Musical Bow     Old / New (1924)

For various musical bows and 8-channel recording, 14′ – commissioned by the South African College of Music / University of Cape Town for the Bowed Electrons Festival 24 and made with and for the master musical bow player, Dizu Plaatjies

Programme note:

This piece has been commissioned by UCT/SACM and has been made for Bowed Electrons 24 in close consultation with Dizu Plaatjies, master musician of the musical bow, to whom the work is dedicated and who will be the sole performer ever to perform the work, Theo Herbst and Paul Rommelaere. It is the most recent work in the composer’s ‘Old / New’ series.

As was the case with the Chinese work played earlier on this concert, it is all about respecting ancient instruments of world cultures and investigating how dynamic these instruments can be over the centuries and how relevant they are to today’s world.

Working online from the UK, I watched Dizu record several musical bows at an unimaginable level of virtuosity and singing creating some sounds that reminded me of today’s electroacoustic music although nothing was plugged into the wall! In between recordings, we all chatted together and, fortunately, the recording producer, Dave Langemann, kept the recordings going as Dizu caught his breath. Stories about the bows were shared and more offering material never used in this series to bridge sections of the work while Dizu can catch his breath during performance.

I have always been passionate about a wide variety of forms of traditional African music and studied music from Southern Africa and the Gold Coast during my doctoral studies. To collaborate with such wonderful people has been a dream come true. I sincerely hope you will be immersed in the wonderful sounds of these musical bows and enjoy the journey.

Here follows a live recording of its first performance, 1 September 2024 at the BE24 festival: