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

Fire Swirl : for wind orchestra / Douglas Knehans

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

Thuiskomst : for concert band / Willem Breuker

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band
Scoring: pic 2fl 2ob 2fg 6cl 2asx tsx bsx 4hrn 3trp 3trb 2bar 2euph 2bs tmp 2perc

Symfonie voor Gemert : harmonieorkest, 1980-81 / Joop Voorn

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Band
Scoring: 3272 4sax 4432 2barh timp 2perc 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