🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #20thCenturyRadicals
Helmut Lachenmann, Ensemble Modern & Péter Eötvös:
🎵 Mouvement(-vor der Erstarrung) (1983/84)
#BBCRadio3 #HelmutLachenmann #EnsembleModern #PéterEötvös
▶️ Track on #Spotify:
Mouvement (-vor der Erstarrung...
#EnsembleModern
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #InTune
Steve Reich, Ensemble Modern & Brad Lubman:
🎵 Music For 18 Musicians: Pulse
#BBCRadio3 #SteveReich #EnsembleModern #BradLubman
▶️ 🪄 Automagic 🔊 show 📻 playlist on Spotify
▶️ Track on #Spotify:
Music For 18 Musicians: Pulse
LE TESTAMENT DE FRANK ZAPPA
https://blogs.mediapart.fr/jean-jacques-birge/blog/191225/le-testament-de-frank-zappa
#frankzappa #cd #ensemblemodern #synclavier #jeanjacquesbirge
Manfred Trojahn
Ik heb zojuist een fragment naar Youtube geüpload uit mijn gesprek met de Duitse componist Manfred Trojahn over zijn nieuwe stuk Contrevenir. Trojahn is hier te lande bekend van zijn opera Orest, die in december 2011 jaar bij De Nederlandse Opera in première ging. Ik schreef hier destijds over voor de website van Radio 4.
Contrevenir is opgedragen aan Hans Werner Henze (1926-2012) en Trojahn begon eraan op diens sterfdag, 27 oktober 2012. Net als Henze heeft Trojahn altijd geweigerd zich in een muzikaal keurslijf te laten dwingen.
Ik sprak met Trojahn op 6 december 2012 in het Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, tijdens de inleiding op een concert van Ensemble Modern, waarin de Nederlandse première van Contrevenir werd uitgevoerd.
#EnsembleModern #HansWernerHenze #ManfredTrojahn #moderneMuziek #MuziekgebouwAanTIJ #nieuweMuziek #TheaDerks
‘Wikileaks has never been caught on a single error’ – Iris ter Schiphorst writes Assange: Fragmente einer Unzeit
IristerSchiphorst (c) Bettina Stoess
‘There is an information war going on at the moment, which shows how important data are. The Assange case is the most poignant example of this,’ says the Dutch-German composer Iris Ter Schiphorst.
She addresses this theme in Assange: Fragmente einer Unzeit (‘Assange: Fragments from a Bad Time’) that will be premiered by Ensemble Modern in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ on 7 November. The following day the piece will again be performed in the festival November Music.
Ter Schiphorst has a mission: ‘Although Wikileaks has never been caught on one single mistake, Assange is accused of espionage and treason, and is prosecuted as a criminal. In both England and America, politicians are trying to amend the laws on freedom of speech, so that unwelcome information can be regarded as subversive and dangerous to the state. This concerns us all.’
What characterises you as a composer?
‘I deal with subjects that make me angry, most of the time these are “extra-musical” at first sight. In my ensemble work Zerstören I (‘Destroying’) I react to the attack on the Twin Towers. This led to the emergence of a new form of irrationality, in which politicians revert to primitive violence. At the same time, various religions are establishing themselves as guardians of archaic norms and values. This is a fatal and frightening development, especially for women.’
‘In my documentary music theatre play Volk unter Verdacht (‘The people as suspects’) I discuss the methods of the State Security Service in the German Democratic Republic. – On a broader level there are scary parallells with the constant camera surveillance we are under nowadays.’
‘In Das Imaginäre nach Lacan I reflect on our ways of absorbing information. A singer recites excerpts from classical Arab poetry, now dressed in Arabic, then in Western attire. She often literally repeats her verses, only clad in a different outfit. Thus, I pose the question whether we are independent in our perception or whether we are guided by prejudice. In Meine kleine Lieder (‘My Little Songs’), I address the shift to alt-right in present-day Germany.’
‘Assange: Fragmente einer Unzeit is about the threat to our freedom as individuals. It’s about the attack on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and on a deeper level about the danger that threatens us all when the law suddenly ceases to apply. The case of Julian Assange illustrates most poignantly what happens when someone proclaims “unpleasant” truths.’
‘Assange is an award-winning Australian journalist who acts as spokesman for the Wikileaks platform, which was founded in 2006. This website offers investigative journalists the opportunity to denounce abuses anonymously. Since then, the platform has revealed many things. Such as the abuses in Guantánamo Bay, how Western states wage war on the basis of fake news, how they create tax havens, manipulate elections and silence whistle-blowers.’
