In Between

for oboe and tape

In Between for oboe and tape was written in 1993 during my stay at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.

The inspiration for the piece originates from a philosophical art conception of the Russian painter Vladimir Mironenko, who was my colleague at the Akademie. This conception comes out of an existence a so called „Neutral Zone“, a widely understood space which is situated „in between“, between two definitely formed inconsistent phenomena – for example between day and night, good and evil, tradition and avantgarde, I and Not-I, etc.

In the piece itself there can be found more associations to this basic principle – „in between“ can be there understood as a space and time between the opening the door at the beginning and closing the door at the end of the piece; the opening and closing the door themselves are situated „in between“, between the approaching and departing steps; the radio inteferences that create the main sound material of the tape part come from a space „in between“, since it is between the radio stations; the oboe part is proportionally divided to a space of a play without a reed and a space „in between“, with the reed; the music material of the oboe part makes use of both the intervallic as well as the tonal structures, it oscillates „in between“; the form of the piece is resolved as an arch and this fact itself creates countless variations to the principle „in between“.

The spiritual background of the piece is expressed in the motto which introduced the score:

„We always live „in between“.
In an interspace, intertime, in the interrelationships.
We wish to grasp something that is pure,
a motive, tone,
but,, be that as it may, „in between“ stands above all the pureness.
Inter-world, inter-man, inter-myself, inter-yourself.“

Iris Szeghy