Inner Life

All parameters for this work were determined and written down by composer Wim Henderickx in 2021 and 2022 in close consultation with Kevin Voets, then director of the HERMESensemble. However, Wim Henderickx passed away suddenly in December 2022. In consultation with the family, it was decided to make the premiere of this special work possible in collaboration with Muziektheater Transparant and HERMESensemble. Wim's musical assistant, Diederik Glorieux, set to work on the material and developed it further according to plan and in the spirit of Wim Henderickx. He also took on the musical direction of all performances in Belgium and the Netherlands. Inner Life is as much a composition as it is an alchemical formula or a game. It is a recipe for an artistic experiment in which all possible musical personalities and groups can participate. The score lasts seven times seven minutes, for a basic line-up of seven “initiates”. It is partly through-composed, partly open. In some places it is precisely notated, in others it is represented graphically. The piece is web-structured, meaning that on the one hand it consists of musical objects, some melodic, some timbral in nature, some concrete, others aleatoric. On the other hand, different performance strategies are suggested to the performers. The composition starts from a basic line-up of seven performers, but has various “gateways”: passages to other layers of performance, which performers can interpret. A performance of Inner Life is always different. In principle, the work can be played by seven performers. But Inner Life is also suitable for involving many more people in the alchemical melting pot, including larger groups of performers. Choirs, brass bands, and music associations of different levels can participate and collaborate in a living laboratory, experimentally creating a new work of art and a new experience.