Der Ohrenzeuge (The Earwitness) is the sixth in a series of short works for solo instrument based upon characters in Der Ohrenzeuge: Fünfzig Charaktere (Earwitness: Fifty Characters), written in 1974 by the Bulgarian-born British-Austrian novelist Elias Canetti (1905-1994). Canetti’s distinctive studies incorporate poetic imagery, singular insights, and unabashed wordplay to create fifty ironic paradigms of human behavior.  This collection, begun in 1997, was inspired by the vividly surreal depictions of Canetti’s characters, and comprises twenty-two solo works to date—composed for familiar instruments such as violin, guitar, piano, and trombone, as well as less common instruments such as ocarina, cimbalom, glass harmonica, and carillon.  In Canetti’s depiction of this character, the Earwitness “comes, halts, huddles unnoticed in a corner, peers into a book or display, hears whatever is to be heard, and moves away untouched and absent.” Accordingly, the work itself quotes fragments of nearly two dozen Twentieth-century works from the flute and bass flute repertoire.

Der Ohrenzeuge was composed between September 2000 and January 2001 for flutist Helen Bledsoe, who first performed the work on 25 February 2001 at the Posthoornkerk in Amsterdam. It is included on the album Improbable Encounters (innova 873, 2014).