Name: Holloway-Nahum, Aaron: Vernichtung
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Holloway-Nahum, Aaron: Vernichtung

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Vernichtung means “being made into nothing”. The word might be translated “being made extinct” or “being exterminated”.

Somehow, each of us find ourselves on all sides of such things. For me, my Jewish heritage speaks to a terrible historical extermination in the shared consciousness of a culture. Yet this summer in Israel, standing on the shores of the Mediterranean, I was acutely aware of so many others today ‘being made into nothing’ by political and military actions that belie this very history. And, at the edge of those same waters - perhaps the deadliest waters of our lifetime - I stood as my son played in the wake at sunset and thought what it would take for me to pick up and put him in a boat and push off into the sea. As so many, who are so like me in so many ways, have chosen to do time and again in these recent years.

“You have to understand,” writes Warsan Shire, “no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land.”

Vernichtung is divided into three movements, which each take their name from an Icelandic word for the dangers of the sea:

Undiralda (Mov. I) - literally means “under-wave” and implies an unpredictable foreboding in the waves.
Stórsjor (Mov. II) - is a word used simply to describe waves that are dangerously high.
Brotsjór (Mov. III) - describes the sea that compound and explode like a bomb when hitting the vessel.

The piece is not only pensive and calm but wild and raging, it is not only a meditation and tears, but a celebration and child-like expression of hope. It was written for my close friend Horia Dumitrache, who’s virtuosity, fierce humanity and deep care fill every corner of the piece. It was commissioned by the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra, via Péter Eötvös, and his amazing foundation. His support, guidance and constant joy of music making have left me richer and forever changed as a musician.

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