DIFFERENT WAYS

In Different Ways three spaces (rooms or halls) are used. Musicians move from one room to another, causing a constant change of the instrumentation in every room. Whereas in the first hall there are microphones, in the other two there are speakers. The performed music in the first hall is used as the basic material for the live electronics of the two computers. The result is played in the other two halls. In this way the processed sound becomes a part of the instrumental ensemble in those two spaces. Although the music originates from the first room, the character of the music is entirely different in the other two rooms.

This piece is a experiment with polyphony, electronics and space. The cello for example, plays together with a vibraphone in the first hall; at the same time the processed cello sound is part of a trio with recorder, violin and electronics in the second hall; simultaneously the cello is playing a quartet with euphonium, accordion, clarinet and electronics in the third hall.

   •   instrumentation: violin, cello, clarinet, recorder, euphonium, accordion, percussion and live electronics (2 computers)

   •   performances: 24 February 2006 in het SMAK in Ghent by students of the Royal Conservatory of Ghent

   •   a plan of the spatial structure of Different Ways

   •   commissioned by vzw Musicon



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TEMPERATE MUSIC

In Temperate Music the music changes according to the season and the weather. I'm fond of the idea that some things are not always present but appear at one moment and then disappear again. In Temperate Music a musician plays a keyboard and seven controllers. On the screen of the computer he can see the evolution of the piece and the scales (in quarter tones) that he can use. The resulting monophonic melody is processed in the computer resulting in a more or less polyphonic piece. The sound is mainly made using FM synthesis (no samples) and partly also with physical modelling techniques.

A few hours before the performance the musician enters the characteristics about the season, wind strength and the temperature. The computation of these data results in new material that is necessary for the structure of the piece and for the realtime processing of the sound. After a first tryout of this piece (in Logos, July 2005) I realized that this basic computation took too much time in Reaktor (software). So now I have written this code in Python, here you can see this python file which generates a list of data. During the live performance some parameters are free and can be used to improvise, others can't be changed because they are part of the (weather dependent) structure of the piece. In fact, Temperate Music is a combination of an electronic instrument and a piece (or improvisation structure) that both change according to the weather.

   •   instrumentation: one performer (MIDI keyboard and computer)

   •   performance by Hans Roels op 14 July 2005 in the Logos Foundation

   •   there is no end version of Temperate Music but this is one version (autumn, moderate wind, rather cold)

       

   •   and this is another version (summer, moderate wind, normal temperature)

       

   •   I have made a demonstration of the live processing: here you can hear the basic input (that is played/improvised on the keyboard). This is what the monophonic melody becomes after being processed (and with the live controllers added).



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COLO

In 1998 I wrote a piece called Nowhere's Chaos which was performed several times at the November Music Festival in Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands. As the recording of the piece wasn't very successful and a strange combination of instruments was used, I found this piece rather "useless" and started using the recording as raw material for all kinds of audio electronics (experimenting with the Reaktor software). In the original version Nowhere's Chaos texts from the Zapatista uprisings in Chiapas (Mexico) were used. Colo is dedicated to the village community of Colo(tenango) in Guatemala where 2 people where killed in March 2005 during protests against a free trade agreement with the US. A few years ago I visited this village and the farmer organisation that organised the protests in March.

   •   instrumentation: electro-acoustic work (4 channels)

   •   performances on 14 July 2005 in the Logos Foundation (Ghent) and on 27 March 2008 on the Dias de musica electroacustica in Seia (Portugal)

   •   stereo version of Colo

       



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OHNE WORTE II

In 2002 I wrote the piece Ohne Worte I to commemorate the concentration camp of Breendonk (B). My enthousiasm for the applied instrumentation (2 fixed musicians -voice and viola- and two flexible musicians -of which one has to be technically minded) encouraged me to write a second part. In both parts the words of these politically inspired pieces cannot be recognised. This second part is dedicated to the Israelian technician Mordechai Vanunu who revealed the existence of Israelian nuclear bombs. As a consequece, he was captured in 1986 in Rome by the secret police of Israel and sentenced to 18 years of imprisonment. In april 2004 he left jail. During the first years in jail he wrote the poem I'm your spy. Fragments of this text are used in this piece.

In this second part of Ohne Worte the singer and viola player are now joined by a musician "playing" on a steel brush (ormally used to clean) and a fourth musician that controls the electronics. The movement of the steel brush on the surface produces sounds with an unpredictable timing (it is difficult to know exactly when a "hair" of the steel brush will "jump" and produce a sound) and dynamic curve. The electronics (made with the Reaktor software) apply both these characteristics to the voice.

   •   instrumentation: voice, viola, object (steel brush) and live electronics

   •   performance by the Black Jackets Company on the Muziek in de Maak festival (4 May 2004) in the Logos Foundation

   •   score

   •   short description of the live electronics



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DUBBELSTUK

This piece combines the possibilities of the player piano (controlled by a computer) and the prepared and the inside piano. While the automatic piano plays on the keys, a live performer plays pizzicati, glissandi and percussion effects on the strings, uses two ebows and changes preparations in the piano.

