Canto Ostinato

Looking forward to this movie by Ramon Gieling about how Canto Ostinato by the Dutch Composer Simeon ten Holt  influenced the lives of 9 people.

 

 

 

Waarvoor zou je eigenlijk naar een conservatorium gaan?

Deze vraag is essentieel als je over de toekomst van de conservatoria nadenkt. Immers, een goede leraar kan je ook buiten het conservatorium vinden. In het Onderwijsblad van 3 september jl. geven docent Bernhard Reinke en student Jazz&Pop Ivo Vollering, indirect antwoord op de vraag wat onze toegevoegde waarde als ArtEZ Conservatorium is voor de studenten van de jazz&pop afdeling.   Ivo Vollering: ‘Ik denk dat het brede aanbod aan stijlen in Arnhem -pop, jazz, fusion, latin en improvisatie- beter is voor de ontwikkeling van mijn hoofdvak, en voor mijn persoonlijkheid.”

‘Hoe meer kennis je hebt van wat er op muziekgebied te koop is, hoe beter je je eigen geluid kunt vormgeven en presenteren’ legt Bernhard Reinke uit.

Dit zou wel eens de kern kunnen zijn van waar het in het conservatoriumonderwijs om gaat. Heerlijk om met een docententeam te werken dat over zijn eigen grenzen heen kan kijken.

 

Printerjam

Where technology and music meet.  Are you old enough to recognize this sound?

 

‘de sterren van de hemel tjilpen’

Dit is wel een heel apart voorbeeld van de Musicus van de 21ste eeuw.

Donderdag 1 september geeft pianist Michiel Braam (hoofd opleiding Jazz&Pop) samen met  drummer Fred van Duijnhoven. de gans, de kleine zwaan, de eend de smient en de meerkoet, een concert aan de Waal.

Uit de Spits:

‘De gans, kleine zwaan, eend, smient, meerkoet en steltloper, ze staan op de gastenlijst voor het concert. „Of ze allemaal komen weten we natuurlijk niet, maar zij leven in dat gebied”, vertelt Michiel Braam. Hij had al langer het idee om iets te doen met vogelgeluid: „Vogels zijn namelijk erg inspirerend, ik luister vaak naar ze in de tuin. Het tijdstip van de uitvoering is ook erg aardig, zo kan ik de mensen eens wakker spelen.”

Braam legt uit hoe het in zijn werk gaat: „Ik ga proberen het ritme van de vogels te vangen in akkoorden. Wij reageren op de geluiden die de vogels maken. Je kunt ze immers moeilijk vragen een bepaalde partituur te spelen.”

Dat klinkt als een grapje, maar Braam neemt het serieus: „Het is net als met de muzikanten met wie wij veel, improviserend, spelen. Die verrassen je ook altijd. Vogels doen dat net ietsje meer, want die zijn natuurlijk totaal onvoorspelbaar.” ‘

(Het concert vindt plaats bij het Fort Lent om 6 uur ’s ochtends)

Dutch Music Design (2)

Ever heard a political speech in a music composition? JacobTV, artist in residence at the ArtEZ Conservatory, manages to compose contemporary music mixed with pop, soundbites and video.  In his compositions he involves actual themes like war, prisoners, political speeches.

The Dutch Jacob Ter Veldhuis (alias Jacob TV) is an famous componist in the USA and lives in Los Angeles. He is very famous for his new approach of composing. His work is innovative and is related to the world around us. On January 27th he was in the televisionprogram ‘De wereld draait door’. In this program part of his video opera ‘The News’ was shown.

From 5 until 10th of July you can meet him at the Zwart Festival in Zwolle. He really is an example of the 21st Century Musician. 

Bach, Pablo Casals and O2jam

 

 

 

 

Last weeks I read a wonderful book: cello suites by Eric Siblin.

Eric Siblin is a journalist, living in Montreal. He studied history, plays the guitar and used to be a pop music critic for The Montreal Gazette.  And then he discovered the Cello Suites by Bach. It took him five years to do research on the Cello Suites and Pablo Casals who discovered the cello suites at the age of 14, in a obscure musicshop in Barcelona. He even learned to play the cello himself to get more involved.

 

He writes about the amazing Pablo Casals and his interpretation of the Cello Suites.

