Categoriearchief: Componeren

‘De herdertjes’ arrangement

Vorig jaar heb ik met leerlingen een kerstboekje samengesteld, met arrangementen van de bekende en minder bekende kerstliedjes. Hieronder vind je één van de liedjes, ‘De Herdertjes’ met een tekening van mijn dochter Gaia van Eijck.
Je mag het printen en spelen.
De toonzetting is simpel, maar effectief.
Als je het boek wilt bestellen, dan kan dat door 15 euro plus 4 euro porto (totaal 19) euro over te maken naar:

Binnenkant Muziek/NL52INGB0007285045 ovv ‘Kerstboek’

Arrangement 'De Herdertjes'
Arrangement ‘De Herdertjes’
Illustratie Gaia van Eijck
Illustratie Gaia van Eijck
Inhoudsopgave Kerstboek
Inhoudsopgave Kerstboek

26e Epta Congres 2017

Dit weekend was ik gastspreker op het 26e Epta Congres (European Piano Teachers Association The Netherlands). Samen met voorzitter Bart van de Roer zat ik in één blok dat helemaal over kamermuziek ging. Bart had het over de balans en de rol van de pianist in de kamermuziek. Mijn praatje sloot daar goed op aan: jonge pianistjes de kans geven samen in trio’s te spelen, en de piano daarbij niet alleen maar ondersteundend of begeleidend in te zetten, maar ook regelmatig de melodiepartij te laten spelen. Zoals secretaris Hetty Floors het in haar intro van het programmaboek verwoordde: de basis en de top samen, leerzaam en spannend.
Wat verder ook heel interessant was, was een lezing van Robert Harris. Indrukwekkend was het optreden van ontwikkelingspsycholoog en systeemtherapeut Steven Pont Website Steven Pont. Diverse collega’s, onder wie Albert Brussee en Josje Goudswaard, presenteerden hun bladmuziek. Het congres ging op zondag 26 november nog door met interessante items die ik helaas heb gemist want ik was er zelf alleen op zaterdag 25 november.

Schermafbeelding 2017-11-27 om 10.40.11

Schermafbeelding 2017-11-27 om 10.40.27

Schermafbeelding 2017-11-27 om 10.40.42

Interview ‘Intermezzo’ about composing

Questions from ‘Intermezzo’ about composing:
1. What and where do/did you study? When did you graduate?
I studied classical piano at the Hilversums Conservatorium with Frans van Dalen and Fania Chapiro. I graduated in 1989. I started to compose after my study. It started writing pieces for piano students, because sometimes I couldn’t find suitable pieces for beginners and intermediate level. Gradually I started to write larger works. I learned to compose by studying and playing works of great composers. In the beginning I wrote in a more Romantic style. The very first piece I wrote in a more atonal style was selected to be performed in Paradiso at Gaudeamus Muziekweek in 2006. I decided to study composition after I won the first prize at Calefax Composers Contest in 2009. I studied a few years with composer Jeff Hamburg.
2. A composition of yours has been recently published by EMA , could you tell us something about this piece? For example: Why did you write this piece? What is it about? What instrument(s) did you write for and why?
Two compositions of mine have been published by EMA: Etude Furioso and Waves.
Etude Furioso I wrote because a piano collegue of mine, Janece Milos, was gathering etudes for her advanced students. Then Daan from EMA asked composers to write etudes to be gathered in a book. I decided to contribute with this etude. Maybe I will write more etudes in future. I wrote Waves because there are few passionate pieces for three pianists at one piano. I love to write pieces for students that sound much more complicated than they really are. Of course the rhythms of Waves are not easy, but it can be memorized quite well.
Waves was written with a nod to composer Simenon ten Holt, whose famous “Canto Ostinato” has mesmerized many musicians and listeners. Waves is much easier and shorter than the wonderful piece by Ten Holt, bit it poses its own rhythmical challenges.
3. Are there works by other composers that seriously impressed you or influenced your work? Composing is like (a spiritual path in) life: you are always looking further.. just repeating yourself is no real development. When I started to compose, I was influenced by the classical composers like Bach and Mozart. Later I tried to write in a more Romantic style, like Liszt and Chopin. Then I started to research atonal music. Right now I am most influenced by all kinds of world music: Syrian, Spanish, African (Zulu). In 2013 I won the first prize in a Spanish competition (Hispa Song) with a composition based on an old Spanish strophic text about a bull fighter who is killed by the bull. Perhaps there is also a little Albeniz and Granados in my work.
4. When did you start composing? Do you remember what you wrote back then?
I seriously started composing with a Prelude and a Fugue, a little bit in the style of Bach. I just wanted to “proof” that I understood the rules of composition. Like Mondriaan started to paint real trees, before he continued making cubes. 😉 After that I wrote a Piano Trio in classical style (“Tango Trio” also this trio is already influenced by world music: Argentinian Tango). It was even published by Broekmans & van Poppel and I was very proud of that. My first published work! 🙂
But when I go back further: as a child, about 8 years old, I was already correcting scores of “other” 😉 composers.. it alway stroke me when I read and played something that didn’t match with my ears.. I started correcting the scores on “wrong” notes with a pencil. So the character of the composer was already there! I only didn’t know that I could also write my own music. This idea popped up later.
5. Is there anything else you’d like to share in Intermezzo?
For me composing is like meditation: when I compose, I forget everything around me: I am in flow. For me it is one of the greatest things to do. I feel very grateful having the chance of doing this.

