Bent Sørensen

Sinful Songs

The first ideas for this piece came to me during a train journey through Denmark. It was summer and I was looking out of the window; I heard some fast jig-like dance rhythms. These appear early in the work - hushed and hidden like almost all the music, apart from the roaring horns in the beginning! As is always the case for me, the title was there at once - and as always it is difficult for me to explain it! The work is filled with little songs and fragments of melodies - some of them distinct, most of them hidden - but whether they have ended up becoming particularly sinful, I don't know. The musicians are positioned in a circle around the audience, so the music will not sound the same at any two different points in the hall. The music moves at varying speeds both around the circle, and backwards and forwards between different instrumental groupings. SINFUL SONGS was commissioned by and dedicated to the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group.
- Bent Sorensen