composer

Straesser, Joep

Joep Straesser was born in Amsterdam on March 11, 1934. He died on September 22, 2004 in Loenersloot. Joep Straesser studied musicology from 1953 to 1955 at the University of Amsterdam.

related works

Neue Niederländische Klaviermusik : = Contemporary Dutch piano music, Heft 1 = Book 1 / mit Werken von = containing works by J. Andriessen, R. du Bois, G. Janssen ... [et al.], herausgegeben von = edited by Ton Hartsuiker

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Piano
Scoring: pf

De vloek van de farao : voor viool en piano, voor viool, altviool en cello, voor hobo, klarinet, grote trom, piano, cello en contrabas, voor viool en piano, voor klarinet, viool en cello, voor klarinet, harp, 2 violen en cello, 1996 / Cathy van Eck, Kees Geluk, Tomas Hendriks, Fanny de Ruiter, Daan Verlaan, Mathilde Almekinders

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Violin and keyboard instrument; String Trio (violin, viola, cello); Mixed ensemble (2-11 players); Wind and string instrument(s)
Scoring: vl pf - vl vla vc - ob cl perc pf vc cb - vl pf - cl vl vc (or other instr.) - cl hp 2vl vc

Contemplations : (about a theme of Gabriel Fauré), for piano-solo, brass, kettle-drums and percussion / Jan Masséus

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Mixed ensemble (2-11 players)
Scoring: 2h 2trp 2trb tb timp perc pf-solo

Double scorpio : voor marimba solo en 10 accordeons, 1991 / Henk Alkema

Genre: Chamber music
Subgenre: Mixed ensemble (2-11 players)
Scoring: 8acc 2acc-b mar-solo

composition

Points of contact I : for tenor recorder, marimba and some percussion, 1987 / Joep Straesser

Description:
Program note (English): "Points of contact I" for tenor recorder, marimba and some small percussion instruments (high cymbal, triangle and small Chinese gong) was specially composed for the Japanese percussionist Keiko Abe, and the Dutch recorder player Walter van Hauwe.
The title of the work indicates a special compositional technique, through which the musical parts repeatedly make points of contact, and then drift apart again. These points of contact are musically stressed in different degrees, varying from "almost unnoticed, casual" to "explicit and with strong, expressive effect". Beside the above-mentioned musical characteristic, there is another important starting point. The whole work's music is derived from two short motifs: the first, with which the piece starts, has the major seventh and the perfect fourth as characteristic intervals, heard in a dotted rhythm and a figure of repeated tones, slowing down on the final note.
The second motif, which comes into being during the first section, and sounds "in all its glory" at its end, consists of a minor second and a minor third - the combination forming a major third -, while rhythmically it is less succinct and more flexible than the first motif.
The following sections 2 to 5 are alternately based on motif 1 or 2, resulting in a kind of "indirect" dialectics, or, as one might say, "dialectics from a distance". In the sixth section, both motifs are played off against one another - direct dialectics! -, and in the seventh section both motifs melt together in a recorder solo, supported by some strikes of the Chinese gong. In the eighth and last section, the role of both motifs is over. All that remains is a fast musical motion, a virtuoso duet for recorder and marimba, with only one strike of the gong, which ends the work. Tenor recorder and marimba are treated as equals, and they supply most of the music in the piece. The other three percussion instruments' task is to join the different sections into larger units. The cymbal joins sections 1 to 4, the triangle sections 5 and 6, the gong sections 7 and 8. - JOEP STRAESSER