related works
In Unison : Concerto for two pianos and orchestra / Joey Roukens
Genre:
Orchestra
Subgenre:
Piano and orchestra
Scoring:
2pf-solo picc 2fl 3ob 2cl cl-b 2fg cfg 4h 3tpt 3trb timp 3perc cel str
Virtual nomades : for string quartet / Chiel Meijering
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
String quartet (2 violins, viola, cello)
Scoring:
2vl vla vc
Gazing into the Infinite : for string quartet / Spiros Mazis
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
String quartet (2 violins, viola, cello)
Scoring:
2vn vla vc
String Quartet Nº 3 / Jo van den Booren
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
String quartet (2 violins, viola, cello)
Scoring:
2vln vla vc
composition
Visions at Sea : for string quartet / Joey Roukens
Other authors:
Roukens, Joey
(Composer)
Description:
'Visions at Sea' is a 17-minute work for string quartet that can be listened to as a kind of dreamed-up sea voyage: on that journey the listener encounters all kinds of memories, all kinds of 'visions' of the Dutch maritime past - in particular the Golden Age, or the time of the VOC. For example, this piece incorporates fragments, quotations, of sea shanties that have been handed down from the Golden Age and which are known to have been sung on board the VOC ships. Sometimes echoes can also be heard of other music that a sailor could have heard at that time, such as the music of Sweelinck. These quotes often sound alienating in the piece, like distorted memories that briefly emerge from the fog and then sink into it again.
The piece begins calmly and ethereally, like one of those typically slowly changing Dutch skies above a still sea. Little by little, the piece becomes more and more sultry and the sea increasingly wild, only to turn halfway through the work into a particularly violent, turbulent sea leading to a moment of storm, panic and shipwreck. Gradually the hectic disappears and the calm and well-supported music of the beginning returns. Towards the end the music rises to 'stratospheric heights': here I had in mind an image, as described in a 17th century maritime book, about 'the perfect ship' on which (perished) sailors make their last journey, a journey that does not go by sea but by air: the ship ascends to heaven.