Aankomst

The ensemble and live electronics piece, Aankomst is based upon my creative exploration of sound structures developed from archaic scales elaborated with harmonic series. I derived from the three-note melodic cell C-E-Eb (CEEs) many of the gestures and motives developed in the piece. This cell was inserted into a three-dimensional lattice derived from the symmetric interval relation +2,-3,-3,+2 and the cycle of fifths. This lattice is conceived as a matrix that defines the harmonic relations around the centre note. Moving through this lattice enables a form of ‘modulation’.The book Roads to Santiago by Cees Nooteboom inspires the piece. Since the book contains many historical quotations and is in many aspects a travel guide to Romanesque Spanish architecture, I evoked the idea of the past using melodic permutations of the piece Congaudeant Catholici included in the Codex Calixtinus and what was for centuries considered the essence of dissonance: the minor second and tritone. The electro-acoustic section is divided into samplers developed from the recording of recited text of Roads to Santiago, live recording and sonic manipulation. From the total seventeen samplers used in the piece, there are three bigger dimensions. Two of them included an element of the documentary: I recorded Cees Nooteboom reciting his text and used the sounds of his voice as a main resource to compose the electro-acoustic piece. The third sampler is based on the recording of my vocal ensemble piece Roads to Nooteboom-De Translatione Corporis. This vocal ensemble piece is at the same time an independent piece and a commentary on the related musical material of Aankomst. Aankomst is complemented by: Tumbas, an ensemble and live-electronics piece; Hermes van Den Haag(commissioned by Into-in situ) and a sound installation based on Nooteboom reading four lines of his
travelogue, Jakob’s Platz. The sound installation and the electro-acoustic piece are designed to be programmed in the foyer before and after the concert, taking the work outside the environment of the concert hall. These pieces are part of the series dedicated to Nooteboom called Seed Tree. Aankomst was commissioned by E88 and since premiered on 6 November 2010 has been programmed on several occasions. The work opened the final concert of the Donaueschinger Musiktage Off-program on 17 October 2011. The live electronics were developed in Max/MSP programming environment at Centre Henri Pousseur, during a residency with Jean-Marc Sullon.