for Bello (after Robert Smit) (2023) [6’00]
for 2 Fl, Cl, 2 Sax, Horn, Tpt, 2 Tbn, Tba, Glockenspiel, Pno, E Guit, B Guit
Premiere: 17 June 2023, Museum Arnhem
Commissioned by Orkest de Ereprijs for their Museum Tour project 2023

for Bello (after Robert Smit) is a work written in response to Robert Smit’s necklace Dog with Red Mouth, part of the collection of the CODA museum, Apeldoorn. It’s a mischievous scribble of gold that forms a three dimensional poodle. On a visit to the museum, the curator Rianne Groen’s enthusiasm for the work was infectious. Something of the work’s sublime craftsmanship, and artistry, a thread of gold turned and twisted into this cuddly animal, was captivating. It immediately made me think of Paul Klee’s Pedagogical Sketchbook, in which he starts drawing by simply ‘taking a line for a walk’. And so this musical composition takes Bello, the dog in the necklace, for a walk. A musical line, a melody, meanders around before returning to its starting point, like the line in the necklace itself. Lines become circles, and numbers relating to circles are encoded throughout the piece, giving the work its form and structure.