David Thorner performing the baritone role in Father's Telescope at Rigiblick Theatre 1986

David is a highly accomplished baritone with an excellent feeling for the drama in the work he is performing. We met early in our “Swiss life”, he took part in my first concert (Rigiblick, Zürich) while he was still training as a singer. He was born in Rome of German parents and apart from these two “mother tongues” is fluent in English.

Works of mine which he has performed are:

• Poem then, for love
• Father's Telescope
• Hauptsache, man geht zusammen hin
• Die Poppa
• Microzoic Piano Suite

I have always been impressed by his extreme professionality. When undertaking a new work he does all in his power to understand the backgound of the work, what the composer intended and how he can best reach the expectation of the composer. Here are some examples of working with him:

In the preparation for Poem then, for love (soprano, baritone and percussion) the singers were required to perform a difficult passage homophone. They tried it with eye contact but then looking at their score was difficult. David suggested standing back to back so that on singer could feel the breathing of the other. This worked perfectly!

During the early stages of Die Poppa (baritone and tape) we met several times for improvisation on Brigitte's text. After we had discussed a passage thoroughly David improvised and I recorded it. In the end I wrote down the final version using the best of these improvisations.

For the Microzoic Piano Suite (baritone and ensemble) all was written down before we met. Nevertheless David was able to make valuable suggestions about the spoken (rap?) sections including the curious frog-guiro he added to this. Another passage was improved greatly by his clapping which not only produced a wonderful surprise effect, it made it easier for him to perform.

After all, said father who had been reading forever discovering one thing and another: ‘Quand on est dans la merde jusqu’au cou, il ne reste plus qu’à chanter’.

The English text above was manipulated by a chance prossess which chopped it up and repeated the fragments. The French text is a quote from Samuel Becket.

Af–ter all Af–ter all said all said fat fa–ther Af–ter all Af–ter all Af–ter said all said fa–ther who had had been re–rea–ding for–e–ver dis–cov for e–ver disc dis–co co–ver–ing for–e–ver for–e–ver e–ver dis–co–ver–ing e–ver–ing co–ver–ing e–ver e–ver co–ver–ing one thing and an–o–ther and an–o–ther