Artists must speak out
‘Unfortunately, many people seem to be only moderately interested in this, but it concerns us all. To speak with Edward Snowden: “When revealing a crime is treated as a crime, we are ruled by criminals.” Now journalists are being prosecuted and even murdered, the importance of transparency is greater than ever. We must speak out as artists, because nothing less than the future of investigative journalism and press freedom is at stake.’
How did you set up your composition?
‘I use short excerpts from speeches and statements made by politicians on the Assange case. I have edited these recordings and and programmed them for a sampler, which is operated by one of the pianists. At the same time I try to express in the music itself how much this situation worries me. For instance, the music often drowns out the solo soprano, even though she sings amplified. The whole affair makes me so upset because it is clear that this form of disenfranchisement can affect us all.’
Ensemble Modern / Enno Poppe
Iris ter Schiphorst: Fragmente einer Unzeit; Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, 7 November 8.15 pm; Den Bosch Verkadefabriek 8 November 8.45: world premiere.
On 7 November Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ organizes a free public rehearsal from 4.30-5 pm, after which I will speak with Ter Schiphorst and conductor Enno Poppe.
#AssangeFragmenteEinerUnzeit #EnsembleModern #IrisTerSchiphorst #JulianAssange #MuziekgebouwAanTIJ #NovemberMusic
Zeynep Gedizlioğlu wins German Composer Prize for chamber music 2022
Zeynep Gedizlioğlu (Izmir, 1977) has won the German Composer Prize 2022 in the chamber music category. The jury of the Akademie Deutscher Musikautor*innen writes: ‘She has made a name for herself far beyond the borders of Germany with her colourful, diverse, innovative and exciting music. Her strength lies especially in smaller, soloistic ensembles.’
Gedizlioğlu is little known in the Netherlands, but in 2019 the German Ensemble Modern presented the world premiere of Nacht, alongside the brand new composition Assange – Fragmente einer Unzeit by the German-Dutch composer Iris ter Schiphorst. Both composers were my guests at the introduction to the concert on 7 November in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. I had already interviewed Gedizlioğlu for a short article for its website. This has since been taken offline, so I have adapted my text for this post.
Dark Darkness
Zeynep Gedizlioğlu was born in Izmir in 1977 and studied composition with Cengiz Tanc in Istanbul. She then moved to Europe. There she studied composition with Theo Brandmüller in Saarbrücken, Ivan Fedele in Strasbourg and Wolfgang Rihm in Karlsruhe. She won several awards and participated in the renowned Summer Course for New Music in Darmstadt. She also studied electronic music at IRCAM in Paris. Since the end of 2001 she has been living and working in Berlin.
Like Ter Schiphorst, Gedizlioğlu sometimes reflects on current events. In 2007 she composed her second string quartet, Susma (‘don’t be silent’) for the Arditti Quartet. It is dedicated to the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered earlier that year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Qpru2u1-I
Fierce attacks, shrill dissonances, thundering pizzicati and slipshod glissandi create an uncanny atmosphere. In this way, she makes the sultry climate and the increasing lack of freedom in Turkey almost physically tangible. In 2014 she composed the equally oppressive Kelimeler (‘key word’) for Neue Vokalsolisten Stuttgart. This was the same period when Erdogan forcefully suppressed protests in Istanbul’s Taksim Square.
Gedizlioğlu developed the piece from the character of the Turkish language and chose words of darkness and determination. The five vocalists utter terrifying cries, hum unpleasantly high notes and interrupt each other with mysterious whispers. The restless, raw music gets under your skin.
‘There is no compromise between dark and darkness’, she explained. ‘There is no light or white darkness, only darkness. I embrace the realisation that there are no compromises.’
Zeynep Gedizlioğlu: ‘There is no light or white darkness, only darkness. I embrace the realisation that there are no compromises.’
Night full of whispers
In 2019, Gedizlioğlu composed Nacht, commissioned by Ensemble Modern. She told me that she had chosen a new direction: ‘I wrote my own text – directly in German – which is spoken and whispered by the musicians during the performance.’
She confided that it had been an exciting experiment: ‘By trying something relatively new for me, I took a risk, because the outcome is unpredictable. Each individual performer, but also the music itself, reacts both to the sound of the text and to its meaning. This creates an interaction that increasingly transforms (or should transform) into an interaction between music and text.’
She also said that she envisions night rather as a place or a space than as a phenomenon that extends over a certain time. ‘It is a place of whispers, of futile attempts to say something. Because the musicians must pronounce their text within a limited space of time, a certain franticness and urgency are created.’