 

Last night I read the chapter about how Bach is still alive and kicking: in 2006, 20-years old  dj Danny Straton (alias DV 8) won the Bach Oregon Festival with a mix of Bach fugue G-minor. An briljant example about how music does not fit in a box. I did not find the remix made by DV 8, but looking on google to find the remix, to my surprise there are many remix examples of Bach’s music. An example of a remix by O2jam.

 

I never will listen to Bach at the same way again after reading this book. A lifechanging book for everybody who loves Bach.

‘I hate classical music’

This is how Alex Ross Starts his book: Listen to this. Not that he really does not like classical music. On the contrary. He hates not the music, but the name. In an interview he tells us how the name is lacking of passion, is stuffy, remote. While there is a great deal of passion in classical music. In his book he tries to find the connection between classical music and the outside world, our contemporary culture and other forms of musical experiences. There are some links to be find. For example some songs of the Beatles were inspired by John Cage and Stockhausen. And also Bjorg and RadioHead have known a lot of classical music, according to Alex Ross.

 

‘I am a sucker for harmony’

kasteel biljoen by martin werker

What a great day! After our weekly running tour, my runningmates Willy and Fennieke took me to a               beautiful place: a little bench at the lake of Biljoen castle. And there they gave me a wonderful present:

 

 

 

The sound of the Westcoast by Leo Blokhuis. A small beautiful box which contains a small book and four cd’s with the music of the westcoast from 1965-1979. And with every track a small story. I started listening and reading at the same time and could not stop. So many sweet memories. Although there are songs I never heard of before. The box is a tribute to popmusic. In fragments of interviews on his blog Leo tells us about his fascination for music of the Westcoast. And, to my surprise, it started with his early experiences in church: the music of Bach and the churchchoir. ‘I’m a sucker for harmony’. Is not it wonderful where classical music can lead us to?

Thank you, Willy and Fennieke, for this unique collection of the music of my youth.

Dutch Music Design

It is a great initiative of Natascha, Michael and Jean-Marc, teaching at our conservatory at ArtEZ, to ask musicians with a not very common carreer to tell our students about how it happened. Today Avalu was here. She told us about her music carreer, starting with classical piano, theatre, jazz, and now pop. And also about trying her own style, just in between. She writes her own songs and her own music. This really is a story about the musician of the 21st century. We do not always have to look at the other end of the world. It  just happens  here, around the corner, in Arnhem.

A quote from her website:

‘It took us five years to find the kind of music that adds something to that which is already there,’ says Lavalu. ‘This is the sound that I always dreamed of. I tried out various names for it, from ‘Nu Pop’ to ‘jazzpoprocktriphop’, but it never seemed to cover the feel of it. I cannot describe it. I can only say that the pop genre is intertwined with jazz, classical music, triphop and other musical elements. So I just say something like Radiohead asking Tori Amos for a dance while Miles Davis is beating time.’

 

The musician of the 21st century: the world around us

The world of music is changing fast. Under influence of technology it is possible to create digital and electronic music. For some instruments the imitation is good enough to confuse professional musicians. An example of a marvelous combination of music and technology is exposed in the opera of the future: Death of the Power. Our kids grow up with I-pads as if the world has always know I-pads. The next generation only knows a world in which technology is important to making music.

the musician of the 21st century

Several disciplines of music interact and get mixed up. So it is sometimes hard  to say whether it is jazz, pop or classical music.

Musicians get a more important role in our society regarding community-art projects. As we learn more about how our brains work, music becomes a well know therapy, especially for elderly people suffering of Alzheimer. In The Netherlands the government used to be involved by financing music projects. For the next four years there will be less money available, so entrepreneurship gets more important for our musicians. Artists are working over the boarders of their discipline. This why we see experiments with a new sort of music-productions. Like ‘Het Nederlands Blazersensemble’ is working together with for example a writer who reads us his book while the music is playing. A good example of several disciplines working together in a production is also the ‘State of ArtEZ’, a festival of our own Institute of the Arts.

It will be hard to define how the world of the musician looks like in 203o. One thing is sure: as a conservatory we have to deal with many changes, from which we do not know on forehand what this changes will be and where they will lead us.