The Fokker organ will be controlled by laptops during this extraordinary concert. Various composers, including Marc Sabat, Danny de Graan, Rozalie Hirs and Jos Zwaanenburg, will compose works for the MIDI-controllable Fokker organ or work with live electronics. In addition, a composition by Conlon Nancarrow will be performed (with electronics and in a purer tuning) and improvised upon by Hubert-Jan Hubeek on a digital saxophone connected to the Fokker organ. Through the latest electronic possibilities, the 31-tone organ will be expanded, enhanced, and transformed during the performance.
2009-12-13
Pimp My Organ!
Programme
Jos Zwaanenburg – Tulips on an Organ (world premiere)
Danny de Graan – Equilibrium (world premiere)
Marc Sabat – Second WAKE (world premiere)
Conlon Nancarrow – Study No. 21
Rozalie Hirs – Hilbert’s Hotel (cancelled)
Hubert-Jan Hubeek – Improvisation
Danny de Graan – Forma
About the premieres
Jos Zwaanenburg: Tulips on an Organ for computer-controlled Fokker organ, electronic sounds, and video (2009). The otherwise entirely uncomplicated thought process behind “how to create a piece for the renewed Fokker organ” triggered, as the Dutch would say, a stream of consciousness in which the following short list of sources of inspiration, not necessarily in this order, played a role: First, the wonderful title given to today’s concert by the director of the Huygens-Fokker Foundation, Sander Germanus, “Pimp My Organ!” Second, the imagination of what an improvising computer, disguised as a music box, experiences as it observes its surroundings and attempts to approach you. Third, a German song that many believe to be typically Dutch, yet which nonetheless works remarkably well on barrel organs. Fourth, Brain Salad Surgery by Palmer, Lake, and, most importantly, organist Emmerson.
Finally, the desire to provide an affordable (just €13, or even €10.50) and perhaps healthier alternative to chemical entertainment aids. These five elements form a mixture that, hopefully, results in an audible outcome. The inevitable question remains: What is better than ten roses on a piano? – Jos Zwaanenburg
Marc Sabat: Second WAKE. The music for 2nd WAKE (for Bob) (2009) is based on an earlier piece, WAKE for JIM, written in 2007 for player-piano in Equal Temperament and dedicated to James Tenney. Both pieces are made from variations of a single gesture which is gradually changing in tempo and pitch. I was interested by the microtonal musical intervals (dyads) on the Fokker organ, and how they might possibly approximate Just Intonation sounds by being associated with a related harmonic series, also played on the organ. Occasionally an electronic tone tuned to the summation tone is added to create a kind of second melody. – Marc Sabat
Composer and flautist Jos Zwaanenburg talks about his composition for Fokker organ and live electronics
Support
This concert is made possible with support from: the Dutch Performing Arts Fund+, the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, the SNS REAAL Fund, and the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ.
Fokker organ concert
Sunday 13 December 2009, 11:00 a.m.
Admission fee €13.00 (€10.50 reduced price)
Small Hall, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ
Piet Heinkade 1, 1019 BR Amsterdam
Performers
Jos Zwaanenburg, Danny de Graan, Marc Sabat, Rozalie Hirs – laptop / Hubert-Jan Hubeek – EWI/saxophone/Fokker organ / Robbert van Hulzen – percussion