Performed by the South African New Music Ensemble under the direction of Robert Fokkens at the 2015 NewMusicSA Indaba at the Odeion School of Music, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.
"The musical material for Some Trees evolved from themes taken from Borodin’s String Quartet No.1. This material was grafted onto a cyclical format of twelve quavers per measure to recreate essentially tonal and narrative material (e.g. sonata form) in an essentially non-tonal and non-narrative framework. The structural narrative of Borodin’s sonata form would become a concatenation of pulses, as in traditional African music. This enabled the exploration of cross-rhythms and rhythmic and tonal ambiguity. The intention is to create an aural sensation of familiar music presented in an off-kilter manner. How would Borodin’s division of the bar sound like in the pulse format of certain traditional African forms? The title of the composition was taken from the poem Some Trees by the American poet John Ashbery. This poem is strongly suggestive of ambiguities in meaning and reference. The composition I submit is a musical exploration of the complexities, ambiguities, ironies, emotions and wit the reader may discover in Ashbery’s poem. The macro structure of the work unfolds as a type of rondo with sections of new or varied material interspersed with a repeated section. Any instrumental part or musical line within a four-bar section (or cycle) may be combined vertically with any other. The score that was submitted is a working out of some possibilities."
- Hendrik van Blerk
