Book Review: FOR A MOMENT – ‘Listen to the Listening’, by Stephan Kühne

by Debra Barford

Stephan Kühne trained as a music therapist with Maria Schüppel at Musiktherapeutische Arbeitsstätte in Berlin and works as a music therapist at a community hospital in Berlin. In this collection of music, he shares 32 of his compositions for lyre, used at various times when working with children and adolescents on psychiatry wards, with others on cardiology units, and for those with chronic pain.

Most of the compositions can be attempted by even a beginning lyrist, but they are deceptively simple for more experienced lyrists to master. The tone, tempi, and modes are variable, but all challenge the lyrist to enter into an inner listening relationship, which requires time and practice to develop. Almost all of the pieces are for solo lyre, with two written for three lyres.

As I have worked with these pieces, I have decided that the first and last ones are among my favorites. The first, Zeit Vergeht (Time Passes), with its large melodic intervals that must be made to move smoothly from one tone to the next, with ear and heart following, leaves a kind of ‘after-listening’ that invites one to stop and actively listen to the resounding of the silent movement that occurs once the playing is finished. The last piece, 21st of September, has a melodic gesture that alternates between 4 and 3 beats per measure, blurring the exact meter, and extending the melodic movement with each phrase. By the end of this short piece, the sounded tones, which started in the middle of the lyre, extend both downward and upward in a widening gesture that results in a feeling of inner expansion and balance in the lyrist – and, I imagine, in the listener as well.

FOR A MOMENT – “Listen to the Listening”
Contents:
Zeit Vergeht – Time Passes
Wohlgemuth – Light Hearted
Wie es ist – It is What it Is
Fragend – Questioning
Nicht Allein – Not Alone
Im Schwung – In the Swing
Piece in e-minor
Osterwind – Written Easter Sunday
Im Glockenklang – Bell Sound
Mit dem Wasser – With the Water
Sonne – Sun
Im Moll – In minor
Zwei Geschwister I – Two Sisters I
Zwei Geschwister II – Two Sisters II
Zu Zweit – In Twos
Für Drei Ganz Verschieden – Trio with unique parts
Zum Abend – In Evening
21st of September

Click here to see Listening to the Listening in LANA’s store.