Samson, R :: Butternut Squash Za'atar

About the title of this piece: I am very lucky to have a partner in life who is not only a gifted photographer and graphic designer, but also a professional musician with whom I can share my thoughts, ideas and doubts about my activities as a composer. She always wants to know what I'm 'up to' and it's a great pleasure and privilege for me to have her as a sparring partner. When she asked me what this new piece is going to be about, I told her that it would be a Variation Form based on the singularly interesting theme of one single note: a 'b' in the first octave of the flute. The piece would start with this note; subsequently, very gradually, short melodic motives would then emerge from this starting point. After giving this some thought, she came forward with an image that I found interesting.

She and I and four dear friends had just returned from a gastronomical 'pilgrimage' to London in which we sampled three out of four of Ottolenghi's restaurants in London. For the odd chance that the reader might not know who or what Ottolenghi is: Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are two Israelis - the former Jewish, the latter Palestinian - who have pioneered a new style of cooking that has recently become incredibly popular. In my group of friends, we all adore this cuisine, to the point of (or beyond) it becoming a minor (but hopefully relatively harmless) cult.

To return to my partner's interesting image: this slow musical development from a solitary b1 to ever more widely-ranging melodic motives reminded her of the way some of the dishes we had eaten in Ottolenghi's restaurants would communicate themselves to the taste buds: one-by-one certain herbal overtones would fill the palate until finally the full bouquet would form a full-fledged harmonic confluence.

I found this an inspirational concept. It comes back in the title of the piece, in the front cover of the score, which was designed by my partner (Annelies Kok-van Leengoed) and in the development and atmosphere of the piece itself.

For advanced players.