Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 104

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Popular Culture Review
Thomas Rainer. Rainer’s voice is calm and reflective and a slight echo effect is
applied. After Rainer finishes his “sprechgesang” (spoken song) of the poem’s
first four lines, a new sound is introduced which oscillates in short bursts
between the left and right stereo channels. During the pause between verses,
Sonja Kraushofer’s clear voice can also be heard in the distance singing: “Durch
das Dunkel her” (Through the dark). After a sound similar to blowing wind,
Rainer’s voice sounds as it did in the first verse, except somewhat louder when
it interprets Trakl’s “Ballade”—a poem that goes beyond the statement of
general sadness and hints at a crime:
Ein schwiiler Garten stand die Nacht.
Wir verschwiegen uns, was uns grauend erfafit.
Davon sind unsere Herzen erwacht
Und erlagen unter des Schweigens Last.
Es bliihte kein Stem in jener Nacht
Und niemand war, der fur uns bat.
Ein Damon nur hat im Dunkel gelacht.
Seid alle verflucht! Da ward die Tat. (72)
[As a sultry garden stood the night.
We concealed from each other what fearsomely grasps us.
Our hearts awoke from that
And succumbed under the weight of the silence.
No star was blooming in that night
And nobody was there to beg for us.
Only a demon laughed in the dark.
Be cursed! All of you! There was the deed.] (72, translation
by authors)
When Rainer speaks the word “verschwiegen” (concealed), a vibration
in his voice which makes it sound distorted becomes ever more noticable and
increases until the end of the song. This vibration creates a sense that something
is going wrong. The introduction of repeated short bursts of a noise, the harshest
sound introduced thus far, also helps to reinforce the feeling that control is being
lost. From the line “Ein schwiiler Garten” (A sultry garden) until “des
Schweigens Last” (the weight of the silence), the voice increases in intensity.
The third verse of the song (the second of “Ballade”) starts immediately
after the second, and Rainer’s voice is markedly louder. With the line “Und
niemand war, der fur uns bat” (And there was nobody to beg for us) a new
bitterness can be detected. From this point on, the emotional charge of the voice
increases. After the word “Damon” is spoken, the distorted surges increase in