composer
Ton de Leeuw was born on November 16, 1926 in Rotterdam. He died on May 31, 1996 in Paris (France).
In 1949, after some years of composition lessons with Henk Badings, ...
related works
Midare : for marimba, (1972) / Ton de Leeuw
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Percussion
Scoring:
mar
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and orchestra
Scoring:
sopr str
Marsua : for mezzo soprano and string orchestra, 1996 / text: Hugo Claus, Anton Havelaar
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and orchestra
Scoring:
sopr-m str
Pra : for soprano & orchestra, 2000-2002 / poem by Edward Estlin Cummings, Astrid Kruisselbrink
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and orchestra
Scoring:
sopr 2fl(pic) fl 2ob ob(eh) 2cl cl(cl-b) 2fg fg(cfg) 4h 3trp 3trb tb timp 3perc hp pf str(14.12.10.8.6.)
composition
Haiku II : for soprano and orchestra, (1968) / Ton de Leeuw
Other authors:
Hashin
(librettist)
Henderson, H.G.
(librettist)
Kobayashi, Issa
(librettist)
Matsuo, Basho
(librettist)
Ryusui
(librettist)
Soin
(librettist)
Contains:
Riding
Cool
No sky
Limpid
Old pond
Naked horse
Description:
Program note (English): Haiku II points back to former compositions. In the first place to the cycle Haiku I and to the opera De droom [The dream]. In both compositions use was made of haikus, short Japanese poems, in which the use of associations of ideas is characteristic. They not only suggest a certain mood, they also call up clearly profiled images, which may lead to manifold interpretations. This multi-interpretability is even essential. In De droom, already the haikus were strongly split, down to the seperate phonemes, and were divided over 32-part choir. In this composition this splitting up finds expression in a different way: the words and sounds of the various poems are mingled together. Thus they form new word- and sentence structures which, semantically, are unintelligible: the music is not aimed at giving an understandable rendition of the text. The text is rather the sound material, comparable to the sounds of the instruments come to the surface. Sometimes, indeed, in this stream of
sounds intelligible word combinations suddenly float upwards; all the six haikus used, emerge at least once in their original form. They are thus given a new dimension, as it were. Wholly in the spirit of the haikus, the listener may freely interpret the scraps he catches, and the same words may, in different positions, have a totally different effect. The musical effect, however, remains of prime importance. - TON DE LEEUW