Programme Note

Forgiveness & Forgetting is an exploration of appeasement using sonic bandwidth as a metaphor. Two chamber ensembles that are more used to filling the entire sonic space on their own, especially through means of amplification, have to share the stage. Across the work the two groups gradually find a peace. There are three longer movements, Forgiveness I-III, that explore a tussle within a sonic bandwidth, and three shorter movements, Forgetting I-III, that occupy a more otherworldly space and that ultimately provide the resolution to the work. Musically, the work acts also as a tribute to the works written for the Hoketus Ensemble of Louis Andriessen in the late 1970s and 1980s. The two groups, placed left and right of the stage, are in conversation with each other for the Forgiveness movements, while in contrast they form a single homogenous ensemble during the Forgetting sections.

Movements

1 Forgiveness I (6’30)
2 Forgiveness II (17’30)
3 Forgetting I (2’00)
4 Forgetting II (3’00)
5 Forgiveness III (6’30)
6 Forgetting III (6’00)

The work expands on an earlier shorter work called simply Forgiveness from 2016. All the music from the early 15 minute work is revised, re-written, and extended, in addition to the entirely new movements.

The work was commissioned by Ensemble Klang, and Rewire Festival, with support from the Fonds Podiumkunsten NL.