Ensemble Paul Frankhuijzen

Another view through another window
for string orchestra

* Given the fact that Bach often adapted his music for other instruments, how sure can we be that the music is really for the cello?

* Bach alternates fragments from different registers and thus leads the listener to believe that he/she hears more than one melodie-line at the same time.

* Anne Bijlsma once said: "it is strange how much you can leave out in music and still complete the picture in the listener's mind".

* For cellists the suites are a must to have played. The many different interpretations, who is right? That's just it. Bach's strength is that it is universal. You can always work with it again, it always inspires. A never ending story.

* Quotes from Eric Siblin's book 'De Cello Suites'.

Partly after reading this book. I came up with the idea to approach Bach's cello No.2 d-small (BWV 1008) from different zeitgeist, and use it as inspiration for a string orchestra.

There is so much to hear in the suite that left
me wondering how can I bring out a different
experience, as it were, with respect for the original.

I researched the suite from periodization and phrasing containing the thematic material. In this I applied among other things the art of omission in order to get to the essence more. I call a periodization (a musical phrase) a field. The musical material in it gave me an 'Another view' to the suite and inspire me to discover new possibilities. By combining different moments
everything is present in the field.

The passage of time acts as an inner duration, both that which is past and that which is to come is present. The space creates the apparent but is also the present at the same time. It may for example suggest something but in fact it remains just a d-minor chord with its intermediate notes.I often apply this with the idea that it does not remain the same, but just as an
organic ball that always changes color but still remains a ball.

For me, the entire composing process was: "What was there in the past, and what is in the present". A dynamic process of "A never-ending story".
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Instrumentation

055 Another view through another window
(2020)
12:30’

String orchestra

The infinity of landscape
for reed quintet

The inspiration.

When we walking through a landscape, then we walk through the hidden history. The infinity of the landscape with his secrett codes in it.

In the beginning there was only an endless empty space, but empty space does not exist. Deeper layers and hidden structures of the present and the past are always present

'The questing is, was there an in the beginning?' For instance when come to a stop during a walk then you feel the protection of the earthly rise, the remains of … On the horizon you can see other dimensions from both the present and the past. The new lies in the present of the present and the echo of infinity.

The Hymn of Jorge Luis Borges has been a great inspiration.

Instrumentation

053 The infinity of landscape
(2019)
7:20’

Reed quintet
Ob, S.sx, Bb cl, B. cl, Bsn.

The reflex of
for orchestra

When someone is in a coma, the entire well-being no longer works. Any form of time and awareness seems to be absent. It is a kind of unintelligible void.
This surreal brought me to the question when social stress arises, is there no kind of coma.

From time to time, many new ideas and currents and strength measurements arise that somehow cause social stress, fear and emptiness. Not the idea and
well-being is more important but the urge for power and manipulation seems to be more necessary.

In the composition I use elements from the Baroque period, in which a lot of repetition, decoration, boredom and overload prevailed and people started
to see themselves as the center of attention. The music gives the reflex of life, as it were. The orchestra stands for the large organ, the complexity of society with all those individuals.

'The Reflex of' consists of three stages, namely:

Part 1
The opening starts, as it were, with a quietly carried breathing, and is followed by an increasing role of stress. Like a complex engine, the music continues with a lot of repetition and an apparent lightness. Due to the abundant use of decorations and dynamics, the melodies are no longer directly perceptible.

Part 2
A great void arises. In this melodies and musical ideas emerge from nowhere, but whenever they start to form, emptiness takes over again. There is no more development, just only reflexes. However, there is a depth structure, this represents the subconscious course in which all this takes place.

Part 3
The subconscious is above the drive of life. Here again the active of life is represented, but still with an unreal element in it. Like what is happened.
The Baroque elements return, but now more orderly, a kind of dance in space, with a clearer musical drive effect.

Instrumentation

032 The reflex of
(2007 - 2017)
14:30’

Orchestra
1 picc./ fl. 1 fl. 2 ob. 2 Bb cl.
1 B cl. 2 bsn. 2 Bb tpt. 2 trb.
vln.I. vln.II. vla. vc. d.b.)