related works

Venti, turbini (after George Frideric Handel) : for mezzo-soprano and chamber orchestra / Rick van Veldhuizen, after Handel; text by Giacomo Rossi (adapted by Rick van Veldhuizen)

Genre: Vocal music
Subgenre: Voice and orchestra
Scoring: sopr-m fl picc ob eh cl cl-b 2fg 2h tpt trb tb timp perc hp synth str

Toward the Spirituality : for wind orchestra / Chi-hin Leung

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band
Scoring: picc 2fl ob eh 2fg 4cl cl-b cl-cb 2sax-a sax-t sax-bar 3tpt 4h 2trp trb-b euph tb db timp 6perc

Brass up! : for brass orchestra / Chiel Meijering

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band
Scoring: picc 3fl 4cl 3sax-s 5sax-a 5sax-t 3sax-bar sax-b 3h 3trp 4trb euph 3tb 4perc g-b

Suid-Afrikaanse rhapsodie : voor harmonie-orkest, opus 46b / Géza Frid

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band
Scoring: 2160 4sax 2234 2crt 2altoh 2barh timp perc cb

composition

(un)mensch : for symphonic wind orchestra / Rick van Veldhuizen

Other authors:
Veldhuizen, Rick van (Composer)
Description:
(un)mensch is a piece about radicalisation, and the tendency of humans to seek extremes. In current times, as in times past, people have dismissed radical or extreme behaviours as ‘inhuman’ or ‘evil’ behaviour, in the process distancing our humanity from it. This refusal to accept extremes as naturally human leads us astray, ‘Othering’ people we perceive to be different, and losing our concept of a shared humanity.
This piece takes the biggest villain in history, Adolf Hitler, as its starting point. Often considered ‘inhuman’ so one doesn’t have to associate oneself with him, portrayals of this historical figure paradoxically also paint him as a madman, plagued by amphetamine addiction, tinnitus and mental disorder. In short, his evil is often portrayed as both inhuman and quintessentially human.
(un)mensch, in turn, seeks to radicalize existing musical styles and ideas. From Ligeti-like micropolyphonies to Glass’s arpeggios and the unofficial anthem of the Third Reich, everything gets turned into a blurred, topsy-turvy version of itself. At the centre of this is an extensive quote from Richard Wagners Das Rheingold: the emerging and explosion of an idyllic, nationalistic dream, the fair copy of which perished with Hitler in his bunker in 1945.

Rick van Veldhuizen
26 March 2015