r e c o r d i n g s , texts & publications
"Volgens een hardnekkig misverstand over de seriële muziek zou de systematische, eerder rationele factuur van dit soort muziek een dito luisterhouding voorschrijven aan de luisteraar. Niets is minder waar! De regels die de componist zichzelf oplegt, gelden alleen in zijn werkkamer, en niet langer in de concertzaal. Daar opent Vanhecke immers de poort van zijn poëtisch universum, en laat hij de muziek - atonaal en amotivisch, jazeker - vertellen over de kleuren van de wind, de wortels van de wereld en de schittering van de sterren. Wie is bereid om dit te horen, ondanks én dankzij de complexiteit van Vanheckes muziek?"
Met deze paragraaf besluit musicoloog Jan Christiaens zijn betoog in het boekje van de nagelnieuwe cd met muziek van Bart Vanhecke (°1964). De in de tekst zo geroemde versmelting van serialiteit en poëzie is waarschijnlijk de reden waarom zo vele uitvoerders spontaan Vanheckes muziek zijn gaan exploreren. Dat zijn composities de laatste jaren ook op internationale gelegenheden als de ISCM World Music Days (Yokohama, Basel, Stuttgart) opvallend lovend werden onthaald is dan ook niet echt een verrassing.Wel verbazend is dat er tot dusver geen muziek van Vanhecke op cd verschenen is.Daar komt nu dus verandering in: Het Collectief en Walpurgis bundelen de krachten en brengen meteen een full cd uit met een uitgebreide bloemlezing uit Vanheckes oeuvre . Het grootse ‘Close my willing eyes', een driedelig werk voor 3 sopranen en 9-koppig ensemble, dat ook de naam geeft aan deze cd, is aangevuld met solowerken en kamermuziek in uiteenlopende bezettingen.
Thomas Dieltjens
This book is the first anthology of writings about the emerging subject of artistic experimentation in music. This subject, as part of the cross-disciplinary field of artistic research, cuts across boundaries of the conventional categories of performance practice, music analysis, aesthetics, and music pedagogy. The book critically examines experimentation in music of different historical eras. It is essential reading for performers, composers, teachers, and others wanting to inform themselves of the issues and the current debates in the new field of artistic research as applied to music. The publication is accompanied by a CD of music discussed in the text, and by an online resource of video illustrations of specific issues.
Contributors
Paulo de Assis (ORCiM), Richard Barrett (Institute of Sonology, The Hague), Tom Beghin (McGill University), William Brooks (University of York, ORCiM), Nicholas G. Brown (University of East Anglia), Marcel Cobussen (University of Leiden), Kathleen Coessens (Vrije Universiteit Brussel, ORCiM); Paul Craenen (Director Musica, Impulse Centre for Music), Darla Crispin (Norwegian Academy of Music), Stephen Emmerson (Queensland Conservatorium, Griffith University, Brisbane), Henrik Frisk (Malmö Academy of Music), Bob Gilmore (ORCiM), Valentin Gloor (ORCiM), Yolande Harris (Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media – DXARTS), University of Washington, Seattle), Mieko Kanno (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Andrew Lawrence-King (Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen, University of Western Australia), Catherine Laws (University of York, ORCiM), Stefan Östersjö (ORCiM), Juan Parra (ORCiM), Larry Polansky (University of California, Santa Cruz), Stephen Preston, Godfried-Willem Raes (Logos Foundation, Ghent), Hans Roels (ORCiM), Michael Schwab (ORCiM, Royal College of Art, London, Zurich University of the Arts), Anna Scott (ORCiM), Steve Tromans (Middlesex University), Luk Vaes (ORCiM), Bart Vanhecke (KU Leuven, ORCiM)
The present book is the result of a three year research project which investigated the creative act of composing by means of algorithmic composition. Central to the investigation are the compositional strategies of 12 composers, which were documented through a dialogic and cyclic process of modelling and evaluating musical materials. The aesthetic premises and compositional approaches configure a rich spectrum of diverse positions, which is reflected also in the kinds of approaches and methods used. These approaches and methods include the generation and evaluation of chord sequences using genetic algorithms, the application of morphing strategies to research harmonic transformations, an automatic classification of personal preferences via machine learning, and an application of mathematical music theory to the analysis and resynthesis of musical material. The second part of the book features contributions by Sandeep Bhagwati, William Brooks, David Cope, Darla Crispin, Nicolas Donin, and Guerino Mazzola. These authors variously consider the project from different perspectives, offer independent approaches, or provide more general reflections from their respective research fields.
The doctoral dissertation provides the description of artistic research on Chromatic Interval Group serialism (CIG-serialism), a technique developed by the author in 1997. The aim of this structurally amotivic technique is to compose music that is highly atonal and dissonant in a systematic way. It starts from Reginald Smith Brindle’s idea of “atonal series”, which allegedly maintain a constant high degree of atonality. These series consist entirely of what will be called ‘chromatic interval croups of order 3’, or CIG-3’s (ordered pitch class sets containing three pitch classes, at least two of which are interval class 1 apart). The aim of the present research is to assess Smith Brindle’s claim and to find out whether it is possible to adapt the CIG technique in order to enhance the desired result of systematic atonality and dissonance.
You can find the complete text of the dissertation here:
Introduction & part 1: Atonality and dissonance
The present thesis provides a description of how an artistic quest for a systematically atonal, dissonant, and structurally amotivic sound idiom resulted in the development of the compositional technique that was named chromatic interval group serialism (CIG-serialism) by the author. The starting point in this quest is formed by the legacy of Arnold Schoenberg's dodecaphony on one hand, and by the views of Reginald Smith Brindle on atonality and dissonance within the context of serial composition on the other hand. CIG-serialism is not—as is the case in most serial techniques serial—based on series consisting of pitch classes, but starts from the idea of interval class. CIG-series are constructed on the basis of chromatic interval groups, and not on the basis of pitch classes.
After the music-theoretical description of CIG-serialism and the manner in which it is put into practice, the technique is placed in an aesthetic context. The author is hereby looking for possible answers to the question of what it is to be an artist, what it means for him to create art, and what his incentives might be in the process of artistic creation. The concept of the artist’s aesthetic universe is introduced as a central idea in this context. The development of CIG-serialism is seen in the light of the author’s search for a procedure that allows for the expression of the ideas belonging to the idiosyncratic part of his personal aesthetic universe. This way he wants to contribute to the enrichment and expansion of the aesthetic culture he is part of.
You can find the complete text of the master thesis here: text
Suizen (吹禅) means “blowing zen”. Until the 19th Century the shakuhachi functioned as a religious tool to the Japanese Zen Buddhist Komusō (monks of nothingness) of the Fuke sect. The pieces of the Honkyoku (本曲, "original pieces" played by those monks) in the present recording are played in the version of Jin Nyodo (1892-1965).
playlist (listen on YouTube):
1. Daiwagaku - 大和楽
2. Murasaki Reibo - 紫鈴慕
3. Choshi - 調子
4. Banshiki - 盤渉
5. Kokū - 虚空
6. Mukaiji - 霧海箎
7. Tamuke - 手向
8. Kyorei - 虚鈴
recorded: February - March 2020
To purchase a copy of the CD, please contact me here
Division by Zero
The Introduction of Hyper-complex and Meta-complex Numbers.
This unpublished paper introduces hyper-complex and meta-complex numbers in order to allow for division by zero.
You can find the paper here: text