composer

Beljon, Gerard

Gerard Beljon was born on April 16, in 1952 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. Beljon studied lute and guitar at the conservatories of Utrecht and The Hague with Hans Verzijl and Toyohiko ...

related works

(It takes) 2 2 Tango : for 2 accordions / Gerard Beljon

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Accordion
Scoring: 2acc

Vox Aeterna : for mixed choir a cappella / Svyatoslav Lunyov

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Mixed choir
Scoring: GK4

The First Book of Madrigals : for 2, 3, 4 & 5 voices and basso continuo / Barbara Strozzi; transcribed and edited by Cees Wagemakers

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Mixed choir
Scoring: GK

Three madrigals : for mixed choir, opus 68, 1978/1980 / [text by William Shakespeare], Hendrik de Regt

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Mixed choir
Scoring: GK4

 

composition

Fever : for mixed choir, 2005 / poem by Wallace Stevens (1879-1955), Gerard Beljon

Publisher: Amsterdam: Donemus, cop. 2005
Publisher's number: 11206
Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Mixed choir
Scoring: GK20
Remarks: Voor koor S(5)A(5)T(5)B(5). - In opdracht van de 3e Internationale Koorbiënnale Haarlem. - Geschreven voor het Nederlands Kamerkoor. - Opgedragen aan Neil Wallace. - Met financiële steun van het Fonds voor de Schepende Toonkunst. - Tijdsduur: 8'30''
Duration: 9'00"
Year of composition: 2005
Status: fully digitized (real-time delivery)

Other authors:
Stevens, Wallace (librettist)
Description:
Program note (English): [Première: 1 december 2005 - Philharmonie, Haarlem - Nederlands Kamerkoor o.l.v. Klaas Stok] - The poetry of Wallace Stevens (who made a living as a lawyer) has two remarkable sides; on the one hand dark, anxious, philosophical, on the other side a youthful, colorful and strongly rhythmical. These aspects frequently come together in one poem. For composer this poetry offers a number of starting points. On his two choral works set to the words of Wallace Stevens Beljon says: 'In 'The cry of the Peacocks' Stevens' fear for the night, and actually his fear for death is fully expressed. The crying of the peacocks is the core sound for me, which represents that fear. For this reason I have chosen a stanza from the poem as a title for my work. The poem has an anxious, imminent tone typical to the time in which Stevens lived, in which a fear dominated for war and economic crisis. 'Fever' is a reference to the American blues/jazz music from the south, with as contrast, the traditional
choral music from the north. In a feverish dream the poet waits for these two very different types of music to eventually coincide. In deeper sense one could say that in the poem the desire for harmony is reflected, the harmony in which everything in life becomes pleasurable and will cure the poet. Stevens suffered his entire life from a deep fear for an enormous vacuum, the meaninglessness, already seen in his early work 'The Cry of the Peacocks', and now in a work from a later period. In this piece I took the word 'unison' from the poem in a musical sense: although set over several octaves, a number of stanzas are sung in unison. - GERARD BELJON

Sheet Music
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Product Description Price/piece Count
Score Download to Newzik (B4), 60 pages EUR 29.80
Download as PDF (B4), 60 pages EUR 35.76
Hardcopy, normal size (B4), 60 pages EUR 59.60
Hardcopy, study size (A4), 60 pages EUR 48.80
Choirpart Download to Newzik (B4), 114 pages EUR 24.48
Download as PDF (B4), 114 pages EUR 29.38
Hardcopy, normal size (B4), 114 pages EUR 48.97