Archive April 2005
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April 27, 2005
Columbus' return to Europe
I am not very knowledgeable when it comes to (church) organs, but yesterday my eye caught a message describing 'pipe-rot' throughout Europe. From Italy to Northern Germany organ pipes are suffering from corrosion, causing the pipes to leak and not only weakening their tone, but also their strength. In the end the pipes will collapse.
What made this image come to live for me is organ music was played used while Columbus returned to the old world with his collection of Indians, parrots and strange plants. This particular organ is also effected.
In its time organs were the most complex and loud instruments people could think off. (Compare this to an average pop concert that makes your teeth rattle and solves your kidney stones in an instant.)
The European Union funds a group of researchers who investigate the problem and do something about it.
I hope this group find a better solution than their name suggests: COLLAPSE.
BTW Collapse stands for Corrosion of Lead and Lead-Tin Alloys of Organ Pipes in Europe.
Posted by Renske at 18:03 UTC | permanent link
April 24, 2005
Wish for a timemachine
Recently I was thinking about what I find the most memorable concerts I visited and why they are memorable.
One concert, many years ago given by the ASKO/Schönberg Ensemble, Percussiongroup The Hague and Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam (now Amsterdam Sinfonietta) conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw was intended to be memorable. And truly it was, but to me for the 'wrong' piece.
All attention - at least in the press - was for Stockhausen's Gruppen which was performed twice. As a member of the audience I had to find myself another seat for the second performance to experience the spatial effect Stockhausen's music. Apart from the giggles of us ordinary mortals finding our second seat in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw I cannot recall much of Stockhausen's music. It left me cold as a moon rock.
What hit home with me this concert was the twelve part sidekick Stimmen Verstummen by Sofia Gubaidulina. Every odd numbered part in D major and the rest with more amorphous material. Wow! I just didn't want this music to stop. It really got under my skin.
The moment when Reinbert de Leeuw performs his conducting with the orchestra silent and the high pitched organ sets in. Sometimes I wish I could step in a time machine and go back.
Posted by Renske at 19:19 UTC | permanent link
April 17, 2005
Sonic Alcatraz
Yesterday I was in an audio store. While I was looking around for the product of my choice they played some (ahum) music over their sound system; some horrible techno with a heavy beat and really harsh synthetic sounds. I couldn't stand it longer than a couple of minutes and escaped from this sonic Alcatraz. Their background noise cost them some business.
Many of the customers seemed totally relaxed with this background - I really find it hard to call this - music and some of them were doing their shopping with a mild form of head-banging.
One of the worst effects of electronic music reproduction is that people or organizations play it every where they can. Travel by airplane and while boarding some 'relaxing' music is played. Go to a supermarket and some mood-for-food music drips into your ears. Go to an electronics store and the above assault music is fired at you.
What in heavens name happened to good old plain silence so there will be no constant input I didn't ask for or choose for. Can someone answer this for me, because I am really curious about this?
Posted by Renske at 22:38 UTC | permanent link
April 16, 2005
Music swap reality
At the office where work I am the only one into classical or contemporary non-pop music. This is nothing new to me: I have always been a solitary figure in my social environment when it comes to my music preference. From high school up to now most people (family, friends or colleagues in my non-music related jobs) prefer some kind of pop music.
At high school I even pretended I liked Boney M (shivers down my spine when I think of it) to be not too isolated from the rest of my classmates. But at home I secretly listen to Bach, Beethoven, Dvorak, Schönberg, Hindemith or Stravinsky etcetera.
Last week a colleague and I swapped iPods for a moment and we both selected something not too disturbing for the other. I was confronted with Massive Attack and my colleague freaked out on Steve Reich's Different Trains. To me Different Trains is easy to grasp, well made and about a very intriguing subject. For her it was something that worn her out in about five minutes.
This - again - leaves me with the question: how big is the gap between new music composers and performers on the one side with the ordinary culturally interested - but no classical music please! - public on the other side.
My choice made it clearer to me it is probably greater than I wish for.
Posted by Renske at 21:51 UTC | permanent link
April 13, 2005
Bookstore
In the blogosphere there are many people speculating (a) why there is a crisis in classical and contemporary music and (b) what to do about it.
Some suggest people can't listen to classical and contemporary music because they're used to 3 minutes pop music and can't cope with an elaborate concentration span. An authority like Norman Lebrecht pulled the leg of this reasoning since people who evade classical and contemporary music watch long movies without hesitation.
But if we compare classical and contemporary music with literature we get a different picture.
Imagine walking into a bookstore where most of the books are pre 1900. They are published over and over again. The highest arousal to be achieved is a book by the Bronte sisters in a new typography on a new kind of paper. Wow, that would attract new readers/buyers!
