After several meetings of the ACPA Improvisation Research Group which followed the below state of affairs written in black, I made some comments in red (December 2013).
The framework below has been accepted as a possible construction, to be refined in the course of the writing itself. The next step is to actually start writing chapter one, with foot notes and a bibliography.
Ik ben nog niet begonnen met het schrijven van het eerste hoofdstuk, om twee redenen. Op de eerste plaats weet ik niet hoe te beginnen en twijfel ik aan mijn schrijfvaardigheden. Op de tweede plaats heb ik het gevoel dat het onderwerp waarover ik zal schrijven nog aangescherpt moet worden. Zie de rode tekst hieronder.
Wel heb ik reeds een motto voor het proefschrift, vanwege de titel en de gelaagdheid in tijd die als een rode draad door het onderzoek loopt:
'Time's a strange thing,' Father Crompton said.
'Of course the child wouldn't understand it was all done in the past.'
'St Augustine asked where time came from. He said it came out of the future which didn't exist yet, into the present that had no duration, and went into the past which had ceased to exist. I don't know that we can understand time any better than a child.'
(The End of the Affair, Graham Greene, 1951)
The framework below has been accepted as a possible construction, to be refined in the course of the writing itself. The next step is to actually start writing chapter one, with foot notes and a bibliography.
Ik ben nog niet begonnen met het schrijven van het eerste hoofdstuk, om twee redenen. Op de eerste plaats weet ik niet hoe te beginnen en twijfel ik aan mijn schrijfvaardigheden. Op de tweede plaats heb ik het gevoel dat het onderwerp waarover ik zal schrijven nog aangescherpt moet worden. Zie de rode tekst hieronder.
Wel heb ik reeds een motto voor het proefschrift, vanwege de titel en de gelaagdheid in tijd die als een rode draad door het onderzoek loopt:
'Time's a strange thing,' Father Crompton said.
'Of course the child wouldn't understand it was all done in the past.'
'St Augustine asked where time came from. He said it came out of the future which didn't exist yet, into the present that had no duration, and went into the past which had ceased to exist. I don't know that we can understand time any better than a child.'
Framework for my doctoral artistic research Combining the avant-garde and the historical in improvisation, composition and interpretation, carried out at Leiden University and supervised by Frans de Ruiter and Joep Bor.
Research question: can a certain performance practice in eighteenth and nineteenth century Western classical music in which improvisation, composition and interpretation were fully integrated be revitalized in a contemporary context, with a connection to world music, jazz and pop?
Aim: restoring improvisation as a missing link between composition and interpretation in contemporary performance practices.
Methodology: 1. creating and internalizing the musical material which forms the basis of my performance practice 2. studying the tripartition improvisation/composition/interpretation in various contexts, in particular Western classical music, Persian and Indian classical music, jazz and various contemporary performance practices of other musicians.
Outcome: an contemporary approach to improvisation, based on internalizing musical formulae similar to, for instance, partimento playing in Western classical music and radif in Persian classical music, which is integrated in my performance practice, solo and with other musicians.
Significance:
-generating new insights into interpretation and improvisation and consequently provide new possibilities for performances
-functioning as a case study of combining several, often segregated from each other, musical disciplines and traditions.
The thesis will be structured as follows:
Preface
Chapter one: Introduction
Chapter two: Re-contextualizing ancient modality
A. Quality of sound and inner silence as a starting-point
B. Creating a network of exercises with rhythmic melodic patterns
Chapter three: Re-contextualizing fragments of organ works by Olivier Messiaen
Chapter four: Case studies
Chapter five: Conclusion
Preface
The role of video, audio and PDF files
Videos on YouTube show how music examples are performed by zooming in on hands, possibly also feet and overall views. They contain essential information which a text alone cannot give, among other things as a contemporary alternative for the voce del maestro, frequently mentioned in eighteenth century partimenti in addition to the written exercises. In addition, they show that music examples are memorized and played by heart, as an essential part of my approach. To demonstrate the flow of performance, all examples have been recorded in one track from beginning till end, without edits. In addition, the videos illustrate a typical eighteenth century feature, to which I connect in a twenty-first century manner, namely hiding in stead of showing the effort of performance (as described in chapter one). All videos have been previously posted on my blog Some Thoughts on Playing the Organ and Willem Tanke's Blog on New Music. In this context, comments on the videos have been most useful; they gave the research a certain interactive quality and often led to new versions of pieces and adjusted viewpoints. In case there is no video recording available, an audio file on SoundCloud is used. As many efforts have been made to obtain optimal sound quality, the reader is asked to listen to the recordings through good loudspeakers or headphones.
PDF files show scores of complete pieces and passages.
Is the preface the place to mention this?
Chapter one: Introduction
B. Internalizing musical formulae for improvisation in Persian classical music, Indian classical music and jazz
C. Internalizing musical formulae for contemporary improvisation as an alternative for free improvisation
Deze indeling lijkt mij nu te algemeen. Ik denk dat ik concreter moet zijn en zo dicht mogelijk bij mijn eigen expertise moet blijven. Bovendien ben ik na het lezen van het artikel van George Lewis anders gaan denken over de invalshoek improvisatie. Lewis stelt dat "Eurologische" beschouwingen over improvisatie bepaald worden door een "composer-performer hierarchy" die kenmerkend is voor Westerse klassieke muziek, maar irrelevant voor de "Afrological" benadering in jazz. Hier ben ik het mee eens, met dien verstande dat die "composer-performer hierarchy" tot en met de 18e eeuw ook in Westerse klassiek muziek niet nadrukkelijk aanwezig is. In feite is die hiërarchie slechts typisch voor twee eeuwen Westerse klassieke muziek, op een geheel van meer dan tien eeuwen. Een kanttekening bij het artikel van Lewis is dat het "osmotische" model dat ik voorsta, waarin improviseren, componeren en uitvoeren vloeiend in elkaar over gaan, niet alleen in overeenstemming is met "Afrologische" jazz, maar ook -naast Westerse klassieke muziek van voor 1800- met bijvoorbeeld Indiase en Perzische klassieke muziek. Met andere woorden, er is ook een "Asialogical approach" die relevant is voor mijn onderzoek. In feite wil ik mijn "Eurological" achtergrond op één lijn brengen met de "Afro- and Asialogical" benadering. Maar waarschijnlijk is het nog beter in het geheel geen nieuwe categorie aan de door Lewis veronderstelde toe te voegen en tot een vloeiende synthese te komen. Nettls "Thoughts on Improvisation" en "In the Course of Performance", waarin een veel breder spectrum dan alleen Westerse klassiek muziek en jazz aan bod komt, zouden deze synthese kunnen ondersteunen.
