Pegelstand III — in der Limmat leben mindestens 23 Fischarten

* from the research on the fish species in the Limmat river and from the script *

initial situation

The Wettingen wooden bridge is characterised by its immediate proximity to the large Limmat barrage, to railway and motorway bridges, to the historic monastery complex with its nature reserve and one of the largest man-made fish passes in Europe. The bridge itself ends in a dead-end street. The place radiates tranquillity, despite the crossing and intersecting ostinatos of water and traffic.

With my scenario for movement and action, which is designed as a sonata, the music trio works out a structure for the level of sound intensity and sound quality. The whole remains a structured improvisation in its execution.

'Ouvertüre' | 'ouverture'

With a wooden vessel for caught fish on my back, I slowly cross the bridge and show the audience and musicians a sheet of paper labelled OUVERTÜRE. The trio plays rather fulminantly while I lay out objects from the wooden vessel on the bridge and then let the vessel slide down into the river on a accessory cord tied to the railing. The wooden vessel rocks on the rushing floodwaters of the river Limmat without sinking.

'Durchführung' | 'execution'

The trio plays fine, filigree sounds. On the bridge floor I crawl and roll, at times fluidly, at other times I stop abruptly, climb bridge blinds and beams. The musicians and I form a quartet. At the other end of the bridge, in the immediate vicinity of the fish pass, I write names of fish living in the river Limmat on white paper sheets and pin them to my clothes with safety pins. The trio becomes quieter, you can hear the rustling of the leaves mingling with the ostinato of the water. While I call out the fish names HASLE, ROTBARSCH, SCHNEIDER, ALET, TRÜSCHE, BARBE and GRÜNDLING and others, I move towards the audience and ask them if I can 'pin the fish name sheets' on their bodies.

'Reprise' | 'recap'

After I have handed in all sheets with fish names, I drag fish cutlery on white strings across the bridge floor. Their soft metallic sound blends with the sounds of the trio. Finally, I tie the strings of fish cutlery to my waistband. Hip movements make it swing and sway; the more violent the movements, the more the knives strike back as counterpoint. A quartet formation with intense sound and movement music, played at a high energy level, emerges. This recapitulation ends together, we take a bow, the audience claps.

'Koda' | 'coda'

I call out the 'coda': On the uncovered part of the bridge I blow up balloons to the long drawn-out sounds of the Holz Trio. The balloons are tied to balls of string, which I pass on to the audience: I invite them to manoeuvre the balloons into the river. They wobble in the wind and on the surface of the water on ever-lengthening strings until the current of the river Limmat finally pulls them along.

research on fish species in the Limmat river  ...   performance script