work in progress
Genieting V
10 July 2011
On my desk lies One Noon for six spatially-positioned percussionists. I still have to write about 5 minutes of music to complete the score. However, I have interrupted this work for composing Genieting V for accordion, creating a new ›Genieting‹ that may be added to the series of solo pieces under that title.
Genieting V was commissioned by the accordionist Vincent van Amsterdam, whom I met at the rehearsals and performances of The Hours 7-11, as one of the musicians of f.c. jongbloed.
Solo works, by and large, emphasize the player’s technical mastery of the instrument and challenge the limits of the achievable. In the series of solo works under the title ›Genieting‹ this aspect is characterized by the duality of the performer who takes control of the physical characteristics of his instrument but at the same time is submerged in them: an elementary world that also remains strange and ›foreign‹ for the player as well as the listener.
Genieting V was commissioned by the accordionist Vincent van Amsterdam, whom I met at the rehearsals and performances of The Hours 7-11, as one of the musicians of f.c. jongbloed.
Solo works, by and large, emphasize the player’s technical mastery of the instrument and challenge the limits of the achievable. In the series of solo works under the title ›Genieting‹ this aspect is characterized by the duality of the performer who takes control of the physical characteristics of his instrument but at the same time is submerged in them: an elementary world that also remains strange and ›foreign‹ for the player as well as the listener.
Day Daily - The Hours
26 March 2011
f.c. jongbloed heeft zich opnieuw geformeerd onder leiding van Arnold Marinissen om binnenkort het programma ›uitkleden, aankleden‹ uit te voeren. Zie agenda. Ik schrijf voor hen De Uren 7-11, de laatste, nog ontbrekende set van de cyclus Dag Dagelijks — De Uren. De Uren 7 -11 zijn vijf stukken van één minuut die de ochtend representeren. De bezetting bestaat opnieuw uit vier spelers: trompet, cello, elektrische gitaar en accordeon. En als het meezit zal de elektronische puls weer door de ruimte gedragen worden.
De ochtend vangt de nacht op bij het eerste schijnsel van de dag die gedurende de uren 7 tot en met 11 tot volle wasdom komt, met als hoogtepunt het middaguur, als de zon op zijn hoogste punt staat.
Het vijftonige basisakkoord, dat aan de hele cyclus ten grondslag ligt, wordt eerst omhuld door grote drieklanken - een residu van De Dag Daagt voor orgel (Uur 6) dat bestaat uit kleine drieklanken, maar is geëindigd met één grote, op A.
Geleidelijk verdwijnen de drieklanken zodat het eigenlijke basisakkoord zich toont.
Met het gereedkomen van de ochtenduren krijgt de betekenis van de cyclus het laatste zetje om zich nu helemaal te ontvouwen. Dat maakt het werken hieraan extra spannend! Overigens kunnen de vier sets Uren ook heel goed apart uitgevoerd worden. Zie werkenlijst.
De ochtend vangt de nacht op bij het eerste schijnsel van de dag die gedurende de uren 7 tot en met 11 tot volle wasdom komt, met als hoogtepunt het middaguur, als de zon op zijn hoogste punt staat.
Het vijftonige basisakkoord, dat aan de hele cyclus ten grondslag ligt, wordt eerst omhuld door grote drieklanken - een residu van De Dag Daagt voor orgel (Uur 6) dat bestaat uit kleine drieklanken, maar is geëindigd met één grote, op A.
Geleidelijk verdwijnen de drieklanken zodat het eigenlijke basisakkoord zich toont.
Met het gereedkomen van de ochtenduren krijgt de betekenis van de cyclus het laatste zetje om zich nu helemaal te ontvouwen. Dat maakt het werken hieraan extra spannend! Overigens kunnen de vier sets Uren ook heel goed apart uitgevoerd worden. Zie werkenlijst.
De Dag Daagt
12 May 2010
Twilight: a liminal stage
The part of the cycle ›Day Daily‹ that was composed first was the midnight music Nous le chant I & II (2009).
Then the five hours of the evening Day Daily – The Hours 19-23 were completed and performed in November 2009. I couldn't finish ›Hour 23‹ in time for the performance, and that's why you will not find the recording of this one-minute piece on this website.
In March 2010 the nocturnal hours Day Daily – The Hours 1-5 were completed and performed.
Currently I am working on the music that deals with the morning twilight, the time between dawn and sunrise. It is entitled ›De Dag Daagt‹ [The Day Dawns] and is a composition for pipe organ commissioned by Johan Luijmes, artistic director of the Orgelpark in Amsterdam.
The afternoon hours 13-17 are scheduled for the autumn, and the morning hours 7-11 for the spring 2011. Both sets, each of them with an unique scoring, will again be performed by f.c. jongbloed & Arnold Marinissen - conductor.
