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Trawl (1997) |
Trawl: a type of fishing net which is dragged along the sea bed behind a boat; also the title of a novel by the English writer B.S.Johnson (1933-73) which takes trawling as a metaphor for the author searching into his own past. The composition of Trawl was motivated by the idea of repeatedly searching, trawling, through its own ômaterialö in order, like Johnson, to bring up from the depths something significant, some unsuspected connection, some lost or repressed key to current confusions. There might also be a historical dimension to this: Trawl was composed at a time when I was preoccupied with an attempt to fill in the largest gap in my knowledge and experience of Western music by making a study of certain 19th century composers, so that for example the listener might momentarily perceive a faint glint from Schubert's spectacles. The errors, however, just as we read in innumerable prefaces, are entirely my own. Trawl was completed in September 1997, commissioned by the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst, and is dedicated to Robert HP Platz and Kristi Becker.
© Richard Barrett