Walter Zimmermann (1949-)
"Beginner's Mind", pour piano

Herbert Henck, piano

This release celebrates the long collaboration between the great German pianist Herbert Henck and composer Walter Zimmermann. Zimmermann says “Beginner’s Mind is the result of my study of the contemporary European New Music scene. It is influenced on the one hand by Erik Satie, who wrote in the most simple way in the midst of a highly complex musical landscape, and on the other hand by John Cage, especially by the music of his “naive period” around 1950. … The piece represents the process from the “complex” to the “simple.” … The techniques of this process are derived from Shunryu Suzuki’s book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (1970) and are divided into three main chapters, analogous to the book: 1) Leave the old, 2) Clean the mind, 3) Alter the consciousness. The piece ends with the Beginner’s Mind Song, which articulates the new consciousness,” and is sung by the pianist. Both the vinyl LP and CD covers are facsimiles of the original LP cover. Apart from its ornate lettering, shining silvery-gray at the top, Michael von Biel’s cover design for the 1978 LP of Beginner’s Mind — which does not add the name of the composer, Walter Zimmermann — is empty, or white. The mind of anyone who wants to start anew should be blank. The CD reissue also includes Abgeschiedenheit (Detachment), released for the first time. Its influence comes from Meister Eckert, who Zimmermann sees as as a bridge from Cage to Zen to Europe.