In some dark corner of our imaginary bookstore we can find some books by modernists. They are experimenting with books without punctuation, writing only every third letter of every second word and as an extra the reading order changes every two pages to express the deeper intentions of the author.
Of course the latter group of authors don't sell well and they complain no one understands them. Suggestions to pay a little attention to the needs of their audience are rejected: they don't write commercial trash. In their opinion, as a good artist, you have to be independent (say: careless about) from your audience.
In the meantime a new generation of authors started writing comic books being bored by the ongoing convention. In the beginning they are laughed at. But as time evolves a new generation grows up with nasty memories about this old fashioned literature they had to read as a kid. They skip it whenever they can and in their spare time they read comic books and discuss the latest publications with their friends. Some will even try to write their own ones.
Slowly, but steadily faster, the old bookshops are experiencing harder and harder times because of dropping sales. And by laws of economics they will have to do something to prevent bankruptcy.
Back in the real world the problem isn't that classical music is bad music. The problem is that to many people it has lost it's relevance. By pretending we are still in the 19th century we aren't going to solve this.
So we (new music buffs) shouldn't blame our audience for a lack of interest, but blame ourselves for not taking our own responsibility in this matter. Only then we can make some changes for the better.
Posted by Renske at 19:21 UTC | permanent link
April 10, 2005
Voice from the past
In the world of mediaeval music the name of John Fleagle does ring a bell. In this respect it seems peculiar that an old music buff like John helped a new music composer (that's me) out with a new composition; Voice Over. It is a pity he died before I even started working on this piece.
If John's help showed one thing, it is that people interested in mediaeval music aren't living anachronisms. He was very open to what I let him listen to. And in the short time we met he succeeded in lighting a candle over the beauty of mediaeval poetry and music.
As a side note, I have a very good friend and she is a harpsichordist. At one moment she stopped her normal bragging about Domenico Scarlatti and mouth to mouthed how much she liked Prince, or the artist formerly known as Prince.
With John's contribution to Voice Over it is easily missed what a great artist he was. Fortunately the indie label Magnatune put an entire album with John's music online. So if you are in for treat, I suggest you pay his page on the Magnatune site a visit.
Posted by Renske at 21:07 UTC | permanent link
April 07, 2005
Namedropping
The positive review for gROUND in this month's Luister (Listen) magazine was positive for the entire compact disc. It got a 9 on a scale from 1 to 10. A special compliment was reserved for the recording quality and audio engineering of this disc, but the review didn't mention the engineer. He deserves namedropping IMHO, because he is really good!
So, if you ever need a good sound engineer in the Netherlands don't forget to contact the small audio company TJC, owned and run by Manuel Cooymans.
Posted by Renske at 18:39 UTC | permanent link
April 05, 2005
Wunderbar
Just before touchdown (Photo RV)Sorry, again a posting with no music involved. The new soaring season just started so I am a little hyper about it. Instead of ranting what the joy is of flying around in a glider plane, I thought I best give you a short impression of what is going on at the major glider site in the Netherlands, Terlet. Therefore I prepared you this one and a half minute movie clip.
Posted by Renske at 20:51 UTC | permanent link
April 04, 2005
Bach's purity
The artistic director of the Netherlands Bach Society declared half a year ago that Bach St. Matthew's Passion in the future only was going to be performed by an extremely small ensemble and choir. Actually, the soloists are member of a group of eight singers and perform also choir members. This stirred an academic - and utterly boring - discussion.
I remember, years ago, a friend had me listen to a recording of the Matthew's Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Willem Mengelberg. It sounded completely wacky and I had great fun listening to it.
Far more interesting than a Cromwell's approach by the Bach Society is the twist Cultural Sundays (Dutch) in the Dutch city of Utrecht created with the St. Matthew's Passion. A baroque orchestra and a VJ lured the audience to the pop temple Tivoli for a really creative and sincere approach to Bach's music.
It is recorded on video and you can watch it online.
Posted by Renske at 12:14 UTC | permanent link
April 02, 2005
Ignorance is bliss (for the moment)
Sorry for the short break in my regular interval of postings on my blog. I am totally off topic after a one and a half week of vacation spent in Finland. So I don't know what is going on at the moment with concerts and stuff, but I am sure I will pick up on this within a day or two.
For the moment my muscles are recovering from the 'torture' of cross-country skiing and riding a husky sledge. Best thing was a night stroll on the like by minus 12 degrees Celsius and seeing Aurora Borealis covering a clear sky.
I am readjusting from the cold, frozen lakes, a meter of snow (the locals said there hadn't been too much snow this year) and two people per square kilometer to nearly 20 degrees Celsius and 350 people per square kilometer and truckloads of traffic jams.
Today I finished my holidays with a check start at the soaring club. I am solo again and on route to get my glider license!
Posted by Renske at 19:47 UTC | permanent link