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composition
Herfst der muziek : voor kamerkoor a cappella, 1963-'64, rev. 1966 / op teksten van Lucebert, Joep Straesser
Other authors:
Lucebert
(Text writer/Librettist)
Straesser, Joep
(Composer)
Description:
Program note (English): 'Herfst der muziek' (Autumn of music) is the result of reflections on the problem of applying modern composition techniques in a purely vocal notation. An atonal notation with absolute pitches brought about almost insurmountable problems of intonation for the choirs. The solution was evident: to write a composition in which the number of absolute pitches would be confined to a minimum. A totally different and at that time for me unknown field between normal speech (declamation) and singing had to explored. Rhythmics, dynamics and colouring should have come into prominence and be developed to a great extent to compensate for the lack of absolute pitches and consonance.
In 'Herfst der muziek' a number of stages are heard, from declamation to the fully sung chorus phrase with practically everything in between these two extremities. The singing (at first in relative pitches) is very gradually increased in each part until the final singing-stage has been reached (part 5). In this last part, with the same (title) text of the first, the beginning (declamation) and the end (singing) are combined. Analysing the texts of the Dutch poet/painter Lucebert, it appears that the sound structure of the language is of great importance beside the semantic aspect. It could also be stated that language as a vehicle of clear concept and feelings in these poems has been weakened to a certain extent whereas it is strongly accentuated in its possibilities for interesting combinations of timbre. This way of usage implies that translating these poems would be an even greater attempt on their essential than with more conventional poetry. Furthermore, the intelligibility in
the semantic sense of this poetry is not the prime aim of the writer. The timbres of these texts are obviously impossible to translate. Therefore we can only give the overall atmosphere of the poems without considering their exact meaning even if it were possible to indicate this in an unequivocal way. - JOEP STRAESSER