The “Work” of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato through the Van Veen Recordings
Stacey Low ORCID: 0000-0003-4287-9044
Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music (Musicology/Ethnomusicology)
September 2020
Melbourne Conservatorium of Music Faculty of Fine Arts and Music University of Melbourne Abstract
Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments (1973-79) is the best-known piece of Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt (1923-2012). The first work of his final compositional period, it advocates indeterminacy in performance, leaving performers to decide on dynamics, articulation, pedalling, instrumentation, and the number of repetitions of most of its 106 sections. Canto Ostinato’s aleatoric nature is investigated in relation to the traditional connotations of a “work,” as highlighted by Lydia Goehr. Georgina Born’s notion of a “provisional” type of work and Peter Elsdon’s classification of a work as the total of its realisations are posited as alternative definitions.
An examination of Canto as a “work” would be incomplete without an analysis of the piece’s relationships to its composer, period of conception, performers, realisations, and audiences, and the relationships and contradictions between these aspects. This thesis investigates Canto in relation to several of its precedents in experimental music, such as improvisational music, minimalism, and indeterminacy. Several of ten Holt’s stated beliefs are investigated in relation to the score of Canto, such as the spiritual importance he accorded to the concept of tonality; the special interaction between the performers; the idea of each work developing on its own; and the notion of an “ideal performance” of an indeterminate piece.
This thesis also examines the seven duo recordings from 1996 to 2013 of husband-and-wife piano duo Sandra and Jeroen van Veen, two of ten Holt’s most prolific advocates. The analyses indicate that ten Holt’s apparent praise for their February 2008 recording was an impetus for the duo in using similar approaches in subsequent recordings. In these recordings, a number of sections of Canto are highly structured via part omissions, specific amounts of repetition, additional repeats, and the employment of the additive process.
A wide range of topics are discussed, such as notion of authorial control versus performer preferences, a more collaborative composer-performer relationship, and the issues surrounding the van Veens’ semi-determinate realisations of Canto, such as audience perception and practical considerations in live performances. This thesis uncovers the complex associations between composers, performers, and other aspects in this consideration of Canto Ostinato as a “work.” University of Melbourne Faculty of Fine Arts and Music Melbourne Conservatorium of Music
This is to certify that:
i. The thesis comprises only my original work towards the Master of Music (Musicology/Ethnomusicology) except where indicated in the preface;
ii. Due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used; and
iii. The thesis is fewer than the maximum word limit in length, exclusive of tables, maps, bibliographies and appendices.
Signature: SL
Name: Stacey Low
Date: 10 September 2020
Acknowledgements
Thank you to:
The Australian government, for allowing me to conduct my research as a part of the Research Training Programme (RTP);
The University of Melbourne’s Faculty Graduate Research Fund (FGRF), for assisting with costs relating to source translations and airfare to the Minimalist Extended conference;
The Society for Education, Music and Psychology Research (SEMPRE), which partly funded my expenses for the Again and Again conference;
Professor Kerry Murphy, Dr Nicholas Tochka, and supportive attendees at the university’s postgraduate music seminars;
The research office and library staff, for attending to my numerous loans and requests. Special thanks to David Strover for his help in organising leave;
Maarten Beirens, Brilliant Classics, Davo van Peursen of Donemus, Jeroen van Veen, and Arielle Vernède, for information on analyses, recordings, scores, and performances of Canto Ostinato;
Lana Kisseleva, for translating a number of Russian sources for this thesis;
Christine Dysers, for organising Again and Again: Musical Repetition in Aesthetics, Analysis and Repetition, and for facilitating my successful grant application with SEMPRE. Thank you also for proofreading my Dutch translations! You’re a gem.
The Society for Minimalist Music, for the opportunity to participate in Minimalism Extended: The Seventh International Conference on Minimalist Music. Special thanks to Twila Bakker, Maarten Beirens, Robert Fink, Kyle Gann, and Keith Potter for your
support and feedback, and to Ian Pace, for opportunities during both conferences to experience and assist in live performances of Canto;
Andrew Honey and Michael How, for proofreading and giving numerous helpful suggestions;
My wonderful advisory committee: Associate Professor Linda Kouvaras, Dr Sophie Boyd-Hurrell, and Dr Solange Glasser. Thank you for all of your insightful and detailed feedback on my work, not to mention the tons of help with all other aspects of the thesis unrelated to writing;
My family, for support in the form of chocolate and being my guinea pigs for presentations; and
Last but not least, Con Huynh, for help with formatting, keeping up with my numerous trains of thought, being my best travel companion to the conferences, and much more.
Contents Abstract Acknowledgements List of Charts List of Examples List of Tables
Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Introduction to Canto Ostinato ...... 1 1.2 Dating issues and score discrepancies ...... 10 1.3 Aims and research questions ...... 15 1.4 Structure of this thesis ...... 18
Chapter 2: Literature Review ...... 21 2.1 Key terms ...... 21 2.1.1 High modernism and postmodernism ...... 22
2.1.2 Experimentalism, indeterminacy, and “open form” ...... 28
2.1.3 Minimalism and postminimalism ...... 30
2.2 Performance practice of indeterminate compositions ...... 32 2.3 Analysis of recordings ...... 34 2.4 Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato, and the van Veens ...... 37
Chapter 3: Methodology ...... 42 3.1 Phonomusicology ...... 42 3.2 Can Canto be described as a “work”? ...... 45 3.3 Recordings as representations of realisations ...... 49 3.4 Effects of recording improvisations ...... 53 3.5 Methods in obtaining sources and of analyses ...... 55 3.6 Limitations ...... 56 Chapter 4: Score Analysis of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato: the “melodious avant-garde” ...... 57 4.1 “Dutch minimalism”? ...... 58 4.2 “American” freedom versus “European” rigour: the influence of John Cage ...... 59 4.3 Tonality ...... 62 4.3.1 1970s Neo-Romanticism ...... 62
4.3.2 Physicality and emotion in composition, perception, and tonality ...... 64
4.3.3 Tonality as freedom ...... 67
4.3.4 “Tonality after the death of tonality” ...... 70
4.4 (Post)minimalism ...... 82 4.4.1 Repetition as a common factor between (post)minimalism and indeterminacy ...... 82
4.4.2 The influence of minimalist music and a comparison with In C ...... 86
4.4.3 Postminimalism in Canto ...... 90
4.5 Indeterminacy ...... 94 4.5.1 Christian Wolff and minimalist music as precedents ...... 94
4.5.2 Canto as an “open form” composition ...... 97
4.5.2.1 Composer’s limitations versus performers’ preferences ...... 101
4.5.2.2 Barthes’ “The Death of the Author” and the “ideal” performance(s) ...... 103
4.6 Conclusion ...... 108
Chapter 5: Analysis of the van Veen duo recordings ...... 110 5.1 The ten Holt-van Veen relationship and recordings analysed in this thesis ...... 111 5.1.1 Composer preference for the February 2008 recording ...... 115
5.2 Pre-determined structure in the recordings ...... 117 5.2.1 Part omissions and specific amounts of repetition in sections 88 and 91 ... 117
5.2.2 Additional repeats in the 2013 recording ...... 122
5.2.3 The additive process in the studio recordings ...... 134
5.3 Discussion ...... 138 5.3.1 Order versus disorder: listener effect ...... 139
5.3.2 The fluid composer-performer relationship ...... 141
5.4 Conclusion ...... 144
Chapter 6: Discussion ...... 145 6.1 Discussion of score analysis ...... 145 6.2 Discussion of recordings analysis ...... 147 6.2.1 Structures in response to live performance conditions ...... 147
6.2.2 Aesthetic considerations and establishing a “trademark” ...... 149
6.2.3 Structures and other techniques in relation to the listener ...... 153
6.3 Future research ...... 156 6.3.1 Further explorations of the concept of indeterminacy ...... 157
6.3.2 Visualising Canto and examining its national and societal identities ...... 159
6.3.3 Performance conditions ...... 161
Chapter 7: Conclusion ...... 165
Bibliography ...... 168
Appendix I: Differences in keyboard scores of Canto Ostinato ...... 194 Appendix II: Background information on recordings in this thesis ...... 201
List of Charts Chart 1: Diagram of socialisation in Canto Ostinato ...... 9 Chart 2a: Repetitions of repeatable parts of section 88, in the 2008, 2012, and 2011 recordings ...... 118 Chart 2b: Repetitions of repeatable parts of section 91, in the 2008, 2010, 2011, and 2012 recordings ...... 119
List of Examples Example 1: Sections 1 to 4 from Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments (Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010), 5 ...... 74 Example 2: Sections 41 to 50 from ten Holt, Canto, 18 ...... 75 Example 3: Section 74 from ten Holt, Canto, 22-23 ...... 77 Example 4: Sections 85 and 86 from ten Holt, Canto, 29 ...... 78 Example 5: Sections 79 and 80 (beginning only) from ten Holt, Canto, 25-26 ...... 79 Example 6: Section 83 from ten Holt, Canto, 28 ...... 93 Example 7: Section 106 from ten Holt, Canto, 63 ...... 99 Example 8a: Section 88, parts F (variation) and A from ten Holt, Canto, 38 ...... 124 Example 8b: Section 91, parts F and A from ten Holt, Canto, 51 ...... 127 Example 9: Sections 60 to 68 from ten Holt, Canto, 20 ...... 131
List of Tables Table 1: Compositions of Simeon ten Holt ...... 2 Table 2: Differences in English prefaces of the keyboard scores of Canto ...... 11 Table 3a: Key to Table 3b ...... 80 Table 3b: Overall structure of Canto Ostinato ...... 81 Table 4: Recordings in this thesis ...... 113 Table 5: Differences in the 2008 and 2011 releases of the February 2008 recording. Score extract: Section 91, parts H and I from ten Holt, Canto, 54-55 ...... 116 Table 6: Audio listings for sections 88 and 91 in all recordings ...... 120 Table 7a: Additional repeats in section 88 in the 2013 recording ...... 125 Table 7b: Additional repeats in section 91 in the 2013 recording ...... 128 Table 8: Realisation of sections 60 to 68 in all recordings except 1996 ...... 132 Table 9: Realisation of opening ostinato in the 2010 recording. Score extract: ten Holt, Canto, 5 ...... 136 Table 10: Realisation of sections 41 to 50 in the 2013 recording ...... 137
All score extracts of Canto Ostinato © Donemus Publishing
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Canto Ostinato
Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments was written by Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt (1923-2012) between 1973 and 1976 or 1979,1 and is the first piece of ten Holt’s final compositional period. Ten Holt was initially embarrassed by and rejecting of Canto,2 but gradually came to accept it by playing it frequently and through people’s positive reactions to it.3 Canto is now ten Holt’s best-known piece.
Ten Holt’s first works were tonal music that was influenced by his first and only teacher, Jakob van Domselaer (1890-1960),4 and music composed using what he termed the “diagonal technique.” This refers to the organization of the twelve tones on the circle of fifths, where keys in a tritone relationship—such as C and F-sharp—are used simultaneously, thus “neutralising” the harmonic function of a single tonal centre.5 Ten Holt turned to serialism and electronic music, before returning to tonality in the early 1970s. He coined the music of this final period as “tonality after the death of tonality,”6 a minimalist harmonic language featuring triadic chords in non-functional progressions. Ten Holt’s compositions and the various periods are summarised in Table 1:
1 This issue will be discussed in 1.2 Dating issues and score discrepancies (pp. 10-15). 2 Simeon ten Holt, Het Woud en de Citadel: Memoires van een componist (Amsterdam: Balans, 2009), 208, and Wilma de Rek, “‘Muziek heeft alles met sensualiteit te maken’: Interview met Simeon ten Holt,” in Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed. (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016), 51. 3 “Maar door het veel te spelen, ook voor anderen, merkte ik dat hel wél heel goed was. En doordat iedereen die het horde er wel wat in zag, begon ik er langzaamaan in te geloven.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 51. To give an idea of the environment at the time, one can turn to ten Holt’s recollection in his Memoires, 235, of the negative reaction of his good childhood friend Nico Schuyt to the tonal- sounding Natalon in E (1980), performed in a 1987 concert. 4 Ten Holt, Memoires, 61. Dates from “Domselaer, Jakob van 1890-1960,” OCLC WorldCat Identities, WorldCat, accessed 2 July 2019, https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n2002066468/. 5 Ten Holt, Memoires, 61. For more, see pages 60-63 of the same source. 6 Ibid., 109. Original text in Chapter 4, note 16, pp. 59-60.
1 Period Date Title Instrumentation
1942-45 Kompositie I–IV Solo piano Tonal (influence of van 1953 Sonate Solo piano Domselaer) 1954 20 Bagatellen Solo piano
1954-55 Suite String quartet
1955 Allegro ex machina Solo piano
1957 Diagonaalsuite Solo piano
1958 Diagonaalmuziek, voor strijkers Chamber orchestra
Diagonal technique 1958 Muziek voor Pieter Solo piano
1959 Diagonaalsonate Solo piano
1959 Epigrammen Solo piano
1959 Soloduiveldans I Solo piano
1961 Five Etudes Solo piano
“Tonal chromaticism”7 1961-62 Cyclus aan de waanzin Solo piano
1965 Quartetto per archi String quartet
1965 Sekwensen One or two pianos
Serialism 1965 Tripticon For six percussionists8 and 1966 Kockyn (filmmuziek) Piano, guitar, and vibraphone electronic Mezzosoprano and 36 instruments (piccolo, flute, alto music flute, 2 oboes, cor anglais, E-flat clarinet, 2 clarinets, 1967-68 ..A/.ta-lon 2 bass clarinets, bassoon, 3 trumpets, trombone, 2 French horns, harp, guitar, mandolin, piano,
2 marimba, vibraphone, 3 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, and 3 double basses)9
1969 Differenties Three clarinets, piano, vibraphone
1969 Interpolations Solo piano
Brass quintet (2 trumpets, French horn, trombone, 1970 Scenario-X and tuba)10
1970 Seven Plays Electronic music
1970-71 Inferno I and II Electronic music
1970-72 Module I–IV Electronic music
1970-72 Five Pieces Solo piano
Electronic music (transcription of Aforisme II made by 1972-4 Aforisme I–VI Jeroen van Veen)
“Tonality 1973 I am Sylvia but somebody else Electronic music after the 1975 Koorproject 75 Three choir groups, four speakers and electronics death of 1973-79 Canto Ostinato Keyboard instruments tonality” 1976-79 Centri-fuga Orchestra
1980 Bi-Ba-Bo Vocal quartet
7 “tonale chromatiek.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 66. 8 For a full list of instruments, see the second page of the sheet music, provided by the top right link, “open preview (PDF),” on “Composition: Tripticon : voor slagwerk, (1965) / Simeon ten Holt,” Donemus webshop, accessed 30 October 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/2859. 9 “Composition: .. A/ .ta-lon/ : voor mezzo-sopraan, en 36 spelende en pratende instrumentalisten (1967-68) / muziek en tekst van Simeon ten Holt,” Donemus webshop, accessed 30 October 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/4379. 10 “Composition: Scenario-X : 1970, voor koper / Simeon ten Holt,” Donemus webshop, accessed 30 October 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/1772.
3 1980 Natalon in E Solo piano
1980-82 Une musique blanche Orchestra
1982-83 Lemniscaat Keyboard instruments
1983-85 Horizon Keyboard instruments (usually four pianos)11
1986 Soloduiveldans II Solo piano
1987-90 Incantatie IV Five keyboard and other instruments12
1990 Soloduiveldans III Solo piano
1990-92, rev. 1993 Palimpsest String septet
1993-95 Schaduw noch Prooi Two pianos
1995 Eadem sed aliter Solo piano
1997 Méandres Four pianos
1998 Soloduiveldans IV Solo piano
1999 Capriccio Solo violin Table 1: Compositions of Simeon ten Holt.13
11 See Wilma de Rek, “Overzicht composities Simeon ten Holt,” in Canto Ostinato, 171, and notes under the heading Bijzonderheden in “Composition: Horizon : voor toetsinstrumenten = for keyboard instruments, 1983-’85 / Simeon ten Holt,” Donemus webshop, accessed 30 October 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/3366. 12 This description is from de Rek, “Overzicht composities,” 170. Unfortunately it does not specify what the “other instruments” can be. The Donemus webshop listing for the piece lists the instrumentation as “keyboard instruments” in the title but “variable instrumentation” under Subgenre. See “Composition: Incantatie IV : voor toetsinstrumenten = for keyboard instruments, 1987-’90 / Simeon ten Holt,” Donemus webshop, accessed 30 October 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/6312. 13 Adapted from de Rek, “Overzicht composities,” 170-72.
4 The majority of Canto’s 106 sections consist of “tonality after the death of tonality,” with the remaining sections adopting common-practice tonality. Other musical characteristics of the piece include the importance of the melody, minimalism, and indeterminacy in performance. The centrality of the melodic line is supported by the title “Canto Ostinato”—which translates to “persistent song”—and the theme that first appears in section 74. Sections featuring the theme are instances where common- practice tonality is employed.
Minimalism is most evident in the stepwise motion of the chords in “tonality after the death of tonality”14 and the melodically and rhythmically similar material throughout. The work has been compared with the seminal In C (1964) for an indefinite number of performers by Terry Riley, because both allow performers to repeat each section as many times as desired.15 Paul Janssen goes as far as to state that “[completely] independent of American composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, [ten] Holt created a Dutch version of minimal music.”16 This quote will be revisited in Chapter Four.
Regarding indeterminacy, composers who have influenced ten Holt’s work on Canto include John Cage (1912-92)17 and Philip Corner (1933-).18 Although Canto calls on more than one performer in its focus on interaction between the musicians during performance, ten Holt also allows for solo performances.19 Instrumentation, dynamics, and articulation are left to the discretion of the performer(s), as is the amount of repetition of most sections, resulting in an unfixed duration in performance. Additionally, the performer(s) can diverge from the main staves at any time to play
14 Ten Holt, Memoires, 109. 15 For example, see Sandra van Veen and Jeroen van Veen, "Hoe zit Canto Ostinato in elkaar?: Inleiding door Sandra en Jeroen van Veen,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 73. 16 Liner notes to Simeon ten Holt: Highlights, trans. Josh Dillon (Composer’s Voice 137/145, 2003), 6. Janssen’s original text on page 3 of the same source reads: “Geheel onafhankelijk van Amerikaanse componisten als Steve Reich en Philip Glass schiep Ten Holt een Hollandse versie van de minimal music.” 17 Ten Holt, Memoires, 108. Dates from James Pritchett, Laura Kuhn and Charles Hiroshi Garrett, "Cage, John (Milton, Jr.),” Grove Music Online, published online 10 July 2012, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2223954. 18 Ten Holt, Memoires, 108-9. Dates from David W. Bernstein, "Corner, Philip [Gwan Pok],” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47970. 19 Simeon ten Holt, preface to Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments, trans. Ted Szanto (Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010), 2.
5 from the alternate staves provided by the composer, two in the treble and one in the bass.
From the above, it is difficult to categorise Canto Ostinato as a “work” even though it is part of the Western art music tradition. As Lydia Goehr states, “works do not exist other than in projected form; what exists is the regulative work-concept.”20 The “work- concept” is linked to the notion that “to be true to a work is to be true to its score.”21 This notion, already difficult to fulfil with a conventional score, becomes even more so with Canto’s indeterminate nature in performance. In 3.2 Can Canto be described as a “work”? (pp. 45-48) I return to this issue and propose alternatives to the term “work” in relation to Canto Ostinato.
Canto was premiered in Bergen, the Netherlands, on 25 April 1979 by the composer, Stanley Hoogland, Andries Hubers and Chaim Levano on three pianos and an electric organ.22 Its popularity has steadily increased over the years,23 beginning with the renowned 1984 recording by Gerard Bouwhuis, Gene Carl, Arielle Vernède, and Carl van Zeeland. Canto has since been arranged for other diverse instrumentation, such as cello octet, 24 saxophone octet, 25 string quartet, 26 orchestra, 27 and a group comprising of keyboard, wind and string instruments.28
20 Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2003), chap. 4, https://www-oxfordscholarship- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/view/10.1093/0198235410.001.0001/acprof-9780198235415. 21 Ibid., chap. 8. 22 Ten Holt, Memoires, 202-3. 23 Sandra Mol, Wilma de Rek and Jeroen van Veen, foreword to de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 8. 24 “Canto Ostinato for cello,” Recordings, Stichting Simeon ten Holt, accessed 10 July 2019, https://www.simeontenholt.info/recordings/100094. 25 “Dutch Saxophone Octet will record Canto Ostinato,” Latest News, Donemus, 24 May 2019, accessed 10 July 2019, http://donemus.nl/dutch-saxophone-octet-will-record-canto-ostinato/. 26 Ruurd Walinga, “Twee wereldpremières op City Proms: ‘Messa di gloria’ voor harmonium en ‘Canto Ostinato’ voor strijkers,” Friesch Dagblad, 27 June 2019, https://frieschdagblad.nl/2019/6/27/twee-wereldpremieres-op-city-proms-messa-di-gloria-voor- harmonium-en-canto-ostinato-voor-strijkers?harvest_referrer=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. 27 “Composition: Canto ostinato : Version for orchestra / Simeon ten Holt; orchestration Anthony Fiumara,” Donemus webshop, accessed 10 July 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/14964. 28 “VICTOR KRAUS GROUP plays Canto Ostinato,” Blog, Stichting Simeon ten Holt, 28 February 2019, accessed 10 July 2019, https://www.simeontenholt.info/blog/201902.
6 The performance history and popularity of Canto has been created through personal connections between ten Holt and performers of his music, such as Kees Wieringa, Ivo Janssen, and in particular, husband-and-wife piano duo Jeroen and Sandra van Veen. They have been prominent performers and advocates of ten Holt’s compositions since 1996, with their first performance and recording of Canto. To date, they have created sixteen Canto recordings—almost half of the total number—of which seven are their duo recordings. In 2003, they created the Simeon ten Holt Foundation to raise the public’s awareness of the composer’s music,29 and in addition to their running of the foundation to the present day, they began the Ligconcert series for performances of Canto and other pieces in 2010-11. 30 These highly successful concerts in unconventional venues encourage audience members to recline during performances.
Other media surrounding Canto include Wilma de Rek’s Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt about his masterpiece,31 and Ramón Gieling’s 2011 documentary, About Canto.32 De Rek’s book was first released in 2013, with a second edition three years later, and contains interviews with ten Holt and some regular performers of Canto, including the van Veens, while the film demonstrates several (sometimes extreme) experiences with and reactions to the piece.33
Through the various composer-performer friendships and the musical involvement that each party has with the score of Canto, a complex web of social and cultural aspects begins to emerge (Chart 1). Other factors include reactions to Canto from the standpoints of the composer, performers, and audiences, and the notion of the “Dutch” identity of Canto, as gleaned from the Janssen quote earlier. Although accurate to some extent, it risks generalising all Dutch composers who have created minimalist music. For instance, Louis Andriessen’s form of minimalism contrasts greatly with ten
29 “Foundation,” Contact, Simeon ten Holt Foundation, accessed 15 May 2019, http://www.simeontenholt.com/contact/foundation/index.html. 30 Sandra van Veen and Jeroen van Veen, "Haantjesgedrag kan niet, bij Canto,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 139. The concerts listing of their 2010-11 season can also be found at “Concerten,” Ligconcert, accessed 15 May 2019, http://www.ligconcert.nl/concertagenda/index.html. 31 2nd ed. (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016). 32 Original title Over Canto. Kevin Toma, “About Canto: melodieën die levens complete veranderen,” Volkskrant, 16 November 2011, Nieuws & Achtergrond, https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/about-canto-melodieen-die-levens-compleet- veranderen~bc97844c/. 33 Ibid.
7 Holt’s. The definition of what is “Dutch” in nature may also prove to be difficult. While Sandra and Jeroen van Veen classify two aspects of Canto, performer interaction and bitonality, as Dutch, 34 Anthony Fiumara, who arranged the work for orchestra, perceived its Romanticism to be “non-Calvinistic” and thus “non-Dutch.”35 While this contentious notion of “Dutch minimalism” cannot be resolved, it is an important factor in relation to Canto.
The next section will focus on discrepancies in the dates of Canto’s conception and the various editions of its scores.
34 Van Veen and van Veen, "Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 138-39. 35 Sylvie Klijn, “Musical, Sociological and Psychological Aspects of Minimal Music Composition: The Case of ‘Canto Ostinato’ by Simeon ten Holt” (master’s thesis, Utrecht University, 2019), 50.
8 Chart 1: Diagram of socialisation in Canto Ostinato.
9 1.2 Dating issues and score discrepancies
The composition of Canto Ostinato is dated variously between 1973-76, 36 1976-79,37 and 1973-79.38 In ten Holt’s memoirs, the first date range,39 or “the early seventies,”40 is cited. The composer is also more precise in his statement that “I did most of the writing between 1973 and 1976. It only took until 1979 before it was performed.”41 It is thus fairly certain that Canto stems from 1973, refuting the range 1976-79. However, the end of its conception is harder to pinpoint—ten Holt’s above statement is contradicted by his declaration that “Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments was completed in 1976.” 42 It is perhaps prudent to use 1973-79 as the best guide of Canto’s composition period.
Regarding the score of Canto Ostinato, there are two versions from 1979 and 2010. I will refer to these collectively as the keyboard scores to differentiate them from Anthony Fiumara’s orchestral arrangement (2016), which will also be discussed.43 I will outline the differences in the front matter before those in the scores proper.
Firstly, only the keyboard scores contain prefaces and there are some differences between these versions. The 1979 edition has prefaces in both Dutch and English,44 with the latter being a condensed version of its Dutch counterpart. Some of the original (Dutch) preface were omitted when translated, but it is not known who made those choices. However, the translation (uncredited in the 1979 edition) is attributed to Ted Szanto and dated “June
36 Various mentions throughout Memoires, e.g. p. 201. 37 “Composition: Canto Ostinato : voor toetsinstrumenten, 1976-79 / Simeon ten Holt,” Donemus webshop, accessed 10 May 2021, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/3360/Canto+Ostinato. 38 Van Veen and van Veen, “Hoe zit Canto Ostinato in elkaar?”, 73. 39 Ten Holt, Memoires, 193 and 201. 40 “begin jaren zeventig” Ibid., 208. 41 “Het schrijven deed ik grotendeels tussen 1973 en 1976. Het heeft alleen wel tot 1979 geduurd voor het werd uitgevoerd.” De Rek, interview met ten Holt, 50. My emphasis. 42 “Canto Ostinato voor toetsinstrumenten werd in 1976 afgerond”. Ten Holt, Memoires, 199. My emphasis. 43 Simeon ten Holt/Anthony Fiumara, Canto Ostinato for Orchestra (Rijswijk: Stichting Donemus Beheer, 2016). Special thanks to Donemus for providing me a copy. 44 Simeon ten Holt, preface to Canto Ostinato voor toetsinstrumenten (Amsterdam: Donemus, 1979), 2-4. The Dutch one is from pages 2-3, while the English one is on page 4.
10 1979” in the 2010 edition.45 Ten Holt’s mentions of Szanto in his memoirs suggest the latter was a friend and colleague,46 so it is possible that both of them worked together on the reduction of the preface soon after Canto’s première (25 April 1979). Regardless of who made the changes, the most important concepts are retained in the English translation. This translation is reproduced in the 2010 edition with some differences:47
1979 edition48 2010 edition49 “Other combinations are possible “Other combinations are possible using keyboard-instruments. using keyboard instruments. But the CANTO can also be considered as a performance with four pianos is solo piece (keyboard two hands) with preferred.” or without electronic resources.” “Repetition in this case has as its goal Same sentences, but italicised to create a situation in which the musical object affirms its independence and can search for its most favourable position with respect to the light thrown on it, becoming transparent. Time becomes the space in which the musical object floats.” “The piece ‘is not in a hurry’ and has in Quotation marks removed common with so called minimal music that one cannot speak of fixed duration.” “The variants noted as footnotes from “The variants noted as footnotes from figure 88 (for the left hand) function as figure 88 (for the left hand) function as
45 Ten Holt, preface (2010), 2. 46 Ten Holt, Memoires, 258 and 336-37. 47 I have chosen not to include minor differences such as editorial commas that make the text more readable or the breaking of (Dutch) compound nouns. One example is “timbre- differentiations” in the 1979 edition (translated from “klankkleurdifferentiaties”) which is changed to “differentiations of timbres.” See ten Holt, preface (1979), 2 and 4, and ten Holt, preface (2010), 2. 48 All quotes in this column are from ten Holt, preface (1979), 4. 49 All quotes in this column are from ten Holt, preface (2010), 2.
