“The beauty of music relates to the way it expresses the emotions we all share and live through during our lives. ”
As a composer I design the emotional stories we share through music. It is my task to make these stories of such high quality that we all enjoy playing and sharing those musical stories.
I like the most that I bring people together having fun practicing and playing or listening. It brings me so much joy, just being at a rehearsal of my composition and see people joining in together on their free evening having hours of fun playing and listening to my music.
I like to calculate how many hours fun hours I have created with my composition.
An orchestra sounds best when there is an overal feeling of respect for each other: The composer must respect each players mind, body, relations, space and time. Musicians must be respecting each others space, instruments and sounds. The conductor must respect the effort of all musicians, trying to understand and play the composition. The instrumentmaker must respect the musicians wishes for sound and physical comfort. The listeners must respect the musicians for at least trying to play perfectly. This is why German orchestra’s sound better than Dutch ones. Germans make room for each others instruments.
Respect sounds great.
The beauty of music does not relate to its technical complexity, but how it represents the emotions and stories we all recognize. This is why I want to develop myself as a level 3 specialist and compose for real orchestras and real people in real live. Pieces will have extra parts for orchestra-members that play at a higher or lower level, so everybody can play at their comfortable level and make music from the start.
While writing, I picture particular musicians in my mind and think about their love for their instrument and how they would like their instrument to shine. I just love it when musicians and conductors explain their instruments (I my opinion a conductor plays the instrument ‘orchestra’) and help me improve my music. Because only when people enjoy playing my music, they will spend their precious time on it.
As a modern composer I want to use scientific research on how music is perceived by our ears and processed by our brains, to help our body perceive and process music as comfortable as possible.
A composer has to be open minded and will always be learning. So I take lessons and collect insights from experienced composers. These are my favorite insights:
There is no right or wrong, there is only sound. (Peter Habraken)
“Be honest, write who you are. Feel the emotion while writing, because others will too.” (Thomas Trachsel)
“Use the best craftsmanship, be precise and clear.” (Peter Habraken)
“Use a small idea and develop it through the use of limits. It’s the limitations makes your work creative.” (Stephen Melillo)
“Sing playfully while composing and just press the buttons you like.” (Stephen Melillo)
“It is the music that makes the emotion.” (Stephen Melillo)
“Be aware of our musical history: Stand on the shoulders of giants” (all three).
“Use the beauty of natural overtones and what the nature of sound provides us with.” (all three)
