Der Saus und Braus (The Fun-runner) is the sixteenth 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 fun-runner would once have come with the wind, now he comes faster… [He] lives in the tempest of towns… [and] has his own language. It consists of names of cities and currencies, exotic specialties and clothes, hotels, beaches, temples, and nightclubs…. Doddery old men may dream of calm ocean voyages… but that’s nothing for him, he’s in a hurry.”

Der Saus und Braus was composed in 2017 for pianist Redi Llupa, who premiered the work on 29 April 2018 at the New World Center in Miami, Florida.