Annual List of Works : Donemus

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Title
Harmony of the Spheres (Movement 1)

Composer
Joep Franssens

Genre
classical music

Instrumentation
mixed choir a cappella

Year of composition
1994 (Movement 1)

Duration
10’15’’

Place of premiere performance
Enschede (The Netherlands)

Date of premiere performance
20-10-2001

Performers
Nederlands Kamerkoor, cond. Tõnu Kaljuste

Score
Publisher: Donemus, Funenpark 1, NL-1018 AK  Amsterdam, The Netherlands
URL: http://www.donemus,nl
E-mail: rental.sales@donemus.nl
Price: rental, please contact Donemus, vocal score for sale € 10.98 (excl. VAT)

Recording
Record company: Codaex Nederland
URL: http://www.codaex.com
E-mail: export@codaex.com
Edition-No.: Composers Voice Special CV 133
Performers: Nederlands Kamerkoor, cond. Tõnu Kaljuste

Motivation
This work – Franssens’ masterpiece - is one of the most important and successful 20th century Dutch compositions for mixed choir a cappella, on texts from Ethica by the famous Dutch philosopher Baruch (later on: Benedictus) de Spinoza (1632-1677). The first movement of the cycle has been selected for the ISCM days in Maribor (Slovenia) in September 2003, performed by the BBC Singers conducted by Stephen Betteridge.

Programme note
Harmony of the Spheres consists of five movements. The first one deals with the bond between people – the harmony in community. Therefore the words ‘Hearts, however, are conquered not by arms, but by love and nobility’ are repeated at the end of movements I and V.
The composers harks back to compositional methods of the Renaissance in a 20th century concept of chromatic space. The repetition of motifs and the absence of ornamentation contribute to the effect of spaciousness. The triad symbolizes the Pythagorean vision of the Harmony of spheres.

Composer Biography
Joep Franssens was born on January 13, 1955.

Musical education
He studied composition with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory of Music in The Hague. In 1982 he continued his studies with Klaas de Vries at the Rotterdam Conservatory of Music, where, in 1988, he concluded his study period with the Composition Prize.

Activities
Together with colleagues Jeff Hamburg and John Borstlap, Joep Franssens set up the 'Composers’ Group Amsterdam'. Central to the group’s artistic programme is the exploration and renewal of cultural traditions. The group is frequently featured in Dutch media.

Compositions
He received commissions from, among others, the Rotterdam Art Foundation, the Eduard van Beinum Foundation, national radio stations AVRO and NCRV, and the SNS Reaal Fund. Well-known conductors like Uri Mayer, Lucas Foss, Gerd Albrecht and Tõnu Kaljuste performed his works with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, the Radio Philharmonic and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Franssens is considered as representing ‘New Spirituality’ in new music in the Netherlands, the international movement of which Arvo Pärt and Gya Kancheli have drawn much international attention. In 1999 Franssens composed Magnificat, commissioned by the Festival of Spiritual Music, premiered in the Concertgebouw at the festival’s opening concert. The national TV station NPS made a documentary The Third Ear, in which the spiritual movement was discussed. The choral music of Joep Franssens has been performed by the Swedish Radio Choir, the Latvian National State Choir and the Netherlands Chamber Choir, who in 2000 - led by the Estonian conductor Tõnu Kaljuste - took it on tours through Sweden, Germany, the Czech Republic and Hungary, followed by a long tour in 2001/02 through Estonia and the USA. In October 2002, two works by Franssens were featured at the Festival Rotterdam Music: Roaring Rotterdam and Winter Child, by respectively the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the pianist Bas Verheijden. These concerts received wide publicity in the media. Also, the pianist Ralph van Raat - who was Philip Morris Prize winner 2003 - and the Amstel Saxophone Quartet, took his music on tour to Japan in the autumn of 2002. The Netherlands Chamber Choir, together with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra performed the large cycle Harmony of the Spheres in November 2002 in the Doelen Concert Hall, Rotterdam, at a very successful concert which was sold-out a week in advance. In August 2003 Franssens’ new large piano solo work Intimation of Spring, was performed at the Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam (the annual music festival at the waterfront of one of the old Amsterdam canals).
Publications
In the ASCA Yearbook 1999 Rokus de Groot wrote Affirmation and Restraint: Relationships between concepts of spirituality and music in the work of Joep Franssens and Daan Manneke.

Joep Franssens