Dutch Carillon News - Beiaardcentrum Nederland News... · Dutch Carillon News ... September 4th,...

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Dutch Carillon News Newsletter from the Netherlands Carillon Center (BCN) Number 5 - September 2011 Foreword The work of the Netherlands Carillon Center has many facets. Besides the historically close connection with the Netherlands Carillon School, the Netherlands Carillon Center stimulates carillon culture in gen- eral. Also, it is the ‘town carilloneur’ of Amersfoort. As you will see from this newsletter, that is the main activity at the moment. As far as possible, the Netherlands Carillon Center hopes to fulfil an exemplary role herein. Quality playing is half the story. The preservation of the local carillon culture is best served by direct contact with the citizens. Many possibilities for strengthening the bond with the inhabitants of Am- ersfoort are therefore gratefully seized by the Netherlands Carillon Center, especially by its secretary. At the present time, carillon culture is suffering, both politically and financially. This is, however, somewhat offset by the present longing for old national values. The carillon is not a populist musical instrument but we can do our best to make it a popular one (in the sense of ‘loved by the people’). The carilloneurs need a special antenna for what is going on in their own surroundings and the creativity to translate that into the language of the bells. I wish them inspiration! Greetings, Christiaan Winter (Chairman Netherlands Carillon Center) - 1 - N.B. All enclosures are in Dutch News in Brief Diploma Ceremony at the Netherlands Carillon School During a festive evening on Wednesday, June 22 nd , the school year of the Netherlands Carillon School was closed with a concert by the two final exam candidates, JungEun Kim (South Korea) and Rien Donk- ersloot, who performed parts of their exam programmes on the carillons of the Tower of Our Lady. The concert was heralded by the Amersfoort Bellringers’ Guild and ended with a friendly get-together in the Carillon School. The students were addressed by their teachers, Frans Haagen and Gijsbert Kok, and coffee, cake, beer and nibbles were served. Finally, JungEun went home with her Bachelor diploma and Rien with his coveted Master diploma. Summer Concert Series Amersfoort This summer, the bells of the Belgian Monument and the Tower of Our Lady rang again during a number of concerts. The series in the Belgian Monu- ment was fortnightly, on a Sunday afternoon, preceded by a guided tour by the Gilde Amersfoort. The Tower concerts were always preceded by the Amersfoort Bellringers’ Guild. The concerts were included in the events mentioned in the local press and were reasonably well visited, given the wet summer. The programme books which were hung on the tower door were avidly read by the public, who took the opportunity to have a drink at one of the cafés on the square. Foto: Hanns-Diether Sommer

Transcript of Dutch Carillon News - Beiaardcentrum Nederland News... · Dutch Carillon News ... September 4th,...

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Dutch Carillon NewsNewsletter from the Netherlands Carillon Center (BCN)

Number 5 - September 2011

Foreword

The work of the Netherlands Carillon Center has many facets. Besides the historically close connection with the Netherlands Carillon School, the Netherlands Carillon Center stimulates carillon culture in gen-eral. Also, it is the ‘town carilloneur’ of Amersfoort. As you will see from this newsletter, that is the main activity at the moment. As far as possible, the Netherlands Carillon Center hopes to fulfil an exemplary role herein. Quality playing is half the story. The preservation of the local carillon culture is best served by direct contact with the citizens. Many possibilities for strengthening the bond with the inhabitants of Am-ersfoort are therefore gratefully seized by the Netherlands Carillon Center, especially by its secretary. At the present time, carillon culture is suffering, both politically and financially. This is, however, somewhat offset by the present longing for old national values. The carillon is not a populist musical instrument but we can do our best to make it a popular one (in the sense of ‘loved by the people’). The carilloneurs need a special antenna for what is going on in their own surroundings and the creativity to translate that into the language of the bells. I wish them inspiration!

