New composition for orchestra (3)

Yesterday I put up lots of paper on the wall of my tiny room in Amsterdam. I decided to try a new way of structuring my compositions: I'm writing the whole piece down as a structural chart before I start writing on music paper. This was suggested to me by composer Roderik de Man. A long line from left to right represents the entire piece from beginning to end. All the things that happen along that time frame are represented by pencil lines, with short descriptions of what they mean. Far above the central timeline, on the top of the page, are the high instruments and sounds - flutes, 1st violins, etc - towards the bottom are the lowest instruments (double basses, tuba, contrabassoon).
The line on the bottom represents how loud the orchestra is playing, the dynamics. This also gives some idea of the development of musical tension throughout the piece.
Not only is this refreshing and fun to do, but it's a great way to structure your ideas. It's much less likely to get stuck in the details because you're placing your focus on the big picture, the overall structure of the music. I'm curious to see (and hear) what difference this will make.

MK8 @ Diamantslijperij, Sun Nov 1!

Sun Nov 1, 21:00
Cultuurhuis Diamantslijperij
Tolstraat 129 Amsterdam
Cover fee 10 euros

Featuring:
Colin Benders (a.k.a. Kyteman) - trumpet
Kobi Arditi - trombone
Morris Kliphuis - horn
Sietse van Gorkom - violin
Oene van Geel (ZAPP!) - viola
Daniel Brandl - cello
Martin Hiltawski - bass
Philippe Lemm - drums

Special guests:
DJ DNA & Kapabel (MC)

We're going to play some new jazz/funk compositions by myself and other members of the band. The whole thing will be topped off with a jam session where we will be joined by scratch master DJ DNA (Urban Dance Squad) and Dutch rapper Kapabel (InStereo).

Come join us :)

Also check out the flyer.

New composition for orchestra (2)

I've been holed up in my room for the past two weeks working on my new piece. The third movement (out of four) is now almost finished. It's about the sea urchin, or, more precisely, about what it would be like to be one. It revolves around a very simple melody, almost in the style of Russian folk singing. I'm trying to find a way to build it in warm, thick, fuzzy romantic fashion (listen to Glazunov 4 to get an idea) while still keeping a strange under-the-sea abstractness to it. It'll probably end up being hopelessly romantic and not abstract at all. But that's alright because the rest of the piece is going to be really weird anyway.

IACW on Uitzending Gemist

The documentary on the project Colin and I did in Thailand was aired on October 4 on Nederland 2. If you missed it, it's at Uitzending Gemist here.
The blog posts from Thailand are here.
You can also see the programmes on IACW projects in Canada and Mexico.

Ferry music

A few months ago I was invited to an annual chamber music festival on the Dutch island of Schiermonnikoog. I'd never heard about it, but the festival is having its eighth edition this year.
Special feature was an opening concert on the Lauwersoog-Schiermonnikoog ferry featuring performances by the Codarts Conservatory Brass ensemble, some classical chamber groups and my acoustic trio.
It was weird playing in the passenger lounge of a ferry, with the audience on benches, and the acoustics were horrible, but the atmosphere made up for it. The festival is still going on, and is sold out, like every year.

Blues for Marcel Worms

Just had a meeting with classical pianist Marcel Worms. Really interesting guy - he recorded loads of solo piano and chamber music and travels the globe playing concerts. Since 1990 he has been commissioning composers to write a blues for solo piano; the composers are free to interpret the term 'blues' in any way they want. Since the start of the project around 180 pieces have been written.
Marcel asked me to write one too. I've never really written for piano solo before so I'm looking forward to working on it after I finish my orchestra piece.

Free improvisation

Last night I had the great pleasure of sitting in with Bik Bent Braam, a big band led by pianist Michiel Braam that focuses on free improvisation - making music up on the spot. This is a huge challenge with an ensemble of that size. We do that kind of thing with Kyteman's Hiphop Orchestra, but there we play mostly in one key, and Colin is in front of the band directing us.

With BBB everyone has the right to completely change the direction of the music at any time. Yesterday's concert was in the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, and for every set of 45 minutes, one BBB composition was played. The compositions were by Michiel, and were used as material or input during playing. The pieces were divided up into numbered sections so that anyone could signal a section to be played at some point during the improvisation. As such, we "played" the compositions, but never in the order they were written. It's a great way to break open the music and make it more free.

The difficult thing with free improvisation is to decide when to play, and what, and whether what you would like to play is valuable compared to whatever is already being played at that point. (Does that make sense?) Also, you want the music to go somewhere, which is hard enough when you play music that's not improvised.

Then again, I'm starting to think that judging your ideas while playing in this way may be the wrong approach entirely. Maybe you should just try to quit thinking and just play what you feel like playing.

Anyway, the band was great, and it was a really cool experience.

The plot thickens

It appears that I'm not the only farang (white boy) to appreciate the sound of the Khaen (see original post). A few days ago I got mail from a Dutchman asking me where he could get one, and now I've discovered this dude. Khaen lovers unite!

New composition for orchestra

I've started work on a 15-20 minute orchestral piece for the Utrechtsch Studenten Concert. The work, for large symphonic orchestra, will have 4 movements and will premiere somewhere in the spring of 2010. It will be the finale of a program including Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto and Hovhaness' 2nd Symphony "Mysterious Mountain". Daunting, but I'm confident (for the moment). For this piece I'm going to try writing with very little thematic material, using clear, simple orchestrations, like painting with a big brush and only two or three colours. Certain invertebrates are to play a central role in the music.
I'll post updates and thoughts here as the work progresses.

News update

- A very nice review of my trio concert at the ZomerJazzFietsTour can be found here at the Jazzenzo web magazine.

- Wednesday Sept 16 I'll be playing with rock band MOKE at the presentation of their new cd, The Long & Dangerous Sea, at the new Rabozaal of De Melkweg, Amsterdam.

- Sunday Sept 20 I'll be sitting in with Bik Bent Braam at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam, playing compositions by pianist Michiel Braam.

- On September 23 Kyteman's Hiphop Orchestra will be recording a live DVD documenting the show at De Oosterpoort, Groningen. The last Hermit Sessions show will be on December 11 at Heineken Music Hall, Amsterdam. After that we'll start working on new material. Better make sure you've seen it by then.

I do realise I need to put up a concert agenda on this site, and I'll make one soon.