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Willem Jeths - 'Meme'
On Sunday, April 30, our whole class was invited by Susanne van El to come to the Muziek Gebouw aan t IJ to see her perform a few pieces composed by Willem Jeths. This being the first time I would eperience a classical concert, I was quite curious before we arrived. When we finally got there and paid for our tickets, I started getting a bit worried. I have a problem with sitting still, and I realized I would have to sit still throughout the entire concert.
So I started thinking of ways to keep myself still, I picked up a few booklets to read in case I needed them. We went into the concert hall and took our seats, all the way at the top of course.
Expecting this classical music to be slightly boring I opened my booklets and started reading. It was when I started reading about Jeths that I started bedoming more interested in the music. I quote, 'Oost en West is irrelevant, Jeths tovert met klanken zonder enige lokaale verbinding.' In simple terms this means; orientation is irrelevant, Jeths does magic with tones without any melodious connection. Considering the type of music I would usually listen to I thought this would be quite interesting, so I started listening. The first two pieces confused me, I didn't kno what to expect and quite honestly I was having trouble grasping the concepts behind these pieces. After the break I decided, since I would never understand the music, I might as well just write about what came to mind when iI heard it.
So the third piece, just like the first two, really reminded me of some sort of crazy drug trip. So I figured I might as well go with it. So I closed my eyes to see what I would envision. For some strange reaseon I pictured myself walking through a never ending desert at night while tripping on mushrooms, with only the light of the moon to show me what was around me. Everything was morphing and breathing as things tend to do when you are on mushrooms. The wind instruments kept reminding me of coyotes howling, so in my vision I felt like I was being chased by coyotes... not very pleasant.
So I was still confused about how to listen to this type of music, and I figured for this last piece I wont listen to it as music, I would listen to it as a bunch of instruments playing together. This worked out wonderfully because Jeths's music sounds exactly like that. Like the quote sad, there is no melodious connection between the instruments. Being a drummer myself, I was fascinated by the percussion section of this piece. They were using such strange techniques, such as hitting a cowbell and then swinging it around so that it created a sound like it was spinning around you. Or playing gongs and the dipping then into water to half dampen th sound. Ever percussion instrument they played, was played in an irregular way. This is typical of Jeths because he tries to use instruments in such a way that most people would not think of, trying to get every possible sound out of the instruments. He doesn't just do this with the percussion section, he also did this with all the string instruments. Using techniques such has slapping the strings with the bow, or scraping the bow and fingernails up and down the strings to create strange noises. This all made the piece very enjoyable.
However, the best part of the evening was one of the soloists in the last piece. The lovely, Susanne van Els on the viola. Only a woman with such grace and beauty does the Stradivarius justice. Every time she entered the stage, I couldn't refrain from screaming and shouting out of excitement. She was an excellent teacher this semester, and she somehow made classical music interesting to me. I am incredibly skilled at sucking up to teachers, but I assure you that I am not sucking up right now, because there isn't anything left for me to be graded on. I truly love this woman... too bad she's married.. otherwise I would be all over that like a fat kid on a cupcake... hehe.
Peace and Love to you all and enjoy the show,
HOLLA!... word...
Mark Barton
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strijkers masterclass recensie
nawoord Music in the Making
studenten over Music in the Making
recensie Tempest
University College Utrecht / Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
Honours Program - Music in the Making
Over de Strijkers Masterclass 2007
Adam Ossin over de cursus Music in the Making
Mark Barton over de cursus Music in the Making
the Final Concert of Music in the Making. Everybody has a song
Jetske Tinnevelt
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