Today I met with Farman Purnama, my favorite Indonesian tenor, a beautiful man with a beautiful voice (you can check the truth of this statement in his website http://www.farmanpurnama.com/ ) . We are going to perform my new song, Dalam Sakit (In Sickness), for the Fundraising concert for the AIDS Foundation organized by the Singaporian Ambassador for Indonesia at his place Singapore House on the 16th of this month. Dalam Sakit was commissioned by a philanthropist whose name prefers to remain unknown. He has commissioned some other composers from other countries for the AIDS Foundation, as a tribute for someone he loved who died of AIDS. I dedicate Dalam Sakit to all those who have died of AIDS . Its text is from a deeply moving poem by Sapardi Djoko Damono.
This is in fact my first song written expressively for tenor voice. All my previous songs for male voice were written for baritone. Farman has the kind of voice which I like, not that Italian heavy stuff, but closer to …hmm… perhaps Peter Pears who is another favorite singer of mine. I mean, have you heard the recording of Pears singing Britten’s Serenade ? Its beauty could break all the toughest hearts on earth (ok, perhaps not George Bush’s, I wonder if he's got one to be broken ? ...but he’s got no brains either).
Dalam Sakit will exist in two different versions : for tenor and piano, and for tenor and children’s & male choir as part of my cantata ARS AMATORIA which will be premiered in the New Year’s Concert at Graha Bhakti Budaya, TIM Jakarta, on the 1st of January 2008. It should not be transposed to another kind of voice . After I heard Farman singing it, I am convinced that this is the final version. His wonderful high voice is exactly what I wanted to express in this song.
This song now, even before its premiere on the 16th, has already a nickname : Ananda's Aids song.
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Sapardi. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Sapardi. Mostrar todas las entradas
jueves, 6 de diciembre de 2007
sábado, 21 de abril de 2007
Sabbatical over, Ars Amatoria not over yet
Practically my sabbatical period was over yesterday, and I closed it by going to the hospital to do some check up. Who knows that composing is not good for your health ! Am happy that my health is ok, but unfortunately I would need one or two weeks more to finish Ars Amatoria. But in the end, I have done more than AA, since I did set to music many more poems of Sapardi Djoko Damono which I definitely took out from the cantata, and put them in cycles for voice and piano. And 70% - 80% of AA also exist in versions for voice (solo or duet or choir) and accompaniments of piano, piano 4-hands or string quartet. Those versions will be premiered during the JCOM Fest in August in Jakarta, and in summer I will have to finish AA completely. Perhaps the performances in August will do it good, since I will listen to it "live" and will give me a chance to revise things to improve it.
I always thought that composition is exactly like architecture. Once the structural plan is done, one can just write based on it, minute by minute. It has been like that for me in the past. But apparently it's not like it this time. Since Ars Amatoria is the biggest piece I have done until now (more than 30 minutes long), some things twisted by itself and took their own paths during its creative process, and even worse, sometimes they are the "paths less taken". It seems as if the piece has a life of itself, like a child who grows up and starts to rebel against her parents. That's why poems are substituted and orders are changed. But until now I am happy with the result . And I learned a lot from writing this.
Next week I will recover my stage presence in Madrid, playing Ravel and David del Puerto (who with me are enjoying a good acceptance for our "Nusantara" Symphony CD), and the week after that I have to perform in Vigo (that's near Portugal) with an all-György Ligeti program .
I always thought that composition is exactly like architecture. Once the structural plan is done, one can just write based on it, minute by minute. It has been like that for me in the past. But apparently it's not like it this time. Since Ars Amatoria is the biggest piece I have done until now (more than 30 minutes long), some things twisted by itself and took their own paths during its creative process, and even worse, sometimes they are the "paths less taken". It seems as if the piece has a life of itself, like a child who grows up and starts to rebel against her parents. That's why poems are substituted and orders are changed. But until now I am happy with the result . And I learned a lot from writing this.
