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Fijnjekade 160, 2521 DS The Hague, the Netherlands www.deussmusic.com
Cover painted by Oene van Geel
Commissioned by Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra
First performance on June 11, 2022 By Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at Concertgebouw Amsterdam Conducted by Stanislav Kochanovsky
Second performance on January 11, 2024 By
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at Concertgebouw Amsterdam Conducted by Klaus Mäkelä.
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Copyright © 2021 by Hawar Tawfiq and Deuss Music managed by Albersen Verhuur b.v. Printed in the Netherlands All rights reserved
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher: Deuss Music managed by Albersen verhuur b.v. Fijnjekade 160, 2521 DS, The Hague The Netherlands www.hawartawfiq.com www.deussmusic.com
Inspiration and work process behind M.C. Escher's Imagination
When on November 4th 2020 my publisher informed me about a new composition assignment from the Concertgebouw Orchestra, I strongly felt the need to look for a source of inspiration with Dutch origins.
To begin with, I jotted down spontaneously what came to mind when thinking of the Netherlands:
1- The polders, the dikes and the North Sea.
2- The wind and the typical Dutch windmills
3- Flowers, nature, birds, insects, The 'Keukenhof'
4- Debate.
5- Beach Animals, an artwork by Theo Jansen.
6- The history of Dutch painters and the art of painting.
The last one- the history of Dutch painters- especially appealed to me. The Netherlands has always been a pioneer in the field of painting. But with a history full of great artists, I had a hard time choosing one of them. I shared the assignment and my ideas for it with a few good friends. One of them is Hans Hierck former director of Het Gelders Orkest.
He suggested the work of M.C. Escher and since I already was familiar with Escher's works, I started to study them more deeply. And that is when the inspiration for my assignment started.
What fascinates me, is that Escher drew his perfect impossible figures with a poetic approach. He makes the non-logical logical and spontaneous. It is impossible - and yet everything makes sense, in a natural way. A kind of minimalism that has nothing to do with minimalism: it seems as if he wanted to condense the whole universe into one cell. Extremely virtuoso, intelligent and thoughtful, but also musical and always fascinating and significant. His works seem like a dream to me, in which everything is possible.
And through these studies and thoughts I found a link between Escher's work and a few of the noted ideas that I mentioned before: Escher had a deep fascination for nature, insects and wind, something that is reflected in his art. And in a way the 'Strandbeest' by Theo Jansen seems not so far from his imaginary world
With Escher as my inspirator, I sketched the first concept of my composition:
1- One motif as the foundation for the entire work.
2- Mysteriousness created alienating sounds and effects and unorthodox use of the instruments (such as blowing with only air and the use of percussive sounds in the wind section, tam-tam glissando and amplified waterphone)
3- Virtuoso and instrumental dialogues and conversations between the instruments.
My goal was to have a few recognizable repetitions, but always with variations and hidden reversals that would sound unrecognizable at first hearing Like a construction of the ancient Egyptian pyramids with secret passages and invisible spaces.
In M.C. Escher's Imagination you will hear my motif for the first time in bars 21-22, in the first clarinet. This motif is the foundation for the entire work:
Like my inspirator who works a lot with inversions, I've played with this motif a lot. At the opening of the piece, for example, from bar 5, where the vibraphone and strings stack the intervals from this motif from the G in inversion into a chord. Here I varied to the rhythm:
Later, in bar 26, the motif is stacked from G flat:
In bar 29, the motif's intervals sound up and down at the same time:
Even later, when the work becomes virtuoso and fast, from bar 81, the motif is still present, now hidden in the harps:
It is of course not my intention to analyse the whole work here, but just to give an idea that through the entire work the main motif and its intervals are referred to both direct and indirect.
The art of Escher should not be looked at only in a rational way. In fact, that will not do justice to his work. In my opinion his art can be compared to a living body: it is not just 'the body'. The connection between the organs, with the heart as its centre point; the circulation of blood, the very dependence of oxygen and the brain are only a few examples of what makes the body a living creature. The connection between the organs is just like the connection between the elements and ideas that makes art alive. Not to forget the sacred fire that burns within the artist. The vision and passion of the maker is deeply rooted and something that even the artist cannot define
M.C. Escher's Imagination's opening represents the magical world of Escher All the effects in the work are connected to his imaginary world. His graphics are alive: often there are movements and development between small cells that transforms into something magnificent The way he tried to breathe life into his work, is reflected in the music by the effects of the wind instruments that are heard throughout the piece. Another significant effect that I used, are the clicking sounds in the wind section and percussion, that can be heard in various ways They portray the insects and their transformations, an inspiration for Escher that can be found in his most famous works.
Although his works and his imaginary world were an inspiration for my composition and became a part of my musical journey, they will probably disappear during listening. Rather I will enjoy the sound and the sound combinations. The magic of music gives us the opportunity to be free in our mind and in our conceptions of sound. It may be different every time and to everyone. In that respect, a sound in itself has no fixed meaning. The poetic aspect of the music begins where the mind opens up to the vibration of mystery, beauty and imagination
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