Programme note
This work was commissioned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation and was intended as a Prix Italia entry. However, the latter did not materialise in the end.
It is a musique concrète type work in which two motifs are developed, the one from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, and the other produced by vibrating a whisky tumbler on the strings of a piano. What started off as a 10 seconds long fragment, was transformed with the help of recording and reproduction equipment. The form is rather unusual for a work in this genre where abstract and new forms are more the norm. Instead, I applied an arch-type form with almost symphonic dimensions.
The following verse by N.P van Wyk Louw acted as catalyst for the work:
Toe God die aarde,
When God let the earth
die silver bal,
the silver ball
in vreugde en spel
in games and in bliss
uit sy hand laat val,
from His hand fall
was ek die baaierd
I was the chaos
waarin dit weeg,
in the balance
die vormlose,
the formless
en woes en leeg.
desolate emptiness