composer
Hans Kox was born in Arnhem on May 19, 1930 and died on Februabry 25, 2019
Education: Hans Kox, whose father was a choral conductor and organist, studied at the Utrecht ...
related works
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir and orchestra
Scoring:
sopr ten bar GK4 2222 4331 timp perc str
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir and orchestra
Scoring:
sopr sopr-m ten bar GK4 2fl fl(pic) 2ob ob(eh) 3cl 3fg fg(cfg) 4h 3trp 4trb 5perc steelband 2hp str
Evangelium : voor gemengd koor, blaaskwintet en strijkorkest / Harry Mayer
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Mixed choir and orchestra
Scoring:
GK4 1111 1000 str(vl vla vc)
composition
Anne Frank cantate : a child of light, for soprano, contralto, bass, mixed chorus and orchestra, 1984, revision 2001 / Hans Kox
Description:
Program note (English): Memories of World War II have been of paramount importance in a number of my works. That became apparent in my work In Those Days (1969), as a result of the Battle of Arnhem written in commission for the airborne committee and the Prins Bernhard Funds. This work received the Prix Italia. Thereafter, in 1971, I wrote at the request of the International Organ Days in Haarlem and in commission for C.R.M. a second work in which the war and is destructive impact, now in broader link, was again central in the 'Requiem for Europe'. As a closure to these deliberations concerning 'war art' can be heard in my Anne Frank Cantata, concluding a musical triptych. Thanks to a commission from the NCRV, and especially the head of the music department , Cornelis van Zwol, playing a stimulating role, I could bring this work to fruition. It was, as it happens, already a long me cherished wish to use the diary of Anne Frank as a main point for a work for soloists, choir and orchestra. As a result
of copyright difficulties I was not allowed to use the diary, parts of which would be set in the person of a narrator in the cantata.
Instead I have, following 'some' research, made another plan for the text composition: the anecdotic element is replaced by an progression which is founded in the (un)safe world history. A parallel has been drawn between a number of events taking place in the centuries B.C. (as described in the book of Esther from the Old Testament and interpreted alto soloist) and the outrageous history of the last fifty years (marked by quotations by Hitler and the SS on the KL Auschwitz: bass soloist). The links are all the more frightening because humanity has apparently (not) be able to repair the damages. The choir functions not only as the 'turbae', but also as a bewildered observer asking the only question that, in whatever context, can always be raised: "What then is humanity?" The soprano soloist expresses the independent thinking of mankind as an individual (in this case Anne Frank). The alto and bass solo connect themselves through their recitatives. Lastly the orchestra symbolises the
connection, the cement that keeps the different layers of the piece together. - HANS KOX (1985)