composer
Wim Laman is a largely self-taught composer. While he was at university, his first compositions were performed by student orchestras. His work later came to the attention of the professional ...
related works
Oresteia : opera in 3 acts, 1996, Act 1, Agamemnon / libretto after Aeschylos' Oresteia, Wim Laman
Genre:
Opera, musical theatre
Subgenre:
Opera
Scoring:
sopr sopr-m ten bar bas MK4 2333 2sax 4231 4perc pf(synth) str(12.12.8.8.6.) tape
De Waterlelie : for alto/mezzo-soprano and orchestra / Jan van Gilse; words by Frederik van Eeden
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and orchestra
Scoring:
zang orch
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and orchestra
Scoring:
bas 2fl fl(fl-a pic) 2ob eh 2cl cl-b 2fg cfg 4h 4trp 3trb tb timp perc cel mar hp str(12.12.10.8.6.)
Drie liederen : met orkestbegeleiding / door Willem Andriessen
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and orchestra
Scoring:
sopr-m 2222 4200 timp str
composition
Fleurs du mal : 1980/81 / [texte] (Ch. Baudelaire), Wim Laman
Other authors:
Baudelaire, Charles
(librettist)
Contains:
La destruction
La mort des amants
Les bijoux
Description:
Program note (English): Each poem should speak for itself. That I nevertheless have set three of Baudelaire's poems to music is due to their great expression. Inspired by their strong set form (that however only leads to empty, inexpressive constructions) I have tried emphasize the tension and the intensity of Baudelaire's poetry in all their gradations from violent emotions to conceding resignation. A solid form was chosen where the logic of the poetry and music could influence each other. It was important for the music to create a strong connection - but then without a predictable, and therefore, uninteresting course. Of course this fully required an intuitive control of the course of tension or, in short for the insiders, a clear alternation between the associative and dissociative strength proportions within music. (In traditional tonal music one recognizes the chords which emphasise the nature of the key (= associatively) and those chords which abandon the key (= dissociative); consequence is a
certain contrast functioning - one of the resources of making music "exciting"). Baudelaire, who remained during his entire life fascinated with the bizarre and the transient of all beauty, has, in all of his poems, given the melancholic an important role. Thereby he used an extremely suggestive, almost hallucinating manner of imagery, particularly when love, with her all encompassing nature formed the subject: La destruction sketches the demonic strength of love, which finally leads the 'most seductive of women' to a loneliness and a destructive strength. La mort des amants is full superb metaphors, painting the death of two lovers. They exchange a last glance, their souls are compared to mirroring pictures which slowly blur, while the flames extinguish. Les bijoux is a song of praise to female beauty in all its enchanting facets, the seductive, the dreamy seems to take on all kinds of fascinating forms by an ever so slight change in light, while the extinguishing lamp ("résignée à
mourir") magically brings out a deep-red shimmer. (This poem is only partially set to music and is combined with fragments from La destruction). - WIM LAMAN