You can hear my compositions at: www.heleenverleur.org
When you click: ‘composities’ or ‘composities voor iedereen vanaf 5 jaar’ of ‘piano trios’ you can hear my pieces, also the pieces I mentioned above.

Intermezzo is a publication of Edition MatchingArts.

Workshop & concert for Jan

Presentation of 'Route 65' for Jan
Presentation of ‘Route 65’ for Jan
This is what Rineke Verbrugge (University Groningen) wrote about this event:

Friday afternoon and evening, I had the privilige of participating in the farewell event for Jan van Eijck, including very diverse and fascinating lectures (see Workshop ).

There was also a surprise part about which Jan knew nothing in advance. Yanjing Wang and two other former PhD students of Jan presented the secretly prepared Festschrift for Jan (see Festschrift ). Also, a surprise concert took place. Heleen Verleur is Jan’s wife *and* a professional pianist and composer, and she had designed a lively program for the concert, including pieces for piano and clarinet, piano solo, piano and 1 cello, and finally piano and 2 cellos.

Heleen composed a wonderful ‘wink to Piazzolla’, the “Milonga for three”, and for this occasion she had arranged it for two cellos and piano so that Hans van Ditmarsch and I could join her in the concert. Here you can listen to the original version for violin, cello and piano: Milonga for three

The greatest experience of the day for me was the rehearsal in secret, at noon, for half an hour before the workshop attendees started dropping in. All of us had practiced individually and Hans van Ditmarsch and I had even tried a Skype rehearsal for the two cello parts, between Nancy and Groningen. But playing the piece ‘for real’, with the composer, was something wonderful! She had a great piece of advice for me: for the difficult rhythm, don’t try to count like “óne-and-two / ánd-three-eh / fóur-eh”, but silently say “ananas, ananas, kiwi”. This worked like a charm, and after the concert, some audience members said that they couldn’t believe that we had only rehearsed together for half an hour 🙂

Rineke practises by Skype
Rineke practises by Skype
One of the slides
One of the slides used by Rineke during her talk
Performing 'Route 65' with clarinet player Michel Marang
Performing ‘Route 65’ with the wonderful clarinet player Michel Marang
Jans talk
Jans talk

Promotiefilm CKVAlmere

Vandaag kwam er een heuse filmer in de les van Bintang en Alyssa, Erwin Eijpe.
Het was voor een promotiefilm van het CKVAlmere. De meiden gingen ‘Walvissen’ spelen van ondergetekende.. het ging nog niet eerder zo goed, zo goed als vlekkeloos samenspel.

Voor het overige mochten ze lekker gek doen, inclusief head banging enz. 😉 dus het was echt een pretles. Zal weer even wennen zijn de volgende keer als “strenge” juf Heleen weer toezicht houdt..

Schermafbeelding 2017-05-22 om 22.01.12

Erwin in actie
Erwin in actie