Composer of the Day!

Today's Composer of the Day is Louis Andriessen (b. June 6, 1939).

Andriessen is probably the most prominent of all Dutch composers, narrowly edging out the likes of Henk Badings, Otto Ketting, and the indubitable Johan de Meij (who our high school concert band devotees will remember as the composer of the insufferable "Lord of the Rings" Symphony).

Andriessen was seemingly born to be a composer, following in the steps of his father Hendrik Andriessen (1892-1981), older brothers Jurriaan and Caecilia, and his uncle Willem Andriessen (1887-1964) who were/are all professional composers.

Much verbosity can be wasted trying to nail down an exact description of the style of Andriessen's music. Let me instead provide a couple of quintessential examples:

From his massive four-part De Materie (Matter) for voices and orchestra -- mvt. III, "De Stijl", with text from The Principles of Plastic Mathematics by M. H. J. Schoenmaekers:



Worker's Union (1975) for any loud-sounding group of instruments -- Andriessen said of the work, "The idea is to have music that suggests people shouting at a political rally."


As you can probably hear, there are number of different styles at work in Andriessen's music. For example, De Materie has portions which recall the music of composers such as Bach and Stravinsky, boogie-woogie bands from the 1940s, minimalists like Terry Riley, and even quotes the "L'homme armé" melody (which appropriately originates in the Netherlands, for you Renaissance music history buffs out there). This mishmash of influences has led many to describe his music as pastiche, and his use of many repetitive and motoric textures as post-minimalist, or to claim his music as a blend of high and low brow culture. However, while embracing such varied styles as neo-classicism, American minimalism, jazz, and serialism, Andriessen has created a musical aesthetic uniquely his own.

In 1969, Andriessen and fellow Dutch composers protested Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra because of their continued unwillingness to perform new works, especially those of a more adventurous spirit. This group of rabble-rousers brought with them children's noise-makers in the shape of frogs that chirped in protest. Recalling the protest now, Andriessen says, "The sounds we made were actually quite serene and nice," but these serene sounds were still successful. Many point to this protest as a pivotal moment in the rebirth of contemporary music in Holland. But more importantly, it seemingly set Andriessen down a path in which he rejects the traditional orchestra in favor of a more eclectic approach to instrumentation.

His orchestrations often included unique groupings of instruments, and unusual additions to standard ensembles. For example, his work Orpheus (1977) is scored for 8 mixed voices, lyricon, electric guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer, and percussion. And his work De Staat (1972-76, text by Plato) is scored for 2 sopranos, 2 mezzo-sopranos, 4 oboes (3rd, 4th + English horn), 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, bass trombone, 2 harps, 2 electric guitars, 4 violas, bass guitar, and 2 pianos.

Much of Andriessen's music also includes vocal or theatrical elements . These include using texts from seemingly non-musical sources such as Machiavelli, Plato, Nietzsche, text from the Book of Job, and Dante Alighieri (set for female jazz vocalist). Among the most famous of his works with literary and theatrical components are his collaborations with filmmaker and librettist Peter Greenaway. Andriessen's score to the Greenaway's film M is for Man, Music, Mozart is one my personal favorites, and is exceptional strong as a concert piece as well. See one movement from the film here:

M is for Man Music Mozart (1991) - Vesalius Song


Other collaborations include the operas Rosa: A Horse Drama (1994) and Writing to Vermeer (1998), and the La Passione (2000-02).

As with all Composer of the Day recommendations, Andriessen is a badass composer who is more than worth a moment of your time.

-----------------------------------
And just because, here is the text to "The Alphabet Song" from M is Man, Music, Mozart:

A is for Adam and
E is for Eve
B is for bile, blood, and bones.
C is for conception, chromosomes, and clones.
D is for Devil.
F is for fertility and Venus’ fur.
G is for germs and growth and genius.
H is for hysteria.
I is for intercourse.
J is for Justine or the misfortunes of virtue.
K is for Kalium, or potassium, if you like.
L is for lust, and lightening, lightening…

Definition by Exclusion, and A Belated Invitation

A curious piece, and a curious perspective about Roberto Sierra...

Roberto Sierra's music crosses cultures, traditions

The ancient origin of the tunes may be tied to a specific tradition: Judaism in medieval Spain.

They may?

But as composer Roberto Sierra re-imagined the seven tune fragments and set them to poetry about the expulsion of the Jews from Spain,

Oh, they are. The tunes (or tune-fragments? Same thing?) are from that tradition, and then set to poetry about that historical epoch. That seems fair enough. Thus the "may...but" construction is leading to something...

...he wanted his creation, Songs From the Diaspora, to resonate in a modern, mobile world.

Also logical, since he composed it in a modern, mobile world. So: although the material is from an old tradition, it is combined with poetry related to the same period (the source of which is not cited) which gives new meaning and perspective to both. Multiculturalism!

“This is perhaps the sign of the times,” Sierra said in a telephone interview last week. “There are no more boundaries culturally. Nowadays we have available the music from the whole world at our fingertips, from all times.”

First: Yes, we do, but especially if we're Western and have technology and money. However, this does not diminish the effort or concept of the work.

Second: This idea has been around for a while, now. Perhaps Houston has just now received its invitation to the 1889 Paris World's Fair?

Music that crosses tradition, time and culture has been one of the themes of Sierra’s compositions.

Not to diminish Sierra's work, or this sentiment, but composers, artists, and the public (again, mostly Western) have had access to and drawn influence from other cultures ever since they started invading them and taking their stuff. Earlier even; but the ages of Exploration and Colonialism(tm) certainly brought many influences into the work of curious artists and fascinated audiences for generations.

Famously, at the aforementioned Exposition Universelle of 1889, a young Debussy (looking at you from the left, here) heard the Javanese gamelan ensemble and was taken with and inspired by its repetitive rhythms and shimmering sounds. (For an interesting study, see this work detailing the wealth of musics in Paris at the Fair.)

"Exotic" influences became a staple of many facets of modernism, and later postmodern thinking. This kind of cultural collage is, indeed, as Mr. Sierra says, particularly representative of the information age.

For whatever reason, here is a picture of a Javanese gamelan that is fun to look at.

Javenese Gamelan Ensemble

So yeah! What else?

Born in Puerto Rico, trained in Europe,

Sounds like a good dash of multiculturalism right there, for starters...

Sierra, who is not Jewish,

What?

now makes his home and composes music in Ithaca, N.Y.

Um. Wow.

Obviously the tunes (or tune fragments, see above) have their origin in Spanish Judiaism. But Mr Sierra seems to have all of the hallmarks of a multicultural pedigree anyway. What is the point of pointing out his not-religious affiliation?

Is he unworthy, or unqualified to use this material? Is he co-opting Judiasm for his own ends? Notice that his acutal religion (if any) is not revealed. Is his lack of Jewishness so inportant vis-a-vis his using ancient Sephardic source material that it merits mention in the same sentence as his heritage?

Clearly there is not a total lack of context; mentioning that a composer (or anyone, for that matter) is not this or that in an informational vacuum would be another matter. But it still struck some kind of nerve, obviously.

This writer, left with no further information, can only assume that Mr Sierra is Zoroastrian.

"I'm standing on a lizard!"