No Water Music (1983 – texts Heiner Müller)

For speaking voice, 4-channel tape, 12 min.

This is the second work using texts written by Heiner Müller during our decade of collaboration (all others were music/sound for theatre pieces). Shortly after meeting him, he, his then wife, Ginka Tscholakowa and I went to Bulgaria together (Ginka being Bulgarian). During our few days together, there was a water cut, something that wasn’t that unusual at the time. We walked around the capital and ended up in a Hilton Hotel assuming they would have some water and leaving the rather funky gents, were clear they didn’t.

Müller sat down and wrote a few texts for me which joined two taken from his early work, Glücksgott. It was a no-brainer to provide the piece with its title, No Water Music. It was intended for performance in surround sound and as a radiophonic piece. This is a recording of its first performance in Amsterdam followed by its score.

Performance of No Water Music. 

And this is its score.

No%20Water%20Music%20(score)