Iets dat mij de laatste tijd bezig houdt.Tot nu toe heb ik in mijn aanname dat improvisatie in de loop van de 19e en 20e eeuw verdween uit de Westerse muziekpraktijk (in overeenstemming bijvoorbeeld met het artikel van Moore) willens en wetens de orgeltraditie genegeerd, uit ongenoegen waarschijnlijk met het conservatieve karakter ervan. Een behoorlijk indrukwekkend en uniek feit is echter dat de orgelkunst een ononderbroken traditie van improviseren kent vanaf (in ieder geval) de 14e eeuw (Francesco Landini) tot op heden. Om nog meer bij mijn eigen expertise te blijven: J.S. Bach en Olivier Messiaen (die sowieso al belangrijk zijn in mijn onderzoek) waren bij uitstek organisten die het osmose-model "improviser-composer-performer" vertegenwoordigden. Ik zou hen dan niet vanuit de gangbare Westerse optiek moeten beschouwen, maar in verband brengen met andere muziektradities, bijvoorbeeld in de vorm van interviews met musici bij wie ik een soortgelijke manier van werken denk aan te treffen. Voor de hand ligt een interview met Mike Garson, waarin hij de lijn zou doortrekken naar zijn leraar Lennie Tristano (ik weet nu al dat de parallel met Bach en Messiaen door hem volledig zal worden bevestigd). Zij zijn echter blanke jazzmusici; liever zou ik het Afrologische nog meer expliciet vertegenwoordigd willen zien, zodat ik er des te beter op kan reageren. Het beste zou zijn een interview met George Lewis zelf. Wat betreft Aziatische muziek denk ik aan een interview met Dhruba Gosh (Indiase muziek) en Kayhan Kalhor (Perzische muziek), meesters in hun eigen traditie, met een ruime ervaring op het gebied van cross-overs.
Zou dan de onderzoeksvraag niet aangepast moeten, bijvoorbeeld als volgt?
Can a performance practice in the Western organ tradition in which improvisation, composition and interpretation have been fully integrated since the fourteenth century be revitalized in a contemporary context, with a connection to world music, jazz and pop?
Het feit dat ik voor het onderzoek ook de piano gebruik doet hier geen afbreuk aan; Bach en Messiaen zelf speelden behalve orgel ook respectievelijk clavecimbel en piano. Overigens komt met deze onderzoeksvraag een speciaal instrument dat ik recentelijk heb laten bouwen in een bijzonder daglicht te staan. Het gaat om een draagbaar orgel met drie manualen, zonder pedaal, en het gedigitaliseerde geluid van historische instrumenten, zoals het Silberman-orgel uit Arlesheim (18e eeuw) en het Cavaillé-Coll-orgel uit Caen (19e eeuw). Dit instrument gebruik ik in bezettingen waar normaal gesproken piano en/of keyboards worden gebruikt, bijvoorbeeld met drums en basgitaar.
Twee projecten in de vorm van programma's voor de concertpraktijk zouden dan een belangrijke rol gaan spelen in het onderzoek:
• "The Enchanted Forest", bedoeld voor (in principe) kerken. Een programma met werken van Bach en nieuwe muziek door Martijn Alsters, fluit, en Willem Tanke, orgel (d.w.z. het orgel dat in de betreffende kerk staat)
• "Lost Sounds Rediscovered", bedoeld voor overige podia. Een programma gespeeld door musici met uiteenlopende achtergronden, met als vaste kern Friso van Wijck, drums, en Willem Tanke, piano en orgel (d.w.z. het speciaal voor dit doel gebouwde instrument).
Zie onder voor een nadere beschrijving van deze projecten.
Iets dat mij de laatste tijd bezig houdt.Tot nu toe heb ik in mijn aanname dat improvisatie in de loop van de 19e en 20e eeuw verdween uit de Westerse muziekpraktijk (in overeenstemming bijvoorbeeld met het artikel van Moore) willens en wetens de orgeltraditie genegeerd, uit ongenoegen waarschijnlijk met het conservatieve karakter ervan. Een behoorlijk indrukwekkend en uniek feit is echter dat de orgelkunst een ononderbroken traditie van improviseren kent vanaf (in ieder geval) de 14e eeuw (Francesco Landini) tot op heden. Om nog meer bij mijn eigen expertise te blijven: J.S. Bach en Olivier Messiaen (die sowieso al belangrijk zijn in mijn onderzoek) waren bij uitstek organisten die het osmose-model "improviser-composer-performer" vertegenwoordigden. Ik zou hen dan niet vanuit de gangbare Westerse optiek moeten beschouwen, maar in verband brengen met andere muziektradities, bijvoorbeeld in de vorm van interviews met musici bij wie ik een soortgelijke manier van werken denk aan te treffen. Voor de hand ligt een interview met Mike Garson, waarin hij de lijn zou doortrekken naar zijn leraar Lennie Tristano (ik weet nu al dat de parallel met Bach en Messiaen door hem volledig zal worden bevestigd). Zij zijn echter blanke jazzmusici; liever zou ik het Afrologische nog meer expliciet vertegenwoordigd willen zien, zodat ik er des te beter op kan reageren. Het beste zou zijn een interview met George Lewis zelf. Wat betreft Aziatische muziek denk ik aan een interview met Dhruba Gosh (Indiase muziek) en Kayhan Kalhor (Perzische muziek), meesters in hun eigen traditie, met een ruime ervaring op het gebied van cross-overs.
