composer
Joey Roukens (b. 1982) is an Amsterdam-based composer of contemporary classical music. He studied classical composition at Codarts University of the Arts and psychology at Leiden University. Since graduating in ...
related works
24 capriccio's voor viool solo
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Violin
Scoring:
vl
Afscheid van een landschap : voor stem en (bas-)klarinet, 1994 / Alex Manassen
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring:
high cl(cl-b)
Renascence : for alto and ensemble / Micha Hamel; on a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring:
zang vn sax synth hp
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and piano; Voice and instrument(s)
Scoring:
high perc pf / high(perc) pf
composition
Angeli : for 5 female voices and 8 celli / Joey Roukens
Description:
Angeli is a piece written for eight cellos and five female voices (2 sopranos, mezzo-soprano and 2 altos), based on two texts (In Paradisum and Absolve Domine) taken from the Latin liturgy. I have always loved classical music of the sacred tradition, whether by Machaut, Josquin, Bach, Cherubini, Bruckner or Stravinsky, and in this piece I’ve tried to write my own kind of ‘sacred music’. Despite the texts coming from the Requiem Mass, it’s not a sad or dark piece. Rather, the character of the music is mostly serene, introverted and hopeful, since I wanted to emphasize the consoling nature of those texts. There is a middle section, though, where the music becomes highly energetic, even euphoric. In this piece I wanted to create a kind of imaginary or dreamed ‘early music’. Thus, the piece is full of echoes of old polyphonic styles and contrapuntal techniques, but at the same time one can clearly hear it's contemporary music, because of the strange, unpredictable harmonic twists and turns one won't find in any early music.