Greetings,Christiaan Winter(Chairman Netherlands Carillon Center)

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N.B. All enclosures are in Dutch

News in Brief

Diploma Ceremony at the Netherlands Carillon SchoolDuring a festive evening on Wednesday, June 22nd, the school year of the Netherlands Carillon School was closed with a concert by the two final exam candidates, JungEun Kim (South Korea) and Rien Donk-ersloot, who performed parts of their exam programmes on the carillons of the Tower of Our Lady. The concert was heralded by the Amersfoort Bellringers’ Guild and ended with a friendly get-together in the Carillon School. The students were addressed by their teachers, Frans Haagen and Gijsbert Kok, and coffee, cake, beer and nibbles were served. Finally, JungEun went home with her Bachelor diploma and Rien with his coveted Master diploma.

Summer Concert Series AmersfoortThis summer, the bells of the Belgian Monument and the Tower of Our Lady rang again during a number of concerts. The series in the Belgian Monu-ment was fortnightly, on a Sunday afternoon, preceded by a guided tour by the Gilde Amersfoort. The Tower concerts were always preceded by the Amersfoort Bellringers’ Guild. The concerts were included in the events mentioned in the local press and were reasonably well visited, given the wet summer. The programme books which were hung on the tower door were avidly read by the public, who took the opportunity to have a drink at one of the cafés on the square. Foto: Hanns-Diether Sommer

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We are the WorldIn connection with the national campaign for Giro 555 The Horn of Africa, the Red Cross contacted Jan Willem Achterkamp, carilloneur in Bathmen, Dinxperlo, and Nijenrode Castle. It was hoped that We are the World would be played during the first week of August on as many carillons in the country as possi-ble. He forwarded this request by email to all his colleagues in The Netherlands and the song sounded from town halls and church towers in a great many towns and villages. We are the World was written in 1985 by Michael Jackson and performed by various famous singers on the occasion of the famine in Ethiopia. André Kukolja and Johannes Thuy played this song on August 5th and 6th on the Tower of Our Lady. De Stad Amersfoort, a local paper, reported it. Click here for the cutting.

Dias LatinosOn Friday, August 19th, Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st, this South-American dance and music spectacle was held in Amersfoort. During this festival, a programme item with carillon, ‘The Experiment’, was or-ganised every year. A carilloneur (Jacques Maasen, later Frans Haagen) played together with a band or soloist. This year, Dias Latinos did it differently: the Saturday programme was opened by Frans Haagen. Playing with and on the Eijsbouts Carillon, he performed a number of swinging bossa novas, sambas, be-guines and tangos. With titles such as ‘Tico, tico’, ‘Besame mucho’ and ‘Amor, amor’, the day was opened in style.

Wim Ruessink carilloneur in GroenloAs from October 1st, Wim Ruessink will be carilloneur in Groenlo, where he will play on the tower carillon in the St. Calixtus Church. He succeeds Gert Oldenbeuving, as he did earlier this year (April) in Winterswijk, where he lives. There he plays in the tower of the Jacob’s Church, in which he is also cantor/organist. Wim Ruessink hopes to finish his studies at the Netherlands Carillon School in the spring of 2012. More information on this versatile musician can be found on his website.

Former NCS student becomes town carilloneur in UtrechtAs from September 1st, Malgosia Fiebig is the new town carilloneur in Utrecht, succeeding Arie Abbenes. Malgosia studied at the Netherlands Carillon School with Arie Abbenes, Bernard Winsemius, Frans Haagen and Henk Verhoef. She gained her Bachelor diploma in 2004 and the Master in 2007. The Carillon Center congratulates Malgosia on this prestigious appointment and wishes her a happy future.

Foto: R. van Willigen

News from the Netherlands Carillon School

Interview with a carillon student.The students at the Netherlands Carillon School gain practical experience on the carillons of the Belgian Monument and the Tower of Our Lady in Amersfoort and that of the town hall in Leiden. Besides this, they are invited as stand-ins by carilloneurs around the country and invited to play in summer concerts. In this way, Dick Klomp was asked to play carillon music for an hour in the summer series in Baarn. Every year the local paper, the Baarnse Courant, focuses on one of the six evening concerts. This year, Klomp’s concert led to an interview which appeared in the paper on August 1st, 2011, which you can read here.