Zou dan de onderzoeksvraag niet aangepast moeten, bijvoorbeeld als volgt?
Can a performance practice in the Western organ tradition in which improvisation, composition and interpretation have been fully integrated since the fourteenth century be revitalized in a contemporary context, with a connection to world music, jazz and pop?
Het feit dat ik voor het onderzoek ook de piano gebruik doet hier geen afbreuk aan; Bach en Messiaen zelf speelden behalve orgel ook respectievelijk clavecimbel en piano. Overigens komt met deze onderzoeksvraag een speciaal instrument dat ik recentelijk heb laten bouwen in een bijzonder daglicht te staan. Het gaat om een draagbaar orgel met drie manualen, zonder pedaal, en het gedigitaliseerde geluid van historische instrumenten, zoals het Silberman-orgel uit Arlesheim (18e eeuw) en het Cavaillé-Coll-orgel uit Caen (19e eeuw). Dit instrument gebruik ik in bezettingen waar normaal gesproken piano en/of keyboards worden gebruikt, bijvoorbeeld met drums en basgitaar.
Twee projecten in de vorm van programma's voor de concertpraktijk zouden dan een belangrijke rol gaan spelen in het onderzoek:
• "The Enchanted Forest", bedoeld voor (in principe) kerken. Een programma met werken van Bach en nieuwe muziek door Martijn Alsters, fluit, en Willem Tanke, orgel (d.w.z. het orgel dat in de betreffende kerk staat)
• "Lost Sounds Rediscovered", bedoeld voor overige podia. Een programma gespeeld door musici met uiteenlopende achtergronden, met als vaste kern Friso van Wijck, drums, en Willem Tanke, piano en orgel (d.w.z. het speciaal voor dit doel gebouwde instrument).
Zie onder voor een nadere beschrijving van deze projecten.
Chapter two: Re-contextualizing ancient modality
A. Quality of sound and inner silence as a starting-point
This elaborates on a research called The Art of Doing Nothing, which I carried out for the World Music Research Group of Codarts, University for the Arts, from 2004 until 2006. Starting-point for The Art of Doing Nothing was the organ-playing of J.S. Bach, who could achieve an extraordinary powerful musical expression with very small movements of fingers and feet only, according to one of his contemporaries. During my study and afterwards, this helped me form a picture of an ideal way of playing the organ and musicianship in general. With an eye to composers who were also known to be interpreters and improvisers, such as (besides J.S. Bach) Chopin, Liszt, Franck and Messiaen, The Art of Doing Nothing aimed at improving mental and physical conditions for musicianship, by creating a good balance between performing, improvising and composing, with the help of analysis and research.
I related the observations on Bach's playing to a typically eighteenth century term in German music: vernehmendes Hören, which translates as 'observational listening'. It implies that the performer has a kind of inner silence even while playing exciting passages. Through many years of experience, I found that this inner silence is the result of a continuous striving for the best possible quality of sound and at the very basis of good communication with other musicians and audiences. Consequently, I used it as a tool for cross-overs with musicians from various backgrounds, as a universal connecting value. Several recordings will demonstrate this, for example Stillness, which I originally composed for organ or piano solo, but in the following used as a framework for improvisations by musicians from world music, jazz, and pop traditions. It is a slow, contemplative piece without any technical difficulties, allowing the performers to fully concentrate on quality of sound and inner silence.
The organ solo version which is at the basis of a series of improvisations is as follows:
The version which is most removed from the original:
Other versions will demonstrate how musicians with various backgrounds can play together within the framework of this piece.
Er is een ook een ethische kant. De kameleon-uitdrukking "The Art of Doing Nothing" kan ook worden uitgelegd als "The Art of Listening", d.w.z. naar anderen en naar de eigen kwaliteit van klank. Marcel's boek lezen en Joachim Ernst Behrends "Nada Brama" herlezen.
B. Creating a network of exercises with rhythmic melodic patterns
Until the late '90s my improvisations may be described as an amalgam of contemplative Gregorian chant and wild outbursts of energy that I associated with Coltrane's free jazz, linked to each other by ancient modality in an overall rubato atmosphere. A recording of of a free improvisation ensemble with jazz and pop musicians which I founded in 1996 will show this. Playing with African singers and drummers in the Scots Reformed Church in Rotterdam between 1998 and 2000 changed my views on improvisation; from then I wanted to be able to play with a much tighter rhythmical organization. Fascinated by the African habit of improvising on a groove, I started to practise simple rhythmic patterns within the modal framework that I was used to. At the beginning, I played these patterns only with the left hand, to provide a bass for possible future melodies, which should be played with the right hand. Later, I changed the functions of the hands; the right hand would play the groove and the left improvised lower voices. Over the years I developed a variety of rhythmical melodic patterns, often in odd meters, which appeared to be very useful in, for instance, cross-overs with jazz and pop musicians. An example is Lost Sounds Rediscovered, for which percussionist Renato Peneda memorized the series of patterns which I gave him.
