“Der Klang, die Welt…”

2018, 16mm, color, sound, 4.5 minutes
Cast: Dieter & Cecile Staehelin, filmed in Zumikon, Switzerland
First public screening: Courtisane Film Festival

“Der Klang, die Welt…” was intended as a gift to my landlady Cécile Staehelin, after her husband Dieter Staehelin had died. Dieter is speaking in the film about the place of music in his life, while we see him and Cécile performing an ‘Arabesque’ by Bohuslav Martinů. She once mentioned the wish for her life to end like the last notes in this piece of music.” R.B.

“Der Klang, die Welt…”  (“The Sound, the World…”)

English translation of German text spoken in the film:

“To produce a sound you only need one sound source, a string – even together, if they are tuned, strings merge into a single mathematical, proportional harmony.”
“… sound itself, the world of tones was something fascinating, and I have spent my entire life working with them…”
“…windows into the universe of astronomy and proportions…”
“If I can try to explain it, sound, the world of tonalities, touches us most deeply. It is part of our inner life – through the notes, the spacing between the notes we hear… exact mathematical proportions. It belongs to the world of thought, well in one way to the soul, but also thinking.”