Ruhm, Gerhard
Diotima Hat Ihre Lekture Gewechselt
"The 1971 detective audio play "Diotima Hat Ihre Lektüre Gewechselt' goes back to the records of a murder trial that took place around the turn of the 20th century: two music students were killed upon their own request - because of a love affair - by their piano teacher, who afterwards lacked the courage to shoot himself too, as planned. The court records are read out by two girls in alternation. The text is accompanied by background noise that the listeners can understand in relation to the described events but which liberates itself from the narration and suggests its own dimension of events. (...) Piano sounds are a further, structuring, element. They frame and subdivide the whole into sections of equal size, in a purely mechanical way. (...) The role of the piano part, however, is not just one of structuring time, or also of disrupting (as the speech is sometimes interrupted by tones in the middle of a phrase or a word); in fact it relates to the described court case in terms of content as well, evoking associations to the piano lessons the young man gave to the two girls. The etude-like character and the frustrating discipline of the audio track provides a troubling contrast to the simultaneously expressed emotions."