A trombone blaring like an elephant, violins like imploring songbirds and an oboe rippling a scale like a stream: so opens A Skin of Sound, a performance featuring winds, string instruments, percussion, a South African poet and a pop singer. With bated breath, dozens of visitors in the Great Hall of the Bossche Verkadefabriek listened to the premiere of this thrilling piece.
Overwhelmed by diction
"Let us beseech, to love all, and deliver from all festering dishonour. Let us feel, His glorious balance. To infinity. Amen," sounds the deep voice of South African poet Antjie Krog after musical instruments have set a backdrop of a vibrant steppe. Krog's poem forms the leitmotif of A Skin of Sound and tells a story of South Africa, a story full of conflict and tension, but also of resilience and joie de vivre.
It came to a collaboration between her and Van Binsbergen after the latter heard Krog recite one of her a poems in South African a few years ago. Van Binsbergen was "overwhelmed by the diction and sound of the language, which was foreign to her", according to November Music's notes.
The steppe in music
After Krog's first, serious lines of poetry, the musicians cheerfully shake things up with a swinging melody. Grains in samba balls rustle back and forth and in good spirits, a plopping bass accompanies a relaxed tune from the electric guitar. The saxophone joins in and is joined by a smooth clarinet. Then Krog's voice steps into the foreground and noisily sweeps together an image of graceful, agile gazelles, impressive lions and - full of admiration - stately giraffes with velvety eyes.
Language and sound together
The transition from music to words occurs a few more times. Text and music take over the leading roles each time, necessary to fulfil Van Binsbergen's personal quest for the meaning of music vis-à-vis language. Krog's poem moves from the heavy tone at the opening to an optimistic description of South Africa involving natural beauty, only to turn around halfway through and also describe struggles in the aftermath of apartheid. Gradually, tones dim and the pop singer sings of the earth's skull. A wistful atmosphere floats above.
Van Binsbergen doesn't send us home with a sad mood, however, but lets Krog turn the tide: "You didn't want to be wanton, you wanted to be free of all suffering." The sambas shake again, the clarinet sings again. So narrative sound and language coincide again in this impressive performance about South Africa.
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