blaauw (2004)
(Solo for double-bell trumpet)

blaauw = blauw; Dutch for "blue"

As it deepens towards black... (blue) becomes like an infinite self-absorption which has, and can have, no end. The brighter it becomes, the more it loses its sound, until it turns into silent stillness and becomes white.

Kandinsky, On the Spiritual in Art , 1911-12

We love to contemplate blue, not because it advances to us, but because it draws us after it.

Goethe, Farbenlehre

Blue transcends the solemn geography of human limits.
The blood of sensibility. An infinite possibility Becoming tangible.
Pray to be released from image.
To be an astronaut of the void.
Blue is darkness made visible The darkness comes in with the tide.

Derek Jarman, excerpts from Chroma – A book of colour, 1994, Vintage.

RS