CROSSROADS/STREET

2010 (21’39”)
For flute, shakuhashi, double bass and rolling balls
Flute and Shakuhashi: Harrie Starreveld

The ball has neither edges nor corners, it rolls its way, the cycle, the goal is uncertain. One cannot determine its rotational movement.

The ball is uncanny to us, it could roll over us, take us to an unknown place where we are lost. The fear of the randomness of something happening makes us hesitate.

Where does the path of the sphere lead us, which direction does it take?

There are people on the street, rushing, lingering, jumbling, bumping, whirling, lively, fast and excited, then again pausing without stopping. People of different races, cultures in the streets of the city, in confusion, sometimes in step, against each other, with each other. Crowds of people block the passage on the street, or leave niches that invite.

We hear the people in the street, on the square with the huge ball track that makes the bells ring, or at the church fair with the carousel that rotates on ball bearings.

We hear the balls colliding on the playing table, the dark rumble of the wooden ball on the glass plate, the elegant gliding of its mass and surface.

The melody, different, exotic, meditative, confusing, then again lingering and waiting, purposefully indicates the direction. It can branch out, or stop unexpectedly. But it moves in a straight line untiringly towards the horizon, to the music.

The passengers made drawings during the bus journey. They used straatmuziek 1 and straatmuziek 2 by the Dutch artist Theo van Doesburg as a model.