sound threads are pulled: silver – black – red/yellow – green/blue – barbed wire I and II – without wire.
1999 Audio

Phantasos – or "Pavarotti's Dream*", op. 16 (1999)

Duration

5' 00"

solo flute
Program note: ...after his sensational (benefit) concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London, where, at the height of the evening, instead of the high C, his left eye popped from his skull and flew like a tragic projectile over the heads of the wildly applauding audience...
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1997 Audio

Koren-Fantasien, op. 15 (1997)

27 imagination studies on Ancient Greece (Approaches to Stone)

Duration

45' 00"

baritone 2 oboes heckelphone bassoon percussion
Texts: Aristotle, Hippocrates, Ch. Mullack, Xenophon, Aristophanes, Hans Saner, Plato, Leonidas of Tarentum, Epicurus.
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1997 Audio

Nacht – Hirngespinste, op. 14 (1996–1997)

Duration

11' 00"

chamber orchestra
An almost entirely demythologized night, thematizing two typical nocturnal behaviors. The musical material is fundamentally shaped by nightly changes in pulse rate, body temperature, brain waves and breathing.
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1996 Audio

Rumori cardiaci, op. 13 (1996)

Duration

5' 00"

flute clarinet violin cello piano
A short nocturne on the occasion of the "first heartbeats" of the Ensemble Oggimusica.
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1995 Audio

Il rallentamento della sarabanda, op. 12 (1993–1995)

Duration

26' 00"

solo piano/percussion orchestra
An attempt to comment musically on the history of the sarabande – its presumably Aztec origin and its almost 200-year-long chastisement. Spatial music. Performing material, small auxiliary instruments, and two preparation devices for the grand piano (Steinway D-274) are available for loan.
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1995

Jahreszeiten ?, op. 11.3 (1995)

Duration

3' 00"

percussion trio (or string-percussion trio)
Lightly scenic. For glockenspiel, 3 flexatones, wind machine, 2 tone bars (dis''', dis'''') and a remote-controlled windmill.
1994

Die gehaubte Braut, op. 11.2 (1994)

A little wedding music

Duration

9' 00"

mezzo-soprano organ
Texts: some Japanese haikus, Baroque poetry, and computer terms. Lovingly ironic music; cyclical; in twelve short sections.
1991

Undici duettini, op. 11.1 (1991)

Duration

18' 00"

violin viola
Quite intimate music of memory and imagination. Individual duets may be arranged freely. (For Elena, for her wedding)
1994 Audio

Omaggio ad Italo Calvino, op. 10b (1993–1994)

Duration

14' 00"

clarinet violin cello piano
Based on three fantastic stories by Italo Calvino about the creation of the world: 1. Sky of Stone / 2. Without Colors / 3. Meteorites.
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1994 Audio

Omaggio ad Italo Calvino, op. 10a (1993–1994)

Duration

14' 00"

clarinet horn violin piano
Based on three fantastic stories by Italo Calvino about the creation of the world: 1. Sky of Stone / 2. Without Colors / 3. Meteorites.
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1992 Audio

Speculum sibyllinum, op. 9 (1992)

Duration

16' 00"

6 voices 5 recorder players 6 viols 2 percussionists
New adaptation of manuscripts recently discovered in the Vatican by an anonymous 12th-century composer who partially anticipated all of music history. Spatial music.
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1991

Blütenlese, op. 8 (1990–1991)

18 engravings, still lifes and grotesques

Duration

50' 00"

solo soprano mixed choir chamber choir children’s voice instrumental ensemble
Texts: G. Ungaretti, H. Saner, R. Rechsteiner, E.M. Cioran, R. Heinzelmann, M. Buselmeier, E. Canetti, H. Burger, G. Bachmann. A torn, contradictory cycle with a downward tendency that should be performed only in a church, involving the entire space.
1989 Audio

... wie Risse im Schatten..., op. 7 (1988–1989)

Duration

26' 00"

flute orchestra
Against the background of Jean Gebser’s idea of a five-stage transformation of human consciousness (archaic, magical, mythical, mental, integral), the soloist embodies the individual changing within its environment.
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1988

Duat, op. 6 (1988)

14 signs

Duration

18' 00"

chamber orchestra
Quasi-archaeological finds – around the Egyptian Book of the Dead from the astonished perspective of a 20th century human. Like 14 fragments of a lost culture: incomplete parts of a barely comprehensible, multilayered whole. Duat – or Amduat – the underworld of the ancient Egyptians, the inversion of everything earthly.
1987

Visions, op. 5 (1987)

Duration

13' 00"

wind ensemble 2 percussionists piano
In 3 movements: Grande danse froide, 9 micro-studies, Epilogue. Engraved in Nuremberg’s old fire bell: “When I, bell, sound, it is never for trivial matters (…).”
1986

Vier Klangbilder, op. 4 (1986)

Duration

16' 00"

baritone solo women's choir recorder ensemble large orchestra
Despite the large instrumentation: mostly calm music, inspired by the simple texts of a painter (Hans Erni). Not only sounds, lines, and rhythms are used as color, but also the instruments of the orchestra, whose timbral palette is extended by women's voices and bass recorders. – The natural harmonic series is the structural basis of the four songs. 1) delta flight 2) tonight 3) awakening 4) everything flows.
1986 Audio

3 Skizzen, op. 3 (1986)

Duration

3' 00"

string quartet
Lightly theatrical. In the third sketch: all four play together on the cello and simultaneously “detune” some strings. No.1: Bells, a homage to P. Pasolini – No.2: A tribute to the immense expressiveness of G. Kurtág – No.3: Like a dark, heavy chorale.
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1986

Musik in 5 Teilen, op. 2 (1986)

Duration

17' 00"

3 cellos 2 percussionists
A game with overlapping forms. Written for Thomas Demenga and his cello class, as well as the percussion class at the Basel Music Academy.
1985

AnDante, op. 1.2 (1985)

Duration

10' 00"

percussion trio large tape loop
To Dante. Thoughts triggered by the reading of “The Divine Comedy”. – However: there is no sign of “purification”.
1984 Audio

* * *, op. 1.1 (1984)

Duration

8' 00"

xylophone marimba 2 music boxes (3 percussionists in total)
An almost theatrical confrontation: childlike-absorbed play versus perfectly cold virtuosity. Written on commission by the Basel Percussion Trio.
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