The House of Empty Chairs

Description

Commissioned by: Antonia Ringborg, for the Ringborg Foundation: The music and animation are free to use for your charity events.

Goal: A piece of Christmas Music to help organize concerts to collect funds for refugees.

Video: Sand art animation by ‘De Zanderling’ I. Boie (see below).

Download Parts:

House with the Open Door: Piano & Bass-Instrument in C

House with the Open Door Trombone

House with the Open Door: Bassoon


House with the Open Door: Harp & Saxophone Score

House with the Open Door: Harp

House with the Open Door: Alto Saxophone


Video for performances

This video is free to use for your charity event, there is a high resolution available. Contact me for more information if you need that. The video is made twice as long as the composition, so you can repeat the piece for a longer performance with the video. The audience tends to so engaged with the video that you can repeat the music. After 5 – 7 minutes the audience starts to listen to the music more concentrated again.

Musical Inspiration

The work of lyricist Jochen Klepper. Es ist ein Ros entsprungen,Gloria in Excelsis Deo Stille Nacht Alle jaren weder Deck the Halls Oh come, Oh come, Emmanuel. The hopeful sound of The New World by Dvorak. “Der Weihnachtswolf“. A former work for Wind-band.


Poetic Inspiration

Busoni and Hemmingway, combined in this poem:

This Child

This child, it floats on air. It’s feet won’t touch the earth. This child feels beauty, forthcomingly takes risks, is disciplined to tell the truth. This child knows no gravitation. They hang weights upon it. This buoyant creature is scarcely allowed to leap…. (Busoni) It is often wounded, It is sometimes destroyed. (Hemmingway) This child set out the Dimensions of Sacrifice. For it’s joy is to follow the line of the rainbow, and to break sunbeams with the clouds. (Busoni)


Visual Inspiration

Video: The timing and images of this video, made by sand-artist Immauel Boie, Immanuel explores the connection between the Christmas Story, “A child is born”, and the Easter Story, “A Son is lost”. The direct visual drawing from Christmas child into Easter adult by a few strokes in the sand is extremely powerful.

Paper-art: Collage. Where existing images are cut out and all the pieces form a new image. The form of this composition is developed this way.

Experiment: I wanted to learn more about the effect of music on visuals. I did that by repeating the video with different music. I called this experiment Black and White Christmas, trying to write Dark Music to Light images and vice versa. You can experience the effect in the video above.


Map of Miracles: The House with the Empty Chairs

On the Map of Miracles, you find an eternal Christmas market. In the middle of that market, under the giant Christmas tree, is a house: The house with the empty chairs. This House is the center of Christmas, this is the House of Hope. The door of this house is always open, there is always a place to sit down at an enormous Christmas Banquet. The only one, who is always there, is the lonesome Christmas Wolf . A soft snow-white warm animal, resting near the fireplace.

A video will illustrate the Story of this House:Tijdschema_zandkunst_Huis_v2