Annual List of Works: Flanders Music Center

Title
ODE TO THE SEASONS

Composer
Lucien Posman, 22/03/1952, Belgian, Bijlokevest 39, 9000 Gent

Genre
vocal music

Instrumentation
mixed choir

Year of composition
2006

Duration
11 minutes

Place of premiere performance
Concert Hall, City Rafaëlzaal – Postel

Date of premiere performance
31/01/2006

Performers
VRK Flemish Radio Choir olv Johan Duijck

Score
Publisher: Lucien Posman (digital pdf )
URL: http://www.muziekcentrum.be/cdb/details/person.asp?id=1105
E-mail: posman.coussement@skynet.be
Price: for free if not for commercial use

Record company: on demand mp3 at the MIC Flanders
E-mail: mariepaule@muziekcentrum.be
Performers: VRK Flemish Radio Choir
Price: for free

Motivation
Lucien Posman is one of the best composers of choir music composers in Flanders. As teacher and choir director his influence on young choir singers in Flanders is of great interest.

Programme note
Lucien Posman is a real Blake adept. His work list gives the idea that his library is stuffed exclusively with works by Blake. The selection of a Blake text for his compositions is not an occasional one, Posman stubbornly insists on it. Blake’s black view of the world corresponds with Posman’s view, although the latter is a man well-known for his witticism and charm.
‘To the Seasons’ is the original title Blake gave his four juvenal poems: “To spring”, “To Summer”, “To Autumn” and “To Winter”. All four were printed in his ‘Poetical Sketches’ of 1783. They are romantic paintings of Blake’s personified perception of the seasons.
Posman made a thorough study of the philosophical and mythical universe of the spirit of Blake to understand the underlying layers of meaning.
The symbolism of Blake's philosophical texts is musically represented by means of a limited number of ideas, consistently applied. The music is directly communicative.
Posman uses as tone material the Tone Clock, a system of the Dutch composer Peter Schat (1936-2003), http://www.peterschat.nl/clockwise.html#tone
In “To Spring”, the composer expresses the longing of the young poet for light and warmth by using a soft interval combination (MAj.2/min.3) and lively rhythm in a three quarter bar.
In “To Summer” one can feel the lethargy caused by the stifling heat. The pace is slow, the metre unstable.
“To Autumn” is bright and full of happiness. The female and male choir join a song of joy to glorify the freshness and beauty of Autumn.
“To winter” is the most complex and energetic song. In a whirlwind of mild and sharp cluster canons the music is pushed along the icy slope of mount Hecla, the frequent active Vulcan of Iceland.
The work was commissioned by the Flemish Radio Choir conducted by Johan Duijck, who also conducts the Choir of Saint-Martin-in-the-fields.

Composer Biography
Lucien Posman was born in Eeklo. He completed his higher music studies at the Royal Conservatories of Ghent and Antwerp. In Ghent he earned first prizes in solfège, harmony, music history and composition (under Roland Coryn), as well as a teaching certificate for solfège (first and second cycle). In Antwerp he received a first prize for fugue and counterpoint in the class of Nini Bulterys. He also studied music analysis, piano and voice.
Posman works at the Hogeschool Gent as president of the educational board and as teacher composition and teacher training theory. He was co-founder, in 1993, of the cultural organisations De Verenigde Cultuurfabrieken and De Rode Pomp, where he is the artistic director. At present, Lucien Posman is artistic director of De Rode Pomp. He was also involved in setting up the ECCG (European Composers' Collective, Ghent region). In addition, he is on the editorial board of the periodical, Nieuwe Vlaamse Muziekrevue. As an assistant on the Musical Days of Flanders, he organises and programs small festivals abroad (St Petersburg, New York, Bratislava) which aim to confront Belgian works with compositions from the repertoire of other lands. Posman is president of ComAV, the only organisation that represents the Flemish composers.
Posman's compositions have been performed in such festivals as De Week van de Hedendaagse Muziek in Ghent, the Belgian-Dutch Music Days in Maastricht, Muzicii Contemporane Belgiene in Bucharest, Ars Musica, the Flanders Festival, and the Musica Nova Festival in Sao Paulo. Various of his compositions have been recorded for CD, and several programmes have been devoted to him and his works on such radio networks as VRT Radio 3 (the Flemish classical music programme, now Klara), Radio Moscow, and the Dutch, Brazilian (Sao Paulo) and Romanian services. For his song cycle, Songs of Experience (five songs on poems by William Blake, for middle voice and piano) Lucien Posman received the Muizelhuis Prize for chamber music in 1988.