For an overview of the cycle on which I will also be working the coming years, see: Day Daily (weblog category: work in progress)
Recently the book entitled ›Sluiproutes en dwaalwegen‹ [Shortcuts and false scents] (1991) by Anthony Mertens impressed me very much. It deals with liminal poetics and it gives an excellent overview and definitions of liminality, a concept that perhaps best characterizes my music. The adjective ›liminal‹ derives from the Latin name for threshold, ›limen‹. Twilight is a typical example of a liminal stage of the day. I will write more about this issue in this weblog.
Protesilaos & Laodamia
28 November 2009
Recently I completed a drastic revison of my arrangement and scoring of Rudolf Escher’s short opera Protesilaos and Laodamia.
Rudolf Escher (1912-1980) wrote this opera [›Zangspel‹] extremely fast in 1946 and left it unorchestrated.
In 1990 the Rudolf Escher Committee commissioned my arrangement and scoring of the work. It was performed in March 2004 by the Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Otto Tausk in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (ZaterdagMatinee).
The text by Martinus Nijhoff is based on the story of Protesilaos, the first Greek warrior who was killed in the Troian war. Ten years after his dead Protesiloas was allowed by the Gods to return for one day to his wive Laodamia, accompanied by Hermes. At the end of the day Protesilaos has to return to the World of the Death. With the help of Hermes, having pity on her, Laodamia follows Protesilaos into the underworld, disguised as Hermes. Hermes takes up a living as a shepherd in Thessaly, something Escher probably would have done himself. Then most of his music is inspired by an idealized Mediterranean landscape and atmosphere.
In Protesilaos and Laodamia the impact of Mahler’s music on Escher is clearly present. That may be important for the general perception of his music.
The coin represents Protesilaos descending from the ship, ready to meet his fate. Thessaly, Thebai. Ca 302-286 BC. (Image courtesy of Gorny & Mosch)
Rudolf Escher (1912-1980) wrote this opera [›Zangspel‹] extremely fast in 1946 and left it unorchestrated.
In 1990 the Rudolf Escher Committee commissioned my arrangement and scoring of the work. It was performed in March 2004 by the Radio Chamber Orchestra conducted by Otto Tausk in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (ZaterdagMatinee).
In Protesilaos and Laodamia the impact of Mahler’s music on Escher is clearly present. That may be important for the general perception of his music.
The coin represents Protesilaos descending from the ship, ready to meet his fate. Thessaly, Thebai. Ca 302-286 BC. (Image courtesy of Gorny & Mosch)
Day Daily
21 May 2009
I am working on a new project: the cycle Day Daily [Dag Dagelijks]. As in my earlier cycles I systematically bring up the elementary world of sound and music, usually connected with a specific, extramusical reality. Day Daily is inspired by literary, scientific and everyday interpretations of the day, and especially by phenomenological research on this topic by philosopher Chris Bremmers.
With Day Daily I want to recall the day to us, or at least the memory of that one Day amidst all days. I would also like to develop certain aspects of my music further, which is sound transmitted in space, different scorings within a piece and compositional / musical elements being in a permanent transition (liminality).
Day Daily consists of four long pieces of approximately 15-20 minutes, composed for the transitory moments of the day: midnight, daybreak, midday and nightfall. These transitory moments are linked with each other by twenty one-minute pieces, which stand for the hours of the day.
The parts of the cycle can be performed both independently and integral.
The midnight part, entitled: ›Nous le chant‹, forms a small cycle within the large one, and contains five vocal pieces on texts of the French poet Henri Meschonnic. From his collection of poems ›Nous le passage‹ I selected:
1. aujourd’hui nous
2. on s’entend c’est la lumière
3. la lumière amoureuse
4. la nuit luit
5. un jour et je suis ce jour
The first three are composed for five singers of Schola Heidelberg (SSATB) and a trio of ensemble aisthesis (clarinet, piano and percussion) at the request of KlangForum Heidelberg (D) and Walter Nußbaum – conductor.
With Day Daily I want to recall the day to us, or at least the memory of that one Day amidst all days. I would also like to develop certain aspects of my music further, which is sound transmitted in space, different scorings within a piece and compositional / musical elements being in a permanent transition (liminality).
Day Daily consists of four long pieces of approximately 15-20 minutes, composed for the transitory moments of the day: midnight, daybreak, midday and nightfall. These transitory moments are linked with each other by twenty one-minute pieces, which stand for the hours of the day.
The parts of the cycle can be performed both independently and integral.
Click here for an overview of the cycle
The midnight part, entitled: ›Nous le chant‹, forms a small cycle within the large one, and contains five vocal pieces on texts of the French poet Henri Meschonnic. From his collection of poems ›Nous le passage‹ I selected:
1. aujourd’hui nous
2. on s’entend c’est la lumière
3. la lumière amoureuse
4. la nuit luit
5. un jour et je suis ce jour
The first three are composed for five singers of Schola Heidelberg (SSATB) and a trio of ensemble aisthesis (clarinet, piano and percussion) at the request of KlangForum Heidelberg (D) and Walter Nußbaum – conductor.