Composition Commission to Juan Allende-Blin

E-MEX e.V., Essen, Germany

With this composition commission the E-MEX ensemble would like to continue their longstanding collaboration with Essen-based composer Juan Allende-Blin. The past already saw numerous joint concert projects realized in Chile and Germany.

Writing about his composition project Allende-Blin himself stated:

Transformations IX
Antiphonie
("... le silence qui écoute le silence...")
Edmond Jabès

for two groups that are spatially distant from each other

I. Flute/Alto Flute, Cor Anglais, Trumpet and Trombone,
II. Alto Saxophone, Piano (2 players: on the keys / on the strings), 3 Gongs and Harp.

This work, which I am composing especially for the E-MEX Ensemble, is a sign of our bond. Over many years, a musical friendship has developed through our joint collaboration. With curiosity and professionalism we search for what is new in music. Here we believe that the new arises from a tradition which Nazism wished to exterminate.

My Transformations IX - Antiphonie for two instrumental groups develops my idea that music is 'the shore of silence'. The writer Edmond Jabès, who poetically continued the rabbinic tradition, knew how to appreciate silence in silence. Hence my 'motto' for this antiphony. Antiphony is dialogue: Silence and stillness. Silence is a state. Silence is an attitude. Sounds can evoke silence. Sounds can be silent. Listening unfolds in time.

" The beginning of wisdom is silence", was what the wise Pythagoras himself taught me.
 

October 15, 2022
Museum Folkwang, Essen

Further Information:
www.emex.de