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EMERGENCEwitLISTENING ROOM

A Music Theatre Piece in Two Acts.
Duration: 90 minutes



The most direct link with Japanese music will be the use of the Koto. This stringed instrument has the special feature that every string can be tuned individually, and that during the performance the tuning-bridges can be moved, so that the tuning of the instrument can be changed while playing. Very refined playing techniques can be used on this instrument like subtle glissandi and tone bending, with which a connection can create with the Theremin on the one hand and the violin on the other hand.

A virtuoso of the modern recorder family takes part as well. The incredible repertoire of sounds available from a master of this remarkable collection of instruments is often astounding. Combining the associations with ancient music with very modern abstract timbres their expressive range is amazing and when combined into a quartet with the Counter-Tenor, Koto and the Theremin the possibilities are endless.


The Nő figure / Deity is a pure psychic entity, embedded in abstract but strict structures he forms the musical development. His music and that of his accompanying ensemble, is formed in a pure symmetrical space. The scales (modi) of the vocal and instrumental music are completely symmetrical, the rhythms (the time-dimension) are formed around symmetrical formulas as well, the well known 'rhytmes non-rétrogradables' of Olivier Messiaen.

The structure of this music is detached and of a high abstraction level, the powerful and sharp interpunctions always come unexpected and are always shocking.
NB. The use of a symmetrical ordered universe of sounds is done before in the works 'Assumptio' and 'Dansiare' of Hans van Eck..

The Man and Woman move in an other world: those of the flesh. Warm and rich sounds of violin and (bass- alto- b-flat) clarinet accompany the vocal lines based on irregular 'intuitive' musical material, with connotations of western music (classical and popular), extravagantly emotional and sensual. Live-electronics amplifies the rich and full sound-world of these personages.
The distance to the ordered world of the Nő figure seems immense, but there is a connection: the events in their worlds seem to be directed by him. The musical and numerical symbols that govern the composition play an unifying role in both worlds.

The connection with Gnosticism has its predecessor in Hans van Eck's last musical work 'Nuctemeron', based on an ancient Gnostic text of Apollonius of Tyana. This work shows in its music the path to enlightenment and union with the Deity in 12 stages. Musical and numerical symbols are extensively used in this composition as will be the case in the new work "Emergence".

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