© 2019 Sipke Hoekstra
This orchestral piece won the Acousticum Prize in february 2015 as well the Finals of the National Youth Orchestra Competition of the Netherlands in june 2015 in De Doee
Published by Highland Musichttp://www.highland-music.nl/nl/catalogus/product/7326/sipke-saga.html

Saga, soundtrack to the life of a forgotten hero

SKU: 12345678
  • During the period that I was roughly sketching the outlines of what would eventually become the symphonic poem ‘Saga’, I was deeply moved by some anonymous Second World War graves I ran across during a random visit to a random graveyard. The men who had been buried there, died for the freedom of other people, having willingly taken that risk.
    They lay there without their names, without their identities. It made me realize very, very clearly that hero´s mainly are hero´s, not by nature or ambition, but by context and necessity. Is this the most tragic and therefore, perhaps, the most pure kind of heroism?
    This all inspired me in structuring the piece loosely in parallel with what well could have been a hero’s life: birth, youth, battle, returning home, building up for and fighting the last battle, death, mourning with the memory of the hero being honoured proudly for a while - before that as well slips out of the collective remembrance.
    By creating the poem in this specific way, I wanted ‘Saga’ to be a tribute to all persons, female and male, now forgotten, who helped change the world towards being a better place.

    Sipke Hoekstra




    2 Flutes
    2 Oboes
    2 Clarinets in B%
    2 Bassoons
    4 Horns in F
    2 Trumpets in B%
    2 Trombones
    Bass Trombone
    Snare Drum
    2 Cymbals
    Tam Tam
