"Isolde with white hands" (Îsôt als blansche mains) is a character that appears at the end of Gottfried von Straßburg's "Tristan". She is the other Isolde, the one who does not appear in Wagner’s piece, the one who provokes confusion after Tristan's separation from King Marke's Isolde.
"…how am I embarassed by this name! It mixes up truth and lie in my senses and in my eyes. It brings up in me an unusual need: Îsôt laughs and jokes with me all the time in my ears, and yet, I don't know where Îsôt is. My eye that sees Îsôt, that doesn't see Îsôt: Îsôt is far from me and is with me: I fear, I am again enchanted by Îsôt, now for the second time…" – A new drama starts, the structure gets more complicated.
My orchestral work understands itself as a reflection of this confusion. Extreme contrasts are counterpointed. Wagner's piece appears twice as quasi-quotation and apart from that reaches into my composition in a way that the instruments perceive a constant upward surge. Perhaps – a wild scherzo, perhaps – the womens' choir as voices of the Isoldes. In the end a crater appears (or is it a wide landscape?).
translation by Gunilda Wörner
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