A Visible Trace

First performed by musikFabrik on 7 July July 2006 at WDR Bismarcksaal, Cologne

Commissioned by musikFabrik and Kulturstiftung NRW, Konzerthaus Dortmund and Ensemble Intercontemporain

“The word connects the visible trace with the invisible thing, the absent thing, the thing that is desired or feared, like a frail emergency bridge flung over an abyss.”

[Exactitude, from Six Memos for the Next Millennium, Italo Calvino]

“It is the thing itself, isolated from all other things. Born out of the necessity to see it, and the need to see for seeing’s sake. The motionless in emptiness, that is, at last, the visible thing, the pure object…”

[Die Welt und die Hose, Samuel Beckett]

trace v. & n. -v.tr. 1 a observe, discover, or find vestiges or signs of by investigation. b follow or mark the track of position of. c follow back to its origins. 3 mark out, delineate, sketch, or write. 4 pursue one’s way along (a path). -n. 1 a a sign or mark or other indication of something having existed; a vestige. b a very small quantity. 2 a track or footprint left by a person or animal. 3 a track left by a moving pen or an instrument. Etc. 5 a curve’s projection on or intersection with a plane.

(ME f. OF trace (n.) tracier (v.) f. L tractus drawing)

[The Concise Oxford Dictionary]