Carola Bauckholt: Schraubdichtung

Schraubdichtung is a spoken word piece and was written for a sound poetry anthology published by Christian Scholz. There is no text in the strict sense, instead of normal language only words and word fragments are used. They are terms borrowed from the inventory of a toolbox and combined to a small sound story. First, the screw makes its appearance, which is immediately extended to the screwdriver, both supplement and counterpart. It is followed by the grindstone, which brings the situation to a head both factually and sonically. Devices with gentler threads, such as wing nuts or screw bolts, take the place of a dolce part, before an accumulation of hissing consonants (sh, ch, ks) follows a noisier passage. The sharper sound is matched by the sharper tools: thrusting axe, stabbing axe, axe. »The screw poem is a concrete investigation of music and language. Words are translated into music here; it is an instrumentation of their sonic substance,« says Carola Bauckholt.

Tool terms are particularly suited for a transformation into the musical: Tools produce sounds through their use. The sound of their name is often onomatopoeic (Sch-l-a-i-f-sch-tain). The tonal character of the name associates the effect (the short hard blow of the axe). And the use of tools resembles the use of instruments, as Carola Bauckholt describes it: »This craft genre is reflected concretely musically (by stroking, rubbing, hitting, thrusting) as well as compositionally (chopping, mounting, filing out).« The musical composition was guided by the meaning and sound of the words and is a transposition of the craft sound sphere into the musical instruments. The ambiguity of the sound production also reveals the double nature of the instruments, which are tools not only by virtue of their mechanics, but also by their purpose.
(Frank Hilberg)