THE RIVER

is endless movement of water. It comes from the hills goes to the see. Everyone knows that.
When I was a teenager my father bought a camera and started to make short films. First the landscapes he liked very much and of course family-scenes. He joined the local film-club.
Long time before that he was an enthusiastic chess-player, and he played in a club (Philidor) on Tuesday-evenings.
The rest of the family was very happy about that then we could in peace listen to the "Bonte Dinsdagavondtrein" on the radio and have much fun with it.
My father liked to decide for us what we should listen to. No talk on the radio, never opera, in opera there were too sad stories, people died in it, and sang too high notes, no jazz, that gave him sad feelings too.
Ballet music was ok, operette too, light walses, Schubert yes, Bach no.
For the film-club he made a film that showed the development of water that came from a source in the Alps, evolved in waterfalls, and in the end all the water came together in the great river.
An endless stream of beautiful captures he had collected on his journeys by car. To paste the pieces together was a difficult task but made him very happy too.
His film was showed and it was a great success. We all had seen it several times and were amazed by the result. It was a masterpiece! And so the people of the club joined in the praise, but... there was one point of criticism, and that was the fact that there was no music to accompany it.
The search for a useful piece was started, but to no avail.
The rhythm of the images was so extreme that nothing worked.
A couple of years later I suggested to him Philip Glass's Music in twelve parts. But alas, it was to late, and it could not console him. He had left the club in bitterness, and had never made another film. But why should he? The beauty of it he could certainly never surpass.