A musical reading of Dresden’s most famous cityscape. A graphic score after Bernardo Bellotto for voice, flute, bagpipes and megaphone.

Graphic score and performance by Barnabas Jacob Herrmann.
Recorded on July 19th at Academy of Fine Arts Dresden.

An improvised sketch exploring the textures and atmospheres of the gardens of Schloss Pillnitz. Built in chinoiserie style in the 18th century under August the Strong of Saxony, the palace and its gardens are an example of early European exoticism. While pretending to be “Chinese,” the geometric architecture of the gardens remains strictly European, with very clear boundaries between each section and strong axial compositions defining the space.

By drawing parts of the garden in watercolour and combining these textures with a map of the garden, I created a score that serves as a temporal structure for this musical interpretation. Trying to follow the framework of the score while interpreting the visual signs into musical language during performance, the boundaries gradually become blurred. I used the third part of Fantasia No. 10 by G. P. Telemann as a starting point. Like Baroque buildings surrounding plants, water, light, and air, the melodic fragments of the piece frame trills, arpeggios, overtones, and hums of transverse flute and voice.

Amid the clichéd wall paintings of the Bergpavillon, I try to open up the fixed forms of absolutist garden design. Yet modern times cannot be excluded from the sonic picture, and while following the flow of the landscape I am haunted by the monotonous noise of gardening machines, appearing both through the window and in the sound samples played through a megaphone.

Filmed by Xiao Yu Tang on June 18, 2026.