Title of piece:
Reiken – for violin, alto saxophone and piano (2018)
Duration: 9′
Performers: Kugoni Trio (BE) – Nicolas Dupont (violin), Kurt Bertels (saxophone), Bert Koch (piano)
Premiere year: 9th of September 2018, during and commissioned by Gaudeamus Muziekweek
Program notes:
‘Something that took my attention within the first meeting with saxophonist Kurt Bertels, was our shared interest in a search to the origin. For him, his passion for the historical saxophone, the way of playing and the sound that results from that. Each time discovering more and revealing part of the mystery. This image, of something that you know is there, but is not yet heard, was appealing to me. For this piece, I asked myself the question: ‘What’s the sound of something before it came to sound?’ The piece gives space for something ‘un solid’ like the matter of that question, to become ‘solid’.
Working with natural materials and earth colours only, I tried to capture the visualization of the general from. This resulted into three different types of materials: a wool like material, where little graphite pencil curls interfere with actual cloud shape pieces of wool and cotton. Musically to be formed by the three different instruments blending into each others sound, seeming far away. Then, dots separating themselves out of these clouds leading to three small spheres of different materials: grey coloured cotton, white clay and ocher coloured bee wax, referring to individual sound characteristics of the three instruments. The already more solid spheres open up to the third material: weathered shards of nature clay, stacked like rocks, and even bigger polyhedrons three-dimensionally shaped, giving the impression of something very in front and present.
While composing, I used these aspects overall in chronological order, but within that, combined them freely as well. My general motion while composing the piece, was of something wanting to reach out, with needing some effort to do so. The title ‘Reiken’, the dutch verb for ‘reaching’, refers to that.’