This polyphonic work with different simultaneous tempi and timbres develops in a non-linear way, permanently balancing between standstill and progress.

   •   instrumentation: computer controlled player piano and one performer

   •   performances: by Hans Roels and the Logos player piano on 5 June 2003 in Logos, Ghent (pianOH! festival) and (revised version) 19 October 2004 in Logos, Ghent (M&M concert), on 13 December 2005 in Dénia (Spain) and 25 JUanuary 2008 in de Singel, Antwerp (ISCM day)

   •   recording

       

   •   score

   •   Dubbelstuk is recorded on the CD "Machine Orchestra" in the Logos series Public Domain.



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OHNE WORTE I

Ohne Worte is a piece with a lot of (soft) noise in which the music often disappears. The percussionist plays on a cardboard box, the singer produces a sound in between whistling and whispering and the mixer is not only used to regulate the dynamic level of the different instruments but also to generate noise. This noise of the mixer (by setting the gain at its loudest) is normaly seen as a disturbance but in this piece it is a autonomous instrument. The (almost unaudible) basis of the piece is the song Pirate Jenny of Kurt Weill.

   •   performances: in Nona Theater (B) on 4,5 and 6 October 2002 by the ensemble Q-O2, by the Black Jackets Company on the Muziek in de Maak festival (Logos, Ghent) on 4 May 2004 and by Trio Scordatura (December 2007) in the Logos Foundation

   •   score

   •   commissioned by the Q-O2 ensemble because of the 60th anniversary of the concentration camp of Breendonk (B)



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HOW IT TAKES PLACE

The starting points of "How it takes place" are notions like space, place and distance. These concepts are treated literally -as physically moving in space- and figuratively -as in the spoken language where you have expressions like "a close friend" or "to be distant to someone". The latter aspect is reflected in the relationships among the musicians on the stage. Therefor "How it takes place" can also be considered as music theatre. During the performance, the musicians act as in daily life: open windows, smoke cigarettes, turn the pages of the score of another musician, etc.
Distance and space are also interpreted in a musical sense: large differences in dynamics, tempo and timbre give the listener the impression that the instruments are physically far away from each other. In short: the interaction between this physical, musical and social/emotional interpretation of distance is what the piece is all about.

The title "How it takes place" is extracted from the poem "Musée des Beaux Arts" of W.H. Auden, at its turn referring to "The Fall of Icarus" by Breughel. The spectator is drawn to the spatial effect of the composition: distant mountains, a boat sailing on the sea and a farmer working in the foreground. In the bottom right-hand corner -only a small detail- two legs of a drowning Icarus disappear in the sea. Apart from the references to death and sufferance, the painting and the poem give a good impression of the atmosphere in "How it takes place": some musicians play solo while others play together, smoke cigarettes or have already left the stage.

   •   instrumentation: voice, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, percussion and standing piano

   •   performance: 24 October 2001 in Eeklo (B) by het ensemble Champ d'Action

   •   recording (the piece only starts after 1 minute)

       

   •   There is a recording of this piece on a CD with the Belgian magazine A+ (a magazine about architecture). This recording was made by the Flemish classical radio Klara on the première of the concert where the first version of this piece was played.

   •   This piece was written for a concert by the Belgian ensemble Champ d'Action, on the theme of Music & Architecture. The concert was organised for a new building by the Belgian architect Stephane Beel.



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STILTEGEBIEDEN/SILENCE RESERVES

Silent places -i.e. places where the level of the surrounding noise is low- are diminishing rapidly in Western Europe. These places can give the visitor rest and quiet but this peace is constantly endangered because these places are reserves in the middle of a busy and hasty society. The ambiguity of these 'Silence Reserves' is the central theme of this piece.

The audio track consists of recorded, non-modified violin and viola sounds. The violin and viola were prepared and played in different ways, one of them was the gypsy technique which consists of pulling a thin string tied to the violin string.

   •   instrumentation: violin, viola and audio track

   •   performances: in the Logos Foundation (Ghent) en in the Muhka museum (Antwerp) in June 2001

   •   score



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RUN!

Run! is inspired by my image of music which is so in a hurry that it passes itself all the time, an image of music that flees away while stumbling but continuing its run. The piano plays an important role in this piece and should have a good repetition mechanism!

The tape consists of short and very fast fragments recorded on the automatic player-piano of the Logos Foundation, afterwards these fragments were edited in the Logos Studio.

   •   performance: 2 July 2001 in the Musikhochschule Koeln (D) by the Spectra Ensemble



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... VON HUNDERTEN, VON TAUSENDEN ...

This piece was written for string orchestra (6 vl I, 6 vl II, 3 vla, 2 vcl, 1cb). The title is a description of the huge sound wealth which can be found in the borderland between music and sound. Melodies, rhythms and harmonies are rather suggested than clearly pronounced. The music is very fragile, it seems as if it can fall apart any moment.

