Die Königskünderin
Die Königskünderin (The King-proclaimer) — character study after Elias Canetti
solo trumpet
c.5:00
to John Holt
April 2006
- Included on the CD Facets 3 — New American Music for Trumpet (Crystal CD-768, 2009).
- This work is part of a collection of solo works based on character studies in Elias Canetti's book Der Ohrenzeuge (Earwitness).
- Solo works from this collection may be programmed as a set, or in conjunction with the semi-improvisational, open-form works Canetti-menagerie (for five to eight instruments) or Conversations (for two to four instruments), which use these works as source material for improvisational interplay.
- 9 March 2023; Northern Illinois University (DeKalb, IL)
Christopher Scanlon, trumpet
- 8 March 2019; Texas A&M University, Commerce (Commerce, TX)
- 7 March 2019; University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK)
- 11 April 2018; Moody Performance Hall (Dallas, TX)
- 2 April 2018; University of North Texas (Denton, TX)
- 20 September 2016; University of North Texas (Denton, TX)
- 19 September 2016; University of North Texas (Denton, TX)
- 7 March 2011; University of North Texas (Denton, TX)
- 6 March 2011; Voices of Change Salon Concert (Dallas, TX)
- 17 October 2006; University of North Texas (Denton, TX) [premiere]
John Holt, trumpet
score (pdf)
Recording available on Facets 3 — New American Music for Trumpet (Crystal CD-768, 2009), performed by trumpeter John Holt.
photographs
Performance of Die Königskünderin and four other Canetti studies for Voices of Change Salon program (Dallas, TX; 6 March 2011).
Die Königskünderin (The King-proclaimer) is the eighth in a series of short works for solo instrument based upon characters in Der Ohrenzeuge: Fünfzig Charaktere (Earwitness: Fifty Characters), written in 1974 by the Bulgarian-born British-Austrian novelist Elias Canetti (1905-1994). Canetti’s distinctive studies incorporate poetic imagery, singular insights, and unabashed wordplay to create fifty ironic paradigms of human behavior. This collection of works, begun in 1997, was inspired by the vividly surreal depictions of Canetti’s characters and includes works for contrabass, violin, bass flute, ocarina, contrabassoon, glass harmonica, trumpet, percussion, bass saxophone, piccolo, organ, basset horn, and violoncello, among others. In Canetti's depiction of this character, "The King-proclaimer has something majestic about her.... She is tall and stately and her supply of scorn is inexhaustible. She can tell underlings by the least gesture and keeps them away from the king before he is even proclaimed."
Die Königskünderin was completed in April of 2006 and composed for trumpeter John Holt, who first performed the work at the University of North Texas on 17 October 2006. It is included on the recording Facets 3: New American Music for Trumpet (Crystal CD-768, 2009). In 2022, the work was transcribed for double-bell quarter-tone trumpet for performance by trumpeter Connor Johnson.
