{"id":12002,"date":"2026-01-15T22:40:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:40:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=12002"},"modified":"2026-01-15T22:58:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T04:58:42","slug":"finding-cues-elias-stemeseder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/finding-cues-elias-stemeseder\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding Cues: A Conversation with Elias Stemeseder on \u2018Studies in Prolation, for S-L plus Ensemble\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Often, great treasures can be found in mines already long before dug. This is certainly the case with the lautenwerk. A now rare European keyboard from the Baroque era, the lautenwerk combines the mechanics of a harpsichord with lute-like strings.  A favorite of Johann Sebastian Bach, the instrument largely fell out of favor as the harsher metal strings of a modern piano came to dominate. But there is still something quite special about the softened and more gentle tones of the lautenwerk. Eighteenth-century scholar Jacob Adlung called it “the most beautiful of all keyboard instruments after the organ.\u201d Contemporary keyboardist Dongsok Shin has noted how the lautenwerk \u201ccan pull certain heartstrings.” The point being that there is something special about this instrument that has been mostly forgotten to time. Elias Stemeseder sagely builds upon these qualities in his forthcoming Roulette Intermedium performance titled \u2018Studies in Prolation, for S-L plus Ensemble.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result of Stemeseder\u2019s 2024-2025 Roulette Commission, \u2018Studies in Prolation\u2019 is presented by a sextet that includes not one lautenwerk, but two of them. One is performed by Stemeseder and the other by Phillip Golub<\/a>. The work itself takes its name from rhythmic structures in mensural notation; the compositional system used for polyphonic<\/a> European vocal music from the late thirteenth century to the early seventeenth century. The project also uses meantone tuning, a system of temperament that adjusts the size of perfect fifths to create \u201cbetter-sounding\u201d thirds. The system was in wide use in the sixteenth century and largely disappeared during the eighteenth. Given this backdrop\u2019s focus on the past, it is easy to assume that the work will be fully revisionist or nostalgic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But such a perspective overlooks the Austrian keyboardist\u2019s career to date. His other work – whether exploring Just Intonation as part of Anna Webber\u2019s Shimmer Wince<\/a> or his longstanding duo with producer-drummer Christian Lillinger – shows an incredibly forward-thinking artist. Fittingly, rather than merely looking back at what came before. Stemeseder adapts history to the modern era. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Roulette ensemble takes his work with Lillinger, who provides percussion for this outing alongside Shakoor Hakeem, as a core component of the group. It further adds cutting-edge electronics by the leader and Simon Kanzler. The result is a work that, while adopting the magic timbre and structures of a time past, instead engages in a form of time-hopping, arguably even trying to transcend history itself. The addition of gayageum, played by DoYeon Kim<\/a>, suggests not merely a pan-temporal focus but a cross-cultural one as well.  And the reason this all works is that the project focuses on something larger than a time, place, or specific community; it emphasizes how all people unite in a shared desire to express what is deep in their souls, whether manifested through the plucking of a string, the beating of a drum, or the manipulation of a highly advanced manmade machine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We sat down with Stemeseder to discuss the project and what lucky audience members can expect to experience at Roulette on January 17, 2026. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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