Het bovenstaande stuk met Renato neem ik momenteel als uitgangspunt voor het project genaamd "Losts Sounds Rediscovered", waarin ik het osmose-model met uiteenlopende musici in de praktijk wil bevestigen. Aan de basis staat een fantasie over hoe muziek van de Guanches, de oorspronkelijke bewoners van de Canarische Eilanden die in 1483 definitief door de Spanjaarden werden verslagen, geklonken zou kunnen hebben en via een tijdmachine in de 21e eeuw belandt. De Guanches waren Berbers, afkomstig uit Noord-Afrika. Van hun muziek is in werkelijkheid niets bekend. In mijn fantasie wordt ze gekenmerkt door een rijkdom aan onregelmatige maatsoorten en een modaliteit die we ook nu nog aantreffen in bijvoorbeeld Marokko en Tunesië. Noord-Afrika wordt dan als het ware een bakermat van de synthese van Afrologische, Aziëlogische en Eurologische aspecten die ik nastreef. De partituur van het stuk met Renato is:
Chapter three: Re-contextualizing fragments of organ works by Messiaen
While chapter two mainly illustrates the use of ancient modality in a contemporary context, chapter three enters a different world: atonality, as found in bird songs and complex harmonic passages from organ works by Olivier Messiaen. As with the change caused by playing with African musicians, it was through practice itself that I discovered the possibilities of this world for my own improvisations and compositions and, consequently, for other musicians. In 2007, while practising a difficult passage for a Messiaen concert, I realized that his atonal bird songs often contain archetypal call, answer and question motives which might be transformed and enrich the vocabulary which I had developed until then. After some years of practising, this procedure turned out to be an efficient tool in cross-overs with other traditions, as demonstrated in the following video with jazz saxophonist Ruben Verbruggen and jazz/heavy metal drummer Friso van Wijck:
The performance in the above video is not yet good enough and will be replaced by a better one. Actually, the standard of our ensemble playing is already on a higher level.
The dissertation will be very specific on where the original material is taken from and how it is treated. For instance, in the following video the first duet from L'Ange aux parfums, the third movement of Les Corps Glorieux is played. Composed in 1939, it is still unique in organ literature and provides excellent opportunities for improvisation.
Both the left and right hand parts are used as starting-points for improvisatory exercises. First, the left hand solo, exactly as Messiaen wrote it:
A series of improvisatory exercises based on this left hand part will follow, so that the reader may compare the proceedings. The first of this series will be:
The part for the right hand as Messiaen wrote it is as follows:
This will also be followed by a series of exercises/improvisations.
Three remarks on this:
• the idea of exercise is only briefly mentioned here, while it is essential for connecting on the one hand improvisation, composition and performance to each other and on the other the variety of musics concerned. It may be an important item for my interviews with other musicians. Oefeningen lopen als een rode draad door het oeuvre van Bach, zelfs in titels van stukken. Ook bij Messiaen is dit aantoonbaar.
• de onregelmatige maatsoorten die ik gebruik in veel van mijn ritmisch melodische patronen zijn niet uit de lucht komen vallen. In het oeuvre van Messiaen had ik ze al intensief bestudeerd, zoals in
"Les Anges" (N.B insert video van "Les Anges"). Het verschil is dat Messiaen ze nooit als groove of riff heeft gebruikt, omdat dit in strijd zou zijn geweest met zijn esthetische principes (voor hem was het ritme als de golven van de zee die voortdurend veranderen). Voor mij zijn die grooves juist van groot belang voor de samenwerking met musici uit andere muziektradities.
• een behoorlijk aantal jazzmusici geeft aan te zijn beïnvloed door Messiaen. In alle mij bekende gevallen gaat het dan om een verrijking van het harmonisch idioom in een main stream jazz context, in overeenstemming met Messiaens "Technique de mon language musical" uit 1944, dat in vele bronnen over 20e eeuwse muziek wordt genoemd. Dit verschilt zeer van de invloed die ik van Messiaen onderga, met name omdat het harmonisch metrum van main stream jazz mij volledig vreemd is. In dat opzicht voel ik mij meer verwant met andere Afrologisch georiënteerde musici. Daarnaast beroep ik mij in harmonisch opzicht veel meer op Messiaen's laatste periode, als de samenklanken veel complexer zijn dan in de jaren '30 en '40. Messiaens "Traité du rhytme..." uit 1998, dat met een inhoud van ruim 5000 bladzijdes bijna honderd keer zo uitgebreid als "Technique..." maar veel minder bekend, is een substantieel onderdeel van mijn bibliografie.
