Bäch in Borneo

This work was written especially for cellist Céline Papion and her journey to Borneo in the summer of 2017, where a cultural exchange with artists in Kuching cultimated in the concert in which this piece was premiered. Through a collage of quotations of J.S. Bach’s chorales mixed with sounds from Borneo’s political, natural and musical worlds, the work suggests a narrative in which a Western musician is changed through her interaction with a foreign culture. Thus, with the three Bach chorales that appear in the beginning, middle, and end, the harmony is altered more and more until the major thirds are lowered a quarter tone in the last one (Bach = Bäch). Bach is recognizable as the source, but the music has transformed into something new.