The Ofterdingen Phenomenon
Do we yearn, openly or in secret, for a simpler age we've had to leave
behind? Back in the Spring of 2003 I invented an alter ego, the zany
musicologist Peter Ceniti, and he, in turn, began "discovering" works by
a 19th c. composer known pseudonymously as Heinrich von
Ofterdingen. The Gesellschaft which sprang up around this corpus
concocted a number of theories regarding its provenance,
the most popular asserting that Ofterdingen's work has leaked from
another universe, parallel to ours, in which history unfolded more
felicitously, manifesting in subtle changes in musical style.
Through these masks (Andreacchi become Ceniti, Ceniti become
Ofterdingen) it becomes possible again to aspire to the beautiful, to
sing of love, while the transparency of the endeavor is a source of
humor, a humor that acknowledges the limits of art and of ourselves.
But this is more than a nostalgic indulgence: in imagining an alternate
past we loosen the bonds of a dark inheritance and envision, with
greater clarity, a brighter future, while, strange as it seems, it's in these
texts I find my truest voice, in these sounds, my best music.
Do we yearn, openly or in secret, for a simpler age we've had to leave
behind? Back in the Spring of 2003 I invented an alter ego, the zany
musicologist Peter Ceniti, and he, in turn, began "discovering" works by
a 19th c. composer known pseudonymously as Heinrich von
Ofterdingen. The Gesellschaft which sprang up around this corpus
concocted a number of theories regarding its provenance,
the most popular asserting that Ofterdingen's work has leaked from
another universe, parallel to ours, in which history unfolded more
felicitously, manifesting in subtle changes in musical style.
Through these masks (Andreacchi become Ceniti, Ceniti become
Ofterdingen) it becomes possible again to aspire to the beautiful, to
sing of love, while the transparency of the endeavor is a source of
humor, a humor that acknowledges the limits of art and of ourselves.
But this is more than a nostalgic indulgence: in imagining an alternate
past we loosen the bonds of a dark inheritance and envision, with
greater clarity, a brighter future, while, strange as it seems, it's in these
texts I find my truest voice, in these sounds, my best music.