Chapter four: Case studies
Case study one: Interpreting trio sonatas for organ by J.S. Bach with a new kind of authenticity
Ever since the 19th century, Bach's trio sonatas have been looked upon as a sanctuary in the organ repertoire. They are extremely difficult to play, as one musician should do the work that is usually done by two or three musicians. As a touchstone for the organist's abilities they are not only admired but also feared and avoided in public performances. For any organist, they create the dilemma of making appear easy, spontaneous and even improvisatory what can only be achieved after huge efforts. They are so well-known and admired that one could speak of the "burden of history", a burden which contradicts the fact that these sonatas were originally only meant to be exercises for Bach's son Wilhelm Friedemann. To eliminate this burden and rediscover the pure joy of exercise is the aim of this case study. I therefore connect the performance of Bach's sonatas to the many exercises I made based on rhythmic melodic patterns and fragments derived from Messiaen. The result is a short cut from the beginning of the 21st century to Bach's days, deliberately ignoring the history in between and involving other music traditions. It may be regarded as a new kind of authenticity; the added value to existing recordings of Bach's sonatas could be described in terms of elegance, supplesse and expression. Deze beschrijving van de "added value" moet onderbouwd worden. Dit kan door te wijzen op de manuaal- en pedaaltractuur van het gedigitaliseerde systeem dat ik gebruik voor de Bach-opnames, dat een subtiele speeltechniek mogelijk maakt, vergelijkbaar met een clavichord, het studie-instrument bij uitstek in Bachs tijd. In tegenstelling tot het het veel grovere speelmechaniek van de meeste "echte" orgels zijn alle finesses van uitvoering direct hoorbaar. Dit is een voordeel voor de uitvoerder die over een soepele, vloeiende techniek en een fijnzinnig toucher beschikt, maar een nadeel voor de uitvoerder die dit niet heeft; net als het clavichord toont het moderne gedigitaliseerde instrument genadeloos ieder gebrek aan. Hierdoor ontstaat een nieuw inzicht betreffende authenticiteit; de klank van historische instrumenten (bv. het Silbermann-orgel uit 1783) en het raffinement van het clavichord belanden als het ware via een tijdmachine (cf. "Lost Sounds Rediscovered") in de 21e eeuw. In zekere zin overstijgt dan de virtuele werkelijkheid de "echte" werkelijkheid.
N.B. This case-study is the most challenging part of the research and probably also the hardest to account for. The phenomenon of the performing/improvising composer has been accepted since long, and also the fact that such a musician may be an acclaimed interpreter of contemporary works by others, but to be in the heart of Western classical music (as Bach is) at a top level of performance and at the same time be an original, innovative improviser/composer is without a precedent. If my Bach interpretations should appear to be convincing, the positive effect of my research on, for instance, a younger generation of musicians would be much larger than without this case study. It might then be compared to an artistic doctoral research of, for instance, an Indian singer, who gives contemporary, adventurous performances with musicians from other traditions while also demonstrating to be a master of dhrupad.
Videos of the six sonatas can be found on the following web site:
Videos of the six sonatas can be found on the following web site:
Here, the sonatas are played on a console with digitalized sound. They will serve as a reference for professional recordings on real organs, to be issued on the market ( a post-PhD project).
Het Bach-verhaal is nog wat theoretisch en niet echt overtuigend. Daardoor blijft het een "Fremdkörper" in het onderzoek. Maar via "The Enchanted Forest", waarin de muziek van Bach in één programma met overige muziek van het onderzoek wordt gebracht, kan het wel stevig verankerd worden. Maar ook dan is het nodig nog dieper af te dalen in de praktijk van alledag: het systeem van oefeningen en memoriseren dat ten grondslag ligt aan zowel de duizend-en-één (het getal is symbolisch) formules voor improvisatie/compositie en de Bach-studie. Daartoe heb ik van het derde deel van de triosonate BWV 527 zeven video's gemaakt van respectievelijk linkerhand solo, rechterhand solo, pedaal solo, linkerhand+pedaal, rechterhand+pedaal, linkerhand+rechterhand en tenslotte alle drie stemmen tegelijk. Het memoriseren en spelen van iedere stem afzonderlijk is essentieel voor het oefenen van de co-ordinatie en direct vergelijkbaar met het oefenen van de 21e eeuwse ritmisch-melodische patronen; in dit opzicht komen de studie van orgelwerken van Bach en hedendaagse improvisatie elkaar ten goede. De praktijk die uit deze video's naar voren komt zal denk ik overtuigender zijn dan welke theoretische beschouwing dan ook. Hier de link:
About practising trio sonatas by J.S. Bach
"The Enchanted Forest" zal Bach's muziek daadwerkelijk in een nieuwe context brengen. Overigens dient het zich niet te beperken tot de sonates; ook koraalvoorspelen, toccata's en dergelijke kunnen -mede afhankelijk van het orgel- tot het programma behoren. De genoemde website "J.S. Bach played by Willem Tanke" is dan des te functioneler.
Maar als deze case-study omgedoopt wordt tot "The Enchanted Forest" zou ook "Lost Sounds Rediscovered" een plaats moeten krijgen bij de case-studies en niet in hoofdstuk 2b, zoals nu nog het geval is. Zie onder.
Chapter five (Conclusion) will show how this case study resulted in concerts with flutist Martijn Alsters, in which works by Bach are combined with new compositions and improvisations.
About practising trio sonatas by J.S. Bach
"The Enchanted Forest" zal Bach's muziek daadwerkelijk in een nieuwe context brengen. Overigens dient het zich niet te beperken tot de sonates; ook koraalvoorspelen, toccata's en dergelijke kunnen -mede afhankelijk van het orgel- tot het programma behoren. De genoemde website "J.S. Bach played by Willem Tanke" is dan des te functioneler.
Maar als deze case-study omgedoopt wordt tot "The Enchanted Forest" zou ook "Lost Sounds Rediscovered" een plaats moeten krijgen bij de case-studies en niet in hoofdstuk 2b, zoals nu nog het geval is. Zie onder.
