composer

Loevendie, Theo

Loevendie calls himself a “latecomer as a composer”. Until the 1970s, he was known only as a jazz saxophonist. He gained international fame with his quartet (with Hans Dulfer, Arjen ...

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

Signals and echoes : for 11 players and bass clarinet solo, 1982 / Joep Straesser

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Clarinet and large ensemble
Scoring: fl ob cl h trp perc pf vl vla vc cb cl-b-solo

Incantations : for bass clarinet solo and orchestra, (1975) / Theo Loevendie

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Clarinet and large ensemble
Scoring: 1001 4320 4perc cel hp pf 4vl 4vla 4vc 2cb cl-b-solo

Concerto for clarinet and ensemble : stripped version of the violin concerto, 2003 / Guus Janssen

Genre: Orchestra
Subgenre: Clarinet and large ensemble
Scoring: fl(pic) ob cl cl-b fg h trp trb 2perc 2vl vla vc cb cl-solo

composition

Scaramuccia : for clarinet and orchestra, 1969 / Theo Loevendie

Description:
Program note (English): Scaramuccia, composed in 1968-69, was my first composition, and first commission, for a large group of players in which there were no jazz musicians. It seems evident to me that years of activity with jazz music have left their trace on my work in other fields. Perhaps the tutti for wind form (page 17 of the score of Scaramuccia) is an example of this.
Although it is my view that a composer's annotations for his own work scarcely enlighten the listener, even if they are not a verbal smoke-screen, I should like to consider more deeply one detail which strikes me as being the most personal in this work. It is what I should like to call the poly-motoric cluster in the strings from page 33 of the score. This arises by placing the interval combination of 4 notes, on which the whole piece is constructed, in 6 layers in such a way that a chromatic field of 24 notes is formed. Each layer has its own tempo and rhythmic patterns related to Morse code signals. It is the dynamic element (crescendo-decrescendo) which independently determines here which layer is heard audibly. It becomes consequently a lighthouse-in-the-dark effect which lasts nearly two minutes. Everything is present, but only a constantly changing section is perceptible. - THEO LOEVENDIE