Listening by Hans Fidom
Vriendenboek voor Henk Borgdorff, 2021
Met InDesign en een handige html-5 plug-in is het mogelijk boeken over muziek te creëren die muzi... more Met InDesign en een handige html-5 plug-in is het mogelijk boeken over muziek te creëren die muziek en film kunnen bevatten; online boeken dus – die er niettemin precies zo uitzien als boeken op papier.
Organisten en orgelmakers doen er goed aan te beseffen dat oude klank perfect is zoals die is en ... more Organisten en orgelmakers doen er goed aan te beseffen dat oude klank perfect is zoals die is en dat nieuwe manieren van historisch onderzoek en nieuwe technologie beschikbaar zijn om het begrip van die klank op een nieuw niveau te brengen. Begrijpen ze dat, dan kunnen ze veel beter uit de voeten in concerten, solo of met anderen, met oude muziek of nieuwe. Concertorganisatoren en artistiek leiders doen er goed aan te beseffen dat concerten niet echt bij orgels passen; een veel breder palet aan activiteiten is nodig om aan te sluiten bij wat een orgel is, zo divers, zo rijk, zo veelkleurig, zo historisch, zo technisch. En al die anderen doen er goed aan dat het orgel er niet bepaald alleen voor dit soort professionals is, maar voor iedereen. Op het gevaar af dat ik mezelf ga herhalen is dat de crux van mijn verhaal: orgels kunnen alles.
Onze mening over muziek wordt met name bepaald in het gesprek na de muziek – bijvoorbeeld, en met... more Onze mening over muziek wordt met name bepaald in het gesprek na de muziek – bijvoorbeeld, en met name, direct erna – maar ook door normen die we uit onze respectieve culturen meekrijgen, bewust of onbewust. Dat geldt niet alleen voor luisteraars, maar ook voor musici. Een pleidooi voor relativering.
Herman van Vliet / Triptiek, 2023
Herman van Vliet was a remarkable member of the organ musicking school induced by Feike Asma. In ... more Herman van Vliet was a remarkable member of the organ musicking school induced by Feike Asma. In his rendition of Virgil Fox's organ transcription of Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale 'Komm süsser Tod', he showed remarkable attention to his choice of stops, documented in his recording of Fox's transcription on the Bätz organ in the Evanglisch-Lutherse Kerk in The Hague.
Muziek zit tussen je oren, 2023
Muziek klinkt, en klinkt nooit tweemaal gelijk. Dat muziek daardoor niet herhaalbaar is maar telk... more Muziek klinkt, en klinkt nooit tweemaal gelijk. Dat muziek daardoor niet herhaalbaar is maar telkens een nieuwe manifestatie constitueert, is een verrijking, en verklaart waarom we blijven luisteren, ook naar 'hetzelfde stuk'. Begrijpen hoe klank werkt en hoe het door de musicus wordt gebruikt – tenslotte het materiaal waarmee de musicus muziek maakt, zoals de schilder met verf een schilderij – is essentieel voor de luisteraar. Niet alleen klinken muziekinstrumenten elk anders, dat geldt ook voor audiosystemen; high-end audio experts raden daarom aan veel live muziek mee te maken in plaats van steeds duurdere apparatuur te kopen. Aan de hand van luisteroefeningen, beschikbaar in met name Orgelpark Research Report #3, kan de lezer zelf luisteren oefenen.
Orgelpark Research Report 3, 2013
Listening to music as a means to analyse that music is a new idea among musicologists and music t... more Listening to music as a means to analyse that music is a new idea among musicologists and music theorists. Organ Music, especially improvisations, provide interesting practice material.
Lydkilder / Tekster omkring Nils Henrik Asheims musikalske praksis, 2020
I am aware that 'listen to a music' (instead of 'listen to music') sounds odd. However, one of th... more I am aware that 'listen to a music' (instead of 'listen to music') sounds odd. However, one of the ideas to be developed here, is that it is helpful to discern 'musics' in time just as we discern 'paintings' in space. To make that visible in my language, I'd like to use the article 'a' before the word 'music'. Indeed, it is habitual to speak of 'performances' or 'a performance' instead. But the problem with that word is that a performer always performs something, that something being already there, which seduces us into thinking that there is such a something, a 'piece', notated in a score. Yet the piece, the composition, is not the music; it is the music's pre-stage. A score is a recipe at best: musicians make music, composers provide scores to enable them to do so.
Orgelpark Research Report 2, 2017
This book is an original electronic book, including music samples and movies; click the URL above... more This book is an original electronic book, including music samples and movies; click the URL above to download it for free (available both as an interactive pdf and as an epub-file).
