Fortified churches
A musical search for traces

I have been exploring spiritual historical places with the zither for a long time. My projects revolve around the interface between words and music, the spaces in between and the places of passage.
Among these places of passage I include the fortified churches, which offered the congregations protection for months if needed. I first discovered them during a trip to Romania. Accordingly, I have great interest in the fortified churches in the area of the Cistercian monasteries of Maulbronn and Herrenalb. These churches have lost their function as places of refuge in the original sense, even if this function still exists in the figurative sense and has been preserved in architecture.
I would like to develop a concert concept for these places that can be described in three terms: Word – Sound – Space. The aim is to experience the historical location in a contemporary context, to trace past worlds and to explore it anew as a spiritual retreat.

Georg Glasl

About the zither

Zither instruments are among the oldest instruments in almost all cultures. They are even mentioned in the Bible. The Hebrew Jubal – Cain was one of his ancestors – is described there as the forefather of all zither and flute players (Gen 4:21). The term zither is derived from the Greek word kithara.
The alpine zither known in Germany only started developing since 1800, and its roots lie in traditional music. Due to its differentiated, fresh sound and the ability to easily modulate tones, the zither has developed into an avant-garde instrument in contemporary music over the past 30 years. It makes it possible to move directly from a melodious and rich harmonic spectrum of expression to the noisy, thereby revealing completely surprising sound spectra.

Georg Glasl

Find out more about the artist here:
www.georgglasl.de