See-through
for orchestra (2000)
Micha Hamel, Michel van der Aa Concertgebouw 2001 See-throughis a work with two faces: a direct, theatrical façade built around an intellectual, conceptual skeleton. The harmonic material employed is sparse, the piece containing just 9 chords.
Layers in the music change perspective. Incisive, abrasive sounds in the percussion parts act as joints; dynamics suddenly change and the perspective shifts. Passages in the background abruptly leap to the fore. The layer in the background is left to simply ripple the front layer's surface.
There are interruptions in the music, moments of rigid musical standstill, not only in the full orchestra but also within smaller instrumental layers. Groups of musicians lose themselves in isolated autistic sequences and then suddenly snap out of it, melting once again into the rest of the orchestra.
See-through is a work about the failing of continuity.
Press
"Making the most of very few ingredients, composing very strong processes over longer time spans...an exellent feeling for structure."
— Roeland Hazendonk, De Telegraaf, 11 June 2001