14 — gaudeamus muziekweek 2012 — english
LOOSE, LOOSER, LOOSEST RECENTLY, I INTERVIEWED THE VIOLIST OENE VAN GEEL (THE NORDANIANS, ZAPP 4). ‘IT’S TOO BAD,’ OENE SAID, ‘THAT IN THE CLASSICAL MUSIC SCENE AND FOR THAT MATTER, EVEN IN THE ‘NEW’ MUSIC SCENE, THERE’S SUCH A CHASM OF DEFERENCE AND AWE BETWEEN THE COMPOSER AND THE MUSICIANS.’ THE COMPOSER WROTE IT LIKE THAT, SO WE WOULDN’T DARE CHANGE IT. THE SCORE AS INFALLIBLE AND HOLY PRESCRIPTION. PREDICTABLE. VERIFIABLE.
I immediately had to think of the feeling that came over me during the Cage-weekend in the latest Holland Festival. John Cage, who kicked sacred cows with humor and relativism, himself seemed to have turned into a sacred cow in the celebrations of his 100th anniversay. With care – and certainly beautifully – museologically conserved. If he would have been there, he would have enjoyed one thing the most, I reckon. Slagwerk Den Haag played ‘Child of Tree’ and ‘Branches’ on cactuses, vegetables and vegetative-based percussive instruments. During the performance you could hear children in the foyer letting out little cries, simply not conscious of matters of respect, but busy gathering the dried beans and nuts that had fallen onto the ground and bringing them back to the musicians. Unpredictable. Unverifiable. A bit looser, say, then we are used to. Exactly what we can learn from children.
Aad van Nieuwkerk
FROM HARD ROCKERS: TALK WITH YOUR AUDIENCE. TELL THEM WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO DO. EXPLAIN WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN. CHECK OUT ON YOUTUBE HOW DAVE GROHL (FOO FIGHTERS) SENDS AN AGGRESSIVE AUDIENCE MEMBER OUT OF THE HALL.
Maybe the music gets looser if the roles of the composer and musicians become looser. You could say: that’s exactly what we can learn from singer/songwriters. You invent a song, and you simply play and sing it yourself. Just how you think it should sound and irrespective if someone else can sing it ‘better’. Or indeed, someone else unconcernedly sings the song in his/her own way. Could we learn other things from adjacent stages? You’re darn right. From the pop scene: play by heart. The fact of the matter is that you’re communicating with an audience. Just like having a conversation – you don’t do that using cheat sheets. A while back I saw the Double Espresso saxophone quartet without music stands and without sheet music, and that immediately made the evening so much nicer, more intimate, cozier as it were. From hard rockers: talk with your audience. Tell them what you’re going to do. Explain what’s going to happen. Check out on YouTube how Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) sends an aggressive audience member out of the hall. Or go look how Alban Wesly of Calefax goes about it, then you know what I mean. And what do we learn from the jazz cats? That good notes aren’t automatically always good music. You can also improvise outside bars 23 thru 38, outside the prescribed freedom. Improvisation doesn’t have to be a wild poster wall (‘here you’re free to hang up anything you want’). Loosen control and predictability.
And what can we learn from amateurs? That it doesn’t have to be a problem if your mother, brother, uncle or neighbors take some snapshots or make a video of your performance. Naturally it shouldn’t disturb the performance. But you can simply agree beforehand as to what’s allowed and when. Play a five-minute piece at the beginning of your concert, a piece during which these things don’t matter, and invite everyone to take pictures or to film (and immediately put it on Twitter and Facebook!) – and the deal is that afterwards we all keep quite so that everyone can concentrate on listening. If need be, temporarily dressed in a prim and proper straitjacket. Aad van Nieuwkerk editor-in-chief of VPRO Radio 4
During the festival the Dutch broadcasting organization VPRO will record a special festival program. The concert recordings will be made in close co-operation with the Concertzender, VPRO Radio 4, Omroep MAX and the web radio station Radio 4 Eigentijds. There will be online broadcasts through a livestream at www.radio4.nl/eigentijds and on september 20th there will be a broadcast featuring all the highlights from the Muziekweek at Radio 4. Youtube: http://bit.ly/GMW12_FooFighters http://bit.ly/GMW12_Calefax