In his Inaugural Address, accepting the Chair Organ Studies at VU University, in 2010, Hans Fidom proposes to rethink music as something that comes into existence - in sound - only in specific situations. He argues that music hence is a form of installation art: a work of art conceived for a specific situation.
This thought is inspired by the fact that organ music challenges common perspectives on what music is and does: each organ differs significantly from the next one, making the way a score leads to music far more relevant than that score itself. In effect, the position of the listeners is of utmost importance when (re)thinking (about) music.
The Organ Yearbook, 2015
In 2010, the Chair of Organ Musicology at VU University Amsterdam was re-established by Foundatio... more In 2010, the Chair of Organ Musicology at VU University Amsterdam was re-established by Foundation Het Orgelpark. The Chair is part of the Faculty of Humanities; it aims at integrating research in the arts in general and research in organs and organ music.
One of the major developments in the humanities in the past few decades invites to approach works of art as dynamic systems, not as ‘just’ static phenomena; any human activity is considered basically ‘performative’. This essay takes this invitation seriously with regard to organ music, by rethinking the ways it is made and perceived. In addition, the plans for the ‘New Baroque Organ’ at the Orgelpark are presented: the instrument is meant to challenge the acts of making music and listening to it in practice.
De hemel draait nog / Over Jan Welmers, 2017
What if music-as-it-sounds is taken as the 'thing' to play a pivotal role in musical cultures? Th... more What if music-as-it-sounds is taken as the 'thing' to play a pivotal role in musical cultures? This paper introduces that as an alternative way to base musical analysis on, and explores the options by listening five times to (five performances) of Jan Welmers's 'Sequens'. It appears that every performance may be considered a work of art in itself.
Improvisation by Hans Fidom
Let me start by expressing my gratitude to you all... You, as the audience, but especially of cou... more Let me start by expressing my gratitude to you all... You, as the audience, but especially of course, the contributors to our symposium. I must say that I am delighted to see that musicologists and philosophers do enjoy engaging in organ art related research, since it means that there's a chance to take this type of musicological research to a next level. There's need for such a step. Organ art related research all too often tends to focus on topics concerning organ building. And even when the rich organ music repertory is addressed, researchers tend to collect as much knowledge as possible about early organ music. Rethinking the contemporary art of the organ, reconsidering the convictions that have guided its development for the past few decades, which have been very influential, paying serious attention to new musicological developments are, to put it mildly, ideas that are attended a bit less enthusiastic. That's only too understandable: the instruments are impressive, and their history so rich that it's indeed tempting to dedicate one's
In the slipstream of the rise of New Musicology, focusing on the organ and on organ musicking inv... more In the slipstream of the rise of New Musicology, focusing on the organ and on organ musicking invites to rethink fundamental musicological issues, departing from the insight that music exists in performance. As the art of improvisation has been kept alive for over several millennia by now among organists, it may be fruitful to start there. A proper way of analyzing this art form starts with describing what actually happens when the music exists, i.e. sounds, i.e. is created, while listening: Real Time Analysis.
L'Organo Itinerari, 2011
Musicology is obliged to focus on music, as the installation work of art it actually is, as well ... more Musicology is obliged to focus on music, as the installation work of art it actually is, as well as on circumstantial evidence about music (knowledge about composers, scores, instruments etc.). This New Musicology-inspired task might be taken up by witnessing carefully what happens during a music, thus recognizing the musician as one the main artists in a musical situation. Such musicology takes time: hence the idea to introduce Slow Musicology.
The Haarlem Essays / Celebrating Fifty International Organ Festivals, 2014
The skill of making music without a score has survived the centuries among organists. After the S... more The skill of making music without a score has survived the centuries among organists. After the Second World War this was sufficient reason for the town council of Haarlem to hold an organ improvisation competition. The effect of this, in turn, was that attentive listening, as it had arisen in the concert hall, became coupled to the ancient skill of making music specially for a particular occasion.
Through the years, a manner of improvisation has been manifest in Haarlem that can be described as modern conservative. Improvising organists in Haarlem followed rather than set the trend. The same applies not only to their colleagues in Paris but also to those in Vienna (where, in the hands of organists such as Anton Heiller and Peter Planyavsky, an organ improvisation culture arose closely related to that of Haarlem). This may be explained by the reference system in which these organists operated. Most of them experienced their musical upbringing in the church, while the reference system of many of their listeners was formed in the concert hall.
Trend setting are the organ improvisers of the twenty-first century: the improvisations of Porter, Lutz, De Vries and others in Baroque style astonish connoisseurs and devotees of early music, while improvisations by organists like Lekkerkerker prove that the organ has lost nothing of its power to inspire musicians devoted to contemporary art.