Incidentally, the text is not necessarily intelligible: ‘The silences between the various passages are perhaps even more important than the sounding notes.’ Nacht was beautifully performed by Ensemble Modern on that 7th November 2019. Unfortunately, there are no reviews but I can wholeheartedly endorse the jury’s verdict.
Nacht proved to be a compelling and oppressive work, that once more illustrated how colourful and exciting Gedizlioğlu’s writing is. Hopefully the German award will bring it more to attention in the Netherlands.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhl2RZKh_mU
#AkademieDeutscherMusikautorInnen #EnsembleModern #HrantDink #IrisTerSchiphorst #ZeynepGedizlioğlu
@petefang Went to see and listen to The Seven Deadly Sins with HK Gruber, #EnsembleModern and Wallis Giunta in Cologne this year. My favorite Brecht/Weill and it was great fun to listen to.
Aktuelle Musik im Rhein-Main-Gebiet: Biennale 2026 mit Fokus auf Schwarmphänomene
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #MusicMap
Conlon Nancarrow, Yvar Mikhashoff, Ensemble Modern & Ingo Metzmacher:
🎵 Studies for Player Piano: Study no.6
#BBCRadio3 #ConlonNancarrow #YvarMikhashoff #EnsembleModern #IngoMetzmacher
▶️ 🪄 Automagic 🔊 show 📻 playlist on Spotify
▶️ Track on #Spotify:
Studies for Player Piano: Stud...
🇺🇦 #NowPlaying on BBC #Radio3's #NewMusicShow Anna Meredith, Ensemble Modern & Vimbayi Kaziboni: 🎵 Tripotage Miniatures #BBCRadio3 #AnnaMeredith #EnsembleModern #VimbayiKaziboni
@classicalmusic
@contemporarymusic
@womencomposers
#IreneGalindoQuero *1985
si callalo pudié sentirsas, for ensemble (2020)
#contemporarymusic
#womencomposers #musik #music #musique #musica #GalindoQuero
Frank Zappa - 'Everything Is Healing Nicely' (1999)
Recordings from #FrankZappa's 1991 rehearsals with the #EnsembleModern in preparation for #Zappa's The Yellow Shark. Includes hilareous readings, a great None Of The Above and a stunning Amnerika Goes Home.
@classicalmusic
@contemporarymusic
#BrianFerneyhough: b. 1943
Umbrations, Christopher Tye Cycle for string quartet and ensemble (2001/17)
#ArdittiQuartet
#EnsembleModern
#BradLubman
#contemporarymusic #musik #music #musique #musica #Ferneyhough
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb4nvO-Mq_0&list=RDwb4nvO-Mq_0
Frank Zappa - 'Civilization Phaze III' (2cd) (1994)
The first poshumous released #FrankZappa album was conceived mainly on the #synclavier, but has live performances by #EnsembleModern and a return to the #LumpyGravy piano people. A #Zappa masterpiece.
Frank Zappa - 'The Yellow Shark' (1993)
#EnsembleModern performs old and new #FrankZappa material in orchestral surroundings, while #Zappa conducts a few pieces. I just love 'Outrage At Valdez' and 'Dog Meat' and 'The Girl In The Magnesium Dress'. PERFECT.
Frank Zappa - "Food Gathering in Post-Industrial America"
Composer's "provocative gestures"
#OTD Frank Zappa performed his last show in 1992 with Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, Germany
**The Yellow Shark**
32 years since.
Zappa passed away in December 1993.
FZ was composing and performing music on his synclavier which he thought was not possible to be played by human musicians but Ensemble Modern convinced him they could do this.
Which was true.
"The Yellow Shark" was performed live in Berlin, Vienna and Frankfurt.
Unlikely we will ever be able to hear a similarly touching piece of art.
Hallo @Donauschwalbe
Kommst Du am Wochenende zu den Konzerten mit den Werken von Ruth Crawford Seeger, die vom Ensemble Modern beim Musikfest Berlin aufgeführt werden?
Los geht's am Freitag Abend, die restlichen Konzerte sind dann am Samstag Nachmittag und Sonntag Vormittag.
https://www.berlinerfestspiele.de/musikfest-berlin/programm/2024/kalender?fi=programAreaFilters%3ARuth+Crawford+Seeger
Es gibt einen Rabatt, wenn man die Konzerte als Paket bucht.
#Komponistinnen #MusikfestBerlin #EnsembleModern #RuthCrawfordSeeger
My piece National Anthems with Ensemble Modern to be performed at Cosmopolite, Oslo, Sept. 19 as a part of Ultima Festival. Tickets are online. #concert #ultima #EnsembleModern #FakeAnthems
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