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Programme Note

MATING DANCE (1977) is based on my Returns for solo guitar (1976) – in fact the guitar part is the same for the two pieces. But the new, very active, flute part brings a new dimension the music. According to the title it may be heard as a kind of programme music, a love play in which the with the flute as the active, masculine part and the guitar as the calm and receiving feminine part in the interactive play between the two (even in performances where the flute is not a male and the guitarist is not a female..).

Returns and Mating Dance were composed after returning from visits to Bali with its unique rhythmic gamelan music and culture. There is, however, no conscious attempt to copy Balinese music. The melodies grow out of the changing accents in a series of dynamic developed four tone patterns, and the swinging and swaying rhythms are often based on the Golden Section (near to the relations 2:3:5:8:13 et cetera, know as the Fibonacci series).

Per Nørgård