![Research paper thumbnail of Ist das Musik?! Neuzeitliche Orgelimprovisation versus 'altzeitliche' Musikwissenschaft [German]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/54599483/thumbnails/1.jpg)
Musiktheorie und Improvisation, Kongressbericht der IX. Jahrestagung der Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie in Mainz, 2011
Wenn die Musikwissenschaft sich mehr der Musik, oder besser
formuliert, den tausenden 'Musiken' -... more Wenn die Musikwissenschaft sich mehr der Musik, oder besser
formuliert, den tausenden 'Musiken' - Ausführungen - in allen ihren Singularitäten widmen wollen würde, dann könnte es eine kluge Idee sein, dabei ernsthaft eine Orgel-Musikwissenschaft - 'Organ Studies' - einzubeziehen bzw. zu entwickeln. Gerade weil sie, anders als andere Branchen der Musik-, bzw. Kunstwissenschaften, der Singularität jeder Musik (jedes Kunstwerks) schlicht und einfach nicht aus dem Weg gehen kann, somit den Improvisationsaspekt und die Neuzeitlichkeit jeder Musik erforschbar macht und dadurch die Perspektive auf das, was Musizieren eigentlich ist, noch einmal gründlich auffrischt. Dies könnte bedeuten, dass die begrenzende Auffassung des Phänomens Improvisation, wie sie heute funktioniert, buchstäblich erweitert wird. 'Rethinking Improvisation', um es im Sinne Lyotards zu formulieren, wäre deshalb wohl eine gute Idee.
Het Orgel, 2005
Henco de Berg is a highly relevant Dutch improvising musician, at home both at the organ and the ... more Henco de Berg is a highly relevant Dutch improvising musician, at home both at the organ and the piano. He connects deep musical intuition to bright thinking about what making music is.
Performance by Hans Fidom
De Sjaalman Papers, 2024
Bij het lezen van deze tekst hoort luisteren naar geluid. Toen ik de lezing hield, op de bovenste... more Bij het lezen van deze tekst hoort luisteren naar geluid. Toen ik de lezing hield, op de bovenste verdieping van het hoofdgebouw van de VU, werd dit geluid gecreëerd door VU-musicus Henk Verhoef, die het carillon bespeelde, en tutor Orgelkunde Jacob Lekkerkerker, die op het pijporgel en de vleugel in de zaal improviseerde. Omdat u, beste lezer, allicht geen piano, laat De complete documentaire is hier te vinden: youtu.be/ATr80Ra5yBI?si=E2ijiuXVf4PRRhvx. Geraadpleegd op 23
ASAP Journal, 2019
During the evening session of the ASAP symposium on May 25, 2018, I played the first line of John... more During the evening session of the ASAP symposium on May 25, 2018, I played the first line of John Cage's composition ORGAN 2 /ASLSP on the little organ in the Kerkzaal, a room on the top floor of the University's main building, which was originally built to serve as a church hall. My companion was sound artist Mirjam Meerholz, who contributed a soundscape produced by a seven-part loudspeaker system, distributed across the hall and on the adjoining roof terrace. It made us think. How to cope with Cage in the context of a conference? As Moore himself recalls on his website: http://thomasmoore.info/john-cages-aslsp/ (accessed on July 1 22, 2019). Although the plan of the John Cage Orgel Stiftung is to have the piece sound exactly this long, future 2 generations might choose to repeat one or more of the parts, making it last significantly longer.
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Listening by Hans Fidom
In his Inaugural Address, accepting the Chair Organ Studies at VU University, in 2010, Hans Fidom proposes to rethink music as something that comes into existence - in sound - only in specific situations. He argues that music hence is a form of installation art: a work of art conceived for a specific situation.
This thought is inspired by the fact that organ music challenges common perspectives on what music is and does: each organ differs significantly from the next one, making the way a score leads to music far more relevant than that score itself. In effect, the position of the listeners is of utmost importance when (re)thinking (about) music.
One of the major developments in the humanities in the past few decades invites to approach works of art as dynamic systems, not as ‘just’ static phenomena; any human activity is considered basically ‘performative’. This essay takes this invitation seriously with regard to organ music, by rethinking the ways it is made and perceived. In addition, the plans for the ‘New Baroque Organ’ at the Orgelpark are presented: the instrument is meant to challenge the acts of making music and listening to it in practice.
Improvisation by Hans Fidom
Through the years, a manner of improvisation has been manifest in Haarlem that can be described as modern conservative. Improvising organists in Haarlem followed rather than set the trend. The same applies not only to their colleagues in Paris but also to those in Vienna (where, in the hands of organists such as Anton Heiller and Peter Planyavsky, an organ improvisation culture arose closely related to that of Haarlem). This may be explained by the reference system in which these organists operated. Most of them experienced their musical upbringing in the church, while the reference system of many of their listeners was formed in the concert hall.
