Fort/ Da

Fort/Da is a term coined by Sigmund Freud in his book Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920) and describes a childhood game in which the child throws an object far away, beyond her/his own sight, and then “finds” the object. Freud believed that through the repetition of this game the child would master the anxiety generated by the absence of the object. The expression is translated as “gone” and “there”, in english. Having this concept as a background, this piece is vaguely inspired by the sound of the didgeridoo (an instrument that is not part of the work's instrumentation). The instrument is represented in the first part of the piece, then dissolved by an intense activity on the percussion and the piano, and finally restored in the very last section.