11 a sort of ‘wandering’ part. They do not a sort of ‘wandering part’. They do not have to be present all the time – they have to be present all the time – they can dissapear [sic] and return – and can disappear and return – and they they need not be fixed to the notated need not be filed to the notated octave octave-register.” register.”
Table 2: Differences in English prefaces of the keyboard scores of Canto.
The first difference in Table 2 regarding instrumentation was put forward by ten Holt, 50 and will be revisited in 4.5.2.1 Composer’s limitations versus performers’ preferences (pp. 101-3), but it is unclear who made the other changes and why. However, they appear to be only matters of presentation rather than importance.
Secondly, a section titled “Instructions” follows the preface in the 2010 edition.51 This was created in 2009 by ten Holt, 52 in relation to “Canto Ostinato, Lemniscaat and the later evening-long ‘interactive’ compositions for several keyboard instruments.”53 It is only in English in the score (translator uncredited), but the Dutch original can be found in de Rek’s book.54 In the discussion of what a performer can decide on, the original contains two points (highlighted below) which are not in the English translation:
a) the number of times the relevant sections will be repeated (the sections specified as a bridge are to be played just once), b) the intensities (forte, piano, etc.), c) the manner of playing (legato, staccato, portato etc.).55 d) the density (the number of layers, with or without pedal) e) the length of the performance (this is not bound by duration)56
50 Simeon ten Holt, "Inleiding op Canto Ostinato: door Simeon ten Holt,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 79. 51 Simeon ten Holt, instructions to Canto Ostinato, 3. 52 Ten Holt, “Inleiding op Canto Ostinato,” 85-86. Could these instructions have spurred the publisher to create a new edition of Canto (i.e. the 2010 edition)? 53 “Canto Ostinato, Lemniscaat en de latere avonvullende ‘interactieve’ composities voor meerdere toetsinstrumenten” Ten Holt, Memoires, 254. 54 Ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 85-86. 55 Points a to c from ten Holt, instructions, 3. 56 Original is:
12 Again, it is unclear why these changes were made, but it should be known that both points are mentioned in the preface of the score as follows:
The performers have a wide margin of contribution. They decide about […] duration (in detail as well as for the whole) […] whether or not to play passages in unison […] […]
A performance of CANTO is more like a ritual than a concert. The piece is not in a hurry and has in common with so called minimal music that one cannot speak of fixed duration.57
The point about performance duration is clearly explained above, but the point about the thickness of texture and the use of pedal is surely more concise for the performer(s) than “[playing] passages in unison.” Could it have been the publisher’s decision to omit those final two points, and if so, why?
The final difference in the front matter of the 1979 and 2010 editions is the latter’s dedication of Canto Ostinato to Anneke van Dijk, 58 who organised performances of ten Holt’s works at the Vredenburg Music Centre between 1984 and 2003. 59 It is probable the dedication was added to the score sometime in that period, since it is absent from the 1979 edition.
I will now discuss differences in the scores. The tempi markings vary across all scores: “(♩ = 60)”,60 “(♩ = 60-65)”,61 and “♩ = 55-60 Steady, in a continuous flow”, 62 respectively. The brackets encasing the metronome marks in the
“d de dichtheid (aantal speellagen, met of zonder pedaal)” “e de lengte van de uitvoering (deze is niet aan tijdsduur gebonden” From ten Holt, “Inleiding op Canto Ostinato,” 85. I have standardised the formatting of the bullet points in the body. 57 Ten Holt, preface (2010), 2. 58 Ten Holt, Canto Ostinato, 5. 59 “Anneke van Dijk van het Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, die tussen 1984 en 2003 zo veel programmatijd aan mij heeft gewijd.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 256. 60 Ten Holt, Canto Ostinato (1979), 5. 61 Ten Holt, Canto Ostinato (2010), 5. 62 Ten Holt/Fiumara, Canto for Orchestra, 1.
13 keyboard scores indicate that they are recommendations, but it is unclear who decided on the tempi range of the 2010 edition. It is also unclear why the tempi range of the orchestral arrangement is slower, but it appears to be more definite, since there are no brackets around them. The additional remark also suggests that the arranger had a specific sound of Canto in mind.
Performance duration, while indeterminate in the keyboard scores, is also specified in the orchestral score: “This version of Canto ostinato for orchestra aims at a duration of 45-50 minutes. For a shortened, 30 minute version of Canto for Orchestra, omit bars 228-491 and go directly to the iteration of the main theme in bar 492.”63 The suggested omissions are sections 74 to 91 (excluding section 88, which was not included in the orchestral arrangement). Each section in the orchestral score is given exact amounts of repetition to fit with the definite timeframe—for instance, the instruction in section 1 is to “PLAY 8X (REPEAT 7X).”64 The orchestral score is also in A minor (rather than B-flat minor) and is more prescriptive than the keyboard scores.65
With the keyboard scores, bridge sections in the 2010 edition have been marked as such for clarity, but there are dynamic and articulation markings (both bracketed and unbracketed) that are not present in the 1979 edition. All differences have been summarised in Appendix I (pp. 194-200). As in the preface and instructions, it is unclear who initiated these changes. However, since Canto is increasingly performed, these markings were perhaps added as a guide for those new to playing Canto. However, could they also be unintentionally prescriptive for a piece in which the performer(s) decide(s) on dynamics and articulation?66 Perhaps it is ultimately up to the performer(s) as to whether they want to realise these suggested markings and to what degree.
63 Front matter of ibid. (no page number). Emphasis as shown in the score. 64 Ibid., 1. 65 An example would be the violin I parts in section 2, in ibid., 1. There is an additional marking of “sostenuto” that is not in the keyboard scores. 66 Ten Holt, preface and instructions (2010), 2 and 3.
14 For this thesis, the 2010 edition will be used for readability, but the reader should keep in mind that some of the markings that are in this score are not present in the 1979 edition.
The final two parts of this chapter will introduce the aims and research questions and the remaining chapters of the thesis.
1.3 Aims and research questions
Having given an overview of Canto Ostinato and the issues surrounding its composition period and scores, I will now detail the two key areas of investigation that my initial research revealed: first, a lack of scholarly literature on ten Holt and Canto, and second, the earlier-mentioned predominance of the van Veens in Canto’s performance and recording history. I will also highlight how my aims and research questions endeavour to fill some of the current gaps.
As mentioned earlier, Canto is typically described as “minimalist” due to its use of repetition. However, despite its popularity and its frequent placement within the minimalist music movement, there is a lack of analysis on how the piece fits into this category beyond the use of repetition. Additionally, there are further similarities and differences between In C and Canto that are not addressed.67 The use of both common-practice tonality and tonal chords in non-functional progressions, an important feature of the piece, is similarly not acknowledged in these sources, nor is the concept of indeterminacy through performer choice. However, this is an important part of the composition, as highlighted by ten Holt:
Canto Ostinato is music where time and space have to be taken to grow together, to discover the interplay between interactivity and skill in piano
67 An example of their similarity is that both pieces have a theme that occurs two-thirds into each, while an instance of their differences relates to instrumentation. In C calls for melody instruments, while Canto is for keyboard instruments.
15 playing. And to learn to understand that only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible.68
Additionally, although scholarly sources are gradually increasing—beginning with Linde van Heeswijk’s article in 2013,69 Maarten Beiren’s paper in 2017,70 and research from Sylvie Klijn and Keith Potter in 2019 71 —none of these examine Canto in relation to biographical details or its position within the predominant musical phenomena occurring during its period of conception. This is a significant gap in the literature, given the publication of the composer’s memoir and the earlier-mentioned de Rek’s Canto Ostinato.
A final gap in the literature for this project concerns the performance practice of indeterminate compositions. Most authors focus on their individual approaches to performing their piece(s) of study;72 only Judy Lochhead has investigated the recordings and performance practice of indeterminate compositions. 73
68 “Canto Ostinato is muziek waarbij de tijd en de ruimte moeten worden genomen nom naar elkaar toe te groeien, om het spel met de interactiviteit en de finesse van de pianistiek te ontdekken. En te leren beseffen dat alleen met het gebruik van de voorgeschreven noten de meeste varianten mogelijk zijn.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 202-3. 69 “Less is More: the Role of Expectation in Emotional Responses to Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato,” Musicology Review, no. 8 (2013): 38-61. 70 “Cadential Movement and the Notion of Extended Time in Canto Ostinato by Simeon ten Holt” (paper, The Sixth International Conference on Music & Minimalism, Knoxville, TN, 24 June 2017). 71 Klijn, “The Case of ‘Canto Ostinato’”, and Potter, “The Role of Repetition in Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato” (paper, Minimalism Extended: the Seventh International Conference on Minimalist Music, Cardiff, Wales, 24 August 2019). 72 See David Miller, "The Shapes of Indeterminacy: John Cage's Variations I and Variations II,” Frankfurter Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 6 (2003): 18-45; David Miller, "Indeterminacy and Performance Practice in Cage's Variations,” American Music 27, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 60-86; David P. Shively, “Indeterminacy and Interpretation: Three Realisations” (DMA dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 2001); Philip Thomas, "Berio's Sequenza IV: Approaches to Performance and Interpretation,” Contemporary Music Review 26, no. 2 (April 2007): 189- 205; Philip Thomas, "Determining the Indeterminate,” Contemporary Music Review 26, no. 2 (April 2007): 129-40; Philip Thomas, "A Prescription for Action,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music, ed. James Saunders (Surrey: Ashgate, 2009), 77-98; and Philip Thomas, "Understanding Indeterminate Music Through Performance: Cage's Solo for Piano,” Twentieth-Century Music 10, no. 1 (2013): 91-113. Thomas also co-wrote the following source: Eric Clarke et al., "Interpretation and performance in Bryn Harrison's être-temps,” Musicae Scientiae 19, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 31-74. 73 Judith Irene Lochhead, "Performance Practice in the Indeterminate Works of John Cage,” Performance Practice Review 7, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 233-41, https://scholarship.claremont.edu/ppr/vol7/iss2/11/, and Judy Lochhead, "Controlling Liberation: David Tudor and the ‘Experimental’ Sound Ideal" (paper, The Art of David Tudor: Indeterminacy and Performance in Postwar Culture Symposium, Getty Research Institute Symposium, Los Angeles, CA, 17-19 May 2001), 1-7,
16 However, her publications do not provide a suitable model as her pieces of study focus on sounds, rather than those created by staff notation, as is the case in Canto.
The aims and research questions of the first key area are thus:
1. to contextualise Canto’s score within the dominant musical periods of its time: How is Canto situated within traditions of minimalism, indeterminacy, and music with tonal elements?; and 2. to analyse the piece in relation to biographical elements of ten Holt, such as the spiritual importance of tonality in his life and the idea of “each composition developing on its own”:74 How do the composer’s ideas about tonality, minimalism, and indeterminacy relate to Canto?
The second key area of investigation relates to the van Veens, who have played a prominent role in disseminating ten Holt’s compositions, particularly Canto. Their recordings provide fertile ground for the exploration of the performance practice of a minimalist and indeterminate composition. This thesis thus also aims to
3. analyse the van Veens’ duo recordings of Canto with the following research question: How does the dichotomy between pre- determined structure and indeterminacy in Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato play out in the recordings of the van Veen duo?
To conduct a comprehensive analysis of Canto Ostinato as a work, the van Veens’ realisations of Canto will also be discussed in relation to the musical traditions in which the composition belongs and to the composer and his beliefs about the work. One of his most interesting statements about Canto is “only
https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/events/david_tudor_symposium/pdf/lochhe ad.pdf. 74 De Rek, “Interview met Simeon ten Holt,” 39-40.
17 with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible.”75 Two subsidiary questions are thus:
a. What minimalist/experimentalist compositional tension points are revealed in the duo’s approach to structure? and b. What of composerly intentionality, particularly with reference to ten Holt’s belief that the most variations can arise from fidelity to the score?
1.4 Structure of this thesis
This thesis comprises seven chapters and is organised into three sections. The first consists of Chapters Two and Three, the literature review and the methodology respectively. These detail the relevant literature and the methods employed for this project, including limitations. The methodology also discusses advantages and issues surrounding phonomusicology, Stephen Cottrell’s term denoting “the study of recorded music, including its contexts of production and patterns of consumption.”76
The second section of the thesis relates to my analyses of the score and of the van Veen duo recordings. In Chapter Four, “Score Analysis of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato: the ‘melodious avant-garde’,” I demonstrate that although the piece is seen as one-of-a-kind, it has several precedents in experimental music, such as improvisational music, minimalism, and indeterminacy. I also examine a number of ten Holt’s beliefs in relation to Canto, such as freedom versus rigidity, the spiritual importance of tonality, his (mis)conception of the novelty of Canto’s indeterminacy, and the notion that each work develops by itself, independent of the composer.
75 Note 68, p. 16. 76 “The Rise and Rise of Phonomusicology,” in Recorded Music: Performance, Culture and Technology, ed. Amanda Bayley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 15-16.
18 Chapter Five presents a brief overview of the van Veens’ relationship with ten Holt, followed by my analysis of the van Veens’ duo recordings from 1996 to 2013. The composer’s apparent support for their February 2008 recording, which features particular approaches to the structure of certain sections of Canto, seems to have encouraged the performers to adopt similar techniques in subsequent recordings. There are several structures present in the recordings, of which three will be discussed:
1. Score part omissions and specific amounts of repetition, 2. Additional repeats, and 3. The use of the additive process.
These structuring techniques will also be examined in relation to the concept of form in the twentieth century and the new roles of the composer, performer, and listener. The notion of a more collaborative composer-performer relationship is also put forward.
A discussion and overall conclusion make up the final section of this thesis. In the former, I highlight the tension that arises between the composer and the performers in a work such as Canto and examine possible reasons and implications of the van Veens’ structuring of Canto. This section also touches on considerations such as the listener’s perception of these structures and the commercialisation involved in the van Veens’ performance practice of Canto. The final part of Chapter Six outlines several avenues of future research.
To end, in Chapter Seven, I return to the aims and research questions of this thesis in relation to the results of the analyses. This chapter also includes a reconsideration of several quotes from ten Holt, Jeroen van Veen, and Paul Janssen. These address the beliefs that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible,”77 of Canto in performance as a “work
77 Note 68, p. 16.
19 in progress,”78 and that ten Holt “created a Dutch version of minimal music” respectively.79 I suggest that the description of Canto Ostinato as a “work in progress” is appropriate to its performance practice as a whole. Additionally, while the idea of “Dutch minimalism” may be difficult to substantiate, the results of this thesis have begun correlations of Canto with the general minimalist movement. This chapter finishes with a revised definition of a “work.”
78 Jeroen van Veen, “Jeroen van Veen: The Maximal Minimalist Missionary,” interview by Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors 38, no. 3 (January/February 2015): 214, https://eds-b-ebscohost- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=23fc1d03-5aa1-4ebc-b484- db1783a88c3d%40pdc-v-sessmgr05. Full quote in Chapter 6, note 4, p. 147. 79 Note 16, p. 5.
20 Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter will introduce the key concepts relevant to the project, before reviewing literature on the performance practice of indeterminate compositions, the analysis of recordings, and finally Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato, and the van Veens. The concepts discussed include minimalism, experimentalism, and postmodernism to situate Canto and the van Veens’ realisations of the piece. Literature relating to performance practice and to the analysis of recordings were consulted to find suitable models for this project, while the final category of the literature review focuses on information useful for contextualising and analysing Canto through the points of view of the composer, performers, and audience.
2.1 Key terms
A brief examination of ten Holt’s Canto reveals that it is “tonical,” that is, there is a pitch that establishes itself as a “home”-pitch as for a tonal centre,1 but employs non-functional harmonic progressions; the melody is also an important element of the piece. In performance, it combines repetition with several indeterminacies, such as the number of performers, instrument(s) used, and duration. The van Veens have marketed their performances of Canto widely and created an unusual concert series. As such, it can be approached from a variety of ways due to the time period of its conception, the musical styles associated with the piece, and the nature of its performance practice. Key concepts are (post)modernism, experimentalism, indeterminacy, “open form,” and (post)minimalism.
1 Philip Tagg, “Troubles with Tonal Terminology” (2011/2013): 11, https://www.tagg.org/xpdfs/Aharonian2011.pdf.
21 2.1.1 High modernism and postmodernism
In his article “The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism,” Jonathan Kramer lists the most agreed-upon features of postmodernist music.2 For the purposes of this study, the following attributes represent Canto Ostinato’s aesthetic characteristics most directly:
1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension 7. avoids totalising forms (e.g. does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold) 11. embraces contradictions 13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities3
A major contribution this study makes to postmodernist discussions is its substantial analysis of an indeterminate postmodernist work, using Kramer’s “[consideration of] music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social,
2 “It 1. is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its continuation, but has aspects of both a break and an extension 2. is, on some level and in some way, ironic 3. does not respect boundaries between sonorities and procedures of the past and of the present 4. challenges barriers between ‘high’ and ‘low’ styles 5. shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of structural unity 6. questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and populist values 7. avoids totalising forms (e.g., does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold) 8. considers music not as autonomous but as relevant to cultural, social, and political context 9. includes quotations of or references to music of many traditions and cultures 10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music 11. embraces contradictions 12. distrusts binary oppositions 13. includes fragmentations and discontinuities 14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism 15. presents multiple meanings and multiple temporalities 16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers.” In Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, ed. Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 10-11, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1461077. 3 Ibid.
22 and political context.” 4 The investigation of Canto’s material characteristics include ten Holt’s close relationship with the van Veens, the approaches taken by the latter in realising Canto, and the perspective of the audience. Therefore, four other points highlighted by Kramer are also applicable:
4. challenges barriers between “high” and “low” styles 10. considers technology not only as a way to preserve and transmit music but also as deeply implicated in the production and essence of music 14. encompasses pluralism and eclecticism 16. locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers.5
The discussion will now examine the highlighted points in greater detail. Kramer’s first point is that postmodernist music contains “both a break and an extension” in relation to modernism. The “break” can be seen through ten Holt’s rejection of serialism, with Canto as the first main work of his final compositional period. However, as Linda Kouvaras notes, the modernist “‘clean slate’ […] – transcending ‘taste’, obliterating cultural memory – was the launching pad for postmodernism.”6
The “extension” of modernism can also be viewed in two other ways: the extent of authorial control and terms used to describe various types of postmodernism. Firstly, the goals and characteristics of high modernism are detailed as follows:
Along with the inimitable stamp of the individual artist’s ‘voice’, high modernism was the pursuit of the unadulterated, self-referential art object,7 which in music expressed its tendencies in exclusively technical names, such as atonality, microtonal music, electronica. A work would
4 Kramer, “Musical Postmodernism,” 10-11. 5 Ibid. 6 Linda Ioanna Kouvaras, Loading the Silence: Australian Sound Art in the Post-Digital Age (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), 41, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1123200. 7 Note 7 in ibid., 21: “See, for example, Marshall Berman, All that is Solid Melts into Air: The Experience of Modernity (New York: Viking Penguin, 1988).”
23 ascertain its own individual premises, constituting its own class. In taking internal propositions to extremes in realisation and deductive reasoning, a work was able to revel in its difficulty and purist, hermetic isolation.8
In contrast to the “exclusively technical names” and a composition “[revelling] in its difficulty and purist, hermetic isolation,” the work in question is titled Canto Ostinato (translating to “persistent song”) and is highly popular in its country of origin.9 However, ten Holt’s limitations on the performers and his preference for four-piano realisations of Canto—while not to the same extent as “the inimitable stamp of the individual artist’s ‘voice’”—perhaps imply a continued need for authorial control.10
Secondly, the “extension” of modernism is also evident in two types of postmodernism, “neoconservative and radical postmodernism.” 11 Jonathan Kramer explains and distinguishes between them as such:
[Both] radical and neoconservative postmodern music may use triads, stylistic eclecticism, diatonic tunes, metric regularity, etc. One difference, though, is the concern with unity: neoconservatives, like latter-day modernists, still value textual unity and organicism as totalizing musical structures, while many radical postmodernists have forsaken this allegiance.12
Kramer also believes that “neoconservative postmodernism” or “postmodernism of reaction,”13 as coined by art historian Hal Foster, is the more common definition of postmodernism.14 This type of postmodernism “is marked
8 Kouvaras, Loading the Silence, 21. 9 Its marketing and performance practice in relation to the van Veens will be investigated later in this section. 10 See 4.5.2.2 Barthes’ “The Death of the Author” and the “ideal” performance(s), pp. 103- 08. 11 Jonathan D. Kramer, “Beyond Unity: Toward an Understanding of Musical Postmodernism,” in Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies, ed. Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard Hermann (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1995), 21. 12 Ibid, 24. 13 Hal Foster, “(Post)Modern Polemics,” in Recodings: Art, Spectacle, Cultural Politics (Seattle, Washington: Bay Press, 1987), 121. 14 Kramer, “Beyond Unity,” 21.
24 by an eclectic historicism, in which old and new modes and styles (used goods, as it were) are retooled and recycled.” 15 Although these terms indicate an underlying modernist ideology, they remain important to consider in the examination of pre-atonal harmonic language. A related and also highly applicable term is “neo-Romanticism,” which Jann Pasler defines as “the return to emotional expression associated with 19th-century Romanticism.”16
One of the standpoints of so-called neoconservative postmodernist music is to institute a return to high accessibility for the general public. This was primarily felt to be enabled by a return to tonality and other traditional concepts in Western art music.17 Linda Hutcheon extends the definition of the return to accessibility by outlining three approaches: the first is Foster’s definition, whereby composers attempt to replicate late 19th-century Romanticism; second, the use of “simple repetitive harmonies,”18 with Philip Glass as an instance; and finally, tonality used in an ironic way.19
There are two types of tonality in Canto, the first of which is what ten Holt terms “tonality after the death of tonality.”20 This involves chords in non-functional progressions and forms the bulk of the work. The second type of tonality is functional harmony, most sections of which also consist of tuneful melodies. The latter type are clear instances of neoconservative postmodernism and neo-
15 Foster, “(Post)Modern Polemics,” 121. 16 Jann Pasler, “Neo-romantic,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 14 February 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40720. For more on neo-romanticism, see the section “New romanticisms” as part of Kenneth Gloag’s chapter “The challenge of the past,” in Postmodernism in Music (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 60-73. 17 Jann Pasler, "Postmodernism,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 5 February 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40721; and Andrew Dell'Antonio, "Postmodernism (USA),” Grove Music Online, published online 31 January 2014, accessed 4 October 2018, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2259137 (article deleted). One emblematic example is the composer George Rochberg (1918-2005). See especially the section “A postmodernism of reaction” in Gloag’s chapter “The music of George Rochberg: from modern serialism to postmodern pastische,” Postmodernism of Music, 96-99. 18 Linda Hutcheon, The Politics of Postmodernism (New York: Routledge, 2002), 9, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=181639. 19 Ibid. 20 Chapter 4, note 16, pp. 59-60.
25 Romanticism, while “tonality after the death of tonality” would be better characterised as radical postmodernism.
The remaining three points that relate to Canto—it “avoids totalising forms,” “embraces contradictions,” and “includes fragmentations and discontinuities” 21 —will be discussed together as they concern its musical aspects. Kramer’s example of the first point is that it “does not want entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a prescribed formal mold.”22 This contrasts strongly with atonality and serialism during the modernist period, concepts which Kenneth Gloag says
could be argued to represent musical versions of the attempted construction of modern metanarratives in that they are intentionally big ideas about the nature of music with large-scale historical, formal and stylistic implications.23
Canto’s “[avoidance of] totalising forms” 24 can be seen in its two types of tonality, particularly “tonality after the death of tonality,” and indeterminate form. This is achieved via two methods: the amounts of repetitions of most of its sections are at the performers’ discretion and sections with double-headed arrows provide further options for structural flexibility. Finally, the work’s “contradictions” and “fragmentations and discontinuities” 25 can be demonstrated through sections that employ “tonality after the death of tonality,”26 which are typically shorter and tend to contain more static melodic contours, contrasting with sections featuring functional harmony, which are likely to be longer and to have more varied melodic lines.
The second part of this discussion will focus on four other points by Kramer, regarding aspects of performance and reception of Canto. The role of
21 Note 2, p. 22. 22 Ibid. 23 Gloag, Postmodernism in Music, 4. Italics in the original. 24 Note 2, p. 22. 25 Ibid. 26 Chapter 4, note 16, pp. 59-60.
26 technology is important to consider in postmodernist music, as Kramer highlights with several references to Kenneth J. Gergen’s The Saturated Self: “[technology] has created a context of fragmentation, short attention spans leading to constant discontinuities, and multiplicity.” 27 These characteristics have been discussed in relation to Canto’s musical material, but technology is also “deeply implicated in the production and essence of music.”28 This can be seen in the van Veens’ editing in the second release of their February 2008 recording and in Timothy Taylor’s examination of how music is presented and marketed in postmodern times, due to factors such as increasing commercialisation and the difficulties composers face in “[making] themselves known.”29
Furthermore, aspects such as the creation, distribution, and audience responses to a work are important in understanding the music as a totality.30 In the context of Canto, these aspects can be gleaned through the van Veens’ marketing of its meditative and exploratory nature; their Ligconcert series, which aims to heighten the audience’s experience of these characteristics; and their categorisation of their Canto recordings under non-classical genres to reach a wider audience. The piano duo’s approach “challenges barriers between ‘high’ and ‘low’ styles” and “encompasses pluralism and eclecticism,”31 highlighting Taylor’s advocacy of an investigation into how music is being marketed in the postmodern era as a helpful way of examining Canto.
The final point relates to postmodernist music “[locating] meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers”32 and can be evaluated according to Roland Barthes’ 1968 concept “The Death of the Author.”33 Issues surrounding Canto include performers taking on a “co-author”
27 Kramer, “Musical Postmodernism,” 19. 28 Note 2, p. 22. 29 Timothy D. Taylor, "Music and Musical Practices in Postmodernity,” in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, ed. Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 93, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1461077. 30 Ibid., 103. 31 Note 2, p. 22. 32 Ibid. 33 In Image Music Text, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana Press, 1977), 142-48.
