Running Thoughts
I first met poet Inger Christensen in the spring of 2003 during a poetry reading on Brueggen Island. On that occasion she read excerpts of her work in German and Danish, after which I performed some of my compositions. Her poetry was extraordinary but I was as well fascinated with the way in which she per- formed it: calmly, musically and congenially in accordance with structure of the text. I asked her if she could imagine setting her poem „Alphabet“ to music and she immediately agreed. That evening we launched into an interesting conversation about music and literature, discussing ideas of the nature of words and sounds. I was truly inspired and promised Mrs Christensen my contribution to her poetry as a composer in due course.
As I began making sketches for the concept of my quartet “Running Thoughts”, it dawned on me that Christiansen’s „Alphabet“ (her use of syllables which is based on Fibonacci sequence) has similar expansion principles to those ones in my own music and so would serve as a suitable accompaniment. Shortly after I had finished the composition on 7. January 2009, I was grieved to hear that only a few days before, Inger Christensen had suddenly passed away. Considering the sections of text that I had chosen dealt with the topic of death, it was also a surprising coincidence.
And so it is in friendship and deep admiration, that I have dedicated my work „Running Thoughts“ to Inger Christensen.
Recording from the premiere: https://soundcloud.com/nesic/running-thoughts
