foto Hans Van der Linden

‘Geef de luit weer de leiding’  bloklettert CULT. , de dagelijkse cultuurkatern van De Morgen vandaag.
Het betreft een artikel over de Nederlandse luitist en  componist Jozef van Wissem.
Op zijn website vind je naast dit filmpje ook nog veel audio-fragmenten.

and this is one of the writings by Jozef van Wissem :

New music for early instruments manifesto
The idea is to rid traditional instruments of their clichés. When one thinks of a lute the Robin Hood image comes to mind of the player standing under a balcony serenading a lady and getting a flower pot thrown at him. In order to update the instrument, to make it mature and give it it’s recognition it deserves one needs to put it in an entire different and contemporary context. So one denounces audience expectations for example. Like not playing the instrument in a classical manner; it really pisses of the purists when it turns out the lutanist becomes one chord wielding head banging long haired creature. (no men in tights to be found here). Or not playing the instrument for over a minute in concert, making the audience the performer, albeit uneasy and claustrophobic.
What else can be done? Early instruments can be processed on laptop in many different ways, field recordings can be added, lute tablature can be performed backwards, baroque themes can be repeated without end, the freeing up of these constraints seem endless. The idea is to drag the lute out of the museum, out of the safe hands of a small group of specialists and give it back to the people. The lute used to be omnipresent before it disappeared: in all layers of society, at court, in bars, in rich and poor families. and it traveled well on horse back so Italian, French, lowland, and German styles were mixed. so why hide it now?
The lute off course is only an example. there are other instruments like this which suffer from cliche.New Music for Early Unstruments intends to liberate these instruments by updating them in non-conventional ways.

Jozef van Wissem, luit

By Admin

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