27 role in realising the work,34 and the debate among its performers and listeners around its national identity.35
2.1.2 Experimentalism, indeterminacy, and “open form”
Leon Botstein indicates that there were five identifiable streams of modernism by 1933.36 The most applicable one here is experimental music as espoused by Henry Cowell (1897-1965) and Edgard Varèse (1883-1965), the precursor to the works of John Cage (1912-92) and of minimalist music.37 Dating from the 1950s,38 the experimental aesthetic is succinctly defined by Cage’s statement that an experimental action is one “the outcome of which is unforeseen”39 and by his concept of indeterminacy.40 The latter occurs in the composition of works, in having performers prepare the score, or in performance.41
34 Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song, “Roland Barthes’ ‘Text’ and Aleatoric Music: is the ‘Birth of the Reader’ the Birth of the Listener?,” Muzikologija, no. 2 (2002), 270, http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2002/1450-98140202263J.pdf. 35 See 4.1 “Dutch minimalism”? (p. 58). 36 Leon Botstein, “Modernism,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 13 May 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40625. 37 Section 6, World War I and its consequences, in Botstein, “Modernism”; Michael Nyman, “Minimal music, determinacy and the new tonality,” in Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 139-71; and Cecilia Sun, “Experimental Music,” Grove Music Online, published online 10 July 2012, accessed 13 May 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2224296. Although all of the authors view minimalism as arising from experimentalism, Leigh Landy holds a contrasting opinion in Experimental Music Notebooks (Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994), 137. See also 2.1.3 Minimalism and postminimalism, pp. 30-31. 38 Sun, “Experimental Music.” 39 John Cage, II. Indeterminacy, in “Composition as Process,” in Silence: lectures and writings by John Cage (Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1976), 39. 40 Cage outlines his criteria for music “which is indeterminate with respect to its performance”: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI, J.S. Bach’s The Art of the Fugue, Morton Feldman’s Intersection 3, Earle Brown’s 4 Systems, and Christian Wolff’s Duo II for Pianists are indeterminate because one or more aspects are indeterminate, such as timbre, form, number of performers, and duration. However, Cage’s own the Music of Changes and Earle Brown’s Indices, do not count as works that are indeterminate in performance, since the notation is “determinate.” See Cage’s lecture II. Indeterminacy, in Silence, 35-40. 41 See section 3, Characteristics, in Sun, “Experimental Music.” Two other categories of experimental music are the use of non-traditional scoring, such as indeterminate notation, graphics, and text scores, and the manipulation of a sound recording by a listener. This final category is mentioned by Leigh Landy in What's the Matter with Today's Experimental Music?: Organised Sound Too Rarely Heard (Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1991), 5. For more information on all categories of experimental music, see Elena Dubinets, "Between Mobility and Stability: Earle Brown's Compositional Process,” Contemporary Music Review 26, nos. 3/4 (June/August 2007): 411-14; sections 3 to 8 of Paul Griffiths, "Aleatory,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 13 May 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.00509;
28 For this thesis, this final concept of indeterminacy in performance is the most applicable. Sabine Feisst’s definition of indeterminacy as “’having inexact limits,’ ‘indefinite,’ ‘indistinct,’ and ‘unsettled’”42 relates to several elements of Canto, such as instrumentation, number of performers, dynamics, articulation, the part(s) that the performer(s) take at any given moment, and the number of repetitions of most of the 106 sections. Leigh Landy also gives a succinct explanation of indeterminacy in performance that strongly relates to a typical performance of Canto and highlights the piece as a non-traditional work:
Indeterminacy implies that neither performer nor composer can predict what the result of a performance will be. Performance becomes part of the discovery process. In other words: the composer is responsible for creating a “situation,” not a “work” as we know it.43
Landy’s description of the creation of a “situation” is similar to ten Holt’s own statements of his establishment of an “open scenario” for the performers.44 These terms also highlight the type of indeterminacy that best characterises Canto, namely, the provision of choice in performance, as well as the concept of the “open form” composition. 45 “Open form” was coined by American
Stefan Kostka, Materials and Techniques of Post-Tonal Music, 4th ed. (New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2012), 280; Landy, Notebooks, 84-92 and 94; Judith Irene Lochhead, "Performance Practice in the Indeterminate Works of John Cage,” Performance Practice Review 7, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 233-34, https://scholarship.claremont.edu/ppr/vol7/iss2/11/; Frank X. Mauceri, "From Experimental Music to Musical Experiment,” Perspectives of New Music 35, no. 1 (Winter 1997): 197, https://www.jstor.org/stable/833684; David P. Shively, “Indeterminacy and Interpretation: Three Realisations” (DMA dissertation, University of California, San Diego, 2001), 2-9; Reginald Smith Brindle, “Musical Indeterminacy,” Guitar Review, no. 69 (Spring 1987): 1; and Mirjana Veselinović-Hofman, "Musical Notation: the more or the less than sound,” New Sound: International Magazine for Music, no. 35 (2010): 53-54. 42 Sabine Feisst, "Negotiating Freedom and Control in Composition: Improvisation and its Offshoots, 1950 to 1980,” in The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies, Volume 2, ed. Benjamin Piekut and George E. Lewis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013-16), 208, http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199892921.001.0001/oxfordhb -9780199892921. 43 Landy, Notebooks, 82. 44 Simeon ten Holt, "Inleiding op Canto Ostinato: door Simeon ten Holt,” in Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016), 81. Full quote in Chapter 4, note 109, p. 85. 45 The most cited works and composers that give choice to the performers are Pierre Boulez’s Troisième Sonate (Piano Sonata No. 3) and Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI, and compositions by Earle Brown and Roman Haubenstock-Ramati. See Angela Ida De Benedictis, "Indeterminacy and Open Form in the United States and Europe: Freedom from Control vs. Control of Freedom,” trans. Mark Weir, in Crosscurrents: American and European Music in Interaction, 1900-2000, ed. Felix Meyer, Carol J. Oja, Wolfgang Rathert, and Anne C. Shreffler
29 composer Earle Brown,46 and is also variously denoted as “open event” or “open action.”47 It refers to compositions featuring “interchangeability of parts with determined details or variability of details with the course of the piece determined,”48 the second definition being a more befitting descriptor of Canto.
2.1.3 Minimalism and postminimalism
As mentioned, experimentalism also gave rise to minimalism,49 which dates from the late 1950s or early 1960s. 50 The concept of minimalism resists straightforward definition and all of its characteristics cannot be applied to all works considered minimalist.51 In this section, only those applicable to Canto Ostinato will be discussed.
Repetition manifests in Canto in the form of the ostinato, unchanging rhythmic figurations, and the number of times a section is played. The piece’s constant beat and tonal but non-functional chord progressions are other characteristics of minimalist music, as highlighted by Paul Hillier:
(Basel: Paul Sacher Foundation, 2014), 417-24; Guy de Bièvre, "Open, Mobile and Indeterminate Forms" (PhD dissertation, Brunel University, 2012), 7-15; Dubinets, “Mobility and Stability,” 409-26; and Feisst, “Freedom and Control,” 210-13. All of the above have been identified as “mobile form” and “open form” compositions. The former term can refer to compositions in which sections of music are picked and performed on the spot; music with a fixed structure and certain improvised sections; and pieces with no time signature or bar lines, or to be played freely in terms of tempi. For the first definition, see Dubinets, “Between Mobility and Stability,” 413, and for the other definitions, see Marina Pereverzeva, "Musical Mobile as a Genre Genotype of New Music,” Lietuvos muzikologija/Lithuanian musicology, no. 14 (2013): 120-21, http://xn--urnalai-cxb.lmta.lt/wp- content/uploads/2013/lietuvos-muzikologija14-8-pereverzeva.pdf. None of these definitions of “mobile form,” however, are applicable to the project. 46 De Bièvre, “Indeterminate Forms,” 8; Dubinets, “Between Mobility and Stability,” 410; and Feisst, “Freedom and Control,” 212. 47 Dubinets, “Between Mobility and Stability,” 410. 48 Feisst, “Freedom and Control,” 212. 49 See 2.1.2 Experimentalism, indeterminacy, and “open form,” pp. 28-30. 50 Minimalism may also date from John Cage’s music from the 1940s or that of Belgian Karel Goeyvaerts in the 1950s. See Kyle Gann, Keith Potter, and Pwyll ap Siôn, “Introduction: experimental, minimalist, postminimalist? Origins, definitions, communities,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, ed. Keith Potter, Kyle Gann, and Pwyll ap Siôn (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016), 23, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1426849. 51 Gann, Potter, and ap Siôn list harmonic stasis, repetition, drones, gradual process, steady beat, static instrumentation, metamusic, pure tuning, and audible structure as “the most obvious” characteristics of minimalist music in “Introduction,” 26-28.
30 Although extremely consonant, the sense of tonality is non-functional (there is no progressively structural use of modulation). The traditional narrative manner of common-practice tonality is thus absent; the dramatic tension, the sense of conflict and drama which motivate the structures of symphonic form, have little or no place in this music. Many pieces tend through length and repetition to establish a sense of timelessness or a continual present; the use of drones (which are in a sense a continuous repetition) reinforces this effect.52
Although Hillier’s description regarding the lack of “narrative” harmony may hold true for the majority of Canto, it does not apply to section 74—where the theme first appears—and other sections featuring the theme and functional harmony. Canto also displays characteristics of postminimalist music, which arose from the mid- to late-1970s. 53 It could be considered an early postminimalist composition, due to its period of conception (1973-79), the importance of the melody,54 increased harmonic motion,55 and the use of terraced dynamics.56
The next sections of the review will evaluate sources on performance practice; analysing recordings; and Simeon ten Holt, Canto and the van Veens.
52 Paul Hillier, Arvo Pärt (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 15. 53 Jonathan W. Bernard lists a number of writers who point to the end of minimalism by the mid- 1970s in his article “Minimalism, Postminimalism, and the Resurgence of Tonality in Recent American Music,” American Music 21, no. 1 (Spring 2003): 112, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3250558, while Dimitri Cervo cites postminimalism as occurring from the late 1970s in his article “Post-Minimalism: Is it a Valid Terminology?” (2005): 2-4, accessed 13 May 2019, https://www.academia.edu/7065703/Dimitri_Cervo_-_Minimalism_and_Post_Minimalism. This article was originally published in volume 1 of Ictus in 1999 and slightly modified in 2005. See note 1 of the article. 54 Cervo, “Post-Minimalism,” 7. 55 Keith Potter, “Minimalism (USA),” Grove Music Online, published online 31 January 2014, updated 30 December 2019, accessed 3 June 2021, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2257002. 56 Kyle Gann, "A Technically Definable Stream of Postminimalism, Its Characteristics and Its Meanings,” in Potter, Gann, and ap Siôn, Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, 58.
31 2.2 Performance practice of indeterminate compositions
“Performance practice” or “performing practice” is defined in Grove Music Online as “[involving] all aspects of the way in which music is and has been performed.”57 However, the Western music section of the article only covers historically informed performance, while many other sources similarly focus on historically informed performance, and on exclusively twentieth- and twenty- first-century topics such as electroacoustic music, electronic music, and making music with computers, and with the use of crowdsourcing.
Although there are several sources by Philip Thomas, 58 Judy Lochhead, 59 David Miller,60 and David P. Shively61 relating to indeterminate and/or piano compositions, the majority of these sources centre on Cage and/or David Tudor (1926-96). 62 Additionally, many of these focus on each author’s individual approach to performing each composition discussed, rather than analysing recordings of such compositions.63 Lochhead’s publications come the closest
57 Howard Mayer Brown et al., "Performing practice,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 5 February 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40272. 58 Thomas has written generally on performing indeterminate music, and on specific compositions. His general writings are "Determining the Indeterminate,” Contemporary Music Review 26, no. 2 (April 2007): 129-40, and "A Prescription for Action,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music, ed. James Saunders (Surrey: Ashgate, 2009), 77-98. Those on specific compositions are "Berio's Sequenza IV: Approaches to Performance and Interpretation,” Contemporary Music Review 26, no. 2 (April 2007): 189-205, "Understanding Indeterminate Music Through Performance: Cage's Solo for Piano,” Twentieth-Century Music 10, no. 1 (2013): 91-113. Thomas also co-wrote the following source: Eric Clarke et al., "Interpretation and performance in Bryn Harrison's être-temps,” Musicae Scientiae 19, no. 1 (Spring 2005): 31-74. 59 "Performance Practice of John Cage,” 233-41, and “Controlling Liberation: David Tudor and the ‘Experimental’ Sound Ideal” (paper, The Art of David Tudor: Indeterminacy and Performance in Postwar Culture Symposium, Getty Research Institute Symposium, Los Angeles, CA, 17-19 May 2001), 1-7, https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/events/david_tudor_symposium/pdf/lochhe ad.pdf. 60 "The Shapes of Indeterminacy: John Cage's Variations I and Variations II,” Frankfurter Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 6 (2003): 18-45, and "Indeterminacy and Performance Practice in Cage's Variations,” American Music 27, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 60-86. 61 "Indeterminacy and Interpretation.” 62 Dates obtained from John Holzaepfel, “Tudor, David (Eugene),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, updated 30 August 2004, accessed 16 January 2020, https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28561. 63 Other sources that are not on John Cage and/or David Tudor, but are in a similar time period and involve similar material, include de Bièvre, "Indeterminate Forms" and Luciane Cardassi, “Developing an interpretation of Luigi Nono’s …sofferte onde serene…,” Revista Vórtex 4, no. 3 (2016): 1-10, http://vortex.unespar.edu.br/cardassi_v4_n3.pdf.
32 to providing a model for this thesis as they analyse recordings, but her parameters are unsuitable, as the pieces she investigates focus on sounds in general, while Canto uses staff notation.
The literature on two commonly cited indeterminate compositions that use staff notation,64 Piano Sonata No. 3 (1955-57) by Pierre Boulez (1925-2016) and Klavierstück XI (1956) by Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007), 65 was also examined. However, only performance and recording reviews of the former were found,66 and there was no available literature on the performance practice of Stockhausen’s piece.
Finally, the social aspects of the piece are also important to investigate, as ten Holt states: “Canto Ostinato is music where time and space have to be taken to grow together, to discover the interplay between interactivity and skill in piano playing.” 67 Comparable compositions focussing on communication between performers have been written by Christian Wolff (1934-), who was part of the same circle as Cage and Tudor, 68 but none of the sources found analyse recordings of Wolff’s compositions.69
64 De Benedictis, "Indeterminacy and Open Form,” 419-23; de Bièvre, "Indeterminate Forms,” 12-13; Dubinets, “Between Mobility and Stability,” 413-14; and Feisst, “Freedom and Control,” 210-13. 65 Dates of compositions obtained from Feisst, “Freedom and Control,” 210 and 211. Dates of composers obtained from G.W. Hopkins, “Boulez, Pierre,” Grove Music Online, rev. Paul Griffiths, published online 2001, updated 30 July 2020, accessed 3 June 2021, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.03708, and Richard Toop, “Stockhausen, Karlheinz,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, updated 22 October 2008, accessed 11 November 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26808. 66 Paul Griffiths, “Boulez from Memory for the Challenge and the Art,” review of performance by Taka Kigawa, New York Times, 29 May 2001, https://search-proquest-com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/docview/91968163?accountid=12372 and Ira Byelick, review of Wanted, played by Hakon Austbo, Aurora 5071, American Record Guide, 1 May 2012, https://ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true& db=edsgao&AN=edsgcl.287750303&site=eds-live&scope=site. 67 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16. 68 Together with Earle Brown and Morton Feldman, the five are known as the New York School. William Bland, David Patterson and Sabine Feisst, “Wolff, Christian George,” Grove Music Online, published online 31 January 2014, accessed 21 May 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2259415. 69 Sources instead focus on, for instance, Wolff’s compositional ideas, political aspects, performance aspects, and implications of them. See, for instance, Mark D. Nelson, "Social Dynamics at the Heart of Composition: implications of Christian Wolff's indeterminate music,” in Proceedings of the Bowling Green State University New Musica and Art Festival 10, ed. William E. Lake (Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio: 1989): 3-14,
33 The above discussion highlights that although there is literature pertaining to indeterminate and/or piano compositions, they cannot be taken as a model in the analysis of the performance practice of pieces such as Canto. The closest source is Linde van Heeswijk’s article “Less is More: the Role of Expectation in Emotional Responses to Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato,” especially her section “Performance Practice” and “Response to Performance Practice.”70 However, her analysis of the composition is only based off one recording by the van Veens. This article will be discussed further in section 2.4 (pp. 37-41). This thesis thus attempts to fill the gaps in the literature on performance practice by examining several recordings of an indeterminate work for keyboard instruments. The social aspects of the work not only relate to the how the musicians communicate with each other during rehearsals and performances, but also to the performers’ relationship with the composer. In addition to having a long association with the composer during his lifetime, one of their recordings was also supposedly praised and edited by the composer. These factors, as part of the more fluid composer-performer relationship in indeterminate works in the twentieth century, are discussed in detail in Chapter Five.
2.3 Analysis of recordings
The penultimate part of the literature review examines sources on the analysis of recordings. These can be divided into sources on various methods of analysis and those examining philosophical and commercial issues surrounding recordings.
https://www.academia.edu/29870667/Social_Dynamics_at_the_Heart_of_Composition_Implic ations_of_Christian_Wolff_s_Indeterminate_Music; Clemens Gresser, “(Re)-defining the relationships between composer, performer and listener: Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff” (PhD dissertation, University of Southampton, 2004); Stephen Chase and Philip Thomas, eds., Changing the System: the music of Christian Wolff (Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, Vermont: Ashgate, 2010); and Lewis Krauthamer, “An Analysis of Two Large-Scale Works by Christian Wolff,” Perspectives of New Music 55, no. 1 (Winter 2017), 75-144, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.55.1.0075. 70 “Less is More: the Role of Expectation in Emotional Responses to Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato,” Musicology Review, no. 8 (2013): 38-61. For “Performance Practice,” see pages 56-58. For “Response to Performance Practice,” see pages 58-59.
34 In the former, a number of sources are useful in learning about different methods of analysing recordings. The first is The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music,71 the editors of which are also part of the Research Team at CHARM, the AHRC Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music in London. 72 Of particular importance is Nicholas Cook’s chapter “Methods for Analysing Recordings” in The Cambridge Companion.73 Apart from aural analysis and its obvious advantages, 74 Cook outlines several analytical tools that can supplement aural analysis. These include software that incorporate visualisation, such as Sonic Visualiser and Gerhard Widmer’s Performance Worm,75 and technologies aiding in analyses of performance style, such as scattergrams. 76 Cook also discusses the disadvantages of scattergrams,77 and introduces Craig Sapp’s multicorrelational diagrams as an alternative.78 The chapter also includes Cook’s own “arch combiscapes,” which consist of a comparison of tempi and dynamics, complemented by graphs and a scattergram.79
71 The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, ed. Nicholas Cook, Eric Clarke, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and John Rink. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1017/CCOL9780521865821. 72 “People,” About CHARM, CHARM, last modified 2009, accessed 20 February 2019, http://www.charm.rhul.ac.uk/about/about_personnel.html. 73 Nicholas Cook, “Methods for analysing recordings,” in Cook et al., Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, 221-45. 74 Ibid, 222. 75 Ibid., 223-28, 232, and 234 for information on Sonic Visualiser, and 229-31 on the Performance Worm. A tutorial and pictures of Sonic Visualiser can be found at Nicholas Cook and Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, “A musicologist’s guide to Sonic Visualiser,” Analysing Recordings, CHARM, accessed 14 January 2020, https://charm.rhul.ac.uk/analysing/p9_1.html, while a picture of the Performance Worm can be seen in Figure 4 of Simon Dixon, Werner Goebl, and Gerhard Widmer, “The Performance Worm: Real Time Visualisation of Expression based on Langner’s Tempo-Loudness Animation,” ICMC (2002), no page numbers, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/90d4/c3b707715873e21de03ca88edb9f813b1f63.pdf?_ga=2 .163706108.2113031034.1578976125-1667372584.1578976125. 76 An example of a scattergram can be seen in Figure 6.18 in Nicholas Cook, Beyond the Score: Music as Performance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 204, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=BnhCAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA204#v=onepage& q&f=false. 77 Cook, “Analysing recordings,” 235-36. 78 Ibid., 236-37. An example of a multicorrelational diagram can be seen in a comparison of two recordings by Idil Biret and Artur Rubinstein, the first figure of “Tools developed by the CHARM Mazurka project,” Analysing Recordings, CHARM, accessed 14 January 2020, https://charm.rhul.ac.uk/analysing/p9_4.html. 79 Cook, “Analysing recordings,” 238-41. An example of an arch combiscape is the second figure in “CHARM Mazurka project.”
35 Dorottya Fabian is another prominent scholar in this field, especially with her book A Musicology of Performance.80 Her study focuses on forty recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin,81 from 1977 to 2010.82 Multiple recordings by a number of the performers surveyed were included,83 and Fabian used “repeated close listening (aural analyses) and software assisted measurements of audio signals” to conduct her research.84
Although the abovementioned technologies demonstrate several analytical possibilities that would not be possible with human aural analyses, they are also limited. For example, Cook and Fabian are analysing short extracts or pieces of traditional notated compositions. Additionally, most of these technologies Cook highlights are used to analyse and visualise tempi and dynamics. Although these are two important elements in music analysis, others such as articulation, balance, and timbre do not appear to be incorporated by these technologies.
Regarding the philosophical and commercial issues surrounding recordings, one can start with Robert Philip’s Performing Music in the Age of Recording, a well-known source in this field. Although it focuses primarily on historically informed performance practice from the study of recordings, a number of points in the chapter on a composer’s authority are useful in understanding the nature and role of a composer’s opinion of performances of his or her works.85 The closing chapter also provides insight into understanding both positive and negative effects of recording in a studio or live context, and of commercialisation and proliferation of recordings, as well as the question of authority in making a recording.86
80 A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method Based on Bach’s Solos for Violin (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2015). 81 Ibid., 2. 82 Ibid., 18. 83 Ibid., 19. 84 Ibid., 22. 85 Robert Philip, “Questions of Authority: the Composer,” in Performing Music in the Age of Recording (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004), 180-82, http://www.jstor.org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/stable/j.ctt5vkwgk.1. 86 Philip, “Listening Back: Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” in Age of Recording, 239-52.
36 Other sources that provide useful insight into analysing recordings include the abovementioned Companion, Mine Doğantan-Dack’s Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections,87 and Amanda Bayley’s Recorded Music: Performance, Culture and Technology.88 Of particular interest are the chapters in the final source by Stephen Cottrell and Peter Elsdon.89 Cottrell highlights the benefits of what he terms “phonomusicology,” or “the study of recorded music, including its contexts of production and patterns of consumption.”90 This definition pertains to recordings in general, including those that are not related to historically informed performance, while Elsdon’s chapter, by focusing on several recordings of John Coltrane’s “Chasin’ the Trane,”91 provides a good model for analysing different recordings of the same piece. A final source that is useful in evaluating the value of recordings is Georgina Born’s Afterword in the Companion. 92 Her suggestion of viewing recordings as representations highlights the potential of recordings beyond merely documenting live performances, while also taking into account any amount of editing that recordings undergo.93 This revised approach to recordings also highlights Born and Elsdon’s alternatives to the traditional meaning of a “work,” which are useful in the definition and examination of Canto’s identity in this thesis.
2.4 Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato, and the van Veens
The final section of literature for this thesis is on Simeon ten Holt, Canto, and Sandra and Jeroen van Veen. The most important sources relating to the composer and the piece are by ten Holt, Donemus (ten Holt’s publisher), Wilma
87 Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, ed. Mine Doğantan-Dack (London: Middlesex University Press, 2008). 88 Recorded Music: Performance, Culture and Technology, ed. Amanda Bayley (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010). 89 Stephen Cottrell, “The Rise and Rise of Phonomusicology,” and Peter Elsdon, “Jazz recordings and the capturing of performance,” in Bayley, Recorded Music, 15-36 and 146-63 respectively. 90 Cottrell, “Phonomusicology,” 15-16. 91 Elsdon, “The capturing of performance,” 146-63. 92 Georgina Born, “Afterword: Recording: From reproduction to representation to remediation,” in Cook et al., Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, 286-304. 93 Ibid., 294.
37 de Rek, Linde van Heeswijk, Sylvie Klijn, and articles in Grove Music Online. Of these sources, those by the composer and de Rek are in Dutch.
Ten Holt’s memoir, The Forest and the Citadel,94 provides a chronological overview of the most important events in the composer’s life, as well as his explanations and thoughts on his compositional processes and his works. The websites of two separate foundations dedicated to ten Holt are also useful for background information on the composer and the piece.95 Donemus’ list of performance regulations on Canto, such as permitted instruments and minimum duration, is an important source for the score analysis in this thesis.96 De Rek’s book, Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt about his masterwork, is particularly useful with the journalist’s interview with the composer.97 Many chapters are also devoted to well-known performers of Canto, including Sandra and Jeroen van Veen, and their perceptions of and experiences with the piece.98 The van Veens also wrote a chapter on features of Canto that will aid analysis of the score.99
The article “Less is More” by Linde van Heeswijk is, as mentioned, the closest source to providing a model for analysing the performance practice of a piece such as Canto. It examines Canto’s effects on listeners using David Huron’s theory of expectation and a 2008 recording by the van Veens.100 However, her structuring of the various elements—"General,” “Rhythm,” “Harmony,” “Melody,” and “Performance Practice”—are unsuitable for this thesis and were thus not
94 Simeon ten Holt, Het Woud en de Citadel: Memoires van een componist (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2009). 95 Simeon ten Holt Foundation, updated 2019, http://www.simeontenholt.com/; and Stichting Simeon ten Holt, https://www.simeontenholt.info/. Both links accessed 21 February 2019. 96 These performance regulations are in the document “Licence for Canto Ostinato”, dated 23 December 2013, which can be accessed by clicking the button “Open Preview (PDF)” in the top right hand corner on the Donemus webshop listing of Canto Ostinato. “Composition: Canto Ostinato: voor toetsinstrumenten, 1976-79 / Simeon ten Holt,” Donemus webshop, accessed 21 May 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/3360. 97 De Rek, “‘Muziek heeft alles met sensualiteit te maken': Interview met Simeon ten Holt,” in Canto Ostinato, 13-69. 98 "Haantjesgedrag kan niet, bij Canto,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 136-41. 99 “How zit Canto Ostinato in elkaar?,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 73-76. 100 Van Heeswijk, “Less is More,” 38-44 and 46-59. This recording is the February 2008 recording in this thesis.
38 adopted. In this case, it is clearer to categorise according to the concepts demonstrated in the analysed recordings than by musical element.
Sylvie Klijn’s thesis, “Musical, Sociological and Psychological Aspects of Minimal Music Composition: The Case of ‘Canto Ostinato’ by Simeon ten Holt,”101 takes van Heeswijk’s ideas on the psychology of music listening further and incorporates sociology.102 Her score analysis complements that of van Heeswijk and also provides good background for this thesis.103 Additionally, Klijn’s interviews with five devoted performers and listeners of Canto shed light on how people listen and respond to the piece, and on reasons for its popularity in the Netherlands,104 and also delve into the notion of the “Dutchness” of Canto, 105 an admittedly tricky topic that my thesis also briefly examines. However, Klijn’s thesis does not include analysis of performance practice or any recordings of Canto and her music-historical analysis only focuses on minimalist music.106 There is also no biographical material on ten Holt or an overview of his compositional periods and processes.
The final, most important sources are three articles from the Grove Music Online encyclopaedia, the first being a biographical entry on ten Holt,107 while the other two are definitions of the terms “canto” and “ostinato.” 108 These articles contribute to the background information on the composer and the piece.
In all of the above sources (except Klijn’s thesis), particularly ten Holt’s memoir and de Rek’s book, there is a wide range of biographical material on the composer. There are also many websites relating to ten Holt and/or Canto
101 Master’s thesis, Utrecht University, 2019. 102 Klijn, “Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework,” in ibid., 6-20. 103 Klijn, “Chapter 4: Musical Analysis of ‘Canto Ostinato,’” in ibid., 31-40. 104 Klijn, “Chapter 5: Results and Analysis of Interviews on ‘Canto Ostinato,’” in ibid., 41-55. 105 See the section “Relationship to Society” in ibid., 49-52. 106 Klijn, “Chapter 2: Theoretical Framework.” 107 Huib Ramaer, “Holt, Simeon ten,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 20 May 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13256. 108 Owen Rees, ”Canto (i),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 5 September 2018, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04786 and Laure Schnapper, “Ostinato,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 31 July 2018, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20547.
39 Ostinato that contain similar—if not the same—information: for instance, the websites of the two earlier-mentioned ten Holt foundations have the same biography by Kees Wieringa,109 a friend of the composer and a performer of his works.110 Another source written by someone close to ten Holt is the book Arabesk – over Simeon ten Holt by John Heymans,111 a long-time friend of the composer.112 Although I was unable to access this book due to the COVID-19 lockdowns, it would have been a good complement to ten Holt’s account of his childhood and other life events.113
While these are credited, they are difficult to take as an authoritative or “official” source of biographical information on the composer, as they have been written by his friends and may be biased. On the other hand, while Huib Ramaer’s entry on ten Holt in Grove is a reliable source and can be used to correlate dates and events with the composer’s memoir, it is brief and does not have information on either ten Holt’s sources of influence or composition processes. It can be argued that the composer’s memoir and de Rek’s book likely also present bias, but they are still important sources of biographical material on ten Holt and his thought processes as they were created late in the composer’s life, when he would have the benefit of hindsight and experience to reflect on his work and life events.
