Re-Inventions

Re-Inventions was composed for Genevieve Lacey. Before starting to write, I met with Genevieve so that I could understand what different recorders can do, and decide on what sort of piece to write. In the process of brainstorming through the material that we were exploring, something happened: a bit of a Bach Invention showed itself in one of the figurations that we improvised with. And suddenly this idea presented itself – to base the piece on Bach Inventions. I was brought up playing them in my early piano lessons and I found the idea intriguing: to give them a different structure and to take them in completely different directions from the originals. The task turned out to be quite daunting because Bach is Bach, and is sacred ground for all composers. However, in the end I chose six inventions that I found the most inspiring to work with, and that would be able to feature different recorders.
Elena Kats-Chernin