Harry van Berne studeerde cello en solozang aan het Sweelinck Conservatorium te Amsterdam. Verdere studie werd gevolgd bij o.a. Margreet Honig in Amsterdam en Anthony Rolfe Johnson in London.Harry van Berne is een veelgevraagd solist in opera, op concerten en oratoriumuitvoeringen.Tevens geeft hij liederenrecitals, daarbij begeleid door piano of luit.Als solist wordt Harry geïnviteerd om te concerteren, naast de concerten in eigen land en de andere landen van West-Europa, o.a. in de USA, het Midden-Oosten, Japan en Zuid-Amerika.Zijn uitgebreide repertoire omvat werken uit alle stijlperiodes: van de vroege Middeleeuwen tot en met composities van eigentijdse muziek, waarvan sommige speciaal voor hem werden geschreven. Naast zijn solistische activiteiten heeft ook de professionele ensemblezang zijn aandacht, gezien de verbintenissen met het Nederlands kamerkoor (2e helft jaren '80) en (op dit moment) de solistisch bezette, internationaal gereputeerde ensembles: Quink, Gesualdo Consort en het Huelgas Ensemble. Ook geeft Harry regelmatig cursussen en workshops over specifieke onderwerpen of stijlperiodes, zowel voor solozangers als voor ensembles. Als hoofdvakdocent solozang is Harry verbonden aan het conservatorium van Arnhem. Harry werkte als solist reeds met vele bekende dirigenten en orkesten samen, waaronder René Jacobs, Philippe Herreweghe, Jos van Immerseel, Ton Koopman, Michael Schneider, Jaap van Zweden, Arnold Östman, Jos van Veldhoven en Reinbert de Leeuw, The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, La Stagione Frankfurt, het NedPho en het Schönberg Ensemble, De Vlaamse Philharmonie en het Orchestre des Champs Elysées.

Christopher Kale (tenor/altus) is geboren in Pennsylvania, USA.   Hij studeerde af aan de Boston University met een Bachelor's en een Master's degree (cum laude).  Daarna won hij een internationale beurs voor studie in Amsterdam met Max van Egmond   Hij is voornamelijk actief in Renaissance en Middeleuws muziek als lid van Cappella Pratensis, Fortuna, Huelgas Ensemble,  Capilla Flamenca, Aventure, Fala Musica, de Boston Camerata, en het Nederlands Kamerkoor.    Hij heeft als solist tientallen commerciele CD opnames gemaakt van o.a. de Messiah (Handel), Lamentations (Gilles), Vespers (Monteverdi), veel Renaissance missen en motetten, Middeleeuws liederen, en Vroeg-Amerikaans muziek.  Tot zijn eigen grote verassing is hij ook solisitisch te horen op de CD’s Christmas with the Stars en Christmas with the Stars 2 met o.a. Placido Domingo en Kiri te Kanawa.  Hij is als solist geweest  in Oude Muziek festivals over de hele wereld - o.a. Utrecht, Boston, Gent, Brugge, York, Victoria, Cuenca, Saintes, Salzburg, Montserrat en Kostenevica. Christopher is ook actief als docent, en geeft regelmatig lessen en cursussen in de technieken, repertoire, uitvoeringspraktijk en notatie van oude muziek en is als docent geweest in o.a. de Fondation de Royaumont en Harvard University, en is een van de decenten van de zomercursus van Cappella Pratensis in Saint-Savin.

Michael Finnissy

(Voor Nederlands scroll down)

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Michael Finnissy (1949) was a foundation scholar at the RCM (1965–8) where he studied composition with Stevens and Searle and piano with Edwin Benbow and Ian Lake, followed by composition study in with Vlad. He created the music department of the London School of Contemporary Dance, has taught at the Dartington Summer School, Winchester College, Chelsea College of Art and the University of Sussex, and was musician-in-residence to the Victoria College of the Arts, Caulfield, (1982–3). From 1990 to 1996 he was president of the ISCM. He is currently professor of composition at the RAM and at Southampton University. 