Other sources on ten Holt and Canto include papers by Maarten Beirens and Keith Potter and Andrej Sergeevič Molčanov’s “Ostinato as a genre.”114 Beirens and Potter investigate voice leading and harmony in Canto in relation to
109 See http://www.simeontenholt.com/Bio/index.html (Simeon ten Holt Foundation) and https://www.simeontenholt.info/editorial/biography (Stichting Simeon ten Holt). Both links accessed 17 May 2021. 110 Polo de Haas and Kees Wieringa, "Niemand voert Canto goed uit, behalve wij,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 154-55. 111 Utrecht: Uitgeverij IJzer, 2019. Book title and publication details from “Arabesk: over Simeon ten Holt,” WorldCat, accessed 31 May 2021, https://www.worldcat.org/title/arabesk- over-simeon-ten-holt/oclc/1130761219. 112 “Arabesk (Over Simeon ten Holt),” Boeken, Uitgeverij IJzer, accessed 31 May 2021, https://www.uitgeverij-ijzer.nl/boeken/254-arabesk-over-simeon-ten- holt?highlight=WyJhcmFiZXNrIl0=. 113 Based on the review in “Book ‘Arabesk’ about Simeon ten Holt by John Heymans,” Latest News, Donemus, 30 January 2020, accessed 31 May 2021, http://donemus.nl/book-arabeks- about-simeon-ten-holt-by-john-heymans/. 114 Trans. Lana Kisseleva, Vestnik muzykal’noj nauki 1, no. 3 (2014): 12-18.
40 teleological concepts and the effect of repetition in the piece on listening experiences respectively, 115 providing helpful sources in understanding theoretical aspects and listener perceptions of Canto. Molčanov’s article focuses on the use of ostinatos in twentieth-century music, with ten Holt as one of two composers cited in the discussion. Molčanov’s description of Canto as having an “open” musical structure strengthens the classification of Canto as an “open form” piece.116
Finally, in relation to the van Veens, there is some biographical information on their websites, although Sandra’s website is geared towards children, as it advertises piano lessons offered by her.117 Descriptions of their recordings and performances on Canto can be found on the websites of Jeroen van Veen and of Theater Kantoor, with which they have an affiliation.118
115 Maarten Beirens, “Cadential Movement and the Notion of Extended Time in Canto Ostinato by Simeon ten Holt” (paper, The Sixth International Conference on Music & Minimalism, Knoxville, TN, 24 June 2017), and Keith Potter, “The Role of Repetition in Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato” (paper, Minimalism Extended: the Seventh International Conference on Minimalist Music, Cardiff, Wales, 24 August 2019). 116 Molčanov, “Ostinato as a genre,” 14. 117 Jeroen van Veen, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/, and De Walnoot, http://www.pianoles.org/. Both links accessed 21 February 2019. 118 Theater Kantoor, accessed 21 February 2019, https://www.theaterkantoor.nl/.
41 Chapter 3: Methodology
One of the aims of this project is to examine the van Veens’ duo recordings of Canto in relation to ten Holt’s statement that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible.”1 It has been established that the nature of an “open form” composition such as Canto cannot be perceived from a single realisation, and that the van Veens have made numerous recordings of Canto to date. Thus, there is a strong rationale for studying these recordings to gain a better understanding of Canto and of “open form” compositions in general.
This chapter discusses: writings by Walter Benjamin, Georgina Born, Stephen Cottrell, Lydia Goehr, Theodore Gracyk, and others in an examination of the concept of phonomusicology or the study of recordings; issues arising between the concept of the work, performances, and recordings; and the effects of recording on improvised music. Digital music and jazz studies provide the most suitable alternatives for the concept of the work in Western art music in relation to Canto’s “open form” nature in performance. This chapter will also list methods in obtaining sources for this project, methods of analyses of the score and of the recordings, and limitations of the present study.
3.1 Phonomusicology
Robert Philip’s Early Recordings and Musical Style: Changing Tastes in Instrumental Performance is regarded as the pioneer in the study of recordings in Western art musicology. 2 However, Stephen Cottrell’s definition of phonomusicology, “the study of recorded music, including its contexts of production and patterns of consumption,”3 provides a stronger rationale for this
1 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16. 2 See note 3, Amanda Bayley, introduction to Recorded Music: Performance, Culture and Technology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), 10. 3 Stephen Cottrell, “The Rise and Rise of Phonomusicology,” in Bayley, Recorded Music, 15- 16.
42 project as it pertains to recordings in general, while contextualisation of recordings results in a more comprehensive understanding of them.4
Traditionally, until the 1980s,5 Western art musicology mainly focussed on the score and on the composer, 6 and Cottrell believes phonomusicology “challenges [this] by placing at the centre of its study of musical sound those attributes which notation does not capture and which musicology has conventionally marginalised.”7 Other authors such as Amanda Bayley, William Echard and Dorottya Fabian maintain similar benefits of using recordings as research material.8
Cottrell’s definition of phonomusicology also hints at the study of social aspects. Although this thesis is not focusing on “patterns of consumption,” other social features surrounding the van Veens’ duo recordings of Canto will be examined. In The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin introduces the term ‘aura’ to mean “the realm of tradition” of a non-reproducible work of art. 9 This is reframed by Theodore Gracyk’s adoption of ‘aura’ in reference to recordings, where he states that “[each] era of recording has a distinct aura” due to each of its “social origins,” a point appreciated by listeners.10 Although Gracyk was referring to the distinctive sound qualities of early- to mid-twentieth-century recordings, his view is still applicable for this thesis, in relation to a van Veen recording that was made and released in February 2008, an edited version of which was subsequently released. These
4 Cottrell, “Phonomusicology,” 30. See also the final section “The ear in culture” of Nicholas Cook, “Methods for analysing recordings,” in The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, ed. Nicholas Cook, Eric Clarke, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and John Rink (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 241-45, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1017/CCOL9780521865821. 5 Cottrell, “Phonomusicology,” 30. 6 Ibid., 21. 7 Ibid., 24. 8 Bayley, introduction, 11. William Echard and Dorottya Fabian’s chapters are “Subject to a Trace: The Virtuality of Recorded Music” and “Classical Sound Recordings and Live Performances: Artistic and Analytical Perspectives,” in Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, ed. Mine Doğantan-Dack (London: Middlesex University Press, 2008), 29 and 233 respectively. 9 Trans. J. A. Underwood (London: Penguin, 2008), 7. 10 Theodore Gracyk, “Documentation and Transformation in Musical Recordings,” in Doğantan- Dack, Recorded Music, 72.
43 releases reflect their “social origins” not in terms of sound quality but in the context of the performers’ close relations with the composer.11
Other points raised by Cottrell relate to transcription. Firstly, staff notation is commonly used, resulting in an emphasis on pitch, and a neglect of other elements such as rhythm and timbre.12 Hence, this project aims to have a balanced discussion of all applicable musical elements. Secondly, technology is used to provide a more “neutral” approach than aural transcription.13 As discussed in the literature review, Nicholas Cook believes the visualisation of music and technology can aid in analysis,14 outlining much software used to analyse recordings, such as the Sonic Visualiser, which can generate spectrograms—which represent time, frequency and intensity of sound—and waveforms, and compare several recordings simultaneously. 15 He also highlights diagrams to illustrate analyses, such as scattergrams, which display a general overview of performance elements such as the tempi of recordings across an extended period of time, 16 and his “arch combiscapes,” which compare aspects such as tempi and dynamics.17
The abovementioned technologies demonstrate many possibilities that could not be achieved via aural analysis but are limited in other ways. In contrast to Cook’s examples in the form of short extracts or pieces of traditionally notated compositions (such as those by Beethoven, Chopin, and Mozart), the van Veen recordings analysed for this project start from 54 minutes in duration. Difficulties would also have arisen in attempting to compare a particular section of each
11 See 5.1.1 Composer preference for the February 2008 recording, pp. 115-16. 12 Cottrell, “Phonomusicology,” 24. See also Cook, “Analysing recordings,” 226. 13 Cottrell, “Phonomusicology,” 24. 14 Cook, “Analysing recordings,” 223 and 234. 15 Ibid., 223-28, 232, and 234 for information on Sonic Visualiser. A tutorial and pictures of Sonic Visualiser can be found at Nicholas Cook and Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, “A musicologist’s guide to Sonic Visualiser,” Analysing Recordings, CHARM, accessed 14 January 2020, https://charm.rhul.ac.uk/analysing/p9_1.html. 16 An example of a scattergram can be seen in Figure 6.18 in Nicholas Cook, Beyond the Score: Music as Performance (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 204, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=BnhCAgAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PA204#v=onepage& q&f=false. 17 Cook, “Analysing recordings,” 238-41. An example of an arch combiscape is the second figure in “Tools developed by the CHARM Mazurka project,” Analysing Recordings, CHARM, accessed 14 January 2020, https://charm.rhul.ac.uk/analysing/p9_4.html.
44 recording, as the numbers of repetition of each section vary across the recordings. The splitting of some of these recordings across several tracks would have also presented problems in their incorporation into the software.
Secondly, the bulk of this software focuses on the performance elements of tempi and dynamics. The analyses of recordings of a piece such as Canto, which has been designed to keep a steady tempo throughout and to employ terraced dynamics, would be unlikely to benefit from the use of these software. Other musical elements, such as balance and timbre, are also easily discernible and feature prominently in the analysis of recordings in this thesis. Thus, although analytical technologies may enhance aural analysis, they will not be used in this project. The concepts that are focussed on in the van Veen recordings are also easily discernible using aural analysis, making it the ideal method for this study.
3.2 Can Canto be described as a “work”?
Even though this project is focusing on recordings, the situation of ten Holt and of Canto in the Western art music tradition means that the score and the concept of a “work” must also be considered. This section will firstly define the work using Lydia Goehr’s The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works, before examining problems in using this term and its connotations in describing Canto. The second part of this section will incorporate Benjamin’s The Work of Art in further discussion of the best approaches to defining a piece such as Canto.
In The Imaginary Museum, Goehr explains that
works do not exist other than in projected form; what exists is the regulative work-concept. However, insofar as this concept functionally involves projections or hypostatizations—for each work composed we
45 project into it ‘object’ existence—the resultant objects are accorded projective or fictional existence.18
Closely related to the “work-concept” is the increased specificity of scores. As the notion of the work solidified in the nineteenth century, composers were expected to create “complete scores” for performers to realise, leading to the notion that “to be true to a work is to be true to its score.”19 Goehr’s definition of the work as a “projection” is also echoed by other writers such as Gracyk, who describes a work as “an abstract sound structure that can be distinguished from its instances, its performances.”20
It is apparent how problematic these definitions are in relation to Canto. A conventional score can never fully specify all conditions of each realisation;21 with Canto’s indeterminate performance aims, faithfulness to the work and the score are even more difficult to fulfil, weakening the traditional connotations of the term “work.” Alternative approaches include digitised music and jazz studies, which will be discussed below. One can possibly also avoid using the term “work”—and thus its connotations in Western art music—by adopting more neutral terms such as “composition” or “piece.”
The first alternative definition comes from Georgina Born’s article “On Musical Mediation,”22 which opens by critiquing The Imaginary Museum. In the latter’s final chapter, Goehr writes that “[she hopes] to leave readers with the specific feeling that speaking about music in terms of works is neither an obvious nor a necessary mode of speech, despite the lack of ability we presently seem to
18 Lydia Goehr, The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, Oxford Scholarship Online, 2003), chap. 4, https://www-oxfordscholarship- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/view/10.1093/0198235410.001.0001/acprof-9780198235415. 19 Both quotes obtained from ibid., chap. 8. 20 Gracyk, “Documentation and Transformation,” 62. This idea is echoed in Michael Frith, “‘Donner l’Illusion de la Chose Ecrite’: Reflections on Recordings of Organ Improvisations,” in Doğantan-Dack, Recorded Music, 120. 21 Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song, “Roland Barthes’ ‘Text’ and Aleatoric Music: is the ‘Birth of the Reader’ the Birth of the Listener?,” Muzikologija, no. 2 (2002), 264, http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2002/1450-98140202263J.pdf. 22 Born, “On Musical Mediation: Ontology, Technology and Creativity,” Twentieth-Century Music 2, no. 1 (March 2005): 7-36, http://search.proquest.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/docview/201570951?accountid=12372.
46 have to speak about music in any other way.”23 However, Born rightfully points out Goehr’s “reluctance to pursue the significance of technologies of music production and reproduction for the shifting ontology of contemporary music.”24 Subsequently, Born demonstrates various ways in which technology, “by rendering musical, photographic and filmic objects, in the immaterial form of code, open to re-formation, to repeated re-creation,” 25 has given rise to “collaborative forms of musical authorship.”26 As a result,
the work is rendered provisional, its finitude or openness a matter of pragmatics. The conceptual dualism of authenticity or artificiality is obsolete; there is no original and no copy, only rapidly proliferating, variant versions (or materials). The musical object eschews any absolute state as it is repeatedly relayed and transformed across time, space and persons.27
Born’s definition of the work—and the fact that she moves from the term “work” to “musical object”—reflects one of the more suitable approaches in understanding Canto’s nature. The idea of “the musical object […] [being] repeatedly relayed and transformed across time, space and persons” is also an important aspect for this project, in relation to the recording of performances and their subsequent distributions.28
This notion of multiplicity conflicts with Benjamin’s belief that the “aura” or “the realm of tradition” of a work of art diminishes through technological reproduction: “In making many copies of the reproduction, it substitutes for its unique incidence a multiplicity of incidences.”29 However, in relation to Benjamin’s view that pre-technological-reproduction audiences could only view a work in its “realm of tradition,” Gracyk cites Theodor Adorno: “musical works are always
23 Goehr, The Imaginary Museum, chap. 9. 24 Born, “On Musical Mediation,” 10. 25 Ibid., 26. 26 Ibid., 25. 27 Ibid., 28. 28 3.3 Recordings as representations of realisations (pp. 49-53) examines terminology regarding recordings and performances. 29 Benjamin, The Work of Art, 7. Italics in the original.
47 subject to endless reproduction. Every competent performance of a musical work provides access to the same work.”30 This demonstrates that each piece of music does not have “its unique incidence”31 and can easily be applied to performances of Canto, indicating greater validity for Born’s view of a variable musical object.
The second alternative, taken from jazz studies, does not employ the concept of a composition as an abstract object, as Born also briefly discusses.32 In Peter Elsdon’s evaluation of various recordings of John Coltrane’s “Chasin’ the Trane,” he defines the piece as existing as “a kind of notional totality – in essence, the sum of all the times it was performed.” 33 Adopting a similar approach for Canto implies that it exists in its many realisations, including recordings.
Thus, for this thesis, two definitions can be used regarding Canto. The first reflects a conscious choice to remain in the Western art tradition, but demonstrates a weakening of the traditional connotations of a work, while the second provides a more general description. However, both can be combined: Born’s idea of the repeated transformation of the musical object is akin to Elsdon’s notion of the piece being the sum of its performances, more importantly to the ever-different realisations of Canto. Alternative terms to “work,” namely “piece” and “composition,” have also been introduced. Since the limitations of “work” have been discussed, these three terms will be used interchangeably when referring to Canto Ostinato as a whole.
30 Gracyk, “Documentation and Transformation,” 70. 31 See note 29. 32 Born, “On Musical Mediation,” 27-28. 33 Peter Elsdon, “Jazz recordings and the capturing of performance,” in Bayley, Recorded Music, 158.
48 3.3 Recordings as representations of realisations
I now turn to the discussion regarding the relationship between performances and recordings. The title of this section alludes to the difficulties in considering recordings as actual performances, since performances are ephemeral. The use of the term “realisation” is more suitable in describing the resulting translation of score into sound. This section will first highlight the most applicable view for this thesis, Georgina Born’s concept of recordings as representations, before demonstrating the polarity between those who argue that recordings are not performances and those who believe that they are.
Born’s notion of “recording as representation” provides the most balanced approach to analysing recordings.34 She believes that “[such] a conceptual shift […] [yields] an utterly distinctive musical object – a second primary object, if you will, and one that, in its difference, augments rather than either echoing or replacing music’s live performance.”35 This idea of extending the definition of a recording beyond a documentation of a live performance is a more tempered way of viewing recordings and provides an applicable definition for studio recordings and recordings of live performances, both of which are examined in this thesis. Recording-as-representation also takes into account whatever editing that a recording may be subjected to, a highly important note given the editing of the second release of the van Veens’ February 2008 recording.36
Despite the adoption of Born’s recording-as-representation, there are other parts of her argument that will not be applied. For instance, Born cites examples of recordings-as-representation such as musique concrète;37 extensive work on a recording in a studio, resulting in “something that did not happen but appears as though it has”;38 and the changes made to create the original cast recording of West Side Story, which included tempi, orchestration and
34 Georgina Born, “Afterword: Recording: From reproduction to representation to remediation,” in Cook et al., Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, 294. Italics in the original. 35 Ibid. 36 See 5.1.1 Composer support for the February 2008 recording, pp. 115-16. 37 Born, “Afterword,” 295-96. 38 Ibid., 294. This example is Steve Savage’s chapter “‘It could have happened’: The evolution of music construction,” in Cook et al., Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, 32-35.
49 harmony. 39 Born also cites Peggy Phelan to support her argument that recordings are not “reproductions of live performance.”40
In this thesis, since the majority of recordings analysed are those of live performances, the Born-Phelan definition is valid but difficult to apply. Additionally, given that live performances are in a sense recorded in one take, those examples cited by Born are not applicable in this case. The notion that the nature of “open form” compositions such as Canto cannot be discerned from only one realisation also provides further validity for recordings as representation, if not of performance, then at least as representations of realisations of such pieces.
The second part of this section gives an overview of arguments against and for the notion that recordings can be considered performances, demonstrating rather rigid approaches from both sides. Writers such as Roger Heaton and Simon Trezise do not view recordings are performances, arguing in relation to situations similar to Born’s examples. Heaton believes the studio setup that creates “an ideal acoustic” results in “an idealised, irreproducible entity, the recording as art object in its own right.”41 Heaton also likens a studio recording to a painting that is worked on over time.42 These ideas recall the absoluteness of a work in contrast to the flexible alternatives given for this project.
In his discussion of 78s and their inherent time limits,43 Trezise describes a live performance as such: “A timeline unfolds that cannot be broken or extended beyond the demands of the score as interpreted by conductor and players. I call this the ‘performing breath’, the period from the attention call to relaxation
39 Born, “Afterword,” 294. For the full chapter, see Nigel Simeone, “The original cast recording of West Side Story,” in Cook et al., Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, 181-85. 40 Born, “Afterword,” 295. The Phelan quote is: “Performance’s only life is in the present. Performance cannot be saved, recorded, documented, or otherwise participate in the circulation of representation: once it does so, it becomes something other than performance.” 41 Roger Heaton, “Reminder: A recording is not a performance,” in Cook et al., Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, 218. 42 Ibid. 43 Trezise goes into more detail in his chapter “The recorded document: Interpretation and discography,” in Cook et al., Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, 186-209.
50 at the work’s end.” 44 After discussing how recordings were made to accommodate the restrictions of those discs, Trezise concludes that
[no] matter how carefully the editing is done, the final cut is not the result of a single performing breath. The disembodiment of the performer calls forth a fictional narrative from the listener or, to put it another way, the addressee constructs a signification system that relies on interpretative codes learnt from a different stimulus, namely a live musical performance.45
In other words, recordings cannot be regarded as live performances. Tresize’s description of the “[disembodied] performer [calling] forth a fictional narrative from the listener” also suggests a somewhat negative influence of technology on audiences. This point will be discussed later in this section.
Dorottya Fabian adds to Heaton and Trezise’s viewpoints in her acknowledgement of several other issues concerning recordings, such as the lack of visuals,46 but her survey of 39 musicians reveals that several performers “aim to involve the (future) listeners of their recordings in an experience of performance.”47 Fabian thus maintains that
a recording is a testimony of the artist’s interpretative concept. Some detail may be slightly different – just like from one concert to the next – while the essentials do not change, just as they remain stable in live performances, too. In this sense the released recording is also a unique ‘version’ or ‘manifestation’, even if one can hear it again and even if its creation may have involved many repetitions and edits.48
44 Simon Trezise, “Distortions and Masks: Transmutations of the ‘Performing Breath’ in the Studio Take,” in Doğantan-Dack, Recorded Music, 262. 45 Ibid., 284. 46 See the section “Live performance versus sound recording” in “Analytical Perspectives,” 233- 36. 47 Ibid., 246. Italics in the original. 48 Ibid., 250.
51 Andrew Kania also views recordings as performances. In his discussion, he uses the terms “tokens” to mean copies of a recording and “type” a recording. More specifically, a recording is “the sound-event type that is encoded on each copy and instantiated with each playback.”49 Kania writes:
Just as in looking at a photograph we see, say, a single person, even though the photograph itself is a type with many tokens, so in listening to a recording we hear a single performance, even though we may listen to it several times. Though the recording is a multiply instantiable enduring entity, what we hear through it is, therefore, a fleeting event – a performance.50
Kania’s view that a performance is heard in each recording is precisely the “fictional narrative”51 Trezise mentioned. However, it is highly suitable in this case, given that most recordings analysed in this project are live recordings. Kania also puts forward a valid point of there being “two distinct aspects of any performance.” 52 The “activity or process [of performance is] the active performance, and the resulting product, the sounds we hear, the phenomenal performance.” 53 His argument supports Fabian’s idea of recordings as “testimony of the artist’s interpretative concept,” since he states:
the phenomenal performance we hear on a recording is connected to the active performance of the musicians in the studio in such a way that we are justified in claiming that we hear a performance simpliciter when we listen to a classical recording.54
Kania furthermore rejects Stephen Davies’ view that works are only for live performance, believing that if this was the case, “a recorded performance of a
49 All quotes from Andrew Kania, “Works, Recordings, Performances: Classical, Rock, Jazz,” in Doğantan-Dack, Recorded Music, 6. 50 Ibid., 7. 51 Note 45, p. 51. 52 Kania, “Works, Recordings, Performances,” 7. 53 Ibid. Italics in the original. 54 Ibid., 8.
52 classical work cannot authentically instantiate it.”55 This viewpoint is supported by the fact that listeners commonly consider a recording to be a realisation of a work,56 countering Trezise’s negative view of a “fictional narrative.”57
The above discussion has demonstrated many valid points for viewing recordings as performances. However, these are not entirely suitable for the recordings in question, particularly the two releases of the February 2008 recording and the praise that the duo apparently received from the composer. The editing featured on the second release is a prime example of a recording as a representation of a realisation of a composition: what is heard on the recording is not entirely as it occurred in performance, thus weakening the idea of recordings as performances. Additionally, the composer support and the second release highlight social aspects that would not have come to light if one were only studying the recordings as performances. Thus, Born’s idea of a recording as “a second primary object” in relation to performance is a highly suitable view for this thesis.
3.4 Effects of recording improvisations
Having established the view of recordings as representations, the final point of discussion turns to implications of recording improvisations. Here, Elsdon’s analyses will be further examined, together with Michael Frith and Bruce Ellis Benson’s studies on organ and jazz improvisations respectively. Frith believes that “because [the recording of an improvisation] is available for repeated listening and study, it aspires to ‘work-status’.” 58 However, Frith, using the transcriptions of Charles Tournemire’s organ improvisations as his examples, argues that these “improvisations are inferior as works to the best of his written compositions,”59 that is, Tournemire’s works proper.
55 Kania, “Works, Recordings, Performances,” 8. 56 Ibid., and Fabian, “Analytical Perspectives,” 234. 57 Note 47, p. 51. 58 Frith, “Organ Improvisations,” 128. 59 Ibid. Italics in the original.
53 Frith’s argument highlights the potential for a recorded Canto realisation to become a work in its own right, regardless of its possible “inferiority” in relation to its score and all other realisations of Canto. However, Born’s notion of the variable musical object and the view of Canto existing in all of its realisations counter Frith’s notions of the traditional hierarchy regarding the dominance of the work over all other aspects of a composition and of one aspect becoming superior to the others.
Frith also points out a related negative effect, that a recorded improvisation “becomes trapped within its own unique interpretation,”60 or, to use Benson’s term, “fixed.”61 This is highly apparent in Elsdon’s study of Coltrane, which found that the musician likely listened to and refined his interpretation from the first version of the piece,62 resulting in a standardisation of the melody.63
On the other hand, these perceived disadvantages can also be beneficial. Benson, likening recording to writing,64 states that it
creates the possibility of something taking on a life of its own, which can lead to its meaning either being fixed or morphing into something that the author never intended. Translating this into jazz performance practice, the lick that gets recorded is no longer directly (but only indirectly) connected to its author. Moreover, it is much more susceptible to being co-opted and re-worked by any other jazz player.65
Benson also makes a valid point in that “it is precisely this ability of licks to become common property that has enabled jazz to flourish. Stealing licks, then, is central to the health of jazz performance.”66 Similarly, Elsdon’s evaluation of the “Chasin’ the Trane” recordings demonstrate developments building on
60 Frith, “Organ Improvisations,” 129. 61 Bruce Ellis Benson, “Stealing Licks: Recording and Identity in Jazz,” in Doğantan-Dack, Recorded Music, 137. 62 Elsdon, “The capturing of performance,” 154-55. 63 Ibid., 153. 64 Benson, “Stealing Licks,” 143-44. 65 Ibid., 150. 66 Ibid., 151.
54 previous versions, with the rhythm section attempting different approaches to help the melodic theme stand out more in the opening.67 This is a clear example of Frith’s suggestion that recording improvisations
[allows] the listener to experience a living tradition of a musical practice rather than of objects, i.e. works. They are not permanent artefacts to be contemplated and revisited – in [Goehr’s terms, musical works to be given perfect performances; rather, they tend toward an aspiration to ‘the perfect musical performance’ (Goehr, 1998: 150).68
These examples once again demonstrate the suitability of Born’s idea of the variable musical object for this project.
3.5 Methods in obtaining sources and of analyses
All recordings in this thesis were sourced from iTunes, apart from the 2012 recording, which was provided by Jeroen van Veen via private correspondence. Audio extracts from YouTube have been given where possible. Background information of recordings was sourced from the van Veens’ various websites, and also provided by Jeroen van Veen via email. Information regarding other recordings of Canto was sourced from their respective websites or from the performers themselves.
The score was analysed in relation to the various movements of its time, such as postminimalism and indeterminacy in performance. The analysis also incorporated several of ten Holt’s widely held beliefs, evaluating their effects (or lack thereof) on the composition and identifying the implications of these evaluations. The recordings were subjected to close aural analysis in relation
67 Elsdon, “The capturing of performance,” 155-56. 68 Frith, “Organ Improvisations,” 132. The original source is Lydia Goehr, “Conflicting Ideals of Performance Perfection in an Imperfect Practice,” in The Quest for Voice: On Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1998), 132- 73.
55 to the score, focussing on how the van Veens structured their realisations of Canto. Elements of focus include the number of repetitions, the omission of certain parts of sections 88 and 91, additional repeats in their 2013 recording, the omission of the ostinato or other voice parts, and specific uses of dynamics, articulation, and pedalling.
3.6 Limitations
I limited my analysis to the duo recordings by the van Veens according to the timeframe and word count of this thesis. In addition, the analysis was restricted to particular sections of each recording that featured structured amounts of repetition and omissions of parts. As mentioned, the recordings were analysed aurally, limitations of which have been discussed in 3.1 Phonomusicology (pp. 42-45).
Regarding the 2013 recording on synthesizers, due to my lack of specialist knowledge on the terminology of electronic music, I have not attempted to describe the sound qualities of different timbres, identifying them only as T1, T1’, and T2 in Table 7b (pp. 128-29). All translations from Dutch throughout this thesis are mine; however, I am not a native speaker of the language.
To conclude, the methodology highlighted phonomusicology as a basis for this project to examine recordings and their contexts and proposed alternatives to viewing Canto as a “work.” Georgina Born’s “recording as representation”69 was also discussed as a suitable approach to addressing the recordings in this thesis, while the final parts of the methodology focussed on methods of obtaining sources; how the score and recordings were analysed; and limitations of the project. The following chapter examines the score in relation to its period of conception and ten Holt’s beliefs.
69 Note 34, pp. 49.
56 Chapter 4: Score Analysis of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato: the “melodious avant-garde”
The previous chapter identified the importance of examining recordings, particularly its social contexts, for this project. This chapter will build on those illuminations and provide background for the van Veens’ duo recordings by addressing the first two aims of the thesis: to contextualise Canto within the musical periods of its time and to analyse the piece in relation to biographical elements of ten Holt. The respective research questions are: How is Canto situated within traditions of minimalism, indeterminacy, and music with tonal elements? and How do the composer’s ideas about tonality, minimalism, and indeterminacy relate to Canto?
