Thomas Doss

Alienus

Alienus – a word that means more than just the alien. It stands for the foreign, the unfamiliar, the different. For what comes from outside – and yet awakens questions deep within ourselves. In this work, it can be many things: an alien, an unknown, a stranger – or a human being whose essence eludes our understanding. In my fantasy for brass band, I tell the story of an encounter: people meet a sleeping, mysterious being. They look at it with amazement – and with fear. Hesitantly, they come closer, driven by curiosity. They explore it, transcend the invisible boundaries of respect and humility – until the being awakens. What happens next remains unspoken. Everyone may find their own story in music – or simply let themselves be carried by it. The sound itself draws from an old spirit: the hymn "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme", written in 1599 by Philipp Nicolai and later immortalized by Johann Sebastian Bach in his cantata. In the finale, the chorale sounds in full splendour – performed in two different time measures at the same time, like an echo that resonates through the halls of an imaginary place of worship.