NOTES ON MY ODES
‘Just skip your often woolly texts about the tracks’, my dear brother advised me.
‘People just want to listen and they can have their own interpretation of your music, their own associations and feelings.’
I agreed. For a while. But at the same time, here is an opportunity to share something about my choices, themes, motifs and titles. So feel free to omit this section, but here are some short notes on my Texelodes.
Five characters
During the compositional process, the three soloists became more and more like musical characters, each representing their own part of the island. The violin became the wise bird's eye view, a divine creature or playful companion. A mysterious and gorgeous voice I heard from the sea. The flute, fujara and kaval conjure up images of a wandering shepherd. But they also transmit a fearless attitude. Sometimes wild, sometimes lively and light like birds. The Cello Octet has the role of the island as one big living organism, in all its forms, with the grass as hair on her dunes heavily shaken by the wind. I connected to this world with the piano, my 'base' and main instrument, reflecting my experiences. Alongside some pieces with all characters involved, I composed and played a duo with each of them.
Composition and improvisation
From the earliest stage, I knew that my album and compositions would be enriched with improvisation. For me this is often still the most natural way of making music. It's an expression of freedom that I very much relate to from being on the island. And if I would share how Texel makes me feel at home, I wanted to include my abilities that I've developed during the biggest part of my life. Listening, playing and studying jazz and improvised music for almost 30 years is where I feel at home as well. I hope my album will convey the power of 'both worlds', where one minute of time can be the result of months of shaping and planing, or, borrowing from Bill Evans, ‘one minute of time is one minute of music’, with everything being there, born in the moment.
Use of Prophet synth and extras
In addition to the large acoustic ensemble on this album, I involved my Prophet 08 synthesizer. Over the last 8 years, this synth has become a faithful and inspiring comrade.
It’s a lovely and very organic analog instrument that I’ve used for a lot of projects and I often take with me to Texel as well. A Fender Rhodes also adds up on two tracks and I couldn’t resist to share my passion for drums and percussion either.
TXO I: Within My Rush I Hear You Calling
This is actually a 'pre-ode', my way towards Texel. It contains my rush as well as my desire to break free from all the noise and distraction which got in my (compositional) system. It contains my struggles with rules and freedom. A catchy twelve-tone motif, a paradox I liked very much to explore, will come back in many different forms on the album. TXO I is also an overture of the themes and sounds of the album, and introduces my main 'characters' of the island.
TXO II: The Root of the Light
This is a lament turning into a caressing chorale. Texel always serves as my cure in difficult or moody times. The title refers to chapter 26 of the Tao Te Ching: ‘The heavy is the root of the light’ in my favorite, albeit somewhat free translation by Stephen Mitchell (1988). The Tao, for me like a small bible, travels always with me and has been guiding me on so many moments and places on Texel. I chose to first arrange the theme in fragments with small and silent intermezzos, like details in a more aware state of mind that you can easily train when on the island. After the 'broken' version the chorale sounds in its original form with a slow ascending line in the outer instruments. In its double meaning, towards the light.
TXO III: Choose Only One Master
This theme is my big ode, the ‘grand gesture’ I wanted to write. For me it's the day after a first night standing on top of a dune and feeling totally absorbed by the beauty, power and roughness of the island. A place where I feel very small and full of awe. The title refers to a famous quote by Rembrandt that always comes to mind when I'm totally blown away by the wind or by a spectacular panoramic view surrounding me. The following course of the track is a journey through nature and seasons as well as a journey through my mind.
TXO IV: Dialogue with the Divine
In this duo for violin and piano in four parts I have an imagined conversation with an angel, a wise bird, or shape in the sky. She notices my presence on the island again. I confirm. She's recalling memories and asking questions about special moments where we might have felt each other on the island. I'm stunned and a mutual sharing, asking and confirming unfolds. I actually wrote text to shape my melodies. The Divine is both playful and serious, both caring and understanding in this encounter.
TXO V: Rhythm Hymn
This track is an ode to freedom and playfulness, to spontaneity I can experience on Texel. Using a djembe on an album dedicated to Texel is with big thanks to my dear (ex-girl)friend, an anthropologist who brought this instrument from Senegal and sounded a lot around the barn of the Pijpersdijk during a year of living there. The little ticking drum you hear is the one I got on my 3rd birthday on Queens Day and which I directly played at the time with the brass band through our street.
TXO VI: Embracing the Void / Panorama Mysticum
An ode to the unknown. The melody is a development and deepening of my twelve-tone motif from TXO I. For me it is a lonely walk under a starry night, puzzled with our existence. At the same time giving yourself to the big mysteries of life and the funny fact of how little we actually know. The final two minutes are a revisit of the music for the film Helium, wherein the cellos’ circling pattern is based on the rhythm of the lighthouse. In this context, I wanted to reuse it to offer a trusted pulse, cradling the island and me asleep.
TXO VII: Lucid Liturgy
I consider this ode as a wake-up dream in an imagined ritual led by a rare, beautiful and rough, airy sounding instrument, the kaval. In this piece, I see Texel as a temple, where you are invited to join an unfamiliar liturgy that unfolds itself to bigger and bigger proportions. The upright piano you hear here is the one in my mother’s holiday home, where I love to come to play and be alone off-season.
TXO VIII: Reset your Senses
An ode full of groove, playfulness and gratitude. A wild 'birdy' theme combined with a more song form structure. Near the end my little drum got in again.
TXO IX: Texelanalog
I chose to write and play an ode just with my Prophet synthesizer, the instrument I've added on a few tracks on the album. I'm definitely not a bird expert, but I loved finding these sounds and combining them in a more melancholic state, in a flow of time and different seasons.
TXO X: Transience
The melody of this piece about temporality is based on the melody of TXO III. For other composers, I can share here that it's literally a vertically mirrored version of it, but with completely different harmonies. The strange object in the sea around Paal (Pole) 21 made me think of using the theremin. This etherwave instrument sounds before the beautiful voice from the sea takes over and closes off.
TXO XI: Upon Borderland
This piece was commissioned by Cello Octet Amsterdam in 2015 and premiered in a program around the 80th birthday of Arvo Pärt. It is based on a poem by Rutger Kopland, ‘Aan het grensland’. I used the first of the three poems, which ends with a verse from 1 Corinthians 13. Arvo Pärt attended one of the performances and this is where I took my chance with a short speech to express my dedication of this work to him as well. I'll never forget what he said about the piece afterwards and how interested he was to hear from me about the piece. It was the world upside down. The piece consists of three parts. The first is a long and lament like introduction towards a place where I deeply feel the poem is home: the Hors on Texel. It is, for Dutch proportions, an enormous sandy plain where the voice in the poem speaks. In this second part, I literally translated the words and phrases into music. The third part is an ascension towards an imagined encounter with God or The Unknown, followed by a descension back to earth. Unfortunately, there's no translation of the poem in English yet
TXO XII: For Now
This is a solo farewell and a promise to be back soon again, played with my chorale theme. This was literally the last take after four days of recordings in MCO 1, Hilversum. A full solo improvised session on piano, which I played before returning to this theme, will be released as an EP as a follow up on the release of this album.