The Relief of LeidenEvery year, there is a big feast in Leiden, celebrating its relief from siege by the Spanish during the night of October 2nd/3rd, 1574. The Sea Beggars (‘geuzen’) dealt out herring and white bread to the starved citizens and this is still the delicatesse that is eaten annu-ally at this feast, as well as the carrot stew the Spanish left behind in their flight. The town celebrates this annually with a large fair-ground, a musical tattoo, remembrance services, the presentation of medals of honour, a festive market, street theatre, a show of sailing ships and tugs and a parade of floats. In the evening, eve-

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The sound of bells in Amersfoort, Carillon Town

Keyboard LionOn Sunday afternoon, September 4th, 2011, Mathieu Polak gave a concert on the carillon of the Belgian Monument for the Lions Club Amersfoort. This group, led by Loek van Hasselt, had had a great clean-up of the park round the monument that afternoon. Van Hasselt is no stranger to the world of bells in Am-

ersfoort: as member of the town council, he is responsible for exter-nal relations and can sometimes be heard as a member of the Am-ersfoort Bellringers’ Guild.After all the hard work, Polak played during the drinks gathering, amongst others, music from Yentl and some improvisations on ABBA songs.Some ‘Lions’, amongst whom Harold Warmelink, director of the Flint Theatre, visited the playing-cabin. He had many ideas about future musical activities, such as combination concerts between the Aegtenkapel and the Belgian Monument.A pleasant afternoon which might have a musical tail!

Carillon welcomes clavichordOn Sunday afternoon, October 9th, a unique ‘double concert’ takes place in the centre of Amersfoot. The loudest keyboard instrument, the carillon, will have a dialogue with the softest, the clavichord. Henk Ver-hoef will play the 17th century Hemony carillon in the Tower of Our Lady at 13.30. This concert has been organised by the Netherlands Carillon Center Foundation. Besides his organ studies at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatory, Henk Verhoef studied at the Netherlands Carillon School with Bernard Win-semius. He has made concert tours to Japan, Portugal, and the United States and is carilloneur in Woer-den and carilloneur and organist at the Free University in Amsterdam. As carilloneur in Monnickendam, he plays the oldest hand-played carillon in the world. He will play a programme with works by Hendrik Anders (1657-1714), from De Gruytters carillon book (1746), Von Biber (1664-1704) and J.S. Bach (1685-1750).At 14.30 a clavichord recital follows in the St Rochus Chapel, Pothstraat 16, organised by the Netherlands Clavichord Society. Soloist is Ursula Dütschler (photo) from Switzerland, who studied the harpsichord with Jörg Ewald Däh-ler and Kenneth Gilbert and piano with Malcolm Bilson. She won prizes at competitions in Paris (harpsichord 1989) and Boston (piano 1991). Ursula Dütschler appears regularly as a soloist and in ensembles, playing harpsi-chord, piano and clavichord. She is guest teacher for piano at the Royal Con-servatoire in The Hague. Her programme is called “Bach and Sons” and con-tains works by Joh. Seb. Bach, W.Fr. Bach (1710-1782), Joh. Chr. Fr. Bach (1732-1795), C.Ph.E. Bach (1714-1788) and J.Chr. Bach (1735-82). Ursula Dütschler plays on a five-octave clavichord, made in 1983 by Martin Scholz, who was harpsichord-maker with the music firm Hug in Zürich in the 80s and 90s.A carilloneur is expected to be ‘fist-sensitive’, but a clavichord player must have sensitive fingertips. The clavichord is the only keyboard instrument on which the finger can produce a vibrato after pressing a key down to touch the string. The sound is modest but very expressive and is reminiscent of the sound of a guitar.The carillon concert is free and begins at 13.30. Programmes can be found at the entrance to the tower or here. The clavichord recital begins at 14.30. Tickets kost € 12,- (including tea/coffee). More informa-tion on the clavichord recital can be found on the website of the Netherlands Clavichord Society.

rything is rounded off with fireworks. The carillon in the town hall will be played during the festivities and, as in each year, the Netherlands Carillon School provides two carilloneurs. As October 2nd is on a Sunday this year, the programme for that day has been moved to Saturday, October 1st. Former carillon student, André Kukolja will play at 19.30, including the town’s own song, ‘Leiden, stad van mijn hart’ and ‘G’lijk den grootsten rapsack’ from Valerius’ Gedenck-clanck. On Monday, October 3rd, former carillon student, Rien Donkersloot plays at 8.30 in the morning. The carilloneurs will also play festive Dutch music.