Within the liner notes of the 2003 CD Simeon ten Holt: Highlights, Paul Janssen makes several dramatic claims: firstly, “[completely] independent of American composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, [ten] Holt created a Dutch version of minimal music.”1 Two other comments relate to ten Holt’s use of tonality: “[his] development of ‘tonality after the death of tonality’ has made him a composer as celebrated as he is solitary”2 and “[he] single-handedly cleared the way for many composers employing tonal elements today.” 3 However, this chapter shows that Canto had several precedents in experimental music, such as improvisational music, minimalism, and indeterminacy and interaction in performance, and it is the ways in which ten Holt used and combined these concepts in Canto that make it stand out from its precedents.
Canto also reflects two concepts particular to ten Holt. The first is his perceptions regarding the paradoxical relationship between freedom and stricture, while the second concerns his associations with tonality with various aspects of physicality and spirituality. Ten Holt’s unusual linking of tonality with
1 Chapter 1, note 16, p. 5. 2 Liner notes to Simeon ten Holt: Highlights, trans. Josh Dillon (Composer’s Voice 137/145, 2003), 7. The original text (p. 4) is: “Zijn ontwikkeling van de ‘tonaliteit na de dood van de tonaliteit’ maakte van hem een even gevierd als eenzaam componist.” 3 Ibid., 8. The original text (p. 5) is: “hij daarmee in zijn eentje de weg heeft vrijgemaakt voor de acceptatie van vele componisten die zich anno nu met tonale elementen inlaten.”
57 physicality as part of the composition and reception of his works is clear in his statement that “All my pieces are sensual pieces. In my philosophy the body is the starting point.”4 Tonality also had spiritual significance for the composer, as shown through such disparate aspects as his relationships with women; his eventual rejection of serialism and re-acceptance of tonality; and his concept of “tonality after the death of tonality,”5 involving tonally-based chords in non- functional relationships. Other concepts relevant to ten Holt will also be evaluated, such as the idea of the work developing of its own accord. This chapter demonstrates that some of the current ideas about Canto Ostinato do not translate into actuality and have to be examined further or refuted.
4.1 “Dutch minimalism”?
Although Janssen’s statement regarding “[ten Holt’s creation of] a Dutch version of minimal music”6 is valid to some extent, it risks generalising all Dutch composers who have created minimalist music. For instance, Louis Andriessen’s form of minimalism contrasts greatly with ten Holt’s. The definition of what is “Dutch” in nature may also prove to be difficult. Although Sandra and Jeroen van Veen classify two aspects of Canto, performer interaction and bitonality, as Dutch,7 Anthony Fiumara, who arranged the work for orchestra, perceived its Romanticism to be “non-Calvinistic” and thus “non-Dutch.”8 This contentious notion of “Dutch minimalism” will not be further discussed in this thesis, but the idea of national variation will be explored in greater detail in the following section.
4 Wilma de Rek, “‘Muziek heeft alles met sensualiteit te maken’: Interview met Simeon ten Holt,” in Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed. (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016), 53. 5 Simeon ten Holt, Het Woud en de Citadel: Memoires van een componist (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2009), 109. Original text in note 15, p. 59. 6 Chapter 1, note 16, p. 5. 7 Sandra van Veen and Jeroen van Veen, "Haantjesgedrag kan niet, bij Canto,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 138-39. 8 Sylvie Klijn, “Musical, Sociological and Psychological Aspects of Minimal Music Composition: The Case of ‘Canto Ostinato’ by Simeon ten Holt” (master’s thesis, Utrecht University, 2019), 50.
58 4.2 “American” freedom versus “European” rigour: the influence of John Cage
Changes in ten Holt’s compositional language and thought began with experimental giant John Cage (1912-92), 9 in a juxtaposition of apparently “American” latitude and “European” rigorousness. This paradox was described by Dutch poet H.C. ten Berge (1938-)10 as the “[melodious] avant-garde. A term that connects two poles: that of tradition and innovation, that of the worn path and the unexplored territory.”11 In the 1960s, while involved in serialism, ten Holt’s exposure to “the freshness and modernity of the genius John Cage” resulted in him “[forgetting] the rigid rationalism of [his] own origin.”12 The music of another composer, Philip Corner (1933-),13 also played a large role in the creation of Canto:14
Although my own European, let me say rational, nature would turn out to be too strong to give myself to this improvisational art, I cannot hide the fact that this approach and way of thinking had a strong influence, not only a few years later on the work with the students in Arnhem,15 but, dare I suppose, also on the work with and after Canto ostinato. The American influence is undeniable, but the form of minimal music realised in my work
9 Dates from James Pritchett, Laura Kuhn and Charles Hiroshi Garrett, "Cage, John (Milton, Jr.),” Grove Music Online, published online 10 July 2012, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2223954. 10 Date from “Een geval van verbeelding / [Door] H. C. ten Berge,” Catalogue, National Library of Australia, accessed 11 July 2019, https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2744959. 11 “Welluidende avant-garde. Een term die twee polen met elkaar verbindt: die van traditie en vernieuwing, die van het ingesleten spoor en het onbetreden gebied.” H.C. ten Berge, “Negen opmerkingen over Canto Ostinato, 1984,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 164. 12 “Het betrof een gezelschap dat voor mij van meet af aan een opening vormde naar een cultuur die de frisheid en moderniteit van het genie John Cage vertegenwoordigde en onwillekeurig het aan starheid lijdende rationalisme van mijn eigen oorsprong deed vergeten.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 108. 13 Dates from David W. Bernstein, "Corner, Philip [Gwan Pok],” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47970. 14 Ten Holt, Memoires, 108. 15 “Ten Holt taught contemporary music at the Academy for the Visual Arts in Arnhem from 1970-1987. Here he experimented with group improvisations that, in later years, led to performances at Arnhem Festivals. (A form of total theatre in which the students under his charge were responsible for music, choreography and dramaturgy.)” Kees Wieringa, “Biography,” trans. Herman te Loo, Stichting Simeon ten Holt, accessed 9 July 2019, https://www.simeontenholt.info/editorial/biography. More information can be found in ten Holt, Memoires, 239-43 and 248-49.
59 is not conceivable without the archetypical tradition of the European hinterland. Spiritually I am perhaps closer to Schumann than to Cage, but the distance is smaller than one thinks. Above all, it was the reaction to the climate and modernism created by Cage, which later gave me the idea to speak about “tonality after the death of tonality” (as a variant on the theology of “God after the death of God”) and which has brought my development back to its origin, to the production of my own sound world, idiom and universe.16
It is apparent that Cage’s thinking regarding indeterminacy and allowing all sounds to be music played an important role in the development of ten Holt’s final compositional phase. Its characteristics can be summarised using ten Berge’s “melodious avant-garde”17 due to the return to tonality; elements of (determinate) minimalism; and indeterminacy through social interaction in performance, with musicians looking, listening, and responding to one another.18 Of the above concepts, ten Holt gave tonality a spiritual meaning, indicated by the deliberately similar phrasing to its theological precedent, and the biblical ideas of resurrection and rejuvenation. The composer’s explicit adoption of “tonality after the death of tonality” involves the use of tonal chords in non-functional relationships and is also part of his belief regarding freedom.19
The spiritual connotations here draw a parallel between the music of ten Holt’s final compositional period and those by Henryk Górecki (1933-2010), Arvo Pärt (1935-), John Tavener (1944-2013), and others commonly found in the “holy
16 “Hoewel mijn eigen Europese, laat ik zeggen rationale, inborst te sterk zou blijken om me zelf aan deze improvisatiekunst uit te leveren, kan ik niet verhelen dat deze aanpak en vorm van denken toen een sterke invloed hebben uitgeoefend, niet alleen enkele jaren later op het werk met de studenten in Arnhem, maar, waag ik te veronderstellen, ook op mijn werk met en na Canto ostinato. De Amerikaanse invloed is onloochenbaar, maar de in mijn werk gerealiseerde vorm van minimal music is niet denkbaar zonder de archetypische traditie van het Europese achterland. Qua geestverwantschap sta ik wellicht nader tot Schumann dan tot Cage, maar de afstand is minder groot dan men denkt. Het is toch vooral de reactie op het door Cage geschapen klimaat en modernisme geweest, die mij later op de gedachte bracht te spreken over ‘de tonaliteit na de dood van de tonaliteit’ (als variant op de ‘God na de dood van God’-theologie) en die mijn ontwikkeling heeft teruggevoerd naar een oorsprong, naar het produceren van een eigen klankwereld, taaleigen en universum.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 108-9. 17 Note 11, p. 59. 18 De Rek, “Interview met Simeon ten Holt,” 57. 19 This is detailed in 4.3.3 Tonality as freedom, pp. 67-70.
60 minimalist” category.20 This is especially true in the composer’s description of a Canto performance as “more like a ritual than a concert.”21 The most suitable definition of a ritual here is “a set of actions of words performed in a regular way, often as part of a religious ceremony.”22 The spiritual elements of “holy minimalist” compositions are derived from the use of biblical texts or other materials of the composers’ religions, how the music sounds, or what the music evokes. 23 Although Canto is not religious in nature, it is clear from the perspectives of performers and audiences that realising or listening to the piece is a strongly spiritual experience.24
However, while there are many similarities to “holy minimalism,” there are also a number of differences. Where Górecki and Pärt’s music encourages devotion and contemplation in the listener,25 ritualistic aspects of American minimalism are only present during performances.26 Similarly, whatever spiritual elements there may be within Canto only occur during performances, but not outside these situations. Additionally, it may not be appropriate to consider Canto as something “performed in a regular way”—that is, routinely performed—each time, since it is designed to be different in every realisation.
The next sections will examine the aesthetics of the time before turning to concepts of tonality particular to ten Holt.
20 David Dies, “Defining ‘Spiritual Minimalism,’” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, ed. Keith Potter, Kyle Gann, and Pwyll ap Siôn (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016), 327-47, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1426849. Dates of Tavener’s life from Ivan Moody, “Tavener, Sir John (Kenneth),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, works list updated 20 November 2002, accessed 16 September 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.27569. 21 Simeon ten Holt, preface to Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments, trans. Ted Szanto (Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010), 2. 22 Cambridge Dictionary, “ritual,” accessed 21 March 2020, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ritual. 23 Dies, “Defining ‘Spiritual Minimalism,’” 330 and 333. 24 See 4.3.2 Physicality and emotion in composition, perception, and tonality (pp. 64-67). 25 Dies, “Defining ‘Spiritual Minimalism,’” 334. 26 Ibid., 333.
61 4.3 Tonality
4.3.1 1970s Neo-Romanticism
The return to tonality and to accessibility are characteristics of a period known as neo-Romanticism, which Jann Pasler defines as “the return to emotional expression associated with 19th-century Romanticism.”27 Another term for this movement is art historian Hal Foster’s “postmodernism of reaction,” which “is marked by an eclectic historicism, in which old and new modes and styles (used goods, as it were) are retooled and recycled.”28 More specifically, Pasler writes: “Since the mid-1970s, neo-romantic has become synonymous with neo- conservative post-modernism.”29
The terms “used goods” and “conservative” are clear indications of opposition towards neo-Romanticism. For instance, neo-romantic compositions were considered “unoriginal and to reflect a reluctance to abandon the musical language of the past.”30 They were also seen as “[stymying] the growth of new music,”31 since “audiences are fed only what they want to hear and what is least challenging.”32 Mary Campbell also highlights the tension between composers of neo-romantic music and those of atonal music.33
Opposition towards ten Holt’s pro-tonality stance are apparent on two occasions. The first dates from 1942 before his first official opus and stemmed from the wedding of two acquaintances. 34 He was with his then-romantic partner Marie Dagnelie (1918-84),35 and became inspired by the 1932 piece
27 Jann Pasler, “Neo-romantic,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 8 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40720. 28 Both quotes from Hal Foster, “(Post)Modern Polemics,” in Recodings: Art, Spectacle, Cultural Politics (Seattle, Washington: Bay Press, 1987), 121. 29 Pasler, “Neo-romantic.” 30 Mary Rameaka Campbell, "Tonal Reform or Radical Tonality? A Study of Neoromanticism in American Music, with an Emphasis on the Music and Thought of George Rochberg, David del Tredici, and Stephen Albert" (PhD diss., The University of Connecticut, 1994), 17. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid., 18. 33 Ibid., 19-22. 34 Ten Holt, Memoires, 42. 35 Dates from “Marie Dagnelie,” Explore, RKD – Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis, last modified 18 April 2016, accessed 24 September 2019, https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/artists/19671.
62 “We Were Only Walking in the Moonlight” by Johnny Burke, Harold Spina and Johnny Green:36
That music became meaningful and because I hid a romantic and sentimental factor in my soul and was trying to establish my career in music, I let myself be tempted to compose a piece of music where that large celebration would be immortalised and used, by the way, very restrained, the melody of “We were only walking in the moonlight.”37
However, when he presented the composition to his teacher, Jakob van Domselaer (1890-1960),38 and the latter’s family,39 it was met with disapproval. Ten Holt, learning that “[that] ideological severity, the polarisation, choosing one at the expense of the other, the scourge of the absolute, was the signature of all those endowed with [van] Domselaer blood,”40 described the work as “my frivolous, profane mistake.”41
The second occasion involved the beginnings of Canto, which was composed between 1973 and 1979.42 However, in this case, criticism came from within:
It announced itself in a “hesitant” manner. I have never experienced so strongly the feeling of barely being able to contribute anything as with
36 Robert Stockdale, The Dorsey Brothers: That’s It! Additions, Corrections and Deletions to the author’s two bio-discographies “Tommy Dorsey: On the Side” and “Jimmy Dorsey: A Study in Contrasts” (self-pub., 2008), 179, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=BlMZ8tjKN3UC&lpg=PA344&dq=%22we%20were%2 0only%20walking%20in%20the%20moonlight%22&pg=PA179#v=onepage&q=%22we%20w ere%20only%20walking%20in%20the%20moonlight%22&f=false. 37 “Dat muziekje kreeg betekenis en omdat ik een romantische en sentimentele factor in mijn ziel verberg en van muziekmaken mijn bestaan ging maken, liet ik me erna verleiden tot het componeren van een stuk muziek waarin dat grote feest vereeuwigd zou zijn en gebruikte, overigens heel ingetogen, de melodie van ‘We were only walking in the moonlight.’” Ten Holt, Memoires, 30. 38 Ibid., 21. Dates from “Domselaer, Jakob van 1890-1960,” OCLC WorldCat Identities, WorldCat, accessed 2 July 2019, https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n2002066468/. 39 Ten Holt was not only in close contact with his teacher, but also the entire van Domselaer family, as detailed in his Memoires. 40 “Die ideologische strengheid, het polariseren, het kiezen voor het een ten koste van het ander, de gesel van het absolute, was het kenmerk van alle met Van Domselaer-bloed begiftigde personen.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 31. 41 “mijn frivole, profane dwaling.” Ibid. 42 See 1.2 Dating issues and score discrepancies (pp. 10-15).
63 Canto Ostinato. At first, I watched the development that occurred with the most suspicion myself. Surely, such a thing could not be: tonality, so open, so exposed, so explicit.43
Initially embarrassed by and rejecting of Canto,44 ten Holt gradually came to accept it by playing it frequently and through people’s positive reactions to it.45 In contrast to the van Domselaers, another of ten Berge’s comments on Canto indicated the poet’s support for its neo-romantic nature: “the music also turned out to be very accessible and melodious without giving the impression that we had ended up in the nineteenth century.”46
Having contextualised tonality within the neo-Romantic movement,47 the next section will examine several aspects of tonality that were particular to ten Holt. These will be discussed in the following order: sensuality in composing and in perceiving a work and tonality in relation to: the physicality of an instrument; as spiritual freedom, as shown through ten Holt’s relationships with women; and the rejection of serialism and the concept of “tonality after the death of tonality.”
4.3.2 Physicality and emotion in composition, perception, and tonality
Ten Holt attributed to physicality a special importance in the composition process: “For me, playing was always composing, thinking with the hands.”48 Physical metaphors also abound in his explanation: “All my pieces are sensual
43 “Het kondigde zich op een “aarzelende” manier aan. Het gevoel zelf nauwelijks iets te kunnen inbrengen heb ik nooit zo sterk ondervonden als met Canto Ostinato. De ontwikkeling die zich voordeed heb ik aanvankelijk zelf met de grootste mogelijke achterdocht gadegeslagen. Zoiets kon toch eigenlijk niet: tonaliteit, zo open, zo bloot, zo expliciet.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 208. 44 Ibid., and de Rek, "Interview met ten Holt,” 51. 45 “Maar door het veel te spelen, ook voor anderen, merkte ik dat hel wél heel goed was. En doordat iedereen die het horde er wel wat in zag, begon ik er langzaamaan in te geloven.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 51. To give an idea of the environment at the time, one can turn to ten Holt’s recollection in his Memoires, 235, of the negative reaction of his good childhood friend Nico Schuyt to the tonal-sounding Natalon in E (1980), performed in a 1987 concert. 46 “de muziek bleek ook nog zeer toegankelijk en welluidend zonder de indruk te wekken dat wij in de negentiende eeuw verzeild waren geraakt.” Ten Berge, “Negen opmerkingen,” 164. 47 Close-reading analysis of the score to support this is in 4.3.4 “Tonality after the death of tonality,” pp. 70-82. 48 “Spelen was voor mij altijd componeren, penser avec la mains.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 14.
64 pieces. In my philosophy the body is the starting point. My music involves the circulation of the blood of your body; in that sense it has a sensual impact. Libido plays a big role.”49 These statements appear to be directed both at the composer and the listener: “the body is the starting point” of a work by ten Holt and is also where the listener is first affected.
The composer’s perspective will be investigated first. Beyond physicality as part of composition, ten Holt linked physicality in general, as well as physicality in relation to a musical instrument, with tonality. While his serialist music was composed at the desk, he returned to composing at the piano with Canto.50 The following statement in which ten Holt described the relationship between tonality and physicality also highlights a strong emotional connection:
with Canto Ostinato my relation to the instrument, the physical relation to the sound has returned. Re-appreciation of the sensuality, of the instinct, for my part in its most conditioned form. Because that conditioning has, from the heavy freezing night that has gone across it, in fact gained a different content and colour. That is what I then call “tonality after the death of tonality.”51
The above also indicates that ten Holt was drawn to tonality throughout his life. The lack of tactile contact with an acoustic instrument in electronic composition and the non-tonal musical language employed in electronic and serialist music perhaps explains why the composer eventually turned away from them. Underlining ten Holt’s emotive-corporeal association is his choice of phrase “blood group bound to my heart,” a reiteration of the blood metaphor from the
49 “Al mijn stukken zijn sensuele stukken. In mijn filosofie is het lichaam wel het uitgangspunt. Mijn muziek heft met de bloedsomloop van je lijf te maken; in die zin heft het een sensuele inslag. Het libido speelt een grote rol.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 53. 50 Linde van Heeswijk, “Less is More: the Role of Expectation in Emotional Responses to Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato,” Musicology Review, no. 8 (2013): 46. 51 “met Canto Ostinato mijn relatie tot het instrument, de fysieke betrekking tot de klank is teruggekeerd. Herwaardering van de sensualiteit, van het instinct, voor mijn part in zijn meest geconditioneerde gedaante. Want die conditionering heeft, door de fikse vriesnacht die er overheen is gegaan, in wezen toch een andere inhoud en kleur gekregen. Dat is wat ik dan noem “tonaliteit na de dood van de tonaliteit.”” Ten Holt, Memoires, 208-9.
65 beginning of this section (“My music involves the circulation of blood in your body”),52 where he stated that works from this period
will not be included in my catalogue, nor will they be recommended to anyone, even though they bear my signature. I consider compositions from before 1962 up to and including the Cycle of Madness and works after Canto Ostinato as belonging to the blood group bound to my heart.53
The composer also believed that his music “has a sensual impact.”54 Indeed, the sensuality and the attractive qualities of tonality highlighted by ten Holt are often echoed by Canto listeners and performers. Ivo Janssen, a long-time pianist and performer of ten Holt’s music, described Canto enthusiasts as “fanatics and hippies hanging about that piece, as if it is not music but a religion.”55 Colette Noël, ten Holt’s widow, called her first experiences with the piece “love at first sight,”56 and many references to Canto frequently use the descriptor “hypnotic.”57
The notion of Canto as a “religion” and of a listener being “taken” is akin to the “conversion” of Polo de Haas, another long-time ten Holt pianist. De Haas relayed his experience after receiving a score from ten Holt, which underwent a journey from aversion (upon reading the score’s preface) to intrigue (upon hearing it):
52 Note 49, pp. 64-65. 53 “De composities die in deze tijd ontstonden zullen niet uit de catalogus hoeven te verdwijnen, maar ik zal ze niemand aanbevelen, ook al dragen ze mijn signatuur. Composities van voor 1962 tot en met de Cyclus aan de Waanzin en de werken na Canto Ostinato beschouw ik als te behoren tot de mij aan het hart gebonden bloedgroep.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 200. 54 Note 49, pp. 64-65. 55 “Niet zozeer omdat ik er iets op tegen had, hoewel aan Canto wel een imago van new age kleefde en ik niet echt zat te wachten op de wereld van dwepers en zwevers die om dat stuk heen hangt, alsof het geen muziek is maar een religie.” Ivo Janssen, "Het is geen religie, het is muziek,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 143. 56 “De coup de foudre had ik al gehad: dat was Canto Ostinato.” Colette Noël, "Wat ik in Canto hoor, is een voortdurend zoeken,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 147. 57 See, for instance, Bram van Dijk, “Harpmuziek in hogere sferen,” Bright, 26 August 2012, https://www.bright.nl/nieuws/artikel/4034301/harpmuziek-hogere-sferen, and Arnold le Fèbre, “Muzikale ontdekkingsreis vanaf een luchtbedje,” 3voor12, 14 April 2016, https://3voor12.vpro.nl/lokaal/utrecht/artikelen/overzicht/2016/april/Muzikale-ontdekkingsreis- vanaf-een-luchtbedje.html.
66 I read the preface of the piece and found it so hippie. “You turn the object in the space and how it sounds depends on the influx of light”:58 that is not what it literally states, but as it seemed to me. The score also did not attract me; I did not have any idea on how it should sound. So I decided not to do anything with it. In 1985 I saw Canto on television, it was a direct broadcast from the Concertgebouw. I thought: hey, but this is a fascinating piece. It is very beautiful! Forget that preface. It was an encounter with a big impact.59
De Haas’ reconsideration of Canto clearly demonstrates ten Holt’s belief that the perception of music begins with the body—he “did not have any idea on how it should sound” just by looking at the score, but there was “a big impact” the moment he heard it. 60 Additionally, Janssen has accounted for performances of Canto in terms of physicality: “I have played that piece a number of times now. And each time I come to the theme I have to be careful that I don’t get emotional. I really get goose bumps. It is so beautiful.”61 From the above comments, it is apparent that Canto’s effects on its listeners and performers—not only its composer—are both physical and emotional.
4.3.3 Tonality as freedom
This section details ten Holt’s various relationships with women in his life and highlights the concept of freedom versus rigour introduced at the beginning of this chapter. Although the composer never explicitly mentioned this, there
58 The actual quote is in 4.4.1 Repetition as a common factor between (post)minimalism and indeterminacy, pp. 82-86. 59 “Ik las het voorwoord bij het stuk en dat vond ik zó zweverig. ‘Je draait het ding in de ruimte en hoe het klinkt hangt af van de inval van het licht’: dat is niet wat er letterlijk staat, maar wel zoals het ongeveer op me overkwam. De partituur trok me ook niet; ik had geen idee hoe het zou moeten klinken. Dus ik besloot er niks mee te doen. In 1985 zag ik Canto op televisie, het was een rechtstreekse uitzending vanuit het Concertgebouw. Ik dacht: hé, maar dit is een fascinerend stuk. Dit is ontzettend mooi! Vergeet die inleiding. Het was een kennismaking met een grote impact.” Polo de Haas and Kees Wieringa, "Niemand voert Canto goed uit, behalve wij,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 152. 60 Ibid. 61 “Ik heb dat stuk inmiddels een heel aantal keren gespeeld. En elke keer als ik bij dat thema kom, moet ik uitkijken dat ik niet volschiet. Ik krijg echt kippenvel. Het is zó mooi.” Janssen, “Het is muziek,” 143.
67 appears to be strong parallels between his relationship with the creation of tonal music and his long-term personal relationships.62 From 1942 to 1949, he was together with his first partner and wife, Dagnelie, with whom he had his two children, Joris (1944-) and Marijntje (1946-). 63 The breakdown of his relationship with Dagnelie occurred around the same time he began searching for non-tonal approaches to composition. This is apparent despite his statement that
[nobody] found it strange that Sientje [ten Holt’s younger sister] and I went to Paris, we went to gain new impressions and it would not be for very long. I did not know at the time that things would change. I did not abandon my family; I just didn’t return.64
Two other relationships with Louise Troost and Noeki Schmidt coincided with his periods of “diagonal technique” and of serialist and electronic music respectively.65
According to ten Holt, all of those relationships “were ultimately based more on eroticism than on love,”66 that is, having stronger physical rather than spiritual connections. However, due to ten Holt’s spiritual beliefs regarding tonality, he was only able to create a new type of autonomy in his life and relationships
62 See Table 1 (pp. 2-4) for ten Holt’s compositions. 63 Information obtained from the following pages in ten Holt, Memoires: 29-30 (the beginning of the ten Holt-Dagnelie relationship); 38-39 (marriage); 39 (birth of Joris); 41 (birth of Marijntje); and 41-42 and 46 (the end of ten Holt-Dagnelie). 64 “Niemand vond het raar dat Sientje en ik naar Parijs gingen, we gingen nieuwe indrukken opdoen en het zou niet voor heel lang zijn. Ik wist toen nog niet dat het anders zou lopen. Ik heb mijn gezin niet in de steek gelaten; ik ben alleen niet meer teruggekomen.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 28. See ten Holt’s chapter on the trip, “1949: Frankrijk,” in Memoires, 43-56. One can perceive how goal-less their travels were throughout this chapter—see, for instance, page 48, where he questioned what they wanted from the trip, and also 49-50, on his experiences with Arthur Honegger and Darius Milhaud. He also attempts to find his compositional voice in France (for instance, see p. 56). 65 The information was obtained from the following pages in ten Holt, Memoires: 58 (the beginning of the ten Holt-Troost relationship); 65 (the end of ten Holt-Troost); 97-8 (the beginning of ten Holt-Schmidt); 139 (the end of ten Holt-Schmidt). Ten Holt’s “diagonal technique” refers to the organization of the twelve tones according to their positions on the circle of fifths. Keys in a tritone relationship—such as C and F-sharp or A and E-flat—are used simultaneously, thus “neutralising” the harmonic function of a single tonal centre. Ten Holt, Memoires, 61. For more, see pp. 60-63 of the same source. 66 “Uiteindelijk waren ze meer gebaseerd op erotiek dan op liefde.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 30.
68 when he re-accepted tonality and came to terms with his modified type of tonality, beginning with Canto:67
There is freedom when you overcome yourself, your abilities. It’s not about living promiscuously or something. Freedom is a secret covenant. A secret in your life. You are free, or not. At a good moment you free yourself from Beethoven’s music. From Schubert’s music. From serialism. And then you set your own rules. These are not so much rules, but a way of composing. And a way of life.68
This acceptance of his concept of tonality thus perhaps allowed ten Holt to attain a different level of unity with Noël, “the first woman with whom [he had] a spiritual equivalence,”69 and with whom he had “the most beautiful relationship of [his] life.”70 While these correlations between ten Holt’s life and work are compelling to consider, they are not definite. However, it can be said that the intertwining of life and work is not exclusive to ten Holt, with other examples of the time including American composers George Rochberg (1918-2005)71 and David del Tredici (1937-).72 The former moved away from serialism after the passing of his son Paul,73 while del Tredici’s shift began with his involvement in Lewis Carroll’s texts and the catharsis they provided him in “coming out” as a gay man.74 These cases indicate that Paul Janssen’s statements regarding ten
67 Refer also to the quote in note 51, p. 65. 68 “Van vrijheid is sprake wanneer je jezelf, je eigen kunnen, overstijgt. Het gaat er niet om dat je losbandig leeft of zo. Vrijheid is een geheim verbond. Een geheim in je leven. Je bent vrij, of niet. Op een goed moment bevrijd je je van de Beethovenmuziek. Van de Schubertmuziek. Van het serialisme. En dan ga je je eigen regels stellen. Dat zijn dan niet zozeer regels, maar een wijze van componeren. En een manier van leven.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 39. 69 “Colette is dertig jaar jonger dan ik maar ze is eigenlijk de eerste vrouw met wie ik een geestelijke gelijkwaardigheid heb, om het zo te zeggen.” Ibid., 30. 70 “Met Colette is het langzaam op gang gekomen, maar het is de mooiste relatie van mijn leven.” Ibid., 32. 71 Dates from Austin Clarkson, “Rochberg, George,” rev. Steven Johnson, Grove Music Online, published online 2001, updated 20 July 2005, accessed 6 November 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23617. 72 James Chute, “Del Tredici, David (Walter),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, works list updated 26 November 2003, accessed 7 November 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.07511. 73 Campbell, “A Study of Neoromanticism,” 29. 74 Chute, “Del Tredici, David.”