Case study two: Assimilating a drummer's way of thinking and practising
When I began to improvise and compose with the rhythmic melodic patterns described in chapter one, I only occasionally practised with a metronome, relying on the good reputation I had for rhythmic accuracy as a performer of organ works by Messiaen and avant-garde composers of the late twentieth century. I now regard this as a sign of unjustified self assurance, typical for many performers of Western classical music, who tend to look down on using the metronome as something for beginners and not quite worthy of higher artistic aspirations. Playing some of these patterns with the excellent tabla player Sandip Bhattacharya (who transcribed the rhythmical part in Hindi syllables) in 2007 and 2008 showed my weakness in this respect: it appeared that my way of playing was not steady and did not match his accuracy. In 2012, the same weakness still appeared in playing with pop/funk drummer Hans de Greeve and he justly criticized me of not knowing exactly when, for instance, I was playing thirteen or fourteen beats in a pattern. In the same year, a solo piano version of a piece with such patterns was recorded at the Bloomline Studio and edited by Leo de Klerk to compensate for a lack of rhythmical precision. At this editing session, he informed me that he had treated award-winning CDs with baroque music in the same way, sometimes with up to a thousand edits for one CD. After that, I decided to leave my Western classical way of dealing with rhythm and started to assimilate ways of thinking and practising from other traditions through weekly rehearsals with jazz/pop/heavy metal drummer and composer Friso van Wijck, to improve the performance of my own music but also to escape from what I regarded as quite a decadent lack of authenticity in dealing with baroque music. This case study is therefore directly related to my performance of Bach's trio sonatas, all movements of which have been recorded in one track, without edits. The main goal, however, is to describe into detail how this assimilation took place and resulted into a concert program which Friso van Wijck and I developed together. As a supplement, the case study will contain some not too difficult exercises with irregular beat divisions and complex meters, which may serve any classical keyboard player (pianist, organist, harpsichordist), solo or in cross-overs with other traditions.
Het lijkt mij nu veel beter om dit onderdeel te verwerken in hoofdstuk 2b. Met Friso ben ik ieder afzonderlijk patroon van het daargenoemde stuk aan het instuderen, als oefening op zich. Hiertoe heb ik een extra bas geschreven, die behalve voor piano en orgel met name ook geschikt is voor instrumenten als basgitaar, basklarinet en fagot. De partituur hiervan is:
Een uitwerking hiervan op het nieuwe orgel, vooralsnog nog niet met drums, maar met een click track:
Case study four: Playing with jazz musicians
Cross-overs with jazz evidently create a very interesting domain for this research. Some of the rhythmic melodic patterns I made for piano or organ solo appear to be exciting grooves for improvising jazz musicians. In addition, complex harmonies derived from Messiaen tend to appeal to them and add something to the harmonic vocabulary which they know from their tradition. Last but not least, the melodic fragments which I 'sampled ' from scores by Messiaen appear to be potentially interesting bird song licks, suitable for spicy, slightly atonal jazz solos with a very contemporary feel. This case study deals with cross-overs with several jazz musicians presented in chronological order, so that they may be seen in the context of developments described in previous chapters.
The first recording is with jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans and bass clarinetist Henri Bok (mainly active in Western classical music but also in jazz). Here we operate within an modal framework that we agreed upon during a rehearsal a few days before the concert. The organ provides a drone which refers both to Indian music and modality of Coltrane's free jazz. The drone is activated by rhythmical patterns played on other manuals and the pedal. These have a clear structural function which we decided to use on beforehand; in that respect this is not a free improvisation, although in a certain degree it captures the atmosphere generally associated with free improvisation. There is no sign of Messiaen fragments yet; the recording was made before I discovered that possibility.
The second recording is with pianist Mike Garson, who was trained as a jazz musician by, among others, Lennie Tristano, grew up with the rise of free jazz in New York in the '60s, but became mainly known for his work with pop star David Bowie from the '70s up to the present age. There was no rehearsal for this recording, but discussed a certain structure during about ten minutes before the concert. We began to play according to this structure, but at 2'58'' in the following video completely went into other directions; the improvisation became very free then. Still, there is no sign of Messiaen yet.
N.B. Mike Garson suggested me to make research into Lennie Tristano's dubbing technique and pieces like Turkish mambo, and relate that to contemporary ways of working, but I did not yet find time for that. It may be very interesting.
A complete album with improvisations for two pianos by Mike Garson and Willem Tanke is ready to be issued on the market after finishing the PhD-research. Fragments of the recordings may be used for the thesis.
A complete album with improvisations for two pianos by Mike Garson and Willem Tanke is ready to be issued on the market after finishing the PhD-research. Fragments of the recordings may be used for the thesis.
The third recording is one of many made with jazz saxophonist pur sang Gijs Hendriks, with whom I co-operated between 1998 and 2000 (as an organist and a synthesizer player) and 2009 and 2011 (as a pianist). Gijs Hendriks was, as he said, at the time "blown away completely" by Coltrane's free jazz but hardly participated with Dutch avant-garde improvisers like, for instance, Willem Breuker, Misha Mengelberg and Han Bennink. Therefore, he is considered by many more as a main stream jazz musician. In our work, however, he wanted to explore new ways of creating music as a next step after free jazz and the established Dutch avant-garde. He regretted that a documentary on his work and life issued in 2012 did not mention this aspect of his musicianship. Therefore, this part of the case study has the additional value of making that known and adjusting the general image of a prominent Dutch jazz musician (there is more than enough material, for instance, for a master research on this subject).
The following recording with Gijs Hendriks shows in particular how a jazz musician may respond in an improvisatory way to complex harmonies derived from organ pieces by Messiaen.
Finally, there will be an account of the work with jazz saxophonist Ruben Verbruggen, whom I came to know when he studied at Codarts in 2012/2013. This is particularly interesting as he was the first jazz musician to practise the bird song fragments which I distilled from Messiaen and integrate these in his own solos. While Gijs Hendriks is at the end of his career, Ruben Verbruggen is still at the beginning. He studies the recordings I made with Gijs Hendriks and carries the work on in his own way.
