Inspired by the Witches' Song from Shakespeare's Macbeth

Commissioned by the Dutch Institute for Wind Music NIB

Dedicated to Jouke Hoekstra and the Frysk Fanfare Orkest

First performance: 1 December 2001. Air Force Music Centre, Amersfoort, The Netherlands

Frysk Fanfare Orkest conducted by Jouke Hoekstra

First performed during the first New Lif/ve on Stage project of MuziekGroep Nederland, it was subsequently included in the shortlist of Dutch test pieces. As a result of this, many fanfare orchestras are now studying the piece.

Please see also the version for standard wind orchestra.



In March 2003 the composer wrote the following introduction to the work:

DE HEKSENKETEL (THE WITCHES'-CAULDRON)

Introduction by the composer

De Heksenketel (The Witches'-Cauldron) is as it were a counterpart of a piece called A Night on Culbin Sands, written a few years earlier. In both compositions literature about magic and witchcraft have been an important source of inspiration. In A Night on Culbin Sands this source is the one act play Culbin Sands by the British playwright Gordon Bottomley. In De Heksenketel, it is Shakespeare's Macbeth.

A quote from Bottomley's Culbin Sands:

Have there not been witches in Auldearn Since those who prophesied King Duncan's death On Hardmuir yonder to his murderer?

This is in fact a direct reference to the three witches from Shakespeare's Macbeth. In the fourth Act, Scène 1, of this play, three witches are busying themselves brewing a magic potion in a cauldron. While doing so, they sing the following song:

FIRST WITCH		Round about the cauldron go; In the poisoned entrails throw: Toad, that under cold stone Days and nights has thirty-one. Sweltered venom, sleeping got, Boil thou in th' enchanted pot.
ALL THREE		Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
SECOND WITCH		Fillet of a fenny snake In the cauldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and howlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
ALL THREE		Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
THIRD WITCH		Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf, Witch's mummy, maw and gulf Of the ravined salt-sea shark, Root of hemlock digged i' the dark, Liver of blaspheming Jew, Gall of goat and slips of yew Slivered in the moon's eclipse, Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips, Finger of birth-strangled babe Ditch-delivered by a drab Make the gruel thick and slab. Add thereto a tiger's chaudron For the ingredients of our cauldron.
ALL THREE		Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.

This song determines the structure of the whole composition. At first, an introduction of some four minutes length serves to evoke an atmosphere of eeriness, and to portray the evil and violent characters of the three witches. (The opening bars correspond with Shakespeare's stage direction 'Thunder'.) Then the actual brewing of the magic potion begins (at rehearsal number 8.) From hereon, the music follows the structure of the song, with its alternation of stanza's and refrain. The last, and lengthiest, stanza has been transformed into music with a development character (number 25). The piece gradually gets wilder and wilder, as the liquid in the cauldron starts to bubble and steam ever more. It ends with a somber climax: the horrific potion is ready at last.

Originally composed for fanfare orchestra, De Heksenketel was recently rewritten for standard wind band. This version was commissioned by the Förderverein des Symphonischen Blasorchesters der Hochschule für Musik Nürnberg, and has been dedicated to Sef Pijpers sr., the Nestor of Dutch wind music, to whom I owe a lot. In fact, the piece can be seen as a prologue to a large project I have now embarked upon: a full scale Macbeth ballet for wind orchestra.

A mini score of the piece will be sent upon request, at a small fee. Full score, study score and parts are for sale.



A standard set of parts consists of the following:

• 2-Soprano Saxophone(s) in Bb
• 4-Alto Saxophone(s) I & Alto Saxophone(s) II in Eb
• 2-Tenor Saxophone(s) in Bb
• 1-Baritone Saxophone(s) in Eb
  
  
• 1-Eb Cornet or Flugelhorn *)
• 5-First Flugelhorns in Bb
• 5-Second Flugelhorns in Bb
• 5-Third Flugelhorns in Bb
• 2-First Trumpets / Cornets in Bb
• 2-Second Trumpet(s) / Cornet(s) in Bb
• 2-Third Trumpet(s) / Cornet(s) in Bb
• 4-First Horns & Second Horns in F + 1 part in Eb
  
  
• 6-First Trombone(s) & Second Trombone(s) & Third Trombone(s) + 1 part in Bb Bass Clef and one in Bb Treble Clef)
• 4-First Baritones / Euphoniums & Second Baritone(s) / Euphonium(s) in Bb (parts in Bass Clef) + 4 parts in Treble Clef)
• 4-Eb Basses (Bass Tubas & Bb Basses (Bass Tubas) (parts in C in bass clef) + 4 transposed parts in bass clef + 4 transp. parts in treble clef
• 1-String Bass (Contrabass) with E string preferably tuned down to D *)
  
  *) Optional instruments: can be left out.
  
  Percussion (4 Players in total):
  
  Timpani
  Suspended Cymbal
  Pair of Cymbals
  Snare Drum
  Bass Drum
  Glockenspiel
  Xylophone
  Chimes