---------------Artist
Ter Veldhuis, in this record, draws out pieces on a basis of voice loops from a wide variety of sources, from Gulf War reports or juvenile delinquency documentaries to the voice of Chet Baker. As the speech plays out and generates a certain type of timbre and rhythm, the instruments intervene with melodic passages, always fast-paced, always mirroring the form of the speech as confrontation or as pure company and adornment. The highlight of the album, “GRAB IT!” is the best example of the method, taxing the sax player enormously as the piece constantly demands him or her to keep up with the shouts of anger and the insults in the samples. The rest of the pieces mix this to varying effects, generating an interesting interplay between speech and instruments that most of the time feel like noisy exercises in pissing the ‘serious listener’ off.
And man, are they noisy! I had the fortune of experiencing the aforementioned piece live with a very skilled sax player, at a college festival that combined contemporary works with modern ones in a program that, at the very least, surprised me with its variety. So it was pretty fun and funny to have been assailed by this loud, out-of-control work almost immediately after a classical guitarist had set an initial mood with works by Ernst Krenek and Frank Martin. The rational razor of the modern had thrown the audience’s senses into deep introspection and had meticulously forged the almost mystical connection with the pre-constructed hyper present-tense when after a small break, still meditative, it was blown to pieces by high-volume sound equipment and the precise wails of alto sax.
The rest of the pieces in this album follow, more or less, a similar pattern, always giving speech a very important place among the production of sounds. They’re also inevitably loud, repetitive, and of a technical complexity that has appropriated the modernist language while having simultaneously kind of dumbed it down in an almost joking form of expression that seems to pursue no high ideal, throwing concepts and ideas around to see which ones stick (and if none do, it matters not). In this vein, I found an interesting text in the Quasar Sax Quartet webpage that I’d like to quote: “A controversial figure in certain circles, ter Veldhuis dares to stand up to what he calls the 'washed-out avant garde'. He strives to liberate new music from its isolation by employing a direct, at times provocative idiom that spurns 'the dissonant', in Ter Veldhuis' view a completely devalued means of musical expression.” Regardless of the status of our allegiance to the avant-garde, it’s at least commendable that the man expressly stands against it instead of trying to counter-follow its inheritance in some way (winking all the way to the concert hall) or altogether ignoring it.
One could argue that this enterprise could be done in a more perfected matter, but then again, if punk was the shock therapy popular music needed at the time and it was based upon non-skill, noise, killing history, and clear flaws, then the music of ter Veldhuis might not be too far off from its paradoxical purpose of bringing the avant-garde to the masses. After all, it was pretty amusing that a friend of mine, who attended that same festival and who has fairly conservative musical tastes, utterly disliked the Krenek and Martin pieces and then actually liked the ter Veldhuis one. The man could be onto something, I guess.
In the end, it’s not an album I particularly enjoy, like, or think as 'good' (perhaps my allegiance is still on the other side), but it might prove interesting to explore for you, our dear readers, while considering the few issues brought up in this post and the many others left out because of virtual space or sheer ignorance on my part. Listening to the first piece, at least, makes the exploration worth it. Enjoy (or not)!
Label
If you’ve been wondering ‘so, besides Philip Glass & co. as well as the so-called ‘neoclassical’ bands, what’s out there that currently resists the tireless impulses of old modernism?’ here’s some music to help you answer the question. Its form: a postmodern mash-up of minimalism, melodic interventions, kitschy jazz, and voice samples in what Jacob ter Veldhuis has called ‘boombox works’. Because of them, the Dutch composer has been accused of anti-intellectualism and ‘musical terrorism’, among other charges that will certainly come to mind when facing this music. If punk had entirely come from an academy, this could’ve been its sound.