Trend setting are the organ improvisers of the twenty-first century: the improvisations of Porter, Lutz, De Vries and others in Baroque style astonish connoisseurs and devotees of early music, while improvisations by organists like Lekkerkerker prove that the organ has lost nothing of its power to inspire musicians devoted to contemporary art.
formuliert, den tausenden 'Musiken' - Ausführungen - in allen ihren Singularitäten widmen wollen würde, dann könnte es eine kluge Idee sein, dabei ernsthaft eine Orgel-Musikwissenschaft - 'Organ Studies' - einzubeziehen bzw. zu entwickeln. Gerade weil sie, anders als andere Branchen der Musik-, bzw. Kunstwissenschaften, der Singularität jeder Musik (jedes Kunstwerks) schlicht und einfach nicht aus dem Weg gehen kann, somit den Improvisationsaspekt und die Neuzeitlichkeit jeder Musik erforschbar macht und dadurch die Perspektive auf das, was Musizieren eigentlich ist, noch einmal gründlich auffrischt. Dies könnte bedeuten, dass die begrenzende Auffassung des Phänomens Improvisation, wie sie heute funktioniert, buchstäblich erweitert wird. 'Rethinking Improvisation', um es im Sinne Lyotards zu formulieren, wäre deshalb wohl eine gute Idee.
Performance by Hans Fidom
In his Inaugural Address, accepting the Chair Organ Studies at VU University, in 2010, Hans Fidom proposes to rethink music as something that comes into existence - in sound - only in specific situations. He argues that music hence is a form of installation art: a work of art conceived for a specific situation.
This thought is inspired by the fact that organ music challenges common perspectives on what music is and does: each organ differs significantly from the next one, making the way a score leads to music far more relevant than that score itself. In effect, the position of the listeners is of utmost importance when (re)thinking (about) music.
One of the major developments in the humanities in the past few decades invites to approach works of art as dynamic systems, not as ‘just’ static phenomena; any human activity is considered basically ‘performative’. This essay takes this invitation seriously with regard to organ music, by rethinking the ways it is made and perceived. In addition, the plans for the ‘New Baroque Organ’ at the Orgelpark are presented: the instrument is meant to challenge the acts of making music and listening to it in practice.
Through the years, a manner of improvisation has been manifest in Haarlem that can be described as modern conservative. Improvising organists in Haarlem followed rather than set the trend. The same applies not only to their colleagues in Paris but also to those in Vienna (where, in the hands of organists such as Anton Heiller and Peter Planyavsky, an organ improvisation culture arose closely related to that of Haarlem). This may be explained by the reference system in which these organists operated. Most of them experienced their musical upbringing in the church, while the reference system of many of their listeners was formed in the concert hall.
Trend setting are the organ improvisers of the twenty-first century: the improvisations of Porter, Lutz, De Vries and others in Baroque style astonish connoisseurs and devotees of early music, while improvisations by organists like Lekkerkerker prove that the organ has lost nothing of its power to inspire musicians devoted to contemporary art.
formuliert, den tausenden 'Musiken' - Ausführungen - in allen ihren Singularitäten widmen wollen würde, dann könnte es eine kluge Idee sein, dabei ernsthaft eine Orgel-Musikwissenschaft - 'Organ Studies' - einzubeziehen bzw. zu entwickeln. Gerade weil sie, anders als andere Branchen der Musik-, bzw. Kunstwissenschaften, der Singularität jeder Musik (jedes Kunstwerks) schlicht und einfach nicht aus dem Weg gehen kann, somit den Improvisationsaspekt und die Neuzeitlichkeit jeder Musik erforschbar macht und dadurch die Perspektive auf das, was Musizieren eigentlich ist, noch einmal gründlich auffrischt. Dies könnte bedeuten, dass die begrenzende Auffassung des Phänomens Improvisation, wie sie heute funktioniert, buchstäblich erweitert wird. 'Rethinking Improvisation', um es im Sinne Lyotards zu formulieren, wäre deshalb wohl eine gute Idee.
Inleiding tot de karakteristieken van Nederlandse orgels uit de vroege 20ste eeuw: klankconcept, technologie en front benaderd als integrale aspecten van de artistieke eenheid van de betreffende orgels. Taal: Nederlands.
This study contains an inventory and an analysis of these public discussions, resulting in a new interpretation of the 'modern organ', as contemporaries liked to call their beloved discussion subject: whereas organs from the 18th and earlier centuries are famous for their 'unity in diversity' (many sound colors forming one instrument), the German 'modern organ' represents 'diversity in unity' instead (one basic sound color available in a countless number of shades, from bright to dark, from loud to - very - soft).
This new perspective is checked in practice in eleven critical organ portraits, including suggestions as to how to combine stops on these 'modern organs'.