In the work, the history of Bernard of Clairvaux and the story of Sint-Bernardus beer are gently interwoven. Across five short sections, words, places and images such as Ora et labora, Sint-Bernardus, Cîteaux, Watou and Nieuwpoort reappear as musical traces. The regional beers connected to the origins of the Watou brewery also find their way into the piece, not as illustration, but as part of its atmosphere, memory and imagination.
There is no complete agreement about the origin of the name Deerlijk. According to the most authoritative explanation, including that of M. Gysseling, Deerlijk is a Gallo-Roman settlement name: Thrasiliaco, derived from the personal name Trasilos, meaning “the energetic one”. Deerlijk could therefore be understood as “the settlement belonging to Trasilos”. The oldest written forms found in documents are derlike (1070) and tresleca (1111).
Sinfonietta No. 1 is a three-movement work for symphonic wind band, commissioned by and dedicated to Concertharmonie Crescendo Bissegem and its conductor Alain Verhoeven. The composition forms an abstract musical portrait of the orchestra’s growth, identity and future. New material is combined with reworked ideas from Transformation for piano, Fragments for wind band and Hangmat for piano trio. The notes C, B and B-flat play a central role, referring to Crescendo Bissegem and recurring in various forms throughout the work.