Canon 1: Streams (2017)

If the composition is performed by four flutists or fewer, the tape part must be included. A performance can start with the acoustic flutes, or with the tape part. If more than four flutists are performing, the composition can be performed without the tape part – the way it was presented during its first performance in Potchefstroom, South Africa. The duration is indefinite, because the canon can be repeated many times. The tape part was produced with the help of the Argentinean composer Mauro Zannoli, and can be downloaded here.

The composition is based upon the English folk song The Water is wide, which I learned in Benjamin Britten’s arrangement during the years when I was accompanying singers in South Africa. I think of my version as an augmentation of the inner world of a person singing this song in an authentic way – singing from their own lived world.