Atmospheres

In his Atmospheres, Rudi Tas looks back nostalgically at love and the fragility of life. He based his choral work on the poem 'Strings in the earth and air' by James Joyce: “The poem begins with a melancholy depiction of love, with a shy, introverted young man standing by a river. At once, you hear a contrast between two principles. First, the ideal of the unlimited economy of music, the conviction that music can and must be everything. The second is an environmental principle, reflecting on the finitude of life. The willow trees in the text are a traditional symbol of death; this is expressed through emptiness and emotion in the second stanza. The line ‘For Love wanders there [along the river]’ expresses the image of solitary love. The contrast between nature and music translates into colour motifs such as ‘pale’ flowers and ‘dark’ leaves, that coincide with the harmony of the music or the differences in vocal and instrumental colours. The third stanza is, in turn, a projection of the poetic image of harmony on earth.”