   •   instrumentation: string orchestra (6 first violins, 6 second violins, 3 violas, 2 cellos and bass)

   •   performances: in the Netherlands (Breda) and Belgium (Antwerp - Elisabethzaal) in 1999

   •   score

   •   commissioned by Prima La Musica



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NOWHERE'S CHAOS

Nowhere's Chaos was written for a concert centred around 'The State' (1972) by Louis Andriessen. The latter piece by the Dutch composer is a reflection on the relation between music and politics. My inspiration wasn't the music by Andriessen but the philosophical-utopian tradition which started with the ideal state as described by Plato. The largest part of these Utopia's (like Utopia - Th. More) depicts a rich, just but at the same time authoritarian society. Only 'News from Nowhere' by William Morris is an exception because it is a part of the anarchist tradition. The text used in 'Nowhere's Chaos' is based on excerpts from this old (19th century) book which is still relevant to our times. In 'Nowhere's Chaos' fragments are also used from 'My journey with Aristotle to the anarchist utopia' by Graham Purchase, from press releases by the Zapatistas in Mexico and finally slogans used by Belgian action groups to defend the rights of refugees and illegal people are integrated in this piece.

   •   instrumentation: soprano and mezzo-soprano, 2 oboes, 2 horns, 2 trombones, 2 trumpets, 4 violas, piano

   •   performances: by the November Music Orkest conducted by Fabrice Bollon in 's Hertogenbosch (NL), Tilburg (NL) and Maastricht (NL), Antwerp (De Singel, B) and Ghent (De Vooruit, B) and Essen (D) November 1998

   •   commissioned by festival November Music



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NATURE MORTE

Music as a landscape without a human logic, wherein fragments appear and disappear alternately. Nature as a ritual, slow and brutal. The still life of nature but also the anger because of the dying nature.

   •   instrumentation: flute (piccolo), clarinet (bass cl.), piano, percussion, violin, viola and cello

   •   performances: by Spectra Ensemble conducted by Filip Rathé in Belgium in the Royal Conservatory of Ghent (1998), SMAK (1999 & 2000), de Rode Pomp (1999, 2002), Antwerp (Zaal 7, 1999), Ename, CC St-Niklaas (2002), de Bijloke (2009), Denmark (Kopenhagen, 1999) and Germany (Duisburg, 2000 and Keulen, 2002); by the ensemble Champ d'Action (Muhka, Antwerp 2001 and the Logos Foundation, 2001)

   •   recording

       

   •   score



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PHOENIX

Phoenix was commissioned by the Walpurgis Music Theater (B). This theater asked 6 composers from Holland and Belgium to write a (short) piece of music theater on the theme of the bird which arises out of its own ashes, the Phoenix. "Phoenix" doesn't deal with this myth but with fire as an element of nature. On a text by the "first poet of Ireland" Amergin (before 700 A.D.), the singer sings and performs with imploring gestures as in ritual theatre.

   •   instrumentation: voice, (bass)clarinet, cello and percussion (2 performers)

   •   performances: in 1996 by the Walpurgis ensemble conducted by Alain Franco in Amsterdam (Felix Meritis, NL), de Vooruit (Ghent, B), CC St.-Niklaas (B), de Velinx (Tongeren, B), CC Deurne and the Limelight in Kortrijk (B)



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SAILING THE SEAS OF DOWN BELOW

In this piece I consider the player piano as an instrument different from the regular piano. The player piano is unique in its potential to produce huge polyphony (an orchestra of 88 keys), complex rhythms and superhuman speed. In "Sailing the Seas of Down Below", I exploit these possibilities to the extreme, which results in a very pianistic work: the limits of the player piano (and thus of the piano itself) are explored: thirteen-voice polyphony, combined decelerations and accelerations and fast keyboard runs that one hears as a glissando.

Sailing the Seas of Down Below consists out of two elements that seem contradictory at first: a tight melody in a steady rhythmic pattern (typically mechanical) and intertwining chromatic lines in a very free, improvisatory rhythm (typically human: with tempo changes and rubati). A machine such as the player piano is perfectly capable of solving this contradiction. In the final movement, the first few seconds of the piece are enlarged and presented as a slowly descending sound mass.

   •   instrumentation: computer-controlled piano

   •   recording

       

   •   MIDI file

   •   score

   •   Sailing the seas of down below is recorded on the CD "New Music for Player Piano" in de Logos series Public Domain

   •   performances: in the Logos Foundation on the Festival voor Automatische muziek (1995), in the Elzenhof (Brussels, 1996), in the Royal Conservatory of Ghent on the Week van de Hedendaagse Muziek (1996), in the Muhka (Antwerp, 2001), in the Pierement Museum in Utrecht (NL, 2000), in the Muziekcentrum van Den Bosch (NL, 1999), on the Audio Art festial 2002 (Krakau, Polen), the Chants Mechaniques Festival in Lille (F, 2002) and in the Circolo de Bellas Artes (Madrid, 2004)



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8 SHORT SONGS

8 short songs on texts of North-American Indians. The character of the songs is very diverse: from odes to a seal to slanging matches and exorcist rituals.

   •   instrumentation: voice and (prepared) piano

   •   performances: in 1996 by Hans Roels (prepared piano) and Cornelia Berger (voice) in the Royal Conservatory of Ghent, in the Logos Foundation and in the Elzenhof (CC Elsene, Brussels)

   •   score