Search - Hans Abrahamsen, Ensemble Recherche :: Hans Abrahamsen: Schnee

Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen was born in Copenhagen in 1952, and studied music theory at the Royal Danish Academy of Music. His music is inspired by his mentors Per Norgard and Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, who were two of his composition teachers. On Schnee, he says: "In the beginning of the '90s, I arranged some of J.S. Bach's canons for ensemble--in total seven single standing works from his entire lifespan. I became totally absorbed this music and arranged them with the intention of the music being repeated many, many times, as a kind of minimal music. Obviously, I didn't know which durations Bach had in mind, but by listening to his canons in this way, a profound new moving world of circular time was opened to me. Schnee, consisting of canon 1 and 2, will form part of the complete work that will consist of a number of canons written for various line-ups within the Ensemble Recherche."