ViolinMicroMix op. 26 I ter for different violin ensembles has its origins in eight small concert pieces for the first volume of a violin school.

The self-imposed task within theses pieces required that all student parts (with the exception of the teacher's part) would be set only for open strings. As a special variant, these parts can also be performed on scordated empty strings, for example raised or lowered by quarter or three-quarter notes.

When Staar recorded it himself in playback technique in 2010, the idea came to him to combine different microtonal string tunings and to publish this version under the above title as "composer’s choice". Here, the complex scordaturas are inserted into one another like a jigsaw puzzle, the result being remotely reminiscent of the gamelan music of Indonesia, but as if the traditional instruments had been replaced by a "string gamelan". These pieces thus manifest the mutability of the sound of the violin, or more generally, of all string instruments.

Audio samples:

6. Clowns

8. Country fair

René Staar in multiple playback, recorded at Studio 4tune, September-October 2010