Paul Frankhuijzen

Quartet

Another view
for string quartet

* 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 quartet.

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 dea 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



050 Another view
(2016-2020)
11:40'

String quartet
Mouvement
for saxophone quintet

'Mouvement' a living organism in the city.

Mouvement is about the daily movement of cities and their culture. This constant flow consists of a complexity of different cultures. They function as an organic ball. Without concept but with desire for self esteem and acceptance. They nourish the veins which keep the cities alive.
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Axone saxophone quartet
Live at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven Netherlands
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Instrumentation

048 Mouvement
(2013)
11:00'

Saxophone quartet

commisioned by Axesjazzpower
SNS REAAL Fonds

First performance Axone saxophone quartet
g minor.
for string quintet

A contemporary continuation of the tradition


In the composition  g minor are the rules turn. Bach's violin sonate g-minor becomes a stringquartet. And there are contemporary solo parts for violin, viola and cello.

Bach knows as no other to penetrate to the soul of a solo instrument. Thought of Frankhuijzen about this: "Just by the sonatas and partitas I encounter as listener and composer that you are in a stream. Bach used the instrument optimal and focuses on the nature of the instrument and his idea about music.

In the parts of Bach I wanted to see the string quartet as one large violin, and recomposed this thinking that ech instrument is equal. I don't like that in the arrangement the 1st violin has the leading role and the other instruments
just following.


'The contemporary solo parts are embedded in the entir and do not serve as contrast. It was a challenge not to compose individual "world", but bring the different parts together as one composition', according the composer.

1) Painting for violin (Paul Frankhuijzen)
2) Adagio (J.S. Bach)
3) Painting for cello  (Paul Frankhuijzen)
4) Fuga  (J.S. Bach)
5) Painting for viola  (Paul Frankhuijzen)
6) Siciliano (J.S. Bach)
7) Presto  (J.S. Bach)


Matangi string quartet
live at museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo Netherlands.
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Instrumentation

045 g minor
(2011)
16:20'

String quartet

recompose sonata no.1
g minor for violin J.S.Bach

Commissioned by
November music / Jheronimus Bosch 500

First performance  Matangi string quartet
The office tiger
for string quintet

The tittle 'The Office Tiger' comes from American / Indian internet company which supplies 'back office' services.

As a composer I am intrigued by the concept model with which such companies operate. 'We're changing the way the world does business.' While the people that actually do the work (the Indians) have a completely different cultural perception of processing.

What kind of impact does this have on the Indian employee?
Where does all this lead?
Does it actually lead anywhere at all?
Does globalization lead us to a new cultural identity

Musically speaking the Westerner approaches with a strong movement that can't be avoided, whereas the Indian raga starts quietly by exploring the musical substance. In the seventies the 'West meets East' theme was an important actor within the world of music. It was supported especially by Sir Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist, and by Ravi Shankar, the sitar player. To me as composer it is more important to get an answer to the question: 'How does the East influence the West?' How do those processes form themselves in terms of culture? That collaboration and those cultural connections were for me the reason to compose  'The Office Tiger'.

The Office Tiger relates to many aspects, for instance: the fast dynamics (drive), its cultural background, which continually flows under-neath, the doubts, the obscure part of its soul. These aspects alternate (speed / near standstill / incorporation). It seems as if the composition is about an office employee, so to speak.

The form of the composition is both sonata and raga, consisting of the following components overlapping each other:

Introduction,
1st  part  frenzy and silence
(predominantly West)
2nd part spirito puro (predominantly East)
3rd part globalization
echo
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Mondriaan string quartet
Recording Kees van de Wiel.
De Toonzaal s'-Hertogenbosch Netherlands.
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Instrumentation

039 The office tiger
(2009, revised part 3 2020)
16:30'

String quartet and raagini digitaal or tanpura

Commissioned by Mondriaan stringquartet

First performance Mondriaan string quartet
© Paul Frankhuijzen| All Rights Reserved