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On Show The artist, Hanns-Diether Sommer, who lives in Baarn, sends a weekly email to his family, friends and others, called ‘On Show’. According to Sommer, the message is “sometimes critical of the social structure, sometimes striking or funny, and sometimes just feeble. It depends on how you look at it at the time”. After a visit to the Paulustoren in Baarn during a carillon concert on the Open Monuments Day, he met the Baarn carilloneur, Bauke Reitsma, who invited him to come to a concert in the Tower of Our Lady in Amersfoort. The invitation was eagerly accepted by the German-born inhabitant of Baarn, which resulted in the following ‘On Show’. Hanns-Diether Sommers’ work can be found on his website.

On ShowBy Hanns-Diether Sommer

High levelLast week I witnessed an event at a great height. Carilloneur Bauke Reitsma played both the carillons of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Toren in Amersfoort, the third highest church tower in The Neth-erlands. Only those of the Dom in Utrecht and the New Church in Delft are higher. Bauke, a very gifted and enthu-siastic musician, gave convincing per-formances of virtuoso works from the carillon literature and his own transcrip-tions. What did the people in the town think of it? I don’t know. From the tower, 55 metres up, it is impossible to tell. In any case, I was very impressed and went home with pain in my calves from the 300 steps.

Carillon WalksThe Gilde Amersfoort is the body that organises guided tours with knowledgeable guides everywhere in Amersfoort and is no stranger to the Netherlands Carillon Center. For more than ten years, summer walks with carillon concerts have been organised around the Belgian Monument. We can also always count on the knowledge of the guides in the Carillon School on the annual Open Monument Day, from this year onwards also at the Belgian Monument. For the first time this spring, the Guild and the NCC organised weekly ‘carillon concerts’.The Amersfoort Guild has been organising guided visits to the tower for some time and these included the bells as highlight. Participants climb the 250 steps to the playing cabin, where a carilloneur ex-plains everything briefly and welcomes questions. Then he/she plays something so that the visitors can see the carilloneur at work. This was usually Joannes Thuy (photo), a student of the Netherlands Carillon School. These walks are still being developed: for practical reasons, it is not yet possible to view the clockwork and the chiming mechanism, but we hope to be able to do this shortly. The Carillon Walks take place on Saturdays from 15.30 and will last until Oc-tober 29th this season. For more information and booking, please go to the Guild’s website.

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Monthly bellringing in OctoberAs on every Saturday in the month, the Amersfoort Bellringers’ Guild will chime the seven Rincker bells of the Tower of Our Lady on Saturday, Octo-ber 1st, from 12.00 to 12.15. Usually, André Kukolja is the chime leader: he compiles the chimes and coordinates them with calls. For his compilations, Kukolja is always led by the date, month, season or current events. On Oc-tober 1st, the name day of Saint Bavo (622-659) will be celebrated: for this theme, the compiler creatively chose cathedrals which carry the Saint’s name. The Bellringers’ Guild translates the chimes of the Great or Saint Bavo Church and the Saint Bavo Cathedral, both in Haarlem, and the Sint Bavo Cathedral in Ghent (B) to the chimes in Amersfoort. Click here for the illustrated programme for October 1st. More information on the Amersfoort Bellringers’ Guild can be found on the website.

