Werner Küspert
Photo: Renate Weingärtner
Interview-Auszug (English version below): „Zum Stummfilm bin ich eigentlich per Zufall gekommen: mein erster Kontakt zu diesem Genre kam durch eine Auftragskomposition für eine Live-Aufführung bei einem Filmfestival. Bis dato kannte ich Stummfilme - wie die meisten meiner Altersgenossen- nur aus der freitäglichen ZDF-Sendung "Väter der Klamotte": Hans Dieter Hüsch präsentierte mit launigen Kommentaren Versatzstücke aus diversen Filmen, die Bilder liefen viel zu schnell. "The Lodger" von Alfred Hitchcock veränderte Ende der achtziger Jahre sozusagen auf einen Schlag meine Vorstellung von der künstlerischen Qualität und Bedeutung des Stummfilms radikal. "The Lodger" gab es zu dieser Zeit noch längst nicht in einer digitalisierten Fassung, die 35mm-Film-Kopie musste damals per Spedition vom Londoner Filmarchiv zum Spielort nach Deutschland transportiert werden (natürlich hochversichert, denn es gab nur noch wenige Kopien!) und damit ich mit dieser Kopie arbeiten konnte wurde extra ein Kino angemietet um den dort projizierten Film – nicht ganz legal – mit einer VHS- Kamera für meine Vorbereitung aufzuzeichnen. Man kann sich leicht vorstellen, daß die Bildqualität ausgesprochen bescheiden war, aber dennoch war meine Faszination groß. Umwerfend, welche Spannung schon damals mit den vergleichsweise sparsamen technischen Mitteln erzeugt werden konnte – und das ohne Tonspur! Eine ähnliche Faszination üben auf mich u.a. zwei Klassiker des deutschen Stummfilms aus: "Nosferatu" und "Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari"; nach Restaurierung und Digitalisierung kommt deren Kraft und Tiefe erst (wieder) richtig zur Geltung. Mit meinem Ensemble habe ich beide Filme inzwischen mehr als fünfzig Mal begleiten dürfen, und immer noch bin ich bei jeder weiteren Aufführung von diesen Filmen wirklich hingerissen. Dankenswerter Weise werden immer mehr Stummfilme durch die Digitalisierung wieder zugänglich, und so gibt es noch unendlich viele Werke zu entdecken. Mich freut es dabei ganz besonders, daß in den letzten Jahren immer mehr junge Zuschauer den Weg zu Stummfilm-Aufführungen finden und sich auf ein besonderes cineastisches Erlebnis einlassen. Zu meiner Arbeitsweise: Im Jazz ist es ja ganz besonders wichtig, nicht nur einen eigenen Stil, sondern eine eigene improvisatorische Sprache zu entwickeln. Ich glaube, dass alle meine Musiker einen eigenen, unverkennbaren Stil gefunden haben, für den bei unseren Stummfilm-Projekten sehr viel Raum ist. Ich habe nicht nur komplette Stücke geschrieben, sondern auch relativ komplexe Strukturen geschaffen, innerhalb derer sich die Musiker improvisatorisch bewegen und vor allem in Interaktion zueinander treten und zudem auf die Bilder reagieren bzw. Bild- und Filmsequenzen musikalisch vorbereiten. Unser Verfahren, dem Film einen Ton zu geben, ist recht komplex und nebenbei ganz schön anstrengend, auch physisch. Die traditionelle Stummfilmbegleitung war in der Frühzeit des Kinos für die Musiker relativ unkompliziert: die Pianisten hatten ein freies Repertoire, da wurde nach Herzenslust drauf los gespielt. Für Ensembles war die Sache schon etwas komplexer, aber immer noch überschaubar: fertige Partitur, der Dirigent muss zwar auf den Film reagieren – letztlich die gleiche Situation wie bei der Oper, im Ergebnis mit ebenso geringen Risiken und ebenso vorhersehbar, da ja vorwiegend vorgefertigt. Bei uns läuft das so, dass wir ein komplettes Film-Manuskript haben (ich habe quasi nachträglich ein Drehbuch geschrieben mit Time-Code), in dem die Kompositionen und improvisatorischen Strukturen notiert sind. Es müssen also alle Musiker sowohl das Manuskript verfolgen, den Film natürlich, auf mein Dirigat achten und immer musikalisch im Blick haben, was die Kollegen gerade ad hoc komponieren (also improvisieren). Nach über 200 verschiedenen „StummFilmLiveJazz“-Projekten (in sehr unterschiedlichen Besetzungen) glaube ich, ein Verfahren gefunden zu haben, das für die Musiker genügend Freiraum lässt, aber dennoch so klare Strukturen schafft, dass auch komplexere Kompositionen Platz haben. Das ist oft ganz schön Interview excerpt: "I actually came to silent film by chance: my first contact with this genre was through a commissioned composition for a live performance at a film festival. Until then, I had only known silent films - like most of my peers - from the Friday ZDF program “Väter der Klamotte”: Hans Dieter Hüsch presented set pieces from various films with witty commentary, the images ran far too fast. At the end of the 1980s, Alfred Hitchcock's “The Lodger” radically changed my idea of the artistic quality and significance of silent films. At that time, “The Lodger” was far from being available in a digitized version, the 35mm film copy had to be transported from the London film archive to the venue in Germany by a forwarding agent (highly insured, of course, because there were only a few copies left!) and so that I could work with this copy, a cinema was rented especially to record the film projected there - not quite legally - with a VHS camera for my preparation. It's easy to imagine that the picture quality was extremely modest, but I was still fascinated. It was amazing how much excitement could be generated even then with the comparatively modest technical means available - and without a soundtrack! I am similarly fascinated by two classics of German silent film: “Nosferatu” and “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari”; after restoration and digitization, their power and depth really come into their own (again). I have been able to accompany both films more than fifty times with my ensemble, and I am still truly enraptured by these films at every subsequent performance. Thankfully, more and more silent films are becoming accessible again thanks to digitization, and so there are still countless works to discover. I am particularly pleased that in recent years more and more young viewers have found their way to silent film screenings and are enjoying a special cinematic experience. In jazz it is particularly important not only to develop one's own style, but also one's own improvisational language. I believe that all my musicians have found their own distinctive style, for which there is a lot of room in our silent projects. I have not only written complete pieces, but also created relatively complex structures within which the musicians move improvisationally and, above all, interact with each other and also react to the images or prepare image and film sequences musically. Our process of giving the film a sound is quite complex and, besides, quite exhausting, also physically. In the early days of cinema, traditional silent film accompaniment was relatively uncomplicated for the musicians: the pianists had a free repertoire, so they played to their heart's content. For ensembles, things were a bit more complex, but still manageable: a finished score, the conductor has to react to the film - ultimately the same situation as with opera, with just as few risks and just as predictable a result, since it is mainly prefabricated. For us, it works like this: we have a complete film manuscript (I wrote a script with time code afterwards, so to speak), in which the compositions and improvisational structures are notated. So all the musicians have to follow the manuscript, the film of course, pay attention to my conducting and always have a musical eye on what their colleagues are composing ad hoc (i.e. improvising). After more than 200 different "StummFilmLiveJazz" projects (in very different instrumentations), I believe I have found a procedure that leaves enough freedom for the musicians, but still creates such clear structures that there is room for more complex compositions. That is often quite complicated and demands so much of the highest concentration from us musicians that I don't really experience in any other stage situation. The term "contemporary jazz" is unfortunately only very vague, but I can't serve with narrower definitions. I don't really have any role models; there are of course very, very many musicians and composers who impress me and whom I look up to with reverence, but I have never had the ambition to sound like one of the great masters..."
www.wernerkuespert.de
Werner Küspert
Photo: Renate Weingärtner
Interview excerpt: "...In jazz it is particularly important not only to develop one's own style, but also one's own improvisational language. I believe that all my musicians have found their own distinctive style, for which there is a lot of room in our silent projects. I have not only written complete pieces, but also created relatively complex structures within which the musicians move improvisationally and, above all, interact with each other and also react to the images or prepare image and film sequences musically. Our process of giving the film a sound is quite complex and, besides, quite exhausting, also physically. In the early days of cinema, traditional silent film accompaniment was relatively uncomplicated for the musicians: the pianists had a free repertoire, so they played to their heart's content. For ensembles, things were a bit more complex, but still manageable: a finished score, the conductor has to react to the film - ultimately the same situation as with opera, with just as few risks and just as predictable a result, since it is mainly prefabricated. For us, it works like this: we have a complete film manuscript (I wrote a script with time code afterwards, so to speak), in which the compositions and improvisational structures are notated. So all the musicians have to follow the manuscript, the film of course, pay attention to my conducting and always have a musical eye on what their colleagues are composing ad hoc (i.e. improvising). After more than 200 different "StummFilmLiveJazz" projects (in very different instrumentations), I believe I have found a procedure that leaves enough freedom for the musicians, but still creates such clear structures that there is room for more complex compositions. That is often quite complicated and demands so much of the highest concentration from us musicians that I don't really experience in any other stage situation. The term "contemporary jazz" is unfortunately only very vague, but I can't serve with narrower definitions. I don't really have any role models; there are of course very, very many musicians and composers who impress me and whom I look up to with reverence, but I have never had the ambition to sound like one of the great masters..."