Commissioned by the International Vocal Competition, ’s-Hertogenbosch (2014), on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. Dedicated to Jan Swinkels.

This vocal work is based on a text by Pé Hawinkels, inspired by The Garden of Earthly Delights, the famous triptych by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1481), now in the Prado Museum in Madrid. Hawinkels’ poem is part of his Bosch en Bruegel cycle, in which literary language does not describe the paintings directly, but instead selects striking details and transforms them through dense wordplay, associative imagery, and linguistic excess. The resulting poetic universe reflects the experimental spirit of the 1960s, where boundaries between art, language, and perception are continuously tested and expanded.

The selected fragment focuses on the central panel of Bosch’s triptych, in which Adam, Eve, and Christ form a charged triad of innocence, desire, and transcendence. The poem contrasts refined and energetic forces, suggesting that within paradise already lies the seed of decay and destruction. Fire, transformation, and dissolution become metaphors for both erotic tension and apocalyptic inevitability.

A Latin translation of the text accompanies the musical setting, not as a literal reconstruction, but as a poetic reinterpretation shaped by sound, rhythm, and vocal resonance.

Willem Jeths’ music responds to this layered material by emphasising transformation, tension, and colour, reflecting the ambiguity between beauty and disintegration that lies at the heart of both Bosch’s painting and Hawinkels’ poetry.