Open Monument Day 2011This year, the national Open Monument Day was held on Saturday, September 10th. Many monuments were also open in Amersfoort. As usual, ‘The crowned flour sack’, the building that now houses the Neth-erlands Carillon School, had many visitors. While a guide from the Gilde Amersfoort spoke about the building, carilloneur André Kukolja explained the training and, using the practice keyboard, the playing of the carillon.This year, on the initiative of the Tourist Office, the Belgian Monument was also opened for the first time. As September 10th was also the Day of the Amateur, these two themes were combined at the Belgian Monument. Henk Bruggeman, Tjeerd Mulder, Nicolaas Scharn en Wil Dullemond, some of Mathieu Polak’s amateur students, gave a great number of people a guided tour with carillon music in the monument. Dullemond is a carillon student at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the other three students of the amateur courses at the Netherlands Carillon Center. This was able to avail itself of the knowledge and expertise of the Gilde Amersfoort.

Nicolaas Scharn wrote his short impression of the day:“On September 10th, I showed people round the tower of the Belgian Monument on my own, as part of Monument Day, 2011. Luckily, I knew some things about the tower and they heard the rest from the Gilde Amersfoort. Many people and their children climbed the tower and asked their questions: did you have to hit the sticks very hard? Could they see the carillon, which they had heard for years? What is a carillon? What is pinning? What provides the hour chimes in a tower? What is the difference between chiming and ringing? Where do the dead bats come from? Some of them were allowed to play for a mo-ment. Some were even musical and produced a perfect scale or Frère Jacques. It really was a great suc-cess. Sometimes a group of three, sometimes a whole cycle club next to you. Maybe we should put flyers out for free trial lessons? And one with the programme of concerts in Amersfoort? Altogether... to be re-peated.”

Bachelor student, Joannes Thuy, was also busy all day, showing the public in Amersfoort the bells and carillons. Before the amateurs came to the Belgian Monument, he had already been playing for two hours in the Belgenlaan. In the afternoon, together with Hans van Rossum of the Gilde Amersfoort, he climbed the Tower of Our Lady twice in order to give information about the hundred bells there (35 Hemony carillon bells, 58 Eijsbouts carillon bells and 7 Rincker chime bells). Of course, the carillons were also played.

Photo: Amersfoort Bellringers’Guild

Nicolaas Scharn at the keyboard of the Belgian Monument

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New in the web shop

Sheet music- Mer de Larmes : for carillon / Mathieu Daniël Polak

ReviewA new work for carillon by Mathieu PolakReview by Jacques Maassen

Recently a new composition for carillon by Mathieu Polak appeared at the Music Center Netherlands (formerly Donemus): Mer de Larmes (sea of tears), a work in one movement, lasting about five minutes, written after the recent tsunami in Japan, where the work was also given its première (by Mari Norisada, June 19th, 2011 in Itami City. Ed.).Polak has been writing for the carillon since 2000 and this latest work is about his tenth, so there is material for comparison. If you want to see the rest of his oeuvre, some are available on the website of the Netherlands Car-illon Center.

Mer de Larmes is a compactly constructed piece in a kind of rondo form (if we may use this term without implicating the classical terminology). In es-

sence, the piece consists of the juxtaposition of slow, dramatic themes (3 parts) with quicker passages in which a manually played rolling figure forms the basis for a large and effective crescendo. In spite of the changing time signatures in the slow movement, there is definitely a form of phrase-building.These “phrases” (not to be thought of in the classical sense) could, in my opinion, have been indicated by phrase-marks. Once one has found this structure and felt how the main motifs in these parts are devel-oped and relate to each other, one can play the piece easily.In contrast to other carillon works by Polak, the harmonic idiom is thinner and thus stronger. From a tonal/modal basis, the piece moves, on the whole, in a pleasant atonality.

Mer de Larmes can be obtained in the web shop of the Netherlands Carillon Center.Price € 6.03 / $ 8.37Click here for a performance on YouTube.

EditorsBauke ReitsmaGea van VeenSimeon Bodden

Dutch Carillon News

TextsJacques MaassenGerard van de MeerakkerMathieu PolakBauke ReitsmaGea van Veen

EditionBeiaardcentrum NederlandPostbus 7583800 AT [email protected]

TranslationAnia Lentz-Michaelis

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