This is my first experiment with music and images. I use projections of my own photographs combined with concrete sounds and a live clarinet. The first performance was on October 11, 2009, at De Pont in Tilburg.
The piece is dedicated to Michel Marang.
Duration: 11′
A piece for bass clarinet and piano, written for Michel Marang and Reinier van Houdt in 2007. The title comes from a fragment by Sappho:
And their feet move
Rhythmically, as tender
feet of Cretan girls
danced once around an
altar of love, crushing
a circle in the soft
smooth flowering grass
(Translation: Mary Barnard)
Duration: 13′
A palimpsest is a manuscript page, scroll, or book that has been written on, scraped off, and used again. The word palimpsest comes from two Greek roots (palin + psEn) meaning “scraped again.” Romans wrote on wax-coated tablets that could be reused, and a passing use of the rather bookish term “palimpsest” by Cicero seems to refer to this practice.
Source: Wikipedia
In this composition I used an approach which I now call my ‘Palimpsest Technique’. First I wrote a layer of very soft repeating patterns. After that I started erasing fragments of this layer and replacing them by other (contrasting) material. This procedure was repeated two times, but in theory this could go on indefinitely. Every time fragments of the piece change, but some parts of the original layer are not affected and therefore remain present.
Palimpsest is a soft piece, without any clear motives or themes. It passes like a cloud, that gradually changes its shape while floating by.
Clarinet, Harp, Violin, Viola (2), Cello. Duration: 12′
De Inwerking (in English: Influence) was finished in 1985. The title refers to a sign (or hexagram) from the book of changes, the I Ching. This particular hexagram (number 31) is based on the image of water (a small lake) on a mountain. ‘Influence’ can also be understood as: ‘being in contact with’. The title was chosen as a metaphor for the clarinet looking for contact with the soundtracks: the ‘fluid’ clarinet and the firm and unmovable electronics.
The soundtracks were made exclusively by manipulating recorded clarinet sounds (played by Michel Marang). This was done in the electronic studio of the ‘Brabants Conservatorium’ in Tilburg, The Netherlands. Chance operations were used for the writing of the clarinet part. This was not done with a computer, but with oldfashioned dice and coins.
The piece starts with a number of lines for clarinet solo, each line played legato in one breath. The melody avoids a tone centre; it never commits to a key or a mode. It moves on and on without ever reaching a home note. After a few minutes, on a high note, a second sound appears: almost unnoticably the tape fades in. A dialogue between clarinet and tape begins, as if they are looking for contact (maybe a seduction?). Both players play equal parts, one never dominating the other. At the end the tape fades out and the clarinet is alone again. But it has changed, and it playes with a completly different energy.
De Inwerking was dedicated to Michel Marang, with great gratitude for everything he did for this piece.
Clarinet and Sound Tracks. Duration: 12 minutes