Programme note

After returning from a month of musical inspiration in India, the Fantasia and Jhalla emerged to me. When I sat down to compose my reed quintet, my melodies had a beautiful
flavour of the world of Indian music, which I had been submerged in over the last weeks. These melodies formed the basis of the Fantasia, an expressive movement flowing through
many Indian ragas, constantly changing the colour of the music. The ornamentation of the music is heavily inspired by a form of Indian semi-classical music: tappa. In tappa, singers
make many rapid and colourful graces around the melody, which the woodwind instruments of a reed quintet are able to express beautifully. These two elements make for a multicoloured and graceful melody, which rushes through shades of different ragas like a stream of water swiftly finding its way downwards. 

Just like the Fugue which restores the order in a J.S. Bach Fantasie und Fuge, stability is found in the Jhalla, which is based on a part of the oldest living form of Indian classical music: Dhrupad. In this fast and grooving second movement, all notes find their final places and conclude the adventure together.