In deiner Hand?

"Our deity, history, has prepared a grave for us" – I had to think of these words by Ingeborg Bachmann when I was asked for a piece for Luther Year 2017. In the twentieth century, the reception of Luther’s Anti-Judaism was imbibed voraciously also by the Protestant Church for its own theses, with terrible consequences. I bring the timpani into connection with Luther through the association of the philippic [in German "Standpauke" = literally "standing drum"]. It is said that Luther always struck the wood of his pulpit so that the congregation remained awake. Everything that is played on the timpani is transmitted in this piece via transducer to thunder sheets. They transform the sound and carry it further – a resonance over space and time.
Iris ter Schiphorst