Ter Veldhuis, in this record, draws out pieces on a basis of voice loops from a wide variety of sources, from Gulf War reports or juvenile delinquency documentaries to the voice of Chet Baker. As the speech plays out and generates a certain type of timbre and rhythm, the instruments intervene with melodic passages, always fast-paced, always mirroring the form of the speech as confrontation or as pure company and adornment. The highlight of the album, “GRAB IT!” is the best example of the method, taxing the sax player enormously as the piece constantly demands him or her to keep up with the shouts of anger and the insults in the samples. The rest of the pieces mix this to varying effects, generating an interesting interplay between speech and instruments that most of the time feel like noisy exercises in pissing the ‘serious listener’ off.
And man, are they noisy! I had the fortune of experiencing the aforementioned piece live with a very skilled sax player, at a college festival that combined contemporary works with modern ones in a program that, at the very least, surprised me with its variety. So it was pretty fun and funny to have been assailed by this loud, out-of-control work almost immediately after a classical guitarist had set an initial mood with works by Ernst Krenek and Frank Martin. The rational razor of the modern had thrown the audience’s senses into deep introspection and had meticulously forged the almost mystical connection with the pre-constructed hyper present-tense when after a small break, still meditative, it was blown to pieces by high-volume sound equipment and the precise wails of alto sax.
The rest of the pieces in this album follow, more or less, a similar pattern, always giving speech a very important place among the production of sounds. They’re also inevitably loud, repetitive, and of a technical complexity that has appropriated the modernist language while having simultaneously kind of dumbed it down in an almost joking form of expression that seems to pursue no high ideal, throwing concepts and ideas around to see which ones stick (and if none do, it matters not). In this vein, I found an interesting text in the Quasar Sax Quartet webpage that I’d like to quote: “A controversial figure in certain circles, ter Veldhuis dares to stand up to what he calls the 'washed-out avant garde'. He strives to liberate new music from its isolation by employing a direct, at times provocative idiom that spurns 'the dissonant', in Ter Veldhuis' view a completely devalued means of musical expression.” Regardless of the status of our allegiance to the avant-garde, it’s at least commendable that the man expressly stands against it instead of trying to counter-follow its inheritance in some way (winking all the way to the concert hall) or altogether ignoring it.
One could argue that this enterprise could be done in a more perfected matter, but then again, if punk was the shock therapy popular music needed at the time and it was based upon non-skill, noise, killing history, and clear flaws, then the music of ter Veldhuis might not be too far off from its paradoxical purpose of bringing the avant-garde to the masses. After all, it was pretty amusing that a friend of mine, who attended that same festival and who has fairly conservative musical tastes, utterly disliked the Krenek and Martin pieces and then actually liked the ter Veldhuis one. The man could be onto something, I guess.
In the end, it’s not an album I particularly enjoy, like, or think as 'good' (perhaps my allegiance is still on the other side), but it might prove interesting to explore for you, our dear readers, while considering the few issues brought up in this post and the many others left out because of virtual space or sheer ignorance on my part. Listening to the first piece, at least, makes the exploration worth it. Enjoy (or not)!
9 comments:
don't speak ill of frank martin (even if it is by proxy through a friend), or else you'll invoke the wrath of docperkins.
interesting post, exposing me to a composer i had never heard of prior. i was thinking about posting something a bit third-streamy, although quite a bit more modernist.
It wasn't my intention to speak ill of Martin, or Krenek for that matter. If it appeared to be so, then I'm sorry. I just found it funny that my friend didn't like their works but could get into the ter Veldhuis piece when it isn't exactly friendly either.
I can post a Frank Martin CD I really love (that has the "Sechs monologue aus "Jedermann"" and the "Poèmes de la Mort") to make up for the possible misunderstanding. :)
Anyway, looking forward to that post!
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah whatever...
btw, the rym tag "post-minimalism" is hilarious --brace yourself for the crappy "hipster garabe" post-post-modernism jokes
hahahaha hey I meant that!
We could call it post-trance-speech-sax-post-silliness-jazz-rock-goth.
My ears... :(
"...what’s out there that currently resists the tireless impulses of old modernism?"
Well, gee. I can't say that I've ever wondered that.
You know what I meant: apart from everything culture industry-related.
man, i listened to 'grab it!' in my office w/o headphones today; of course someone walked in on me...
I hope nothing important exploded.
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