My new piano trio, the first work after my opera “The Willows”, was inspired by Johann Joachim Becher (1635–1682), the important polymath and mediator between the alchemy of the Middle Ages and the chemistry of modern times. Becher doubted the existence of the Aristotelian elements, continued Paracelsus’ three-principle theory in his own direction and developed new ideas about the nature of matter.

For him, the earth was the central element and he divided it into three basic substances, the terra vitrescibile, the terra fluida and the terra pinguis. The terra fluida (= liquid earth), the mercurial element, gives the substances shape, weight and smell, and is liquid, fine and fleeting.

This theory inspired me to create a wandering work that oscillates between rapid, manic movement and sonorous pause supported by whispered sounds. Like Terra Fluida, it is difficult to grasp, even if, or precisely because, it is formally and in terms of the development of its basic building blocks, worked in a strict, almost neo-serial way. The composition technique was inspired by alchemical processes, which, starting from a Materia prima and with the addition of the mysterious Xerion, gradually demiurgically approach a Materia ultima.

This work, commissioned by the Alban Berg Foundation, the Kassel Music Days and Wien Modern, is dedicated to the Boulanger Trio.

(Johannes Maria Staud, 2019)