On March 2 I attended a webinar of the American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter on Zoom: Sarah Hennies + Marja Ahti: Artist to Artist Talk.

Originally I intended to write about this conversation between the two eminent composers, but then I got caught on two statements, one by Sarah Hennies and one by Marja Ahti respectively. First Maja described Sarah’s music as “music that is simultaneously something and about something”, them Sarah said that “repetition does not really exist.” These two statements prevented me from listening to their talk and inspired me to write a new piece of music instead. The following verbal score I wrote while listening (or not really listening) to the conversation of Sarah Hennies and Marja Ahti about their music and their creative processes.

It’s obvious that this music is full of repetitions, but every repetition is slightly different from the previous sound event. In this way I try to integrate into my piece, what Sarah said about repetition: There is no repetition, because even if you play exactly the same on your instrument tomorrow, it will not be the same, because you will not be the same person tomorrow.

As for Marja’s statement, I hope that my piece is not just about something, about repetition and the non-existence of repetition, but also is something, which is more than what it is about, something in its own right.

I will premiere my own rendition of Sarah and Marja in Conversation on Saturday 27 at 22:45 UTC+1 online on YouTube as part of the Facebook event Under Szubcult 2021.3.27.-online.