0:00 III. Elegy - Sas Bunge in memoriam attacca: 7:38 IV. Finale My sextet for strings, opus 33, is more or less ‘autobiographical’. It is a piece with an ‘idée fixe’ theme, which contains both the initials of my chosen pseudonym and also the beginning of my name: AC-EddeB. A short description of each of the four movements could be as follows: I. An impactful traumatic experience II. On the surface, the damage appears to be not too bad III. Crisis after all, years later IV. Regeneration and new strength III. Elegy - Sas Bunge in memoriam After my time as a conservatory student, I received a number of composition commissions from radio, regional orchestras, choirs and chamber ensembles. However, the reviews of the compositions I wrote were mostly negative. I was mostly described as a fossil from a time gone by. And so I came to adopt a pseudonym, in Latin, a ‘dead language’: Alexander Comitas. The Latin word comitas means kindness, affability. The idea behind it was: I intend to always remain friendly and sympathetic on the subject of contemporary music, but as a composer I will keep pursuing my own path. The way I compose is not the result of ineptitude, but of a conscious and considered choice. See for example my articles Busoni's Garden (https://www.eduarddeboer.org/busonis-garden/) and Music and Spirituality (https://www.eduarddeboer.org/music-and-spirituality/). Meanwhile, the crisis, resulting from what is depicted in the first movement, came after all. A crisis on a personal level as well as in my composing, which for some time didn’t go well. Just before that I had met Maaike, my later – and present – wife. Fortunately for me, not always easy for her. She managed to help me out of the depression I fell into at the time, and I will always be grateful to her for sticking with me throughout this difficult period. The choice of the pseudonym had yet another background. Alexander refers to Ernst Alexander (Sas) Bunge, a piano major teacher at the Utrecht Conservatory during the time I studied there, and also a composer of some very beautiful pieces, including many songs. He attended the premiere of my Five Tolkien Songs and became interested in me, and his knowledge became a major influence on my composing. A few years later, he would become seriously ill. When he knew that he did not have long to live, he asked me if I would like to become a trustee of his musical legacy. Thus, after his death, I got to know many more of his compositions than I had known before, including a beautiful setting of François Villon’s poem Ballade des pendus (Ballad of the Hanged) for alto and orchestra. I created a version of this work for alto and piano that I performed with a singer friend, and had a modest part in having the version with orchestra performed again. In the third movement of the string sextet, the main theme from this Ballad is used as the central theme for an adagio full of grief, culminating towards the end of this movement (at rehearsal number 107, at 4:50) in a quotation of the first bars of Bunge's composition. 7:35 IV. Finale This movement is about (my) regeneration and recovery. This partly came about through the study of folk music from various parts of the world. I listened to lots of records with folk songs and dances, preferably as authentic as I could find, copied numerous melodies by ear, and I visited places like the Jaap Kunst Etnomusicological Institute in Amsterdam and the library of the musicology department of the Utrecht University, where I spent many hours copying books. As a result, I became acquainted with folk music from the Caucasus, and thus with the Armenian ethnomusicologist and composer Komitas. The last name of my pseudonym refers to him and in the final movement of the sextet some folk melodies from the Caucasus are quoted. Incidentally, in 2013 I ended the period of my pseudonym with a musical tribute to the Armenian Komitas, in the form of my third symphony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA0DrmYppt8&t=3005s). ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT7jl5B8-Ik

The premiere performance of this piece, that I composed in 2019 for my dear friends José Ángel, Alejandro y Ángel Hernández Azorín. Piano: Javier Soriano Lorenzo ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxNi5gHp5do

For general information about this oratorio for soloists, choir and wind orchestra, see https://www.eduarddeboer.org/oratorio-toward-a-golden-future-pu-met-voorwerk/, pages v and vi. V. The World Grinded to a Halt, for tenor, baritone, choir and orchestra A brief depiction of what happened when the pandemic broke out, based on excerpts from the accurate description of this in 2010’s 'Scenario Lockstep' The text of the lyrics, including explanatory footnotes, can be read in the preface to the vocal score: https://www.eduarddeboer.org/oratorio-toward-a-golden-future-pu-met-voorwerk/, pages xii & xiii. This movement starts at page 35. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlhiT2QnlQg

It is with sadness that I post this. The 'Fanfarekorps Koninklijke Landmacht Bereden Wapens', the excellent orchestra that performs this piece, has just now ceased to exist, as a result of harsh cuts in government spending. It was the only professional fanfare orchestra in the world, and it had a level, where a country could / should be very proud of. A short description of the composition: it makes use of two folksong melodies, a dance tune and a song by an in Armenia famous wandering minstrel. It opens with a medieval lamenting melody, originally played on a duduk, a native woodwind instrument with a melancholy character. A few times the litany is interrupted by shreds of the themes that are to come. This is followed (at 2:55) by a dance melody that I know nothing about, to be honest. The last melody introduced (at 8:15) is a song called Insh konim ekimi (I don't need a doctor) by Sayat-Nova, an Armenian ashug or bard who lived in the 18th century. I combined the theme of this song with the main motive of a folk song called Unabi. Towards the end, the previous themes reoccur, culminating in a grand return (at 14:35) of the medieval melody. Although this composition has been modelled after my first Armenian Rhapsody (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97keyrHIIDc), the overall atmosphere is very different: much more melancholic. But perhaps the fact that this superb orchestra no longer exists, reinforces this feeling.... Anyway, I wish conductor Tijmen Botma and all ex-members of the orchestra all the best in all walks of their lives. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3C6SOBE-MI