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The Race Day - an overture for orchestra (2002)

Commissioned by and written for the VU Kamerorkest on the occasion of its tenth anniversary in 2002.
Première: Groate Kerk, St.Jacobiparochie (Friesland, NL) on 3 November 2002. Conducted by Daan Admiraal.
Duration approx. 5'30".

When I first saw the wonderful painting by Jack Yeats, 'Galway races', I was immediately caught by it. Later, in 2002, when I was in Ireland spending my summer holidays, I was lucky to be able to go the Sligo horse races. I pictured some impressions of this event in this short and rather light-hearted composition.

Scoring:

  • 2 Flutes (2nd also piccolo)
  • 2 Oboes
  • 2 Clarinets (2nd also bass-clarinet)
  • 2 Bassoons
  • 2 Horns in F
  • 1 Trombone

Timpani

  • Percussion (one player)
  •    piatti
  •    piatto sospeso
  •    snare drum
  •    tambourine

Harp

  • Violins 1
  • Violins 2
  • Violas
  • Violoncellos
  • Double Basses

  Currently working on a work for      saxophone quartet, requested by      the Bron Saxophone Quartet.

  My latest work is "Ritual text      for the afterlife"  for women's          choir and tubular bells.
     Ancient Greek goldplates with      texts - recently  found in graves -      that were carried by the dead on      their journey to afterlife.

 In progress is a work of a much     bigger scale: Blodeuwedd,  a     dance poem for narrator,      singer/reciter, dancer and      ensemble. The poem is by the      Welsh poet Tony Conran.

  Another recent work (2016) is
     O me! O life! (Walt Whitman) for      choir and string quintet.

  My guitar sonata (1982) is      now being published by
     Editiones Eudora (Madrid),

  Draaf, Foekje. Draaf!

    Watch the television interview.     (You need to understand Frisian,     though).