As an accomplished pianist associated with the virtuoso solo repertory from Liszt to Xenakis, it is hardly surprising that the course of Finnissy's own creative development has been punctuated by significant piano works, as well as by hundreds of occasional pieces. The piano, for Finnissy, fulfils the gamut from sketch pad to full orchestra – from the brief yet expressive Short but … (1979) to the solo piano accompaniment to his second opera, Thérèse Raquin (1992–3). English Country-Tunes (1977), an epic nine-movement cycle, established Finnissy internationally as a voice of originality and distinction, and this has been followed by further large-scale statements for piano such as the Folklore cycle, as well as substantial sets of piano transcriptions: the Verdi Transcriptions (1972–95), Gershwin Arrangements (1975–88) and More Gershwin (1989–90).

These works attest the eclectic nature of Finnissy's musical imagination. He draws overtly on a wealth of musical sources, both in order to invigorate his own work, and to challenge contemporary audiences into re-evaluating their own musical heritages. Music by composers as disparate as Carver and Brahms, Purcell and the Strauss family, has all found its way into his works. More especially, following the example of Grainger, he is fascinated by the traditional music of many of the world's cultures. Folklore (1993–4) works explicitly with this material, treating a melody such as the negro spiritual Deep River in a variety of different ways, eventually absorbing it entirely into his own musical vocabulary. Speak Its Name! (1996) begins with a kaleidoscope of over a hundred diverse folk melodies, all playing at the same time. By contrast, English Country-Tunes does not quote actual folktunes but expresses Finnissy's ambiguous attitude to his own history by inventing a lyrical ‘English’ pastoralism, which it then destroys. In all these cases, the presence of folk or folk-derived material symbolizes both some kind of ‘innocent’, ‘original’ response to music-making and the possibility of its corruption or obliteration in the modern world.

Politics – often a polemical kind – is central to Finnissy's work. Like Ives, an important precursor and influence, he believes that all music is, in some sense, ‘programmatic’, that is, it exists in a cultural context, it reflects the concerns of the composer and his or her culture, and it can be a genuine force for change. Hence his interest in folk music (which is never ‘abstract’); hence his increasingly overt espousal of gay themes in works such as Unknown Ground (1989–90), Shameful Vice (1994–5) and Seventeen Immortal Homosexual Poets (part of The History of Photography in Sound, 1997–); hence his Christian works, such as Anima Christi (1991) and The Liturgy of St Paul (1991–5); and hence his active commitment as a pianist playing and commissioning new work from young composers, and as a distinguished teacher at all levels.

The breadth of expressive intentions of Finnissy's music is achieved through a correspondingly wide range of musical devices, from pseudo-plainchant melodies and simple accompaniments to densely layered textures, microtonal harmony and intricate rhythmic notation. Rarely is a single work concerned only with one kind of music: English Country-Tunes contains both manic Totentanz and simple, decorated monody; Speak its Name! moves from multiple, simultaneous melodic fragments to a unison tune. His music can manifest a profound violence – as many of the works from the 1970s demonstrate – as well as a contemplative spirituality, as can be heard in much of his music from the 1990s. Finnissy's music rarely fails to court controversy. He is often aligned with other exponents of the so-called ‘new complexity’, though it is a label he rejects because, he argues, even the ‘simplest’ music can be ‘complex’ – hence his continuing commitment to music for amateurs and children, e.g. East London Heys (1985–6) and Wee Saw Footprints (1986–90). Underlying these changing stylistic surfaces, however, is a consistent response to his varied musical materials: the ‘complex’ proliferation of detail out of something essentially ‘simple’, and an overriding concern for drama and directness of expression, equally evident in his grandest public statements – The Undivine Comedy (1985–8) and the primordial Red Earth (1987–8) – and in his smallest piano miniatures. Finnissy's is undeniably a unique and forthright voice in 20th-century British music.

Jonathan Cross, from the New Grove.

