Recently I feel an increasing need to limit my musical material, inspired by the concept of a ‘monolith‘, a composition made out of one single piece of stone.

It’s a composition in 9 parts. Every part basically uses the same musical material, with one significant difference: the tempo. It starts very slow but the tempo increases with every new part. After part 5 the tempo decreases and the piece ends with the initial tempo.

Like all my organ pieces, this one was written for Huub ten Hacken.

The Rainbow Snake is the Creator in the Dreaming, which is the infinite period of time that “began with the world’s creation and that has no end. People, animals, and Eternal Beings like the Rainbow Serpent are all part of the Dreaming, and everyday life is affected by the Dreaming’s immortals,” in almost every Australian Aborigine tribe.

In these tribes (there are over 50), actual rainbows are gigantic, often malevolent, serpents who inhabit the sky or ground. This snake has different names in different tribes, and has both different and similar traits from tribe to tribe. Themes consistent with most Australian tribes, is that the Rainbow Serpent is the creator of the world and all beings.

During the dry season, the Rainbow Serpent retreats to deep waterholes. Another common theme among all aboriginal tribes is that the Rainbow Serpent has no gender. And while the Rainbow Serpent can give fertility by creating rain, it can also loose blindness and disease. “The Aboriginal Rainbow is humanity, because it causes the ‘energy’ and the ‘breath’ that gives people life.”

Ngalyod, first-born son of Yingarna, who is the Rainbow Serpent creator of the Kunwinjku in western Arnhem Land in Australia — sucks up water during the dry season and spits it out as rain during the wet season. Like Iris, Ngalyod helps to ensure fertility with rains, however he can destroy as well as nurture. Yingarna, the creator of the Kunwinjku people, is “nominally female” and androgynous like her son Ngalyod. She possesses cunningly ambivalent form; as she combines elements of snake, fish, crocodile, catfish, emu, and kangaroo.

Source: Wikipedia

Organ. Duration: 14′

Cantus was written for Huub ten Hacken, when he was organist at the St. Jan cathedral in Den Bosch, The Netherlands.

The organ is accompanied by a tape, composed from electronic sounds as well as tones female voices. The piece is written in such a way that organ and tape together built a new sound in which it is hard to distinguish the organ and the tape. They blend completely, especially in a church with rich acoustic qualities.

Obviously the piece was dedicated to Huub ten Hacken.

Organ and Tape. Duration: 11′30′”