Next week I will recover my stage presence in Madrid, playing Ravel and David del Puerto (who with me are enjoying a good acceptance for our "Nusantara" Symphony CD), and the week after that I have to perform in Vigo (that's near Portugal) with an all-György Ligeti program .
miércoles, 31 de enero de 2007
35th anniversary of Tante Ann & oom Eddy
Today I chatted (to be precise : gossipped) with Ruth, from the Jakarta Conservatory of Music, telling me that it's the 35th anniversary of tante Anneke and her husband. Tante Anneke is our sweet (well, most of the time) managing director, but also doing all the other jobs at the administration office, all the scheduling ..... in short, everything but teaching ! So, congratulations, tante & oom Eddy .
As a gift, I want to write a love song, so I browsed again the poems of Sapardi Djoko Damono, with whose poems I am having a big crush on these days (please check my entry a few days ago). Found 2 short poems which I would like to set into one continuous piece of music for mezzosoprano & piano, "to tante Ann & oom Eddy for their 35 years of happiness". Of course I haven't got permission from the great poet, but I just hope that I could get his email and ask him ( cross my fingers that he will give his permission, especially in uniting those 2 poems !) . Anyway, I set a target of writing 35 bars of music to be scanned and sent by email to the happy couple, and I managed to write 37. Am not going to tell you now which poems they are ... for superstitional reasons . The piece has to be finished first . I wrote this post right after I sent the email to them with those 37 bars.
By the way, I have also finished setting Chendra's poem "Saksi" two days ago, but in such a different character ! The piano part is very, VERY virtuosic. There is a prelude which last for perhaps 30 seconds, which is quite scary when I look at the finished page. Completely black full of running notes ! Well, it's inspired by the storm, so, what else can I do ? The piece wrote itself !
Tomorrow Rohan de Saram will arrive and will stay at my place (with his Guarneri cello which costs .....half a million euros !!! (that was the estimation of his cello in the year 2000 ... so, it has gone up since then ..). Make sure you turn on the alarm and lock the doors at night, Andy ...) before we travel together to Madrid on Sunday. So, 4 days of rehearsals. No musing and toying with other people's poems. By the way, we are premiering a work (another Love Song ! Everybody's talking about love these days ... or is it because we already are practically in the age of Aquarius ??) by Jesus Rueda and a 3-movement work by Geoffrey King.
As a gift, I want to write a love song, so I browsed again the poems of Sapardi Djoko Damono, with whose poems I am having a big crush on these days (please check my entry a few days ago). Found 2 short poems which I would like to set into one continuous piece of music for mezzosoprano & piano, "to tante Ann & oom Eddy for their 35 years of happiness". Of course I haven't got permission from the great poet, but I just hope that I could get his email and ask him ( cross my fingers that he will give his permission, especially in uniting those 2 poems !) . Anyway, I set a target of writing 35 bars of music to be scanned and sent by email to the happy couple, and I managed to write 37. Am not going to tell you now which poems they are ... for superstitional reasons . The piece has to be finished first . I wrote this post right after I sent the email to them with those 37 bars.
By the way, I have also finished setting Chendra's poem "Saksi" two days ago, but in such a different character ! The piano part is very, VERY virtuosic. There is a prelude which last for perhaps 30 seconds, which is quite scary when I look at the finished page. Completely black full of running notes ! Well, it's inspired by the storm, so, what else can I do ? The piece wrote itself !
Tomorrow Rohan de Saram will arrive and will stay at my place (with his Guarneri cello which costs .....half a million euros !!! (that was the estimation of his cello in the year 2000 ... so, it has gone up since then ..). Make sure you turn on the alarm and lock the doors at night, Andy ...) before we travel together to Madrid on Sunday. So, 4 days of rehearsals. No musing and toying with other people's poems. By the way, we are premiering a work (another Love Song ! Everybody's talking about love these days ... or is it because we already are practically in the age of Aquarius ??) by Jesus Rueda and a 3-movement work by Geoffrey King.
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