Yesterday You stood
On the wall.
Now You stand
Again on the wall.
It is You
Today
Who stands on the wall.
Man, it is You.
Recognize Yourself:
It is You.
(Ernst Toller, from: Masse Mensch)

In 1967 and 1968 I composed Consolation I after a text from Masse Mensch by Ernst Toller and Consolation II after the Wessobrunner Gebet (Wessobrunn Prayer). When interpreted as forms of consolation in the face of human helplessness and existential fear, both texts are contemplative in completely different ways: Its you standing at the wall today, look and know thyself - When nowhere was there something, no ends nor wends, there was still the one God almighty. Today I feel it was the disconsolateness of the two texts which made me come up with the title Consolation at the time. My original ideas on developing the series have changed since then. Dis-consolation, if such a thing actually exists, would be the basic, secret notion.

(Helmut Lachenmann 1968)


CDs/LP:
Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, Arno Arndt, Siegfried Fink, Hermann Gschwendtner, Michael W. Ranta, cond. Clytus Gottwald
CD Cadenza 800 893
LP WER 60122 / CD Wergo WER 67382
Klangforum Wien, cond. Hans Zender,
Schola Heidelberg, ensemble aisthesis, cond. Walter Nußbaum
CD KAIROS 0012202KAI
Schola Cantorum Stuttgart, cond. Clytus Gottwald
Doppel-CD 50 Jahre Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart 50KPS07


Bibliography:

Lück, Hartmut: Philosophie und Literatur im Werk von Helmut Lachenmann, in: Der Atem des Wanderers. Der Komponist Helmut Lachenmann, hrsg. von Hans-Klaus Jungheinrich, Mainz: Schott 2006, pp. 41-55.
Montaguti, Marco: Oltre, in: Per un Mahler cisalpino. Un secolo di „Sprechgesang“, hrsg. von Piero Mioli, Bologna: Pàtron 2016, pp. 153-162.