The meantone tuning in which the Fokker organ is tuned is undergoing an important revival in our time. Not only as an authentic tuning for historically informed performance, but also as a creative tool for contemporary composers. The Belgrade-born composer Ivan Vukosavljević, now based in The Hague, composed between 2019 and 2022 eight works for solo organ in quarter-comma meantone tuning. All the pieces were recorded in 2022 on five different historical organs in medieval churches scattered across the countryside of the northern Netherlands: Kantens (1661), Krewerd (1531), Midwolde (1630/1660), Oosthuizen (1521) and Zeerijp (1651/1971). This resulted in the album Slow Roads (Elsewhere, 2023), on which the seasoned organist/harpsichordist Tineke Steenbrink performs all the pieces, with guest appearances by Francesca Ajossa, Jan Hage and the South African organist and composer Lise Morrison, each performing one piece.
The eight pieces of Slow Roads have also been performed earlier on historical 16th- and 17th-century organs, where the meantone tuning produced a beautifully pure sound. Especially in the context of early music, the result is considerably more beautiful and truly an experience. With Slow Roads, Vukosavljević evokes in a 21st-century way the sound world of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance — a world in which the performing organist Tineke Steenbrink feels completely at home.
Vukosavljević, who studied composition at the University of the Arts in Belgrade before moving to the Netherlands in 2014 to continue his studies at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, explores the tunings and peculiarities of meantone tuning, as well as a meditative and contemplative aspect of music during this concert. The hypnotic works are partly inspired by the sensibilities of late medieval and Renaissance keyboard music in which Vukosavljević seeks out new paths. Meantone tuning also offers surprisingly new tone colours in contemporary music, which Vukosavljević employs in an original way. Organist Tineke Steenbrink, best known as artistic director of the baroque ensemble Holland Baroque, performs these works today on the Fokker organ, offering the listener an extraordinary sonic experience with the unequal semitones of meantone tuning. Thanks to the 31 rather than 12 tones of the Fokker organ, the additional micro-intervals make it possible to take slightly different decisions within meantone tuning, which may make this performance of Slow Roads yet another new experience.
In his compositions, Vukosavljević brings together a wide range of sound worlds — from electric guitars and electronics to Western and non-Western traditional instruments, and also the organ. His debut album The Burning, created in collaboration with Ensemble Klang from The Hague, was released in March 2023. His music is performed by, among others, HIIIT/Slagwerk Den Haag, Tatiana Koleva, Orkest de Ereprijs and many others, both in the Netherlands and internationally. His work can be heard at adventurous and progressive festivals such as Rewire, Le Guess Who?, Gaudeamus Muziekweek, but also at classical festivals such as the Lucerne Festival and Music In PyeongChang.