Music • Images
TRACK DESCRIPtIONs
'musique peinte'
Track 1. Perturbation du muscle de diaphragme. In a rather literal way, the piece depicts a disturbance of the diaphragm. Irregular, recurring notes repeatedly dissolve into ambiguous chords. At times, the interruptions subside and a sense of calm, even a melody begins to emerge. Yet when the piece ends, it feels as if it still had something left to say.
Track 2. La douce lumière du côté sombre de la lune. While writing this piece, I kept hearing traces of a jazz ballad, and something of 'moonlight'. So at the very end, I really could not resist a brief wink to Debussy.
Track 3. As a teenager, I would come home from school, sit at the piano, pretending I was a famous concert pianist. Rêver à voix haute ("Dreaming Out Loud") brings back something of that feeling. While writing this piece, some 50 years later, it sometimes felt as if Satie was sitting on my shoulder.
Track 4. The title Sables mouvants ("Quicksand") suggests a particular image. Whether that image can also be heard in the music, I leave to the listener.
Track 5. L'effet secondaire de l’écoute de Mozart. Ok, I only need to hear a few bars of Mozart and the music will stay with me for the rest of the day. His musical language is so distinctive that I immediately recognize it, and my imagination happily continues where he left off.
Perhaps this is my punishment for never having been a great Mozart enthusiast. In this short tongue-in-cheek piece, I return the favour with a gentle tease.
And surely that insistent D7 near the finale will eventually resolve exactly as it should? Because it simply has to!!!
Track 6. Images '73 refers to a gift from my brother Fons: a piano album containing Debussy's Images I & II and Children's Corner (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli DGG).
In a way, this piece demonstrates how I often compose: I close my eyes, place my hands on the keyboard and just listen what happens.
Really, not unlike the boy who once sat at the piano imagining he was giving the concert of his life.
Track 7. L'oiseau d'eau. This is what you might hear if you watched a black-winged stilt carefully and somewhat awkwardly making its way through the water. At the very end the bird gives a few delicate shakes of its beak. A funny, very short nature documentary in music.
Track 8. Like someone who is already running late, yet still insists on finishing a cup of coffee while hurriedly pulling on a coat and taking one last bite of breakfast.
Welcome to Urgent et Précipité. There is a lot going on, but little time for any of it. Even the music seems to be in a hurry. A little fugue? There's no time!
Track 9. I often wonder about the things we do not see. Where do birds go at night? And where are all the dead butterflies? You rarely see them in their final moments.
The title Le Vieux Papillon Vole Une Dernière Fois ("The Old Butterfly Flies One Last Time") grew out of that thought: imagining an old butterfly still attempting to take flight, even though its journey is almost over.
Track 10. “Goedemorgen luisteraars, staat u allen klaar?” Gymnastique matinale is a small tribute to the morning exercise broadcasts I remember from childhood, accompanied by a piano that seemed to have only one task: to get the day started. While writing this piece, I found myself thinking of a time when the world seemed simpler, and there was still a sense that tomorrow would somehow be better than today. Then again, maybe I'm just getting old :-) .
Track 11. Vider la mer à la petite cuillère. Sometimes I think all music has already been written. Faced with centuries of musical history, composing can feel a bit like emptying the sea with a teaspoon. Weather Report captured that feeling rather well in 'Can It Be Done?'.
Still, I keep trying, one more teaspoon, just to see if it makes a difference...