Der Wortfrühe (The Early Worder) is the twenty-third in a series of short works for solo instrument based upon characters from 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 early worder “speaks on ice skates and outstrips pedestrians. The words drop from his mouth like empty hazelnuts…. It is not his heart that runneth over, but the tip of his tongue… His blinking is a signal that it will go on, it is not yet over, then he blinks again and keeps blinking until the other man gives up all hope and listens…. He has an easy time with time, while other people struggle under its weight, he has gotten over and ahead of time and never takes a breath to catch his breath.”

Der Wortfrühe was completed in January of 2025 and composed for percussionist Gregory Beyer.