69 Holt as supposedly the “sole” person responsible for the advancement of tonality in the twentieth century have to be revised.75
4.3.4 “Tonality after the death of tonality”
In the quote opening this chapter, ten Holt believed that “the climate and modernism created by Cage […] later gave me the thought to speak about ‘tonality after the death of tonality’.”76 This concept is at the heart of ten Holt’s final compositional period and is derived from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “God after the death of God.”77 The spiritual qualities of the terminology of “tonality after the death of tonality” have been briefly addressed, through the intentionally similar terms to Bonhoeffer’s concept and the religious notion of resurrection. This section will detail another spiritual aspect in the form of ten Holt’s rejection of serialism, before turning to the musical effects of this concept.
Ten Holt’s conception of “tonality after the death of tonality” has to be understood in the context of his compositional output, which began with and moved away from tonality.78 His middle period was dominated by serialism from about 1965 to the early 1980s,79 as well as electronic music,80 while the final period began with Canto (1973-79). The latter periods were described by the composer in religious terms: “You must first go through nothingness and silence before you can come to a new idea of God […] I had to renounce tonality first, declare it dead, to then discover it again.”81
75 Notes 2 and 3, p. 57. 76 Note 16, pp. 59-60. 77 De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 26. 78 Van Heeswijk, “Less is More,” 45, and ten Holt, Memoires, 60. 79 Although de Rek mentions that ten Holt’s serialist period finishes around 1975 in “Interview met ten Holt,” 41, it is not until Lemniscaat (1982-83) that the composer decides to stop composing serialist music. See p. 56 of the same source. 80 Ten Holt, Memoires, 134 and 186. He may, however, have been at the institute only up to 1975, according to Huib Ramaer, “Holt, Simeon ten,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13256. 81 De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 26. This also relates strongly to the conditioning quote in note 51, p. 65.
70 Initially, ten Holt stated that he “was very curious about [serialism], it was so new and different and you are after all a child of your time and a part of society.”82 However, tonality was declared “dead” in his serialist and electronic period: in the programme notes for a concert he gave in May 1974, he went as far as denouncing tonality for “[perpetuating] slavery and serfdom, possession and abuse of power, privilege and injustice.”83 During this period of his life, ten Holt was concerned with “social relationship problems” and “the social relevance of art” 84 with “a tyrannical certainty,”85 as reflected in the strong language used. His denunciation of tonality stemmed from his view that “[in] a composition written in the tonal system, we always hear a repressed memory, a guilty conscience and the desire to be involved in the execution of power by a privileged group.”86
However, he later concluded this period was an “artistic winter”:87 “The concern for modernity and the domination of atonality in my thinking during [this period] had led to a state in which the inner impoverishment, experienced as a wintering, translated into an almost physical unease.”88 This aligns with the physical associations of tonality described earlier. Furthermore, ten Holt came to view the epitomic piece of this period, ..A/.ta-lon (1967-68), as “the symbol of winter, barrenness and the death of tonality.” 89 Ten Holt’s self-imposed
82 “ik was er norm nieuwsgierig naar, het was zo nieuw en anders en je bent toch een kind van je tijd en een deel van de samenleving.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 38. 83 “slavernij en lijfeigenschap, bezit en machtsmisbruik, voorrecht en onrecht bestendigt.” Ibid., 42. 84 “Als gezegd werd ik in die dagen sterk beziggehouden door de sociale-relatieproblematiek, terwijl ik ook de maatschappelijke relevantie van de kunst tot mijn favoriete onderwerpen rekende.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 191. 85 “Die periode ging jamme genoeg gepaard met een tirannieke stelligheid, die erg veel leek op de overtuiging van de bekeerling die nauwelijks tegenspraak duldt.” Ibid.,192. 86 “In een in het tonale systeem geschreven compositie horen we altijd een verdrongen geheugen, een slecht geweten en de wens betrokken te zijn bij de uitoefening van de macht door een bevoorrechte groep.” Ibid. 87 De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 42. Ten Holt also labels this period “vriesnacht” (freezing night) – see, for instance, page 60 of the same source – and “vorstperiode” (period of frost) – see his Memoires, 200. 88 “De zorg voor de moderniteit en de overheersing van de atonaliteit in mijn denken tijdens de voorgaande jaren hadden geleid tot een toestand waarin de innerlijke, als overwintering ervaren verschraling zich vertaalde in een bijna fysiek ondervonden onbehagen.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 229. 89 “A/.talon is het symbool van de winter, de onvruchtbaarheid en de dood van de tonaliteit.” Ibid., 67.
71 rejection of tonality brings to mind further religious concepts of fasting and abstinence.
Yet the serialist period, however difficult, was still “inevitable and necessary” because it gave rise to a “new view of tonality”90—that is, “tonality after the death of tonality.” Drawing on the winter metaphor once more and describing the role played by his instinct, he states: “I experienced [the direction of my inner compass] very strongly in the second half of the 1970s, when tonal music began to force itself on me again, after the chill of the freezing night of serialist music.”91 In fact, he had begun creating tonal-sounding music earlier in the decade, with six Aphorisms (1972-74).92 Similarities, such as the key signature and the melody, exist between the second of this set of un-notated improvisations and Canto.93
The musical effect of “tonality after the death of tonality” will now be discussed. The composer describes the harmony of the piece in the preface to the score: “Canto stems from a traditional source, is tonal and makes use of functional harmony, it is built according to the laws of cause and effect (tension- release).” 94 However, “functional harmony,” or common-practice harmonic
90 “Deze periode heb ik een onvermijdelijke en noodzakelijke overwintering en vorst periode genoemd en ook als zodanig ervaren. Deze ervaring had ik overigens niet moeten en willen missen, want zij bleek de voorwaarde voor een nieuwe geboorte en een dito visie op de tonaliteit.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 200. 91 “De Rek: ‘Je schrijft in Het woud en de citadel dat het lijkt alsof je met het begrip ‘tijd’ een geheim verbond hebt, dat jou steeds in staat heft gesteld dwaalwegen te corrigeren en de voor jou geldende koers te hervinden en te vervolgen.’ Ten Holt: ‘Ik heb dat heel sterk ondervonden in de tweede helft van de jaren zeventig, toen de tonale muziek zich weer aan me begon op te dringen, na de kilte van de vriesnacht van de seriële muziek.’ De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 60. 92 There is some discrepancy regarding the date of composition. Ten Holt dates these improvisations to 1972-1973 in his Memoires, 193, matched by the score preview of the second piece (1972) – click on “open preview (PDF)” under the composition title, in “Composition: Aforisme nr. 2 : Electronische piano improvisatie ‘een oude melodie’ / Simeon ten Holt; transcr. Jeroen van Veen,” Donemus webshop, accessed 9 July 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/13250. However, his diary extracts on the pieces in de Rek’s Canto Ostinato, 45 and 48-49 are dated August 1974. 93 De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 45. Some of a transcription by Jeroen van Veen of the second Aphorism, subtitled “zeer oude melodie” (very old melody) by ten Holt, can be found in "Partituur Aforisme,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 159-61. The subtitle differs slightly in the score provided on the Donemus webshop – “een oude melodie” (an old melody). See Donemus webshop, “Aforisme nr. 2.” 94 Ten Holt, preface, 2. The original: “Canto is ontsprongen aan een traditionele bron, is tonaal en maakt gebruik van functionele harmonieën die naar hun aard vervoegd zijn volgens de regels van de harmonieleer, de weten van oorzaak en gevolg (spanning en ontspanning)” can
72 progressions, is not used in the bulk of the work. Tonally-based triadic and seventh chords permeate the work as the ostinato, predominantly moving by step (Examples 1 and 2):
be found in Simeon ten Holt, "Inleiding op Canto Ostinato: door Simeon ten Holt,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 80.
73 74 75 Although this stepwise movement is what the composer is describing as “tension-release,”95 the difficulty in discerning the key of the piece also extends to determining which of two chords is causing “tension” and which causes “release.” In addition, although Canto retains its key signature of five flats (B- flat minor) throughout, Linde van Heeswijk explains:
the sense of the [B-flat] as the tonic and the functionality of every other chord in relation to this [B-flat] is completely lost due to the many repetitions of sections. When repeated a sufficient amount of times, each chord seems to become a tonic in itself. This continuous change of tonic creates the sense that a real tonic is missing.96
Van Heeswijk’s statements of the erosion of the relation of each chord to B-flat and a lack of a “real tonic” are valid for most of Canto. For instance, sections 41 to 59 are in 1/4 and only have one chord per section (see Example 2 for sections 41 to 50). In sections 42 to 55, although the bass is also moving stepwise in each section, it is likely that through many repetitions of each, the listener will hear “each chord [becoming] a tonic in itself” and not perceive the overall motion of the bass line.
Despite the above, there are a few related four-chord progressions in other parts of Canto that would be aurally discernible. These also consist of stepwise bass notes, mostly descending. The first progression, which involves a minor chord preceding or following three major ones, is shown in Example 3 (red and darker red respectively).97 Although the stepwise descend of the progression can easily be heard, its flexibility blurs the functions of the chords, another illustration of van Heeswijk’s statements above.
95 Note 94, pp. 72-73. 96 Van Heeswijk, “Less is More,” 54. 97 This is progression A in Tables 3a and 3b.
76 77 The second progression features all major chords. This is only used across sections 85 to 86 and the final bridge of 88 to 89 to join the pairs of sections (the first pair can be seen in Example 4):98
A♭ G♭ F♭ E♭ Gb Fb Eb
Example 4: Sections 85 and 86 from ten Holt, Canto, 29.
The final four-chord progression features non-consecutive chords – that is, chords that are not next to one another.99 However, these still play a similar role as those in the previous example, connecting pairs of sections together. This progression is featured both ascending (sections 77 and 99) and descending (sections 79 and 101). Sections 79 to 80 are shown in Example 5:
98 Progression B in Tables 3a and 3b. 99 Progression C in Tables 3a and 3b.
78 79 In summary, the abovementioned four-chord progressions are used to demarcate the piece and provide aural checkpoints for the listener, due to their varied placement throughout Canto. These progressions and other details pertaining to them are as follows:
Symbol Description
A Minor chord preceding or following three major chords, descending
B Major chords, descending
C Non-consecutive chords, descending or ascending
* Indicates progression begins from previous section to first beat of next section
^ Indicates ascending progression (only applicable to progression C) Table 3a: Key to Table 3b.
The full structure of the work is in four parts, with the opening as a kind of extended introduction, and the second and fourth parts being highly similar in terms of the material in the main staves. The third part consists of the interlude sections 88 and 91. These are summarised in Table 3b. The first and last sections of each of the four parts are labelled and sections in bold are those featuring the theme:
80 81 The sections with functional harmony also tend to have more contoured melodies and to be longer individual sections, contrasting with the abovementioned sections with repeated melodic notes and non-functional progressions (compare Examples 2 and 4, pp. 75 and 78).
The sections on tonality have highlighted how Canto Ostinato’s conception aligns with the trend of greater accessibility for the public, refuting Paul Janssen’s claim that ten Holt “single-handedly cleared the way for many composers employing tonal elements today.”100 Additionally, the work does not fully employ “functional harmony” as ten Holt states, with the bulk of it using “tonality after the death of tonality,” his modified version of tonality. Tonality is also demonstrated to be an integral part of the composer’s life and of the composition and reception of Canto through various physical, spiritual, and emotional associations, offering a multi-faceted view on the concept of tonality in the work of Canto. The next two parts of the chapter will continue the examination of other musical aspects of Canto, covering its postminimalist and indeterminate elements respectively.
4.4 (Post)minimalism
4.4.1 Repetition as a common factor between (post)minimalism and indeterminacy
Canto contains not only elements of score-based, determinate minimalism but also of indeterminacy as performers decide on the type and amount of instrumentation, dynamics, articulation, pedalling, and number of repetitions of each applicable section.101 Although these appear to be two opposing ways of thinking, Matthew Glenn Quick states:
100 Note 3, p. 57. 101 Those labelled bridges are only to be played once. Simeon ten Holt, instructions to Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments (Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010), 3.
82 In both schools of composition, temporality is often altered from traditionally goal-oriented linear writing to something that celebrates the present moment. […] Both of these schools of composition draw the listener’s attention away from concerns about direction, and into the current and immediate instant in time.102
Quick’s description holds true due to the employment of repetition in specific ways. The minimalist and postminimalist approaches to this concept, as structural and textural features respectively, 103 are both used in Canto. Repetition as part of texture is indicated through the composition’s titles, the ostinato, and the rhythmic figurations and melodic contours of many parts of the work. Initially titled Perpetuum (Latin for “perpetual”), 104 it was later renamed Canto Ostinato, “canto” meaning “song” in Italian or Spanish or “melody,”105 while “ostinato” is defined as “A term used to refer to the repetition of a musical pattern many times in succession while other musical elements are generally changing.”106
The ostinato in question is a group of five notes in the bass, always ascending then descending (section 3, Example 1, p. 74). Although the chords created by each group are tonal sounding, they are placed within non-functional, minimalist progressions that move stepwise. Textural repetition is also
102 Matthew Glenn Quick, “‘Junction +4’: A Foray into the Intersection of Minimalism and Indeterminacy,” Accelerando: BJMD 3, no. 3 (2018), accessed 10 July 2019, https://accelerandobjmd.weebly.com/issue3/junction4. See also the section “Time and the Perception of Minimalist Music” in Kyle Gann, Keith Potter, and Pwyll ap Siôn, “Introduction: experimental, minimalist, postminimalist? Origins, definitions, communities,” in Potter, Gann, and ap Siôn, Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, 28-31. 103 Jon Pareles describes postminimalism as “using repetition for texture rather than structure” in his article “Music: Six at La Mama,” The New York Times, 6 March 1983, https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/06/arts/music-six-at-la- mama.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fjon- pareles&action=click&contentCollection=undefined®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&ver sion=search&contentPlacement=114&pgtype=collection. 104 Michael Tilmouth, "Moto perpetuo,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19224. See the original score in "Partituur Perpetuum,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 89-114. 105 Owen Rees, "Canto (i),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04786. 106 Laure Schnapper, "Ostinato,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 9 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20547.
83 indicated by rhythmically and melodically similar material of several sections, which typically centre on a single note and feature the same rhythmic material (Example 2, p. 75). This, combined with van Heeswijk’s earlier suggestion of “each chord [seeming] to become a tonic in itself,” demonstrates the perceived change of temporality and the lack of direction pointed out by Quick.
The ostinato also plays an important part in Canto’s structure. Its opening figuration indicates it was designed to create a steady pulse (sections 1 and 2, Example 1, p. 74). On a general level, most of Canto’s 106 sections are to be repeated according to the performers’ discretion. Ten Holt, however, includes an aesthetic dimension: repetition “is a mistake when the tension between two points of time is missing and there is only a pointless repeat of the same.”107 He expands on this in the score’s preface:
Time plays an important role in Canto. Although most bars or sections feature repeat signs and although the performer(s) decide(s) on the number of repeats, one cannot speak of repetition-as-such. Repetition in this case has as its goal to create a situation in which the musical object affirms its independence and can search for its most favourable position with respect to the light thrown on it, becoming transparent. Time becomes the space in which the musical object floats.108
This is elaborated on in the 1979 preface, but omitted in the newer edition:
What happens in that space is difficult to trace, because it is unpredictable and depends on a thousand and one factors. What can be notated is
107 “Ook de veronderstelling van hoe-langer-hoe-beter is een vergissing als de spanning tussen twee tijdpunten ontbreekt en er niet meer klinkt dan een zinloze herhaling van hetzelfde.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 203. 108 Ten Holt, preface, 2. Italics in the source. The original, “Een belangrijke rol speelt de tijd. Hoewel de meeste maten of secties een herhalingsteken meekrijgen en de uitvoerenden zelf dienen te beslissen over het aantal herhalingen, is er de traditionele zin toch geen sprake van herhaling zonder meer. De herhalingsprocedure heeft hier tot doel een toestand te scheppen waarin het muzikale object zijn zelfstandigheid bevestigt en kan zoeken naar zijn gunstige positie ten opzichte van het licht en doorzichtig wordt. Tijd wordt de ruimte waarin het muzikale object gaat zweven.” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 80-81. Although the final sentence is part of the next paragraph in the original, I have placed it here for ease of reference.
84 limited to a symbol, a pretext for an activity, whose purpose falls outside the description. The composer points with what he can write down to a border, beyond which no one, not him as well, knows what there is or can be. What he does is limited in principle to a proposition, to an open scenario, to the establishment of a platform and… to an appeal to the creation of the performers.109
From the above quotes, a number of ten Holt’s ideas about repetition can be gleaned. Firstly, the suggestion that “good” repetition creates tension points to the composer’s desire for the performers to vary repetitions in some form or another, especially with his statement that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible.”110 The combination of repetition with change—that is, “predictable aspects and elements of surprise”—results in an “ideal” amount of arousal for audiences,111 which could be one of the reasons for Canto’s overwhelming popularity.
Secondly, the statement that “[time] becomes the space in which the musical object floats” and the creation of “an open scenario” indicate that repetition through the performers leads to the independence of the work. As ten Holt believes, Canto is designed to bring about “a process where unexpected and unwritten possibilities result. A development of implicit potential.” 112 The importance of the performers is apparent in his belief that “[the] process is not born from specific musical-technical instructions, but more from the instantaneous disposition of the ensemble: we call it ‘togetherness.’”113 Thus, with the performers using repetition as a tool to organise their realisations of
109 The original, “Wat er in die ruimte gebeurt is, omdat het niet voorspelbaar is en afhankelijk van duizend en één factoren, moeilijk te traceren. Datgene wat er genoteerd kan worden, beperkt zich tot een symbool, een pretext voor een activiteit waarvan het doel buiten de omschrijving valt. De componist wijst met datgene wat hij heeft kunnen opschrijven op een grens waarachter niemand, dus hij ook niet, weet wat er is of kan worden. Wat hij doet beperkt zich principieel tot een voorstel, tot een open scenario, tot het oprichten van een platform en… tot een beroep op de instelling van de uitvoerenden.” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 81. 110 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16. 111 Both quotes from Van Heeswijk, “Less is More,” 42. 112 “Het gaat erom een proces op gang te brengen waarin niet vermoede en niet voor te schrijven mogelijkheden zich aandienen. Explicitering van impliciete potenties.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 210. 113 “Dit proces wordt niet geboren uit specifiek muzikaal-technische voorschriften, maar meer door de momentele dispositie van het ensemble: noemen we dat de ‘saamhorigheid.’” Ibid.
85 Canto, ten Holt also successfully engages the concepts of indeterminacy and interaction in performance, resulting in the work’s independence from him (the composer).
The emphasis on process and tension-generating repetition relates to Galen H. Brown’s idea on the use of process to create auditory effects114 and will be revisited in 4.4.3 Postminimalism in Canto (pp. 90-94), while indeterminacy and communication in performance will be covered in more depth in 4.5 Indeterminacy (pp. 94-108). The next sections will examine the influence of minimalist music of Canto, compare the work with In C, and give an overview of its postminimalist characteristics.
4.4.2 The influence of minimalist music and a comparison with In C
The opening quote of this chapter indicates that ten Holt’s version of minimalist music resulted from improvisational and minimalist music from America combined with European art music.115 Although ten Holt named Philip Corner specifically in his exposure to improvisational music, there is no indication as to when he listened to minimalist music or to whom he listened. His awareness of such music, however, suggests that there are possible precedents of Canto in this field.116 In this section, I will discuss the issue of Canto’s unfixed duration in relation to those of minimalist music, before examining the frequent comparison between Canto and In C.
Ten Holt’s instructions as part of Canto’s score highlight a common element with performances of minimalist pieces: “The piece is not in a hurry and has in common with [so-called] minimal music that one cannot speak of fixed duration. As stated the first performance lasted two hours but it could have easily been
114 Galen H. Brown, “Process as Means and Ends in Minimalist and Postminimalist Music,” Perspectives of New Music 48, no. 2 (Summer 2010): 180-192, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23076970. 115 Note 16, pp. 59-60. 116 I also discuss Steve Reich’s Piano Phase and Violin Phase in 4.5.1 Christian Wolff and minimalist music as precedents (pp. 94-96), as the concept of phasing also involves indeterminate amounts of repetition as in Canto.
86 more or less.”117 This feature of indeterminate duration is also highlighted by ten Holt’s description of Canto and subsequent pieces employing similar techniques as “evening-filling,” 118 similar to Kyle Gann’s description of minimalist music concerts as “evening-length.” 119 I will discuss Canto’s indeterminate duration further in 4.5.1 Christian Wolff and minimalist music as precedents (pp. 94-96).
A number of sources have compared Canto to In C (1964) by Terry Riley (1935-), albeit only in terms of the allowance for each section to be repeated as many times as desired.120 It is unusual that none mention other similarities that exist between both pieces. Firstly, In C consists of 53 modules while Canto has exactly twice the number of sections. Secondly, a module or section that acts as a theme is present in both,121 and it is highly coincidental that the themes occur two-thirds into each piece.122 Additionally, both feature similar material across neighbouring modules or sections,123 and each of their titles highlights the importance of particular elements of the music. In C features a quaver-note
117 Ten Holt, preface, 2. 118 “Avondvullende.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 254. 119 Kyle Gann, "A Technically Definable Stream of Postminimalism, Its Characteristics and Its Meanings,” in Potter, Gann, and ap Siôn, Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, 58. 120 Dates from Edward Strickland, “Riley, Terry (Mitchell),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 10 July 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23474. Several sources viewing Canto and In C as similar pieces include • Saskia Bosch, Anthony Fiumara, Peter van der Lint, Jann Ruyters and Armand Serpenti, “Ten Holts ‘Canto ostinato’ als solostuk voor harp of piano,” Trouw, 10 October 2009, https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/ten-holts-canto-ostinato-als-solostuk-voor- harp-of-piano~b5dbe3b8/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F; • Nicolas Martino, “Canto Ostinato: Paolo Tarsi,” 6 November 2014, Alfabeta2, https://www.alfabeta2.it/2014/11/06/canto-ostinato/; • Kirk McElhearn, “CD review: Etcetera KTC1317,” Musicweb International, accessed 22 January 2020, http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2007/Aug07/Holt_ktc1317.htm; and • Sandra van Veen and Jeroen van Veen, "Hoe zit Canto Ostinato in elkaar?: Inleiding door Sandra en Jeroen van Veen,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 73. 121 See the section “The Significance of Module 35” in Robert Carl, “Analysis,” in Terry Riley’s In C (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 66, https://www-oxfordscholarship- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195325287.001.0001/acprof- 9780195325287-chapter-4. 122 For In C, it is module 35 out of 53 in Carl, “Analysis,” 67, and for Canto, it is section 74 out of 106. However, if one considers the further subdivisions of sections 88 and 91 in Canto, the percentage regarding the placement of its theme is likely to change. 123 For In C, refer to the section “Motivic Transformation” in ibid., 64-66, and for Canto, see Examples 1 to 3 (pp. 74, 75, and 77) for various instances of local motivic similarities.
87 pulse on C throughout,124 while the ostinato in Canto Ostinato is one of its defining characteristics, both elements being what Robert Carl describes as “a clear rhythmic anchor, always the same tempo, always the same pattern.”125 A final similarity is the use of Western musical notation for the score accompanied by a set of written instructions. Carl compares In C to the numerous text-pieces created in the same time period and suggests the importance of the score in spite of the piece’s experimental nature:
While for many composers at this time, the text was the most important, perhaps the only, element of the score, for Riley it was an appendage. The piece cannot exist without the score of the 53 modules. It remains specific in the exacting manner by which its materials are defined, presented, and organised. With In C, Riley takes the world of both conceptual and indeterminate composition and reaffirms the importance of the score, the traditionally notated artefact, within it. This factor in no way diminishes the radicality of his approach; it some ways it makes it even more extreme, because it shows a way in which the old notation remains the most economical and efficient communication of musical thought, no matter how anti-traditional the impulse.126
Carl’s comments regarding the efficiency of staff notation also apply to Canto, but in ten Holt’s case he was returning to, as opposed to seeking a radical move away from, more traditional approaches of composition.
Despite common elements between both compositions, there are also several differences that are not acknowledged by the sources that compare them. For instance, In C calls for melody instruments,127 while Canto is for keyboard instruments. Canto contains several bridge sections that are only played once,128 and there is a degree of flexibility provided by sections featuring a
124 Carl, “Analysis,” 58. 125 Ibid. 126 Ibid., 60. Italics in the original. 127 Strickland, “Riley, Terry.” 128 Ten Holt, instructions, 3. The original, “de secties die zijn aangemerkt als brug dienen eenmaal gespeeld te worden,” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 85.
88 double-headed arrow between them (Example 1, p. 74). This allows the performer(s) to go between each and to combine them. 129 In addition, performers must move to the next section simultaneously, 130 rather than working through the piece at their own paces.131 Performers must also change dynamics and articulation simultaneously, with ten Holt advocating the use of terraced dynamics, and suggesting that a change in articulation can also occur simultaneously with the change in volume.132
This overview in similarities and differences between In C and Canto is not unlike that of K. Robert Schwarz’s analysis of Steve Reich and John Adams’ compositions, mapping the move from an emphasis on process to a greater focus on intuition.133 The characteristics of the latter are discussed in detail in the following section. The comparison of In C and Canto, which hitherto has been superficial, also yielded unexpected similarities that hint at the possibility of the former piece as a model or inspiration for Canto Ostinato. The similarities between both pieces also suggests that In C could have been one of the minimalist compositions ten Holt listened to alongside Philip Corner’s music, creating further connections between Canto and the original (American) minimalist movement. The plausibility of such a connection also calls into question Paul Janssen’s declaration (stated at the beginning of Chapter Four) that “[completely] independent of American composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass, [ten] Holt created a Dutch version of minimal music.”134
129 Ten Holt, preface, 2. The original, “Het een enkele maal gebruikte symbool ßà duidt erop dat men in de keuze van de secties in veel gevallen zowel heel als terug kan gaan en dat er, afhankelijk van de harmonische identiteit, secties gecombineerd kunnen worden.” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 84. Note: the original states that this symbol is only used once, but in fact it appears in a number of parts in Canto. 130 “Via luisteren en kijken neemt iemand het initiatief om gemeenschappelijk door te gaan naar de volgende sectie.” Van Veen and van Veen, “Inleiding,” 74. 131 Carl, “Analysis,” 58. 132 Ten Holt, instructions, 3. The original, “De intensiteiten wisselen elkaar na verloop van enige tijd herkenbaar af, van forte naar piano of vice versa (registerdynamiek), en dat gebeurt collectief, wat wil zeggen dat alle spelers tegelijkertijd wisselen. Dat kan samenvallen met de verandering van speelwijze, bijvoorbeeld van legato naar staccato en vice versa, en ook dan gebeurt dat door alle spelers tegelijkertijd.” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 86. 133 K. Robert Schwarz, “Process vs. Intuition in the Recent Works of Steve Reich and John Adams,” American Music 8, no. 3 (Autumn 1990): 245-73, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052096. 134 Chapter 1, note 16, p. 5.