NEDERLANDS

De Britse componist Michael Finnissy (1946) is een van de meest belangrijke muzikale figuren van zijn generatie. Behalve een getalenteerd componist is hij ook een virtuoze pianist en een veelgevraagde dirigent. Als componist toont Michael Finnissy interesse voor uiteenlopende types muziek. Zijn stijl is vaak gekenmerkt door mathematische structuren en een soms complexe zettingswijze die virtuoze vertolkers vraagt (hij wordt tot de New Complexity-stroming gerekend). Zelf omschrijft hij zijn ingewikkelde notatietechniek liever als 'action forms' of 'obstacle courses'. Maar het New Complexity etiket is te eng om zijn stijl samen te vatten en misschien zelfs wat misleidend. Finnissy verzoent die complexe elementen immers vaak met eenvoudige uitganspunten: een paradoxale combinatie die zijn muziek een unieke kwaliteit verleent.

Michael Finnissy doceert compositie aan de Universiteit van Southampton en aan de Royal Academy of Music in Londen. Van 1990 tot 1996 was hij voorzitter van de International Society for Contemporary Music. Tussen 1999 tot 2001 was hij titularis van de KBC-leerstoel Nieuwe muziek aan de afdeling musicologie van de KU Leuven. Als dirigent en componist is hij aan talrijke ensembles en projecten verbonden.

The Liturgy of St Paul

The Liturgy of St Paul takes its overall shape from the regular eucharistic service at St Paul's Church, West Street, Brighton. It contains both the 'ordinary' of the Mass (Kyrie-Gloria-Sanctus and Benedictus-Agnus Dei; in Latin) and the 'propers' (Introit, readings and post-communion motet; in Greek). The propers relate the Story of Saint Paul's conversion to Christianity and his martyrdom in its cause, rather than following the established church calendar. I have omitted those parts of the service which are communal (the hymns, the creed, prayers and blessings, communion itself).

The work draws on plainsong ('Damasci praepositus gentis Aretae regis' the Antiphon at 2nd Vespers for the Feast of St Paul's Conversion - 25th January), and the compositional techniques associated with it: cantus firmus, heterophonic elaboration, cyclic repetition, incantation (un-naturalistic, magical, intentionally mysterious and even 'impenetrable' types of declamation) and is designed as a continuous (unbroken) ritual 'act of devotion' lasting about thirty minutes, and - ideally - performed by candlelight, in a richly spacious acoustic. It was commissioned by the Hilliard Ensemble with funds provided by the Arts Council of England, and was composed between 1992 and 1995.

New Complexity

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music, the New Complexity is a term dating from the 1980s intended to categorize primarily British composers seeking a "complex, multi-layered interplay of evolutionary processes occurring simultaneously within every dimension of the musical material”

(Fox 2001)

Music of the "New Complexity"

Though often atonal, highly abstract, and dissonant in sound, the "New Complexity" is most readily characterized by the use of extremely complex musical notation. This includes extended techniques, microtonality, odd tunings, highly disjunct melodic contour, innovative timbres, complex polyrhythms, unconventional instrumentations, quick changes in loudness and intensity, and so on. The density and difficulty of a "New Complexity" score presents enormous challenges for performers.

Why write such complicated notation? While most composers[attributed to the "New Complexity" are experimenting with asymmetry and complexity of musical form, some composers associated with the school are attempting to write notation beyond the regular desire to compose a determinate sound world that is envisioned or imagined beforehand. For example, Michael Finnissy has referred to his scores as "action forms" or "obstacle courses." This means that the notation, though highly specific, practically speaking, is often a kind of choreography of physical gestures, not really governing the sound produced by the performer. A difficult figure is not designed to produce a specific sound, in this case, as much as it is supposed to be attempted. And other works, like Brian Ferneyhough's Time and Motion Study No. 2 amplify and electronically process subtle sounds of the performer's body in the process of attempting to execute very difficult and detailed notation. The resultant effect (of hearing the detailed sounds of a performer struggle through a performance) can be said to critique the politics of classical music performance, since traditionally, performer's interpretations are subordinate to the demands of the composer. In the case of the Ferneyhough piece, the performer's "unintentional" movement becomes part of the musical work, paradoxically rendering the performer's moving body quite powerful.

