Blood – III & II [1998]
Blood consists of three parts: I, III, and II.
Blood as a concept consists of two parts, but for a complete version I used at the Holland Festival in 2002, it consists of three parts. The theme centers around the consequences of the fathers’ wars for their children. The inspiration came from the civil war in former Yugoslavia and the seemingly unsolvable mutual hatred in the Middle East. Small children throwing stones, encouraged, of course, by their fathers. Initially, I envisioned a first part about the fathers and a second about the children. An anecdotal element is also tied to this: my father survived a Nazi concentration camp. This had traumatic consequences for my upbringing; every meal was marked by that camp. If my mother cooked something nice, my father would take a dry piece of bread and say, “I can live on this for two weeks!” Bon appétit. This influenced my perception of Germany, making it difficult for me to be there, as everything seemed ‘guilty,’ even the Autobahn overpasses. When I had children, I became aware of the danger of passing this trauma on to them. “… for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me.” — Exodus 20:5-6. I also used the ending of Euripides’ Heracles, where Heracles questions what to do with his weapons: keep them — because of his heroic deeds for Greece — or destroy them, as he had killed his family with them. He chose to keep them. That is taking responsibility for one’s actions.
I wrote the second part first; writing the part about the father seemed the most challenging, as it was the most confronting. Yes, the anecdotal always plays a role. I was asked to write a piece by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble as part of a program for which I was also to arrange an existing piece. I decided to approach this concept rigorously by making the entire program one comprehensive composition, focusing on the theme of War and Love, with the child’s role in mind. I ultimately used a series of madrigals from around the sixteenth century, linking them with a sample layer playable via keyboard. The final part became my Blood II. The closer we got to the final part, the more I intervened in the arranged madrigals. The famous Hilliard Ensemble was asked to perform the vocal parts. The entire ensemble was amplified due to the samples used, solely for blending ensemble and samples seamlessly.
I ultimately named the arranged madrigals Blood III because they proved to be an essential part of the work. Everything formed a cohesive whole. I wrote Blood I for symphony orchestra, large choir, boys’ choir, and samples. It was performed by an orchestra, the choir of the National Broadcast, and the Hague’s Matrozenkoor, in which my eldest son sang. Not long after the performance, I was asked by the NBE and the HF to present the entire cycle. This took place in 2002. The NBE asked me to arrange Blood I for them, allowing them to perform all parts. Thus, two versions exist.
In the samples, I also used my children’s voices, who sing a song I wrote based on a text from Virgil’s Bucolica, about the boy who must smile at his parents; otherwise, no god invites him to his banquet, and no goddess to her bridal bed. Blood I begins with the complete version of this song. My eldest son sang along with the Hague Boys’ Matrozenkoor; he also had a solo role in a boys’ quartet. This is all anecdote. Because the subject was so personal, it inevitably had some therapeutic value. I was well aware of this. Yet, I hope the artistic value of the cycle transcends this, as anecdote, in my opinion, should never influence artistic quality. Anecdotes are for family gatherings, funerals, and the pub.
An anecdote can inspire the creation of a piece but should never be an element of pure artistic judgement. Only the sublimation of the anecdotal can become an element of such judgement, as its story can then become part of our human mythology. This statement may seem contradictory: on one hand, rejecting the anecdote, the private, in the quality judgement, and on the other hand, concluding that pure art can only arise from that private space. This contradiction is illusory; the nature of the concept is separate from the space of creation and therefore from judgement.
Blood – III & II:
- William Shakespeare, King Lear (fragment)
- Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
Cipriano da Rore, Ne laria in questi di - Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
Philippus de Monte, Fa chio riveggia - Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
- Luca Francesconi, Respondit du madrigali di Carlo Gesualdo
- Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
Claudio Monteveri / Cornelis de Bondt, from Madrigali Guerrieri et Amoroso - Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
Thomas Weelkes, Cease sorrows now - Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
Gabriel Coste, Celle fillette - Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
Giles Farnaby / Cornelis de Bondt, Consture my meaning - Cornelis de Bondt, frame compositon
Josquin des Prez, La déploration sur la mort de Johannes Ockeghem - Cornelis de Bondt, Blood II
Texts Blood II:
– Thora, Exodus (20-5)
– Euripides, Herakles (888 – )
– Euripides, Herakles (1367 – 1385)
– Vergilius, Bucolica (4de ecloga, 60)
Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and The Hilliard Ensemble
Conductor Blood II: Rutger van Leyden
Sound technique: Paul Jeukendrup
Samples: Ton van der Meer and Cornelis de Bondt