Non-western- & historical instruments

What is it that makes gamelan so fascinating apart from it's - to my western ears - new sounds? Of course: the sounds of the instruments and their special tuning systems give the composer many possibilities to enrich her 'soundworld' and as such can be an interesting starting point to create new music for a traditionally Indonesian ensemble. Yet to me only appropriating the sound of these instruments, not taking into account the traditional use of them to me seemed to be a missed opportunity. Because to me gamelan not only gives the opportunity to use unique, fascinating sounds, but also a possibility to get to know different approaches towards musical form and -concepts from another -fascinating- culture. There appeared to be a lot to learn from if only taking into consideration the question of how to incorporate these different forms, concepts and techniques into your own musical language and ideas and the challenge of looking at all this from a new perspective. One of the things that really struck me reading about traditional gamelan in Indonesia is the concept of time and the ability of both the musicians and the listeners to surrender to it completely. The time that is taken to fully explore an in fact simple musical idea (balungan), and expand and develop this thoroughly in a larger form. (which sometimes can last for hours) Of course with a commission of writing a 10 minute piece it's impossible to simulate such a proces. On the other hand to me this shows us something that makes a hugue difference between 'western' and 'eastern' music: the idea of a very slowly developing piece of music that lasts for hours somehow makes us nervous. We need everything to be fast, clear and efficiënt so that we can thoroughly make plans, structurize, and complete everything in time. But despite of all our efficiency we all experience a sensation of having less and less time. We keep on running until our tendency of hyper-structuration winds us up more and more just like the spring of a watch. The title 'Wind' is meant as a verb. The piece forms a diptych together with 'Unwind' for square-piano (which is a precursor of the upright piano from the 18th century) that was premièred on october 7th 2012 by Kaoru Iwamura and was prizewinner at the 2nd Geelvinck composition competition. Both pieces are based on a cantus firmus, or if you will balungan, and have a cyclical structure. In fact the pieces are each others mirrors, musically speaking. The different cycles in which the balungan is repeated become shorter and shorter in 'Wind'. This creates a condensation of musical events and although the tempo remains the same throughout the piece playing velocity is speeding up more and more. The balungan is being played by the genders throughout the piece. The sarons and bonangs play variations of this in a way that somehow ressembles the traditional way of embellishing, but in a rhythm that gets more and more out of balance. As if the spring is winding until finally the whole system becomes untenable. At first 'Wind' deals with taking time, making time and gaining time. But as it continues time starts running, flying and eventually we seem to loose time. In a race against the clock it winds you up, lets you run....