This weekend I have the honour to premiere a new composition for Euphonium by composer Jan Bosveld. The piece is called ‘Amor Fati’ and is dedicated to his good friend André de Vries, who recently passed away. 

André suffered from an incurable form of prostate cancer. He was a philosopher and during this period he wrote several letters to colleague Erno Eskens regarding his question: When has your life succeeded, and how can you accept such a difficult faith? André answer is that he has lived his life the best he could, and that he would do it again and again. He has reached Amor Fati now, a situation sketched by Friedrich Nietzsche in one of his experiments. All these letters have now been published by ISVW Publishers.

Amor fati  is a Latin phrase that may be translated as “love of fate” or “love of one’s fate”. It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one’s life, including suffering and loss, as good or, at the very least, necessary, in that they are among the facts of one’s life and existence, so they are always necessarily there whether one likes them or not. Moreover, amor fati is characterized by an acceptance of the events or situations that occur in one’s life.

This acceptance does not necessarily preclude an attempt at change or improvement, but rather, it can be seen to be along the lines of what Nietzsche means by the concept of “eternal recurrence”, a sense of contentment with one’s life and an acceptance of it, such that one could live exactly the same life, in all its minute details, over and over for all eternity.

I’m honoured to be able to premiere this very atmospheric and emotional piece of music on October 14, 2017 together with Fanfare Psalm 150 from Dinxperlo. I wish all the relatives of André as much strength as they need to process this big loss.

For more information about the concert:

Date: October 14, 2017
Time: 20.00
Location: Sportcentrum ‘t Blauwe Meer, Dinxperlo
URL: https://www.facebook.com/events/1309814299141621/