Battleground was part of the project Een flat met duizend ramen, created for the 2025 String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam. The project involved six composers—Primo Ish-Hurwitz, Richard Ayres, Frieda Gustavs, Hanna Kulenty, Jan-Peter de Graaff, and Boris Bezemer—each commissioned to compose a contemporary response to Joseph Haydn’s six quartets, Opus 20, in combination with a narrative written by Joke van Leeuwen.
De Graaff’s Battleground acts as a “musical comment” on Haydn’s second quartet, drawing on two of its motives: the trills from the second movement and the fugue theme from the fourth movement. The narrative centers on a young student whose father is a war photographer. She longs for a connection with him, yet he remains distant, always visiting new war zones. In this framework, Haydn’s quartet symbolizes the father’s musical world, while Battleground evokes the daughter’s inner life and imagination, her desire to reach him, and her contemplation of joining him.
The piece unfolds in four movements:
The Sky Has Changed – Dominated by trills and harmonics, this movement creates a calm yet slightly unsettling atmosphere. A 15-note choral hesitantly waits for resolution, ending with the cello’s tentative first attempt to construct Haydn’s fugue theme, seeking connection with the past.
No More Doors, Nor Windows – Total shock pervades this movement. Pizzicato ticks like seconds on a clock, low-register chords loom, until higher registers return the choral motif, building longing that erupts in a pulsating, angry statement. Variations of Haydn’s fugue theme close the movement, shared across violins and viola while the cello holds every upbeat.
Off Limits – The 15-note choral returns in an aggressive pizzicato variant. Upper voices play the original in parallel diminished fourths, lower voices the inversion in parallel major sixths, gradually transforming into relentless, machine-like textures reminiscent of a drum computer.
Epilogue – The fugue theme repeats in three different speeds in the upper voices, while the cello plays the 15-note choral in an eerie high register for the final time. The movement ends as the “clocks” stop, one by one.
Performed by the Chaos String Quartet, Battleground is part of a larger imaginative series in which Haydn’s six Sun Quartets, bundled as Opus 20, provide the starting point. Each composer brings a modern perspective, while Van Leeuwen’s texts, performed by star actress Ariane Schluter, inhabit contemporary characters whose lives intersect with Haydn’s timeless music. Across six short performances, Een flat met duizend ramen presents Haydn for modern ears, blending historical inspiration with new musical and narrative voices.
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