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A piece for carillon and recorder for the Utrecht Carillon Society

From near and from afar is the name of the piece that I wrote for two very special musicians: Arie Abbenes (city carillonneur of the town of Utrecht) and master recorder player Saskia Coolen. Why a piece for carillon and recorder? This remarkable combination of instruments stems from a project that Saskia and Arie did in the 2006 – 2007 season around the music of Jacob van Eyck. Van Eyck not only was Utrecht’s city carillonneur from 1625 to 1657, but at that time also made the Utrechts ‘Janskerkhof’ (still a major square) cheerfully resound with his virtuoso recorder playing. Of his music, only the printed recorder pieces have remained, and Saskia and Arie have reworked highlights from this repertoire into a carillon-recorder duo performance that has toured many towns in our carillon-bespeckled Netherlands and has also been recorded on cd Jacob van Eyck – A wonder for all the ages in his flute and bell-playing.
When the Utrecht Carillon Society decided to celebrate her eightieth birthday with, among other things a commission for a new work, the typically Utrecht-based combination of carillon and recorder seemed the obvious choice. The piece was written for the Utrecht Domtower carillon, a wonderful set of bells cast by bell-founders Francois and Piet Hemony in 1663. The site of the first performance was the Church’s ‘Pandhof’, the gothic ambulatory where the sound of the bells and its blending with the recorder can best be enjoyed, and which at the same time provides a beautiful entourage for Saskia’s performance.
It is a pleasure as well as a privilege to work with such great musicians. Arie is a master of the carillon and an enormously versatile musician versed in most styles, from Bach to Bacharach, say. He has also shown his affinity with new music with the excellent cd ‘Frozen Fireworks’. For me, an absolute beginner on the carillon, Arie’s help was indispensable when I tried for the first time to master this rich but slightly unyielding instrument (or perhaps set of instruments). Saskia, too, is versed in all periods of music history, both as a soloist and in her work with Brisk, Senario and La Fontegara Amsterdam. For years now, she has been my guide into the secret worlds of the recorder in its various shapes and models.
‘Playing together’ is a strange matter for performers that stand some 250 feet apart. It becomes a ‘theme’ in itself. I have tried to show different aspects of playing together: the recorder breaking in into a carillon solo, the bells as an undercurrent and counterpart of a lyrical episode, rhythmical counterplay in a tango-like episode, a rhythmic final episode. Part of their performance routine is having contact by cellphone, and this too is part of the piece, with ringtones and all.

In the sunlit ‘Pandhof’ (see pictures) the audience seemed to be really absorbed by this remarkable musical dialogue.
The next concert will be on August, 25 in the series of Summer Concerts that the Utrecht Carillon Society organizes and will then be taken on tour by Sas and Arie.

More about this work (probably the first of its kind) will appear here.

This video offers a fine picture (as well as fine sounds) of Arie Abbenes and the variety of Utrecht carillons: