Het Nederlands Bach Consort: Allerzielen

All Souls' Day is a key point in the programming of the Dutch Bach Consort. The annual commemoration of loved ones has become a beautiful tradition where everyone is welcome. With great concern we see how the contrasts in society have increased in recent years due to drastic events.

Het Nederlands Bach Consort: Allerzielen

Location

De Waalse Kerk

Walenpleintje 159

1012 JZ Amsterdam

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Contact

0206232074

info@dewaalsekerk.nl

All Souls Day | Mourning without borders

The growing unrest in today's world has further exacerbated these complex relationships. There is therefore a great need for a sound that does not deny or hide differences, but recognizes and utilizes them. This fuels the urgency for the Netherlands Bach Consort to seek connections between the various cultures in this program. We believe that sharing/mixing each other's music and rituals regarding that which binds us all - death and mourning - can be of great added value. In All Souls' Day | Mourning without Borders, the Netherlands Bach Consort brings together Arabic, Western and Jewish cultures.

Can Gregorian chants and Arabic maqams merge? Can we connect a Yiddish farewell song to a religious composition by Arvo Pärt? Can Bach be given an Arabic twist? Can a hybrid form emerge that is comforting to all three cultures?

That is possible! In music history, a distinction is always made between Western and non-Western music. At first glance, two completely different musical worlds. But when using these two concepts, the similarities or mutual influences are rarely discussed.

The Western medieval church modes have an Eastern equivalent in the so-called maqams. The differences are smaller than we think, because in research into old music a miraculous mutual influence was discovered between the Islamic religious chants and the Gregorian hymn. Examples have been found that are identical. The oldest song that we sing – Lammaa Badaa Yatathannaa – comes from the Arabic culture and is more than 1000 years old! From these ancient sources we fan out with comforting music from the present time. But we literally always return to our source. Musically, but also literally through the temporary stone monument; a work of art where we come together and can commemorate.