Der Jungbrunnen (fountain of youth) 2022 (9‘) for flute and organ (after Lucas Cranach)

Description

Der Jungbrunnen
for flute and organ (after Lucas Cranach)

Cranach paints a „fountain of youth“: from the left come the old people, they seem tired, are driven and carried. In the center is the fountain, a kind of square whirlpool with a fountain, in which people swim and splash cheerfully. And on the right the women – they are only women – rise from the healing water and are young and full of energy again. Beautifully dressed, they go to the festive table, to the dance. Why does Cranach rejuvenate only the women? The men on the left could do with it – and the youthful men, by whom the women are greeted are precisely not the old men left behind. Is this really a „man‘s dream“ – or is Cranach not telling us a completely different story?

I have based my „Fountain of Youth“ on the dance couple Pavane and Galliarde, a measured walking dance and virtuoso jump dance of the time. But already in the Pavane the flute breaks out into virtuosity, until finally the cheerful
Galliard takes over completely; actually at the end, even the pavane of the beginning literally becomes a galliard!
In reality, is it not the case that youth is not a question of calendar age, but a question of attitude, no matter whether man or woman?

Dorothea Hofmann composed five works for organ and other instruments. They are inspired by paintings by Lucas Cranach. All works were premiered by Marius Popp under the common title „Wunderkammer“ in 2022 in Kronach. The titles and instrumentations of the works are as follows: Judith for viola and organ (fue 10395), Das Paradies for harp and organ (fue 10393), Die Kreuzigung for trombone and organ (fue 10394), Lucas for violoncello and organ (fue 10396) and Der Jungbrunnen for flute and organ (fue 10397).