String Trio (2024)
(Beyond the Seven Veils of Unreality)

Composing this piece, I set out on a journey into the unknown without a map or GPS, determined not to retrace my track or look back over my shoulder. The travel metaphor is quite adequate, I think, because composing, at least in the Western tradition, is a horizontal endeavor, where the composer moves forward from A to B to C and so on, but always with the occasional look back, picking up stuff already well worked over, but nevertheless offering up new possibilities for more variation and developing.

This new piece, however, is an adventurous journey through all sorts of unexpected landscapes, foreign panoramas, hills and valleys, deserts and rivers. Only rarely does the composer stop to catch his breath before moving on into yet unchartered territory.

In a classical compositional context, that´s very bad behavior, but so be it – I just wanted to do something I´ve never done before. So, there we are…

Several of my pieces have a motto printed in the score, not unlike what many writers put at the beginning of their novels. In this case, the motto or ”tag”, “Beyond the Seven Veils of Unreality,” is taken out of context from Ray Bradbury´s disturbing dystopian novel from 1950 “Fahrenheit 451”. The title refers to the temperature at which books burn. There´re many interpretations of what Bradbury meant with these words, but no solution, so it´s a bit of a mystery in its own right – and in my opinion a clue to what´s possibly lying in wait for the listener.

Poul Ruders, 2024