Programme note

You’re hiding something from me,” said my Greek friend (…). She knows all the hymns in the world, I whispered.
László Darvasi

Un chant d’amour (Hymn)

The instrument is the program. A line, a song that is continuously fragmented.
Two bells, two directions of sound with two timbres (muted/unmuted), and yet one instrument, one performer—separation and interlocking in a single person.
The quote is from the book Eine Frau besorgen by László Darvasi. These are stories of war and love set during the Balkan Wars of the 1990s.
All the stories are named after women. The collection is very raw, fantastical, yet also surprisingly tender at times—
and this tone aligns with the tone intended to characterize the interpretation of Un chant d’amour.
The piece is dedicated to Christine Chapman.

Arnulf Herrmann