Case study five: Some contributions to the East-West dialogue
This will begin with a historic outline, from when Ravi Shankar and Yehudi Menuhin played together (yet to be researched). Recordings with tabla player Sandip Bhattacharya and bansuri player/flutist Henri Tournier made between 2007 and 2010 will then be regarded in the context of this outline. Among other things, it may appear that the left hand rhythmic melodic patterns of the case organ in the following video, synchronized by tabla as a basis for the improvised solo on flute, is without a precedent. These organs have been used in East-West encounters before, but simply to provide a drone, similar to a tanpura. It may then serve, for instance, as an example for Indian harmonium/organ players, who use their instrument either to provide a drone or melodic right hand solos.
The second part of this case study is dedicated to recordings made in 2012 with Michalis Kouloumis, violin, Aleksandros Papadimitrakis, oud, Marina Liontou, oud, and Josuè W. Amador, electric guitar. At the time, they were students of Codarts; each of them carried out a master research in which improvisation played an important role. It will appear that these recordings are harmonically much more complex than the recordings with Sandip Bhattacharya and Henri Tournier, due to two reasons:
● a tabla tends to keep the music fixed in one tone centre
● I used chords derived from Messiaen in the work with the students, but not yet with Henri Tournier and Sandip Bhattacharya.
A particularly interesting aspect of a recording with Marina Liontou will be presented: the use of complex, chromatic chords within the framework of a modal tone centre. This may lead to new insights regarding the use of keyboard instruments (i.e. the vast majority with a traditional twelve tones per octave division) in combination with instruments that produce micro tones. The general view is that such keyboard instruments can not adequately respond to subtleties evoked by micro tones. In the following video, however, a delicate use of complex chromatic chords, particularly from 3'40", seems to contradict this view. The original meaning of the word chromè(“colour”) may then be related to, for instance, the notion of rasa in Indian music, traditionally also associated with colour. It must be said that this development is still very elementary and requires a serious investigation.
Similarly, more expertise is needed in playing with musicians from the East. The new portable organ may provide new opportunities for performing with a tabla player. The following recording has been made with the app "Tabla Pro":
Ardha Sikhar Taal + Organ
Ardha Sikhar Taal + Organ
Case study six: Free improvisation revisited
In chapter two and three I described how from the late '90s I took a certain distance from free improvisation as I had practised before, by using a very structured method leading to a network of rhythmic melodic patterns and transformed Messiaen fragments. Similar to, for instance, tabla playing, radif in traditional Persian music or partimenti in eighteenth century Western classical music, I memorized and internalized this network so that every part of it could be performed at any time, not only at the instrument but also mentally and even while being half asleep. Having reached that state of affairs, I re-entered the field of free improvisation, in the sense of performing without any arrangement made on beforehand. In this I try to be, as it were, beyond control and let the fingers (and possibly feet) move quasi automatically. It is a fruitful experience, as not only the internalized patterns pop up, but also unexpected new ones. An example of this took place during a lesson on free improvisation to bass clarinetist William Hayter:
Another manifestation of taking up free improvisation again in a renewed context (but without the lack of control aimed at in the previous example) is the work with a free improvisation ensemble which I founded in 1996. Actually, this ensemble is called The Art of Doing Nothing, and consists of Martijn Alsters, flutes and live electronics, René van Commenée, various instruments and voice, and Willem Tanke, organ, piano and keyboards. Compared to our previous work, the improvisations are more structured without loosing the overall atmosphere of free improvisation. This is in particular due to very organized rhythmic melodic patterns which are treated like grooves and alternate with free rubato passages, as shown in the following video.
Dit lijkt mij nu niet zo relevant meer. De vergelijking met "free improvisation" is op de achtergrond geraakt, vanwege de eye-opener in het artikel van Lewis, waar hij stelt dat improvisatie vanuit de Eurologische optiek steeds wordt bezien in het licht van de "composer-performer hierarchy".
Case study seven: New ways of interpreting scores by Messiaen
In 2012, I was asked to play Messiaen's Livre du Saint Sacrement(1984) at the Rumor Festival of "adventurous pop music" in Utrecht. However, not the complete piece, which lasts over two hours, but a selection of the eighteen movements with a total duration of about sixty minutes. This selection should then consist of the "heaviest" movements, which —as known by insiders— tend to thrill not only classical music audiences but also the general public. This unusual request confronted me with a musical problem; it was clear that I should choose the tutti pieces, but if one plays fortissimo all the time any audience, even that of for instance heavy metal aficionados, would get tired and miss the point. On the other hand, I felt that I should not alternate the heavy pieces with some of the soft, more etheric movements which Messiaen wrote, as that would remove the concert too far from the audience's taste. For some weeks, I racked my brain as to how I should solve this problem and at last found a solution: to alternate the heavy pieces with some of my lighter improvisations on rhythmic melodic patterns, which were not derived from Messiaen at all. This would break the rather austere atmosphere of Messiaen's music and introduce an aspect which an adventurous pop audience might appreciate. This formula appeared to be successful and (to my amusement) one of the reviews mentioned "Messiaen's pop beats", which for insiders of classical music is quite an absurd qualification. The recording of the whole concert is presented in this case study, as it should be listened to and judged on a macro structure level. It serves as an example of how a contemporary practice in which improvisation, composition and interpretation are full integrated can affect the performance of an already canonized piece of the organ repertoire. It must be said that I might not have ventured to do this for a regular classical audience and that the adventurous pop lovers undoubtedly stimulated me to make this choice.