89 4.4.3 Postminimalism in Canto
The final section on the discussion of minimalist and postminimalist aspects of Canto relate to its postminimalist characteristics. Its conception from 1973 to 1979 places the piece in transition from minimalism to postminimalism. A pivotal article in cementing these movements is Steve Reich’s “Music as a Gradual Process” (1968), which focuses on the notion of the audibility of a musical process of a composition.135 Reich also wrote that
[even] when the cards are on the table and everyone hears what is gradually happening in a musical process, there are still enough mysteries to satisfy all. These mysteries are the impersonal, unintended, psychoacoustic by-products of the intended process.136
In “Process as Means and Ends in Minimalist and Postminimalist Music,” Galen H. Brown describes Reich’s gradual process as “the ends-oriented process,”137 and the aforementioned “mysteries” as process as means:
The transition from minimalism to postminimalism actually hinges on the means and ends orientations appearing in the same pieces. While minimalism arose from conceptual art, from a focus on ends-oriented processes, there was always some interest in the aesthetic properties of the surface-level sonic elements. […] the use of process, especially repetition and mathematical process, can be used to create music that is aesthetically appealing in a traditionally musical sense.138
From there, Brown highlights the postminimalist characteristic where process is not necessarily the main feature of a composition and is the means to other auditory effects.139 Thus, process—and by extension, the concept of repetition,
135 Steve Reich, “Music as a Gradual Process (1968),” in Writings on Music, 1965- 2000, ed. Paul Hillier (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), chapter 2b, https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151152.001.0001/acpro f-9780195151152. 136 Ibid. 137 Brown, “Process as Means and Ends,” 187. 138 Ibid. 139 Ibid, 187-89.
90 as discussed—is an important aspect of minimalism and postminimalism in different ways. Where processes are designed to be audible in minimalist compositions, as highlighted by Reich’s article, they are employed “in a more underlying, even occult manner” in postminimalist music.140
In Canto, repetition is clearly audible, but, as discussed in 4.4.1 Repetition as a common factor between (post)minimalism and indeterminacy (pp. 82- 86), it is also used to create tension and variation. Apart from repetition, Canto is similar to many early experimental-minimalist pieces due to its undetermined duration in performance. The work also displays several postminimalist elements, such as increased harmonic movement,141 the importance of the melody,142 the employment of terraced dynamics in performance,143 chamber music instrumentation,144 and the use of staff notation and few performance indications.145
Non-functional stepwise-moving harmonic progressions are employed in most of Canto. The minimal movement between each of these chords and the use of the same chord(s) across several sections create a sense of stasis (Example 1, p. 74), whereas other parts of Canto feature more harmonic movement with chord changes with each section (Example 2, p. 75). However, the perception of these changes is likely to be distorted if, as van Heeswijk mentioned before, each is repeated many times and its relation to its neighbouring chords becomes indistinct. The sections employing common-practice harmonic progressions also display a higher rate of harmonic change, as the chords in these sections change with every beat (Example 3, p. 77).
140 Gann, "Postminimalist Characteristics and Meanings,” 59. 141 Keith Potter, “Minimalism (USA),” Grove Music Online, published online 31 January 2014, updated 30 December 2019, accessed 3 June 2021, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2257002. 142 Dimitri Cervo, "Post-Minimalism: Is it a Valid Terminology?" (2005): 7, accessed 14 June 2019, https://www.academia.edu/7065703/Dimitri_Cervo_-_Minimalism_and_Post_Minimalism. 143 Gann, "Postminimalist Characteristics and Meanings,” 58. 144 Ibid., 59. 145 Ibid.
91 Melody is also a highly important element in Canto, as evidenced by the title. More specifically, there is a nine-bar theme that first appears in section 74, after an extended introduction featuring static melodies. The theme’s neo-Romantic characteristics include its melodic contours, expansive phrasing, and the way that the melody and harmony fit together (Example 3, p. 77). Another instance of Canto’s neo-Romanticism is section 83, which also displays a tuneful melody and all abovementioned aspects. The second treble alternative stave also features a more sequential variation of the main melody (Example 6). It is possible that ten Berge was referring to these examples when he described Canto as being “shamelessly romantic at times.”146
146 “Bij vlagen schaamteloos romantisch.” Ten Berge, “Negen opmerkingen,” 164.
92 93 The final three postminimalist characteristics will be briefly discussed together as they are also part of the indeterminacy of the piece. Firstly, the chamber music instrumentation of Canto is not immediately apparent, as the subtitle is simply “for keyboard instruments.” The score preface, however, opens with:
The first performance of Canto Ostinato took place on April 25th 1979 in the Ruïnekerk in Bergen (Holland) and was realised using three pianos and an electronic organ. Other combinations are possible using keyboard instruments. But the performance with four pianos is preferred.147
The final statement contrasts with the first edition and will be revisited in greater detail in 4.5.2.1 Composer’s limitations versus performers’ preferences (pp. 101-3).
Secondly, ten Holt enhances the use of staff notation by providing three main staves and three alternative staves (two treble and one bass) that the performers can play at any time. Each stave also contains stems indicating possible note groupings (Example 3, p. 77). Thirdly, markings relating to tempo, dynamics, and articulation are rare and mainly given when in a new part of Canto (Example 1, p. 74). Limitations imposed by ten Holt will be discussed subsequently in relation to indeterminacy, the final part of this chapter.
4.5 Indeterminacy
4.5.1 Christian Wolff and minimalist music as precedents
The best-known examples of indeterminacy in performance and interaction between musicians are works from the 1950s to 1970s by American composer Christian Wolff (1934-). 148 Interestingly, however, ten Holt believed these
147 Ten Holt, preface, 2. 148 “In the late 1950s and early 1960s Wolff explored performer choice within fixed time spans and the technique of “cueing.” This technique provides that the decisions of one performer are to some extent directed by the sounds of another, so that chains of action and reaction may be set up, requiring the musicians to be alert and flexible and lending the result an improvisatory
94 aspects and the indeterminate duration of Canto were “new,”149 indicating that he was not aware of Wolff or his works. Ten Holt claimed to be an “Einzelgänger”150 or “outsider,”151 and to be only acquainted with well-known Dutch composers such as Louis Andriessen (1939-), Reinbert de Leeuw (1938-), Misha Mengelberg (1935-2017), and Peter Schat (1935-2003).152 Yet, his comments about serialism, in which he stated he was being “a part of society,”153 show that he was aware of wider musical developments. It is likely ten Holt was referring to the academic music society as well as society in general. He was self-taught in the composition of serialist music by studying the scores and writings of Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) and Pierre
quality.” William Bland, David Patterson and Sabine Feisst, “Wolff, Christian George,” Grove Music Online, published online 31 January 2014, accessed 22 January 2020, https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2259415. See also Mark D. Nelson, “Social Dynamics at the Heart of Composition: implications of Christian Wolff’s indeterminate music,” in Proceedings of the Bowling Green State University New Musica and Art Festival 10, ed. William E. Lake (Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio: Contemporary Music Forum, 1989): 3-14, https://www.academia.edu/29870667/Social_Dynamics_at_the_Heart_of_Composition_Implic ations_of_Christian_Wolff_s_Indeterminate_Music. Compositions by Wolff involving indeterminacy in performance also include his Changing the System from 1972-73. See David Ryan, “Changing the System: Indeterminacy and Politics in the Early 1970s,” in Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff, ed. Stephen Chase and Philip Thomas (Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2010), 143-69. 149 De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 56-57. 150 Ten Holt, Memoires, 209. 151 “buitenstaander.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 55. 152 Robert Adlington sees these composers as “transforming the musical landscape” and thus occupying a “special place” in post-war Netherlands, in “Organising Labour: Composers, Performers, and ‘the Renewal of Musical Practice’ in the Netherlands, 1969-72,” The Musical Quarterly 90, nos. 3/4 (Fall–Winter 2007): 539, https://www-jstor-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/stable/25172885. In addition to the above composers, ten Holt also mentions Jan van Vlijmen. See de Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 38. Dates for these composers from Grove Music Online, accessed 11 November 2019: Elmer Schönberger, “(4) Louis Andriessen,” in “Andriessen family,” Jos Wouters, Ronald Vermeulen and Elmer Schönberger, published online 2001, works list updated 31 January 2002, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47613; and Rokus de Groot, “Schat, Peter,” published online 2001, updated 1 February 2005, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.24763. See also Emile Wennekes, “Leeuw, Reinbert de,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, updated 23 December 2020, accessed 3 June 2021, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47330, and “Misha Mengelberg (1935-2017),” Misha, Instant Composers Pool, published 11 March 2017, accessed 11 November 2019, http://www.icporchestra.com/misha/2017/3/11/misha-mengelberg-1935-2017. 153 Note 82, p. 71.
95 Boulez (1925-2016), the journal The Series (1955-62)154 and Basics of Musical Series Technique (1963) by Herbert Eimert (1897-1972).155
Ten Holt’s abovementioned comparison of Canto’s indeterminate duration to that of early minimalist music (as part of experimentalism) also indicates that the latter is a precedent and that his use of indeterminacy was not as novel as he thought. Wolff and many other experimental music composers such as Cornelius Cardew (1936-81) 156 created pieces involving performance indeterminacy during a similar time period. The indeterminate amounts of repetition as decided by the performers in Canto also have precedents in the form of Piano Phase and Violin Phase. Both 1967 pieces by Steve Reich (1936-) explore phasing, which results in unfixed amounts of repetition in performance.157
Ten Holt’s description of his approach in Canto as “new” perhaps highlights the composer’s modernist background and its juxtaposition with postmodern elements of the piece, such as its tonality. While Canto’s indeterminacy is not “new,” other elements such as its tonality can be considered so, through a new approach to older techniques or languages. In this sense, Canto represents an example of radical postmodernism.
154 Original title Die Reihe. “Die Reihe [English-language edition],” RIPM, accessed 22 January 2020, https://www.ripm.org/?page=JournalInfo&ABB=REI. 155 Ten Holt, Memoires, 66. Dates from Grove Music Online, accessed 11 November 2019: Richard Toop, “Stockhausen, Karlheinz,” published online 2001, updated 22 October 2008, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26808; and John Covach, “Eimert, Herbert,” published online 20 January 2001, updated and revised 1 July 2014, accessed 11 November 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08647. See also G.W. Hopkins, “Boulez, Pierre,” rev. Paul Griffiths, published online 2001, updated 30 July 2020, accessed 3 June 2021, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.03708. The original title of Eimert’s book is Grundlagen der musikalischen reihentechnik. 156 John Tilbury, “Cardew, Cornelius,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 22 January 2020, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04912. 157 Paul Griffiths, “Reich, Steve [Stephen] (Michael),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, works list updated 26 November 2003, accessed 22 January 2020, https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23091.
96 4.5.2 Canto as an “open form” composition
Due to the many elements that are left to the performer, Canto can be identified as an “open form” composition. Sabine Feisst defines such pieces as “either [featuring] interchangeability of parts with determined details or variability of details with the course of the piece determined.”158 “Open form,” however, is a contradiction in terms,159 and one notable critic, ironically commonly noted as the first to use it,160 was American composer Earle Brown (1926-2002):161
(How do you define “‘open’ formal structures”? If they are “open,” how are they “formal structures”?? – “open structures are not “formal structures.” – “open-form” is not a “formal structure”) – the structure is a result of the “open” structural potential.162
Feisst’s definitions and Brown’s argument of “open form” not being a “formal structure” bring to mind Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “moment form” pieces, which are made up of consecutive unrelated sections.163 Jonathan Kramer explains as follows:
Since moment forms verticalise time, render every moment a Now, avoid functional implications between moments, and avoid climaxes, they are
158 Sabine Feisst, "Negotiating Freedom and Control in Composition: Improvisation and its Offshoots, 1950 to 1980,” in The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies, Volume 2, ed. Benjamin Piekut and George E. Lewis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013-16), 212, http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199892921.001.0001/oxfordhb -9780199892921. 159 Ibid., 211-12, and Angela Ida De Benedictis, "Indeterminacy and Open Form in the United States and Europe: Freedom from Control vs. Control of Freedom,” trans. Mark Weir, in Crosscurrents: American and European Music in Interaction, 1900-2000, ed. Felix Meyer, Carol J. Oja, Wolfgang Rathert, and Anne C. Shreffler (Basel: Paul Sacher Foundation, 2014), 412. 160 Elena Dubinets, "Between Mobility and Stability: Earle Brown's Compositional Process,” Contemporary Music Review 26, nos. 3/4 (June/August 2007): 410; Guy de Bièvre, "Open, Mobile and Indeterminate Forms" (PhD diss., Brunel University, 2012), 8; and Feisst, “Freedom and Control,” 212. 161 Dates from David Nicholls and Keith Potter, “Brown, Earle (Appleton),” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, updated 28 August 2002, accessed 17 June 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04098. 162 “BROWN, Earle, handwritten draft of what presumably was a letter, undated, unpublished, archives of the Earle Brown Music Foundation, Rye, New York,” note 24 in de Bièvre, “Indeterminate Forms,” 11. 163 Jonathan D. Kramer, “Moment Form in Twentieth Century Music,” The Musical Quarterly 64, no. 2 (April 1978): 179, https://www.jstor.org/stable/741444.
97 not beginning-middle-end forms. Although the piece must start for simple practical reasons, it may not begin; it must stop, but it may not end.164
The aesthetics of “moment form” are echoed by ten Holt’s description of Canto Ostinato: “Although all parts of Canto have their fixed position in its progress and are not interchangeable without violating the melodic line, the internal logic and form, beginning and end do not have absolute meaning as boundaries of form.”165 Although Canto is different to “moment form” pieces in that its sections are “fixed” and related to one another in a particular way, Canto does not have a “designated” beginning and ending. Kramer describes this ideal “open” nature in the following terms:
A proper moment form will give the impression of starting in the midst of previously unheard music, and it will break off without reaching any structural cadence, as if the music goes on, inaudibly, in some other space or time after the close of the performance.166
However, he believes that “[these] ideals are difficult to realise compositionally, especially the start that does not sound like a beginning.”167 Kramer’s assertion of compositional difficulties apply to Canto, but the use of the ostinato from the beginning and the VII–VI–V–i progression in the final section (Examples 1 and 7 respectively, pp. 74 and 99) propels the music to move forward and creates the sense of it “[going] on, inaudibly, in some other space or time after the close of the performance.”168
164 Kramer, “Moment Form,” 180. 165 Ten Holt, preface, 2. 166 Kramer, ‘Moment Form,” 180. 167 Ibid. 168 Ibid.
98 VII – VI – V – i
Example 7: Section 106 from ten Holt, Canto, 63.
Returning to Brown’s argument, it is clear that his concept of “open form” is in relation to Feisst’s first definition. However, according to her second definition, “open form” is not only relating to issues of “formal structure,” but also to other musical elements of a piece. Examples in Canto include timbre, texture, dynamics, articulation, and various melodic and rhythmic motifs indicated by thin stems. Brown’s final assertion of “the structure [being] a result of the ‘open’ structural potential” is also clearly supported by the sections in Canto linked by double-headed arrows, but its overall structure is pre-determined. The minimalist aspect of the creation of structure through repetition should also be considered (as shown in the previous section on the postminimalist characteristics of Canto). Given that Canto is a combination of both of Feisst’s
99 definitions, it would be appropriate to think of it as a third type of “open form” composition, and to treat ten Holt’s description of Canto as “open-structured”169 not only in terms of form but also in relation to other elements.
Guy de Bièvre also supports Feisst’s view of “open form” pieces, adding that “the openness of the form has all to do with how much responsibility the composer is willing to delegate to the performer(s); what element(s) of the composition she/he is willing to abstain control over.”170 While ten Holt has given many performer freedoms, there are also limitations. Firstly, the multiple bass variations of section 88, termed “wandering parts” (Example 1, p. 74),171 can be played in different registers to that which has been notated, but these have to be “applied with caution and restraint.”172 Related to this restriction is the prohibition of octaves. 173 Ten Holt also discourages fiorituras (melodic embellishment)174 and other decorations, as they do not fit in with the style of the piece,175 and forbids performers from “[acting] as composers and [playing] notes not found in the score”176 – as “only with the use of the notated notes are the most variations possible.”177
169 “opengestructureerde.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 193. 170 De Bièvre, "Indeterminate Forms,” 9. 171 Ten Holt, preface and instructions, 2 and 3. The original, “zwerfpartijen,” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 85. 172 Ten Holt, instructions, 3. The first term may be better translated to “care,” according to the original: “Het octaveren van de zwerfpartijen dient zorgvuldig en met terughoudendheid te worden toegepast,” in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 85. The original, “Het spelen van octaven, zowel in de rechter- als de linkerhand, is ronduit verboden,” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 85. 173 Ten Holt, instructions, 3. The original, “Het spelen van octaven, zowel in de rechter- als de linkerhand, is ronduit verboden,” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 85. 174 Owen Jander, “Fioritura,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 3 February 2020, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.09704. 175 “Fiorituren, met een hand gespeelde octaven, logge bassen, grapjes en andere soorten eigengereidheden zijn stijlvijandig.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 203. 176 Ten Holt, instructions, 3. The original, “het geenszins de bedoeling is dat de spelers op de stoel van de componist gaan zitten en noten gaan spleen die niet in de partituur staan vermeld.” is in ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 85. 177 Chapter 1, note 6, p. 16.
100 4.5.2.1 Composer’s limitations versus performers’ preferences
Ten Holt’s belief that each work came into being on its own accord,178 in its own time, 179 is important to consider in the evaluation of the abovementioned limitations. He stated: “[my music is good] because it does not listen to what I want, but to what it wants itself.”180 Ten Holt advocated that each piece has its own structure,181 and the composer is a “tool” or a servant to the process of creation.182 The composer should thus only monitor the process, and also know when to step away and wait,183 to avoid expressing his/her own will over that of the work.184 This echoes the modernist ideal that was expressed by both Cage and Boulez.185
Do ten Holt’s limitations truly reflect the “will” of Canto Ostinato or are they an unconscious expression of the composer’s will on the piece? Even if one were to argue that particular aspects, such as the comment that the performers cannot be “composers” and the change in instrumental preferences, are indicative of ten Holt, others could counter that these are restrictions that fit in with approaches to performing Canto. In any case, ten Holt’s change in instrumental preferences highlights tension between the composer and the performers.
In the first edition, he states: “Nonetheless, Canto can also be interpreted as a solo work (two-handed keyboard instrument), with or without electronic
178 De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 39. 179 “In het werk, dat wil zeggen in het notenschrijven, is de factor tijd niet alleen herkenbaar als muzikale dimensie, maar vooral als wezenlijk en karakteristiek onderdeel van de werkprocedure. Deze voltrekt zich als een organisch groeiproces.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 199- 200. 180 “Waarom is mijn muziek goed; omdat ze niet luistert naar wat ik wil, maar naar wat ze zelf wil.” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 40. 181 Ibid. 182 Ten Holt describes the composer as a “werktuig” in the composition process, in Memoires, 67. 183 De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 39-40. 184 “De Rek: ‘Als je niet wacht, ga je de dingen forceren?’ Ten Holt: ‘Ja, en dan ga je uiting geven aan je eigen wil. Terwijl je uitdrukking moet geven aan de wil van het stuk zelf.’” Ibid., 40. 185 Linda Ioanna Kouvaras, Loading the Silence: Australian Sound Art in the Post-Digital Age (Abingdon: Routledge, 2013), 20, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1123200.
101 equipment.”186 However, this is omitted in the 2010 version and replaced by the preference for four pianos.187 This specificity possibly relates to the original Perpetuum, which was drafted “for four keyboard instruments.”188 The latest edition contains suggestions for a solo performer, although there is no mention of electronics.189 It is also unclear when the preface was updated to its current state, since it is dated July 1979, the same period in which the first edition was published.
Nevertheless, several solo versions of Canto have been recorded since, only one of which has been created as a multi-track recording.190 Ten Holt’s four- piano preference, however, appears to be a point of tension between the composer and the performers. Would it have been best if, for instance, ten Holt had asserted that Canto be on four pianos—with a change of the piece’s subtitle to “for four pianos”—as opposed to only stating a preference for it?
The fact that it was presented as an option perhaps explains why performers have disregarded it, both in terms of the number of pianos and of instrumentation. A number of regular Canto performers explicitly state a preference for performances on two pianos instead. Jeroen van Veen says: “I find it more beautiful and firmer if you do it with the two of us. You stay closer
186 The original, as part of the preface from 1979, “Canto kan echter ook als solostuk worden opgevat (tweehandig toetsinstrument), al of niet met elektronische hulpmiddelen” is from ten Holt, “Inleiding,” 79. 187 Note 147, p. 94. 188 “voor 4 toetsinstrumenten.” “Partituur Perpetuum,” 90. 189 “Supposing that the piece is performed by just one musician (e.g. a pianist), then he [sic] can diverge from the basic part via the given alternatives in order to create variety.” Ten Holt, preface, 2. 190 By pianists Polo de Haas, Ivo Janssen, Jeroen van Veen, and Arielle Vernède; organists Aart Bergwerff and Toon Hagen; and harpist Assia Cunego. Marimba player Peter Elbertse created his recording using multi-track: • De Haas and Vernède: “CDs,” Simeon ten Holt Foundation, http://www.simeontenholt.com/CD/index.html; • Janssen: “CD’s,” Ivo Janssen VOID Classics, https://www.voidclassics.com/eng/content/cds/VOID9910.html; • Van Veen, Bergwerff, and Elbertse: CDs 1 , 7, and 9 in “Ten Holt: Canto Ostinato XL,” Catalogue, Brilliant Classics, https://www.brilliantclassics.com/articles/t/ten-holt- canto-ostinato-xl/; • Hagen: “Canto Ostinato,” CD’s, Toon Hagen, https://www.toonhagen.nl/product/canto-ostinato/; and • Cunego: “Canto Ostinato for Harp,” Etcetera Records, https://www.etcetera-records.com/album/152/canto-ostinato-for-harp. All links accessed 3 May 2020.
102 to the score, it is truer. With four pianos it gets something pompous and grand.”191 De Haas echoes the sentiment: “Canto is more beautiful on two pianos than on four. It is most transparent with two pianos. Then what is happening is crystal clear. If more instruments are added, it becomes thicker, heavier.”192
Given that these performers have had a wealth of experience in realising Canto, while the composer only played in its premiere (25 April 1979), 193 does it depend on each person’s individual preferences? Performers have gone beyond keyboard instruments and ten Holt’s preferences, with arrangements for cello octet, 194 saxophone octet, 195 string quartet, 196 orchestra, 197 and a group comprising of keyboard, wind and string instruments.198
4.5.2.2 Barthes’ “The Death of the Author” and the “ideal” performance(s)
The situations presented above demonstrate the destabilisation of long-held ideas in the Western art tradition, namely the primacy of the composer and the concept of the work, and the resulting tensions. In this final section, the performers’ status will be re-evaluated according to the 1968, early-postmodern
191 “Ik vind het mooier en strakker als je het met zijn tweeën doet. Je blijft dichter bij de partituur, het is waarheidsgetrouwer. Met vier piano’s krijgt het toch iets pompeus en groots.” Van Veen and van Veen, “Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 136. 192 “Canto is mooier op twee vleugels dan op vier. Met twee vleugels is het het meest doorzichtig. Dan is het glashelder wat er gebeurt. Als er meer instrumenten bij komen, wordt het dikker, zwaartillender.” De Haas and Wieringa, “Niemand voert Canto goed uit,” 157. 193 Ten Holt, Memoires, 203. 194 “Canto Ostinato for cello,” Recordings, Stichting Simeon ten Holt, accessed 10 July 2019, https://www.simeontenholt.info/recordings/100094. 195 “Dutch Saxophone Octet will record Canto Ostinato,” Latest News, Donemus, 24 May 2019, accessed 10 July 2019, http://donemus.nl/dutch-saxophone-octet-will-record-canto-ostinato/. 196 Ruurd Walinga, “Twee wereldpremières op City Proms: ‘Messa di gloria’ voor harmonium en ‘Canto Ostinato’ voor strijkers,” Friesch Dagblad, 27 June 2019, https://frieschdagblad.nl/2019/6/27/twee-wereldpremieres-op-city-proms-messa-di-gloria- voor-harmonium-en-canto-ostinato-voor- strijkers?harvest_referrer=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. 197 “Composition: Canto ostinato : Version for orchestra / Simeon ten Holt; orchestration Anthony Fiumara,” Donemus webshop, accessed 10 July 2019, https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/14964. 198 “VICTOR KRAUS GROUP plays Canto Ostinato,” Blog, Stichting Simeon ten Holt, 28 February 2019, accessed 10 July 2019, https://www.simeontenholt.info/blog/201902.
103 concept “The Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes (1915-80),199 while ten Holt’s problematic notion of an “ideal performance” of Canto will be examined.200
The erosion of authority can be better understood as examples of Jonathan Kramer’s view that the meaning of postmodernist music is created by audiences,201 and “The Death of the Author,” whereby
a text is made of multiple writings, drawn from many cultures and entering into mutual relations of dialogue, parody, contestation, but there is one place where this multiplicity is focused and that place is the reader, not, as was hitherto said, the author. The reader is […] simply that someone who holds together in a single field all the traces by which the written text is constituted. […] the birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the Author.202
Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song note here the performers’ role in relation to listeners in a musical work: the “reader” in music “can be both performers and listeners. Unlike literary readers, listeners do not have direct access to a ‘text’ but need to be mediated by a performer.”203
Joe and Song further clarify that in certain types of indeterminate music, such as those incorporating indeterminacy in performance (such as in Canto) and those notated as graphic scores, only performers become “co-authors” of those compositions and “the openness of aleatoric music is closed and fixed at the time of performance” for the audience. 204 Thus, because the performer is
199 Date of “The Death of the Author” from Sources in Image Music Text, by Roland Barthes, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana Press, 1977), 13. Birth and death years of Barthes obtained from foreword of the abovementioned source (no page number). 200 “De ideale uitvoering zullen we ooit nog wel eens meemaken.” Ten Holt, Memoires, 204, and de Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 55. 201 Chapter 2, note 2, p. 22. 202 Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author,” in Image Music Text, trans. Stephen Heath (London: Fontana Press, 1977), 148. 203 Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song, “Roland Barthes’ ‘Text’ and Aleatoric Music: is the ‘Birth of the Reader’ the Birth of the Listener?,” Muzikologija, no. 2 (2002), 268, http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2002/1450-98140202263J.pdf. 204 Ibid., 270.
104 elevated to “co-author” status, it is evident that they would have differing or even conflicting opinions with the composer, as shown in the many interpretations regarding instrumentation.
The second issue is ten Holt’s belief of an “ideal performance” of Canto.205 He said although he had not heard it, “You cannot actually say that, because there are many people who also play it very well; but I assume it can always be better. Although there are performances that have come very close to the ideal.”206 However, he does not say anything more on this, nor give any kind of criteria.
How can an indeterminate score result in an ideal performance? Canto was created to allow performers to interact with one another, resulting in a multitude of realisations. Perhaps once ten Holt had published the piece and it became widely performed, he realised that there could be a performance that he would like the most. As detailed in Chapter Three, rather than using the traditional idea of the work as highlighted by Lydia Goehr, a more appropriate definition is that Canto exists as the sum of all of its realisations. However, an ideal performance would diminish the importance of all other realisations, thereby negating Canto’s aleatoric nature.
Another reading is that it is not a single performance that is the ideal, but rather, a group of performances that constitute the ideal of Canto realisations. This idea is supported by the indeterminate notation, which ensures that nothing would be the same across multiple performances, except possibly tempo, or the timbre of pianos. However, even these elements are subject to variation depending on, for instance, the acoustics of the performance venue.
One could also argue that there is no absolute ideal: what is one’s ideal is not necessarily another’s. In 1999, ten Holt was quoted as saying: “My own idea
205 Note 200, p. 104. 206 “De Rek: ‘[De ideale uitvoering] heb je nog nooit gehoord?’ Ten Holt: ‘Ik denk het niet nee. Zoiets mag je eigenlijk niet zeggen, want er zijn genoeg mensen die het ook heel goed spelen; maar ik ga ervan uit dat het altijd nog beter kan. Al zijn er wel uitvoeringen die grenzen aan het ideale.’” De Rek, “Interview met ten Holt,” 56.
