Enjott Schneider

3 Nocturnes

Nocturnes have a long tradition - from the notturni by Mozart and Haydn via the nocturnes of the Romantic era to Chopin who elevated the genre to fascinating character piece: He created ambivalently shining gems in an unreal world of human nature which were as close to the extremely sublime as to a demonic abyss. Enjott Schneider's '3 Nocturnes', the core of each of which is characterized by a Latin motto, stand in this tradition. Cicero's 'Somnus est imago mortus' sees sleep as a resemblance of death. 'Die Zeit eilt weg, die Liebe aber bleibt' [Time passes but love remains] explores the ambivalence between that what is hurrying and that what stays eternally. Ovid's 'Der Tropfen höhlt den Stein nicht durch Kraft, sondern durch stetes Fallen' [The drop hollows the stone, not by force but by constant dripping] has its counterpart in a minimalist motif which has a lasting influence on the listener through its constant sounding.