Many performers of  “New Complexity" find the extremely difficult requirements of these scores to be liberating in their very difficulty and abstraction, performing a lively critique of classical music performance practice (Cox 2002). Others have suggested, more radically, that the demands of "New Complexity" scores celebrate the relationship between composer and performer as role-playing a sado-masochistic relationship; the composer as sadist, the performer, masochist. Some believe that New Complexity is a "postmodern" rebellion from the sometimes conservative performance practice that evolved around the highly systematic and modernist "old complexity."

Since "New Complexity" composers usually depend upon extremely dedicated performers, like most living composers, they require institutional support. Some prominent figures are aided by support from academic and state cultural institutions, where composers are employed as professors, performers are employed in-residence, and commissions are supported by foundations. Of the Britons, this includes Barrett, Dillon, Ferneyhough, Finnissy and Redgate. However, the proportion of state support they receive is much less than that of composers working in tonal, neo-romantic, or minimalist idioms. Excepting a few older-generation figures, new complexity composers are, after several decades, still by and large consigned to the fringes of the European new music system. In the , "New Complexity" composers are more rare and even more marginal to the new music scene.

Origins and influences

Like many of the movements in the world of the musical avant garde, the impact of "new complexity" has extended beyond its British origin, having an impact on the work of composers and performers throughout Europe, the , and the Far East. Among the influences are the Second Viennese School, Charles Ives, Elliott Carter, Serialism, Sylvano Bussotti, Sorabji, Liszt, Luciano Berio, Iannis Xenakis, British punk, heavy metal, spectral music, and free improvisation.

This movement can roughly be divided into those who studied with Ferneyhough (including Erber, Redgate, Durand, Hübler, Cox, Mahnkopf) and those who at the outset of their career were influenced by Finnissy (Barrett, Dench, Dillon and to some extent Emsley and Clarke); on the fringes of this movement are composers who have studied with Lachenmann (Schurig). Many of Finnissy's students, including Andrew Toovey, Morgan Hayes, Luke Stoneham, Alwynne Pritchard, Gabriel Erkoreka and James Weeks, are not generally associated so strongly with the movement.Generally, those influenced by Ferneyhough produce work with a fastidious attention to microscopic detail of individual material and dialectical interplay between gestures, whereas those influenced by Finnissy are more focussed upon the global aspects of the music, this also reflecting the influence of Xenakis. Finnissy's own works for multiple players frequently employ such indeterminate techniques as unsynchronised parts with no full score, in which the co-ordination between players is relatively free.

The origin of the name "New Complexity" is uncertain; amongst the candidates suggested for having coined it are the composer Nigel Osborne, the Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich, and the British/Australian musicologist Richard Toop, who gave currency to the concept of a movement with his article "Four Facets of the New Complexity" (Toop 1988).

Few of these composers wholly approve of the term, which is used less often today than in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the work of most of the composers in question has become more diverse. In the UK, particularly at the instigation of ensembles Suoraan and later Ensemble Expose, the New Complexity were for some time frequently programmed together with then unfashionable non-UK composers including Xenakis and Feldman, but also such diverse figures as Clarence Barlow, Hans-Joachim Hespos and Heinz Holliger. Other quite different composers such as Christopher Fox were for a while tangentially associated with the movement, on account of the fact that they were frequently programmed together with them and acted as advocates for members of the movement through writings. A work of Fox was included on the disc Tracts by pianist Ian Pace, a disc often viewed was a quite uncompromising espousal of the movement (also featuring music of Ferneyhough, Erber, Dench and Barrett). Finnissy has also been noted for his advocacy as pianist of the music of Howard Skempton and Chris Newman.