|
 |
MicroFest Amsterdam 2015Festival | 29th of November 2015, 11.00-21.30 hours | Small Hall, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in AmsterdamMicroFest Amsterdam 2015
In November of this year the Huygens-Fokker Foundation organizes for the second time a microtonal festival in The Netherlands, under the title MicroFest Amsterdam 2015. A festival for many enthusiastic listeners and people interested in music based on unconventional tunings and other divisions of the octave. Music that, like the famous American composer Charles Ives put it, consists of ‘the notes between the keys of the piano’. This edition of the festival will give mainly attention to 31-tone music (with the Italian composer and pioneer Nicola Vicentino, who lived during the Renaissance, as the thread running through the festival), but also to 96-tone music and music based on just intonation. These tunings or divisions of the octave are leading to completely new musical and tonal possibilities, a source of fresh sounds that forever expands the ear of the listener and the thinking about music. Enough reasons to visit this one-day festival for microtonal music.
Programma MicroFestConcert 1 | 11.00 - 12.00 hours | SCALA’s SpectrumDuring the opening concert of MicroFest Amsterdam 2015, a one-day festival for microtonal music, Ensemble SCALA kicks off with a program full of premieres. New works by Danny de Graan, Eric Verbugt and the German composer Joachim Schneider will frame a few short compositions. Also on the program is a reprise of Scala I by Peter Adriaansz. The wide sound spectrum of Ensemble SCALA, with the Fokker organ as a part of them, will be illuminated during the entire concert and in all its diversity. How do the overtones of a flute or a clarinet sound? Or microtones on a viola or a guitar? All these questions will be answered in a very adventurous and musical way.
Program
Nicola Vicentino (1511-c.1576) - III. Dolce mio ben (1555) Peter Adriaansz (1966) - Scala I (2012/2013) Eric Verbugt (1966) - earth (2015) premiere Giovanni Battista Orazi (?-1804) - Grave & Allegro, from Trio I (1797) Joachim F.W. Schneider (1970) - Unruh (2015) premiere
NB. The work of Peter Adriaansz and Danny de Graan were financially supported by the Performing Art Fund Netherlands (Fonds Podiumkunsten). Lecture 1 | 13.30 - 14.15 hours | Agustín Castilla-Ávila (free entrance)Agustín Castilla-Ávila is a composer, guitarist and vice-president of the microtonal International Ekmelic Music Society in Salzburg, Austria. He has developed a sixth-of-a-tone system for classical guitar (on an ordinary guitar). He uses six equal strings tuned at sixths of a tone that allows any guitarist to play microtonal music without acquiring a special guitar of developing a special technique for it. The lecture is not only interesting for guitarists but also for composers who can get many new ideas about the possibilities of the guitar. During the lecture, he presents microtonal guitars and defend why he works with the sixth-of-a-tone system. Finally he will perform a brand new piece, named Cuestionart. Concert 2 | 15.00 - 16.00 hours | Nicola Vicentino, a second lifeThe visionary 16th century composer and music theorist Nicola Vicentino is famous for his advocacy of an ancient Greek enharmonic mode and the microtonal Archicembalo that he designed for it. Only four of his madrigals survived, of which three are unfinished. The late Bob Gilmore, with Trio Scordatura, asked composers to complete/respond freely to them. The original madrigals will be performed in a Scordatura arrangement together with new compositions by Anne LaBerge, Linda Buckley, John Croft, Lucia D’Errico, Christopher Fox, Yannis Kyriak Since its inception in spring 2006, Amsterdam-based new music ensemble trio scordatura has presented exploratory music by a range of contemporary composers and sound artists that looks toward new tuning systems and microtonality as a way of expanding the harmonic vocabulary of music. The basic soundworld of female voice, viola and MIDI keyboard is expanded by other sonorities depending on musical context. Their concerts feature “classics” from the worlds of microtonal and spectral music together with new commissions. Sometimes this crosses over into work in multimedia, involving text, video, dance, and light. Scordatura: Alfrun Schmid (voice), Elisabeth Smalt (viola), Reinier van Houdt (keyboard), Benjamin Marquise Gilmore (violin), Lucas van Helsdingen (bass clarinet, coffee grinder).
Program
Lecture 2 | 16.30 - 17.15 hours | Christopher Fox (free entrance)The second lecture of the day is a tribute to the recently deceased musicologist Bob Gilmore. The British composer Christopher Fox, also Professor of Music at Brunel University London, will discuss what Gilmore did for microtonal music, the projects he has worked on and the special instruments which he built. Several composers who have inspired Gilmore will be discussed, such as the American composer and instrument builder Harry Partch, about whom Gilmore wrote a biography. Concert 3 | 20.15 - 21.30 hours | New & old harmonies in 31-tone systemThe evening concert of the MicroFest Amsterdam 2015 will end with a special 31-tone project. At the request of the Berlin-based conductor and composer Fabio Costa, the Huygens-Fokker Foundation (organizer of the MicroFest) formed the Vokalprojekt 31, especially for this festival. A small ensemble of four singers will be accompanied by the unique Fokker organ. Together they will perform fascinating music in meantone temperament and 31-tone temperament in a unique way.
Vokalprojekt 31: Valeria Mignaco (soprano), Alfrun Schmid (alto), Edward Leach (tenor) en Arnout Lems (baritone). The accompaniment of this special project will be done by the regular Fokker organist Ere Lievonen.
Program Fabio Costa (1971) - Prelude-Meditation (2006/2015) premiere
transcriptie door Ere Lievonen
NB. Between the programmed works pianist Anne Veinberg will improvise on the Carrillo-piano, which has 97 keys, so 96 tones can be distinguished in one octave (C' to C'').
TicketsSingle concerts are 12,50 euros, a passe-partout for the entire festival costs 30 euros. >>> Reduction tickets (Stadspas, CJP, 65+) for single concerts are 10 euros. Tickets can be reserved at the Muziekgebouw.
Tip: restaurants in the neighborhood
There are several restaurants in the neighborhood of the Muziekgebouw to eat lunch or have diner. At the Oosterdokskade in the public library (OBA) there are two restaurants, La Place on the top floor and Vapiano on the ground floor.
Financial supportThis concert is made possible by the support of: Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst, Amsterdam Community (District East), Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting Dioraphte, Van den Berch van Heemstede Stichting, Stichting Fonds voor de Geld- en Effectenhandel. Also the SNS REAAL Fonds (renovation Fokker organ) and the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ. A donation of the Nederlands Akoestisch Genootschap and a shared contribution of six reputable consultancy offices, namely Cauberg-Huygen, DGMR, LBP|SIGHT, M+P, Peutz and Wijnia-Noorman-Partners (WNP) made it possible for Huygens-Fokker to purchase the Carrillo-piano.
|
Program
Links |
ides, Scott McLaughlin, Hans W. Koch, Juan Felipe Waller and Harald Muenz.
