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
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Piano
Scoring:
pf
Bamboleamos no mundo / Jan van de Putte
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Scoring:
sopr alt 2fl ob 2cl fg 2h trp trb tb 3perc cymb acc pf hp 2vl vla vc db
L'autunno di Christina : Dramatic scene for soprano and large ensemble / Klas Torstensson
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble
Scoring:
sopr-solo fl/picc ob/eh cl-cl-b fg tpt h trb-t/trb-b pf 2perc 2vn vla vc db
Genre:
Vocal music
Subgenre:
Voice and large ensemble; Electronics and singing voice(s) with or without instrument(s)
Scoring:
recit 1111 1210 perc pf(cel) 2vl vla vc cb tape
composition
Three Shakespeare songs : for mezzo-soprano and instrumental ensemble, 1994-1995 / Ton de Leeuw ; on texts by William Shakespeare
Other authors:
Shakespeare, William
(librettist)
Contains:
Bevat: 1. Night music
2. No longer mourn
3. But time decays
Description:
Program note (English): (Première: 13-6-1996 - Concertgebouw, Amsterdam - Ensemble InterContemporain, David Robertson, conducting, Rosemary Hardy, soprano). Song 1 'Night music'. In changing images text and music recall the silence of the night, the magic of a starlit and the perfect harmony which lies there. This leads then to a description of "music of the spheres ", in which the returning job of the sky bodies are always symbolically reflected in music: sound universe, formed by a self rotating tonal movement. In a short epilogue it is finally clear that we cannot observe, in our earthly existence, celestial music. The changing characters in this sonnet find their by-effect in multicoloured musical forms of appearance, with as many alternatives of an always identical principal point. Song 2 'No longer mourn'. In contrast to the wealth of sound in the first song music has here an extremely sober design, and a smaller instrumentation, dominated by the dark tones by four brass instruments. The musical phrasing is simple chanting, isolated strokes on the large drum, whereas the tubular bells are of course the "surly sullen bell" of the text. This directness and elementary simplicity are also found in the melodic lines of the soloist and in the tight rhythmic design of the total, which does slightly resemble the dancing movements of the ancient Japanese Bugaku. The composer found that with this frugality, unequalled beauty and nostalgia of the sonnet would best be expressed. Song 3 'But time decays'. A returning theme in Shakespeare's sonnets: unrelentless fleeing of time, and the hope that beauty and lover will survive human death. Again, like in most of my work, cycles are central: continuously returning sequences appear in other musical forms, as it were a symbolic reproduction of, and dispossession to the cosmic laws which seem to be master of all nature. Incorporated in a relentlessly driving musical movement, the text floats beyond in the images. Only at the end is rest in movement rest and in the last sentence unfolds "O none, unless this miracle property might that in black ink my love may still shine bright". - TON DE LEEUW