Audio example Livre du Saint Sacrement, Domkerk Utrecht, 2012 (fragment): Example combining Messiaen with improvisation
Another example of profoundly changing the context of a composition by Messiaen, even on a deeper level, is A View Out of Time, for piano solo. Far beyond the level of a transcription, this is a complete re-interpretation of Messiaen's organ piece Soixante-quatre durées, the last movement of Livre d'orgue (1951), in such a way that many would not recognize it all and think that it is one my compositions. Still, the procedure is very different from taking fragments from organ works by Messiaen and treat them as described in chapter three; it is more like showing another side of the original piece in a new light. The original piece by Messiaen is as follows:
The re-interpreted version for piano:
The re-interpreted version for piano:
Audio example: A View Out of Time
Both versions can be regarded as completely opposed to the nineteenth century notion of Werktreue, to which Messiaen himself and (even more so) his wife Yvonne Loriod, perhaps his most prominent interpreter, adhered very much. In fact, I am almost sure that they would have disapproved of my new versions. Still, it seemed to me necessary to do so, also in this respect leaving nineteenth and twentieth century traditions and open up new ways.
Deze case-study vind ik nog steeds van groot belang voor het onderzoek. Alleen moet ik nadenken over de context.
Chapter five: Conclusion
A clear framework for the conclusion still has to be made. The construction could be more or less as follows.
The first section begins with a little story which I invented to draw a parallel between partimenti playing and my own practice, in a light-hearted atmosphere that contradicts the pompousness which so often accompanies the notion of Western art music.
"In 18th century Naples, a student of a conservatorio is preparing for -besides his daily studies of partimenti- a performance of a piece by Domenico Scarlatti, then famous in the whole of Europe for his brilliant oeuvre for cembalo. One evening, he plays the piece by Scarlatti during a concert for a small audience of music lovers and connoisseurs. As the piece is well-known and a touchstone for any clavecinist, he does his best to play exactly what is written in the score and be acclaimed for his refined interpretation. The next day, however, during his daily routine of practising partimenti, he remembers an intriguing passage from Scarlatti's score and starts to play around with it, in an improvisatory manner. He then combines the passage with some of the partimenti that he is actually working at, as a special exercise and to make the improvisation more varied. The same evening, he shares his musical experiment with some fellow musicians in an informal setting, different from the concert the day before. This time, he doesn't play around, but critically judges the balance between variety and repetitions, as a composer would do and after returning home he makes some sketches, as a memory aid. On Sunday, at the organ in a church nearby, he is asked to play some music during the offertory. Again our student improvises on the passage by Scarlatti and the partimenti, according to the sketches he made, but taking care to adapt his improvisation to the particular qualities and needs of the organ. During the week that follows, he writes a complete version of the piece, one that he considers as well-balanced. This does not imply that on future occasions he would always play this version; on the contrary, one day, waiting for his bread at the baker's, he heard someone whistle a tune that would match his piece to perfection, so he decided to integrate that also, with some slight adjustments. On another occasion, this adapted version served a duet for flute and cembalo. Unfortunately, the student's piece did not remain in history; the manuscript was never printed and one day accidentally thrown away by his landlady."
This story also refers to interchangeability of instruments, a typically eighteenth century feature and completely in line with my use of the organ and the piano.
It may be followed by an account of the relation between Bruno Nettl's Thoughts on Improvisation one the one hand, and partimentiplaying and radif in traditional Persian music on the other (Mohsen Mohammadi, a foremost authority on radif, is a good friend of mine and we discussed it already rather thoroughly). It will then appear that both partimenti playing and radif are manifestations of similar ways of thinking and practising, which also fully apply to my practice. Consequently, my practice will be taken out of the limited context of Western classical music and be considered on a more universal level.
The second section will focus on putting the many cross-references made in chapters two until four in a coherent context, including a reflection on my own development similar to the following.
From when I started to improvise in churches I have been developing my own musical language, sometimes very slowly during a period of some years, but since the late '90s with growing intensity. At first, this language was rather one-dimensional, based on modality similar to Gregorian chant and Coltrane's free jazz and suitable only for free improvisation in an overall rubato atmosphere. Playing with African musicians between 1998 and 2000 was the starting-point for creating a continuously extending network of rhythmic melodic patterns, resulting in a language with a much tighter rhythmic organisation, but still only two-dimensional. Since 2007, a third dimension has been added by integrating mainly atonal fragments from organ works by Messiaen, leading to a melodic and harmonic enrichment which made the language complete and suitable for cross-overs with jazz, world music and pop. Whereas the first, second and third dimension have come “from within”, these cross-overs may result in a fourth dimension “from the outside”. Whereas the first three dimensions are rather complete now and made me we well equipped, the fourth still has to grow, in particular through playing with other musicians.
What I forgot to mention (because it's so obvious to me) is that the whole system of exercises is useless if not performed with joy. This has nothing to do with a naive view on music making. On the contrary, it is just a matter of professionalism: if you don't enjoy it you will simply not have the stamina to keep it up for the many years needed to have satisfactory results. In the case of Bach each single voice is so well written that they provide a source of joy for life-long learning, as numerous musicians have experienced before me. The challenge is to make the exercises for my contemporary improvisations and compositions so good that they give a similar kind of joy. A touchstone for this should not only be my own experience, of course, but that of a substantial number of other musicians too. By the way, this is where I seen a clear difference between improvising and composing, in spite of the fact that they are related processes. Whereas the musical invention basically comes into existence through an improvisation in which the calculating mind is on the background it mostly needs a process of composition in which the calculating mind moves to the foreground, else the joy will not last so long. This specific kind of compositional activity is also not so explicit in interpreting a piece, in spite of this also being a similar process.
The keyword 'joy' leads to another relation between Bach and my grooves: the fact that both are very motoric. Indeed a lot of joy is represented in a saying that fits both kinds of music: "At the beginning there was rhythm". Bach's music contains many phrases or fragments of phrases which are suitable to put into a loop and practise them like a groove (to be shown in a video).
Clearly related to joy is also quality of sound. If you don't enjoy the sound you have or expect to have in the future because you're working on it, you will also not be able to keep it up for a long time. That is why chapter 2b is so important.
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