Bernhard Lang

Bernhard Lang is an Austrian composer, improviser and programmer of musical patches and applications. His work can be described as contemporary classical, with roots, however, in various genres such as 20th-century avant-garde, European classical music, jazz, free jazz, rock, punk, techno, EDM, electronica, electronic music, and computer-generated music. His works range from solo pieces and chamber music to large ensemble pieces and works for orchestra and musical theatre. Besides music for concert halls, Lang designs sound and music for theatre, dance, film and sound installations.

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Since 2004, Bernhard Lang has been composing a series of works under the title Monadologies, in a nod to Leibniz. In these pieces, minimal cells – sampled from pre-existing materials or compositions – serve as generators of the entire musical texture. They function as abstract machines in the Deleuzian sense, progressing through discrete states akin to complex differentials, thereby manifesting continuous transformations.

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London in the Rain, Monadology XXIX (2014), for flutes, recorders, harp, harpsichord, and keyboard, is part of this series.

This piece was composed for airborne extended and, as Bernhard recounts, “…it was written during a very rainy stay in London…,” which explains the title.