105 about the ideal performance is not per definition the only right one.”207 In that case, if ten Holt’s ideal is not the same as that of a performer, or if the performer already has an ideal that they are striving towards (independently of ten Holt), what becomes of the composer’s ideal? Is that the absolute that performers should be striving for? With no specific criteria given by the composer, the notion of a possible absolute ideal or an absolute group of ideal performances is futile to pursue, once more pointing to ‘the death of the author.’
As the people who bring the score to “life,” the performers warrant a closer examination. As mentioned, Canto creates “an open scenario” where ten Holt “[appealed] to the creation of the performers”208 and where the piece would grow to be independent from him. This implies that since the composer’s passing, Canto’s fate will be decided by the performers, a clear indication of Joe and Song’s observation of the performers’ roles as “co-authors.”
Additionally, without any criteria from ten Holt regarding the ideal, performers may be more inclined to create their own ideals. Ten Holt’s statement that “Canto Ostinato is music where time and space have to be taken to grow together, to discover the interplay between interactivity and skill in piano playing” implies the importance of long-term rehearsal between a minimum of two musicians.209 Over time, it is likely that the performers will be familiar and intimate with each other and the piece and will develop their individual interpretations. Each performer’s realisation of Canto becomes each of their ideals, as shown by de Haas’ declaration: “I think no one performs [Canto] well, except [Kees Wieringa and I]. Perhaps that sounds arrogant, but I think that every good pianist finds his own interpretation the best.”210 This is also a clear example of Barthes’ “the birth of the reader” (the “reader” in this case being one of the performers).
207 This quote is under the heading “2. Interpretation” in “Canto Ostinato,” More Pianos, Works, Stichting Simeon ten Holt, accessed 11 November 2019, https://www.simeontenholt.info/works/id/100030. 208 Note 109, p. 85. 209 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16. 210 “Ik vind dat niemand het goed uitvoert, behalve wij. Dat klinkt misschien arrogant, maar ik denk dat elke geode pianist zijn eigen interpretatie de beste vindt.” De Haas and Wieringa, “Niemand voert Canto goed uit,” 154.
106 De Haas’ idea that “every good pianist finds his own interpretation the best” also implies some form of competition, whether implicit or explicit, between Canto performers. It is likely that de Haas’ statement is true and each performer is always attempting to create a “better” realisation than other Canto musicians. One can even speculate if ten Holt’s statement of the ideal was simply a ploy to ensure Canto’s longevity through these performers, explaining the absence of any criteria of the ideal and reinforcing the notion that there is no absolute ideal.
What of the listener? Joe and Song’s suggestion that the audience cannot perceive the open nature of indeterminate compositions during the performance can mean that what a listener hears of a piece for the first time in a concert or on a recording may become the ideal of that piece for that listener, even with subsequent hearings. This view also strengthens the case that there is no absolute ideal, because each listener attends different concerts or plays different recordings of Canto from another.
A listener’s engagement with the piece could also vary with time. For instance, with multiple hearings of a particular recording that the listener regarded as the ideal, one could become bored and no longer consider that recording the ideal. On the other hand, one could also discover new elements with each hearing of a recording or across many concerts of the same piece, increasing the likelihood of the recording becoming the person’s ideal or of finding a new ideal or ideals.
The above discussion demonstrates the role that performers assume as “co- authors” in indeterminate compositions, and highlights the complexities of the notion of an ideal performance, which is contradictory to a piece that is indeterminate in performance. Indeed, would “sticking with” one’s favourite approach as a performer, if one happened to settle on such, go against the “spirit” of the work and its experimentalist ethos? In any case, the definitions and conception of the ideal can be fluid from the perspectives of the performers and listeners of Canto, a strong indication of “the birth of the reader,” while at
107 the same time, ten Holt’s own words suggest that he as a composer is “reborn” as a “reader,” too, when experiencing different realisations of the work.
4.6 Conclusion
This chapter contextualises Canto’s score within the dominant musical periods of its time and analyses the piece in relation to biographical elements of ten Holt. The resulting investigation into the various concepts of improvisational, minimalist, and indeterminate music and the ways the composer used them in Canto, and into his beliefs associated with certain concepts such as tonality, has produced a multi-faceted picture of the piece. Repetition is used in specific ways: firstly, to connect two seemingly disparate fields, notated minimalist music and indeterminacy in performance, and secondly, to allow the work to assume independence from the composer.
Ten Holt’s beliefs and connotations regarding the concept of tonality are discussed. One of these ideas is his connection of tonality with physicality, his “re-appreciation of the sensuality”211 in his return to composing at the piano and to tonal composition. His return to tonality also involved a variation through “tonality after the death of tonality,” where tonal chords are used non- functionally. Additionally, comments by the composer and various performers and listeners of Canto suggest that the work’s physical and emotional impacts are an effect of the music’s focus on the present.
The idea of a composition coming into its own is clearly contradicted by the restriction on performers to adhere to the notated score. To what extent does ten Holt truly allow Canto Ostinato to “grow” with the performers? Does this question even have validity, given that the performers have created realisations of Canto specific to themselves? This points to an erosion of authority, as Barthes asserted in “the death of the author,” but what does this mean for future
211 Note 51, p. 65.
108 performers of Canto? For instance, should they follow the composer’s preference for four-piano realisations, several performers’ experiences of two- piano realisations, or, in keeping with the spirit of the score and the aesthetics of the experimentalist movement out of which it emerged, should they come up with their own ideas?
Related to the question of authority is the intriguing concept of the ideal performance. For ten Holt, some Canto performances have come close to an ideal. However, a lack of guidance as to what constitutes the ideal, and the fact that performers are ever-creative in their instrumentations and realisations of Canto, point to several possibilities. There may indeed be myriad ideals (of the composer, the performer, and the audience). Having investigated this notion briefly from those viewpoints, the next chapter focuses on the perspective of the performer by examining the duo recordings by the van Veens, two of ten Holt’s greatest advocates, in relation to the composer’s statement that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible.”212
212 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16.
109 Chapter 5: Analysis of the van Veen duo recordings
The foregoing chapters have contextualised the score of Canto Ostinato, evaluating several claims by writer Paul Janssen regarding Simeon ten Holt’s musical impact, highlighting how the composer’s beliefs manifest in his best- known work, and demonstrating Canto’s many similarities with Terry Riley’s In C. Other issues relating to the nature of a “work” have also been examined, such as alternative definitions in relation to Canto and Roland Barthes’ “The Death of the Author.” 4.5.2.1 Composer’s limitations versus performers’ preferences (pp. 101-3) highlighted tension regarding instrumentation between ten Holt and various performers of his music, one of whom is Jeroen van Veen.
This chapter builds on these points through an examination of the seven duo recordings of Canto Ostinato by Sandra and Jeroen van Veen. As they are prominent advocates and performers of ten Holt’s music who have made many Canto recordings, it is thus appropriate to analyse their recordings to better understand Canto as a whole. Select sections of the recordings will be discussed via the research question: How does the dichotomy between pre- determined structure and indeterminacy in Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato play out in the recordings of the van Veen duo? The structures that emerge in the recordings will also be discussed in relation to the topics of the previous chapter, which are addressed in two subsidiary questions: What minimalist/experimentalist compositional tension points are revealed in the duo’s approach to structure? and What of composerly intentionality, particularly with reference to ten Holt’s belief that the most variations can arise from fidelity to the score?
Tension between order and disorder and the changed concept of form in the twentieth century are important factors in response to the dichotomy between organization and indeterminacy and to the intersection between minimalism and experimentalism. The final question will be explored via the issue of authorial intent and the notion of performer obligations to the composer, taking into consideration the close relationship between ten Holt and the van Veens
110 and the supposed endorsement of one of the duo’s recordings by the composer. This chapter also illustrates that the composer-performer relationship becomes more collaborative through an indeterminate work.
5.1 The ten Holt-van Veen relationship and recordings analysed in this thesis
Sandra (née Mol) (1969-) and Jeroen van Veen (1968-) had a long association with ten Holt during his lifetime, beginning with their first duo recording (incidentally of Canto) in 1996 and their visit to the composer in 1997.1 Jeroen also established the Simeon ten Holt Foundation in 2003 and is its president, while Sandra is its secretary.2 The weight that these performers accord to the importance of ten Holt is clear in their vision for the Foundation, which was created expressly
to promote the music from the Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt. By organising concerts, lectures, masterclasses, [CD- and book productions] we would like to introduce more people into the world of [ten Holt’s] music.3
In addition to various performances and recordings of Canto as a duo, Jeroen regularly performs solo versions of Canto.4 In the early- to mid-2010s, he also
1 Simeon ten Holt, Het Woud en de Citadel: Memoires van een componist (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2009), 318. 2 “Foundation,” Contact, Simeon ten Holt Foundation, http://www.simeontenholt.com/contact/foundation/index.html. The date of founding is from “Contact,” Simeon ten Holt Foundation, http://www.simeontenholt.com/contact/index.html. Both links accessed 24 July 2019. This foundation should not be confused with the Stichting Simeon ten Holt (which also translates to the Simeon ten Holt Foundation) established in July 2015. See “About,” Stichting Simeon ten Holt, accessed 13 September 2019, https://www.simeontenholt.info/editorial/about. 3 “Foundation,” Simeon ten Holt Foundation. 4 See the concert history in “Concerten,” Ligconcert, accessed 2 September 2019, http://www.ligconcert.nl/concertagenda/index.html. Some examples of Jeroen’s solo Canto concerts are on 7 February 2019 in Rotterdam and 19 May 2019 in Zierikzee.
111 conducted workshops for beginner and advanced pianists on how to play Canto.5 This thesis focuses on the seven duo recordings of Canto Ostinato by the van Veens, from their first one in 1996 to the most recent one in 2013. Their extensive performance history as a duo and realising Canto, together with their close relationship with ten Holt and his compositions, provide a wealth of recorded material for the examination of an indeterminate work through many realisations from the same artists. These recordings are in Table 4.6 All live recordings were made on acoustic pianos, while the two studio recordings are on prepared pianos and synthesizers respectively. The particular connections that the February 2008 recording and the synthesizer recording hold in relation to ten Holt will be outlined later.
5 “Workshop,” Projects, Jeroen van Veen, accessed 13 September 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/projects/workshop/. 6 See Appendix II (pp. 201-5) for full details regarding discrepancies in catalogue numbers, dates of recording, and numbers of discs.
112 113 114 5.1.1 Composer preference for the February 2008 recording
According to Jeroen van Veen, the recording made in February 2008 was endorsed by ten Holt,7 although the author has not been able to substantiate these claims. The pianist published a blog post on 25 October 2009 regarding this recording, part of which states:
We are proud to announce that Simeon ten Holt finds our latest CD – the one with the tulips on the album cover – the best in terms of recording and layout/form. It is and always stays different, certainly with Canto Ostinato, but he thinks that this one can overwrite all other recordings! As a piano duo, you of course cannot receive a better compliment from the composer.8
The CD product page of the second release also states it is “different from [the] previous recording, [and] now with composer edits.”9 In the 2008 release, there is silence following the final part H, before part I is played four times. However, in the later release, the silence is omitted, and part I is only played twice. These differences have been summarised in Table 5. This issue of composer support will be revisited in 5.3.2 The fluid composer-performer relationship (pp. 141- 44).
7 See the descriptions at the top of “Canto Ostinato (tulips)” and “Canto Ostinato (Composers Choice),” CDs, Jeroen van Veen, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page11/page11.html and http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page35/page35.html. Both links accessed 20 May 2020. 8 “Vol trots kunnen we melden dat Simeon ten Holt onze laatste Cd met de tulpen erop de beste qua opname en indeling/vorm vindt. Het is en blijft altijd weer anders, zeker bij de Canto Ostinato, maar hij vindt dat deze alle andere opnames mag overschrijven! Een beter compliment kan je als pianoduo natuurlijk niet krijgen van de componist.” Jeroen van Veen, “(no title),” Simeon ten Holt (blog), 25 October 2009, http://simeontenholt.blogspot.com/2009/10/. 9 “Canto Ostinato (Composers Choice),” Jeroen van Veen.
115 Year of Track number / Realisation release timing NB: Part I is part 32 in Chart 2b
2008 20 / Part H: 1x Silence Part I: 4x 0:06:24–0:06:37
2011 1 / Part H: 1x Silence Part I: 2x omitted 1:07:49–1:07:58
This extract can also be heard (0:06:20– 0:06:28) at “Canto Ostinato for Two Pianos: Section 89,” Jeroen Van Veen – Topic, 21 March 2015, video, https://youtu.be/35X G5QE6Byo.
Table 5: Differences in the 2008 and 2011 releases of the February 2008 recording. Score extract: Section 91, parts H and I from ten Holt, Canto, 54-55.
116 5.2 Pre-determined structure in the recordings
Chapter Four highlighted that the score of Canto Ostinato allows for various permutations. In the recordings by Sandra and Jeroen van Veen, the tension between pre-determined structure and indeterminacy is apparent. I argue that this tension between structure and indeterminacy is intensified via three specific performance practices: part omissions and specific amounts of repetition; additional repeats; and the additive process.
5.2.1 Part omissions and specific amounts of repetition in sections 88 and 91
Sections 88 and 91 are present in all recordings except the one from 1996, while the 2010 recording omits section 88 (see Table 6). The structural techniques of part omissions and specific amounts of repetition are present in the majority of the recordings. They are visually represented in Charts 2a and 2b,10 or can be listened to using the audio listings in Table 6.
As shown in Chart 2a, both techniques are used in section 88 of the live recordings from February 2008, July 2008, 2011, and 2012. The February 2008 recording (blue bars) is the first one to display these characteristics and thus could be the first one in which the van Veens came up with the idea of structuring Canto. The July 2008 and 2012 recordings (red and green bars respectively) are highly similar, indicating a refinement of these techniques over time. The 2011 recording (black bars) omits different parts in the beginning of section 88 (it has the same omissions as the other recordings from part 18, Cv onwards), suggesting an experimentation with different structures. Chart 2b for section 91 also indicates a similar picture, although it should be noted that there are no part omissions for this section. The 2010 recording is included in this chart as it (mostly) conforms to the trend.
10 These charts do not display the parts that are bridges and only played once.
117 118 119 120 121 In contrast to the above recordings, the studio recording from 2013 displays the “default” approach to Canto—that is, indeterminacy—with all parts played and arbitrary amounts of repetition. More importantly, despite the structuring in the live recordings, the realisations offer an analogous experience of indeterminacy as in the 2013 recording, akin to what Steve Reich describes in “Music as a Gradual Process”:
[even] when the cards are on the table and everyone hears what is gradually happening in a musical process, there are still enough mysteries to satisfy all. These mysteries are the impersonal, unintended, psychoacoustic by-products of the intended process.11
The inability of a listener to perceive the structures in the live recordings recalls the postminimalist characteristic of composing via intuition,12 where process is no longer the dominant approach to creating a piece. In this case, the structure ironically (re)creates a sense of Canto’s “default” indeterminacy. The subsequent examples of additional repeats of particular parts and of the additive process, however, allow the listener to distinguish the structures used, creating tension between organised and indeterminate parts of the work.
5.2.2 Additional repeats in the 2013 recording
The creation of additional repeats in the 2013 recording are linked to ten Holt’s electronic music period and the concept of repetition in Canto Ostinato through their presence as literal echoes (the simplest form of audio delay).13 As Jeroen van Veen writes of this recording:
11 Steve Reich, “Music as a Gradual Process (1968),” in Writings on Music, 1965- 2000, ed. Paul Hillier (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), chapter 2b, https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151152.001.0001/acpro f-9780195151152. 12 K. Robert Schwarz, “Process vs. Intuition in the Recent Works of Steve Reich and John Adams,” American Music 8, no. 3 (Autumn 1990): 245-73, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052096. 13 Joshua D. Reiss and Andrew McPherson, “Delay Line Effects,” in Audio Effects: Theory, Implementation and Application (Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015), 21, https://books.google.com.au/books?id=mlHSBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q& f=false.
122 When Simeon ten Holt composed Canto Ostinato he was also working on electronic compositions, and he used one of the first synthesizers at [the Institute of] Sonology in Utrecht. If one listens to his Aforisme I-VI [Aphorisms I-VI],14 dating from 1972-74, it is easy to detect his great interest in the behaviour of sound, various delays and sound manipulation. I used these parameters as a source of inspiration when creating this new version for two keyboards utilising the onboard samples and various sounds controlled via MIDI; with [ten] Holt’s knowledge, his music from 1976 and instruments from today all mixed together, the result was a new and inspiring long version for two keyboards.15
The additional repeats occur in sections 88, 91, and 60 to 68 as a whole. I will briefly detail these repeats in this order.
The F variation and A parts in the middle of section 88 (parts 32 and 33 of Chart 2a) were chosen for the additional repeats. Jeroen van Veen’s comments about “various delays and sound manipulation” are clear in the realisation of the bass voices of the A parts (see coloured sections of Example 8a), the first time on the main bass part in various registers (see the column “First part A” of Table 7a), the second on the fragmentation of the first wandering part (see the column “Repeated part A” of Table 7a). Both are played 24 times each and have similar structures.
14 As mentioned, the second of this set of works has several similarities to Canto Ostinato. Chapter 4, note 93, p. 72. 15 Jeroen van Veen, liner notes to “CD11-12: synthesizers,” in Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato XL, various recordings, Brilliant Classics BC 9453, 1999-2013, compact disc, 10.
123 124 125 126 Equivalent F and A parts (parts 23 to 24 of Chart 2b) in section 91 are also subjected to additional repeats, with the ostinato omitted at times and alternating timbres for the main melody and the treble variation (see coloured sections of Example 8b for the score and Table 7b for a visual representation of the van Veens’ realisation). These additional repeats were structured using a number of different timbres, which I have designated as T1 (timbre 1), T1’ (a timbre similar to timbre 1), and T2 (timbre 2).
Treble variation (TV)
Melody
Example 8b: Sections 91, parts F and A from ten Holt, Canto, 51.
127 128 129 The last example of additional repeats in the 2013 recording are sections 60 to 68 (Example 9). It should be noted that this technique is used in all recordings except the 1996 one, and is extended in the 2013 recording. Where the trend is to play each section four times and then play sections 60 to 68 once more as a whole, the 2013 recording features these sections four times as a whole and varies the realisation of the ostinato in the additional repeats (Table 8).
130 131 132 133 It is clear from the above examples of additional repeats that the 2013 recording was one of increased experimentation with Canto’s structure. The additional repeats are also an instance where the performers play a greater role in organising the form of the work, a topic that will be revisited in 5.3 Discussion (pp. 138-44). These various examples have different effects on the listener. Although the durations of the additional repeats of sections 88 and 91 are highly similar to the initial realisations (see “Part duration” columns in Tables 7a and 7b), suggesting a “balanced” approach, one could argue that the listener is unlikely to perceive that, due to the large number of repetitions, particularly in section 88.
On the other hand, in relation to sections 60 to 68, given that the work will typically have featured random amounts of repetition for each section prior to section 60, the sudden shift to a set, balanced structure of four repetitions each and the repeat of the sections as a whole are likely to act as a kind of aural checkpoint for the audience. The clear audibility of this structure creates tension between these highly organised sections and those realised via indeterminacy.
5.2.3 The additive process in the studio recordings The final technique examined in this chapter is the additive process. This consists of three types;16 the one in question is most associated with works by Philip Glass (1937-),17 such as Music in Fifths, Music in Similar Motion, and Einstein on the Beach. 18 Gann, Potter, and ap Siôn describe the additive process as a pattern undergoing an addition or a subtraction of notes, “such as 1, 1+2, 1+2+3, 1+2+3+4 and so on.”19
16 Kyle Gann, Keith Potter, and Pwyll ap Siôn, “Introduction: experimental, minimalist, postminimalist? Origins, definitions, communities,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, ed. Keith Potter, Kyle Gann, and Pwyll ap Siôn (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016), 27, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1426849. 17 Tristian Evans, “Glass, Philip,” Grove Music Online, published online 26 March 2018, accessed 3 June 2021, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view.10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001 /omo-9781561592630-e-3000000124. 18 Gann, Potter, and ap Siôn, “Introduction,” 27. 19 Ibid.
134 The additive process is used alongside specific amounts of repetition in the opening of the 2010 recording (Table 9) and across sections 41 to 50 in the 2013 recording (see Example 2, p. 75, for the score). Apart from the first two times that section 41 is played (white boxes of the row Section 41 in Table 10), all other repetitions are in multiples of four. Sections 42 to 46 are added one at a time and are always played 12 times each (repetitions 1 to 5 in Table 10), while the remaining sections are added two at a time in the final two repetitions (repetitions 6 and 7 in Table 10).
135 136 137 In both examples, it would be fairly easy for the listener to distinguish the structures. However, the final section or repetition being longer than before (see two rightmost boxes in the last row of Table 9 and rightmost box in the last row of Table 10) weakens the structures that have been established. This is particularly pertinent to the 2013 recording, where the repetitions, being in multiples of four just as in the previously-mentioned sections 60 to 68, are regular and balanced and thus easy to follow. Lengthening the number of times a section is repeated gives the sense that the music is returning to indeterminacy, making it harder for the listener to keep track of. The van Veens’ realisation of Canto using a well-known minimalist technique also aligns the work with the general minimalist movement and emphasises its minimalist characteristics.
These examples have illustrated some ways in which the van Veens have organised certain parts of Canto Ostinato in their duo recordings. The next section will examine these structures in relation to the changing ideas of form in the twentieth century and how these impact the composer, performer, and listener.
5.3 Discussion
The examples above illustrate the resulting tension between order and disorder and a transformation of the concept of form, two of the greatest issues in twentieth-century music. These will be explored as part of the question: What minimalist/experimentalist compositional tension points are revealed in the duo’s approach to structure? The perspective of the listener will also be briefly considered. Another point of interest is the role of the performer and their relationship to the composer. This will be discussed with the question, What of composer intentionality, particularly with reference to ten Holt’s belief that the most variations can arise from fidelity to the score?
138 5.3.1 Order versus disorder: listener effect
In response to the first subsidiary question, What minimalist/experimentalist compositional tension points are revealed in the duo’s approach to structure?, the van Veens’ realisations of Canto Ostinato reflect both experimentalism’s indeterminacy and also the fully determinate approaches typical of (post)minimalism or serialism. The re-creation of form through the composer and performers is also clear. The score of Canto Ostinato as written by ten Holt is mostly predetermined, as he believes:
Although all parts of Canto have their fixed position in its progress and are not interchangeable without violating the melodic line, the internal logic and form, beginning and end do not have absolute meaning as boundaries of form.20
However, as demonstrated in the previous chapter, a number of double-headed arrows between sections increase the flexibility of form: “one can either go back or forward in one’s choice of sections and that, depending on the harmonies, certain sections can be combined.”21 The option for flexibility of structure—via part omissions, specific numbers of repetition, additional repeats, and the additive process—has been adopted by the van Veens in other parts of Canto that do not have double-headed arrows, indicating the performers’ new roles as co-composers. The revised relationship between these parties will be revisited in the following section.
The listener is also impacted in this reinvention of form, likely assuming a greater role in interpretation. As Jonathan Kramer highlights, “[postmodern music] locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers.”22 However, this is dependent on the listener’s perception: in sections 88 and 91 of many of the van Veens’ live recordings, the structures created by part omissions and specific numbers of repetition are
20 Simeon ten Holt, preface to Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments, trans. Ted Szanto (Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010), 2. 21 Ibid. 22 Chapter 2, note 2, pp. 22.
139 not detectable aurally, reflecting the effects of serialist music. The listener is also unlikely to perceive the structures of the additional repeats in the same sections of the 2013 recording. However, the structure of the subsequent examples of sections 60 to 68 and the use of the additive process are clear instances of Reich’s “perceptible processes”23 as they are easily heard.
It is also worth considering how a listener will react in relation to the ability to perceive structure. In works from earlier musical periods, tonality and structure are strongly connected, and form is realised as written. It is possible (or, at least easier) to perceive structure from both the score and its realisation. In contrast to prior musical styles, minimalist, mid-twentieth-century high modernist and experimentalist works tend to display more pliable formal structures and a lack of teleology:
When listening to minimalist music, we begin, out of habit (unless minimalism is our accustomed repertoire), to listen for events that cue us in to what’s going on in the music, how long the piece is going to last, what scale its sections are arranged in and so forth. Minimalist music quite often denies us or delays these cues, irritating some listeners and giving others a freeing sensation that the passage of time, the articulated structure of the piece, need not be kept track of. Some of us feel happier.24
Although this passage is focusing on minimalist music, these descriptions are also appropriate in describing a listener’s perspective on experimental, indeterminate music. As one who has listened extensively to the van Veens’ duo recordings of Canto and become familiar with their “default” techniques— that is, the omission of parts in section 88, specific amounts of repetition of various parts of sections 88 and 91, playing sections 60 to 68 four times each followed by a repeat as a whole—the 2013 recording in particular, with the additional repeats and the use of the additive process on sections 41 to 50, surprised me and subverted my expectations of the duo’s realisations.
23 Reich, “Music as a Gradual Process.” 24 Gann, Potter, and ap Siôn, “Introduction,” 29-30.
140 Structuring an indeterminate work and then altering and/or extending that structure highlighted the fact that there are still many possibilities of realising a piece such as Canto and also made for a different listening experience: realising that this recording did not follow the van Veens’ “norm” made me more curious and attentive.
In the case of a listener who has not listened to all of the van Veens’ duo recordings and does not have access to a score, the structures that are audibly perceptible could act as abovementioned “cues.” How closely one is listening could also impact their ability to audibly perceive structure, and, by extension, their reaction, thus returning to Kramer’s statement that “[postmodern music] locates meaning and even structure in listeners.”25
5.3.2 The fluid composer-performer relationship
This section of the discussion focuses on the final question of this chapter: What of composerly intentionality, particularly with reference to ten Holt’s belief that the most variations can arise from fidelity to the score? Another issue that will be examined is that of the performer’s obligations to the composer.
In response to the question, it was noted in Chapter Four that the composer has a somewhat contradictory stance in Canto Ostinato. On one hand, ten Holt “[established] a platform and […] [appealed] to the creation of the performers,”26 suggesting that the performers have free rein in how to realise the work. Yet, he also put forward specific preferences, such as four-piano performances, and imposed bans on what can be played. One of his most restrictive statements is: “it is worth remembering that the players are by no means allowed to act as composers and play notes not found in the score.”27 Ten Holt’s contradictory remarks towards the performers reflect the notion of control versus
25 Chapter 2, note 2, pp. 22. 26 Chapter 4, note 109, p. 85. 27 Simeon ten Holt, instructions to Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments (Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010), 3. Original text in Chapter 4, note 176, p. 100.
141 indeterminacy. His limitations can be seen as an attempt to structure the realisations of Canto, an approach indicating his modernist origins—and, more specifically, the serialist and minimalist characteristic of determinism—while offering performer choice highlights the concept of indeterminacy.
The composer’s belief that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible” should also be addressed. 28 At first glance, this statement also appears contradictory with its mix between order (“prescribed notes”) and disorder (“most variations possible”). It is also likely related to the above quote where performers cannot be “composers and play notes not found in the score.” However, this belief of having multiplicity within a given range highlights that there is great scope within the notes that ten Holt has given. As covered in Chapter Four, the performers are able to vary the notes through dynamics, articulation, amounts of repetition, and (limited) transposition. This indicates that ten Holt and the performers are in a more equal relationship, in contrast to the hierarchy that exists in a traditional relationship between work, composer, and performer. In the case of Canto, ten Holt provides—undoubtedly among many other aspects such as meter and suggestions for realising the work—the notes, while the performers create realisations from the provided “raw material.”
Can it thus be argued that the composer is not the composer, but a composer, of an indeterminate work? A traditional interpretation is that the performers should do their best to realise the work with the composer’s intentions in mind. However, the examples above indicate the van Veens adopted a more independent approach from the composer. Their organisations of sections 88 and 91 still achieve indeterminacy—the same result than ten Holt had intended. This, together with their creation of additional repeats and use of the additive process, indicates a role surpassing that of performer. As Joe and Song point
28 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16.
142 out in their discussion of Roland Barthes, performers become “co-authors” or co-composers in indeterminate compositions.29
The close relationship between ten Holt and the van Veens in the composer’s lifetime should also be considered, especially the supposed endorsement of the February 2008 recording as “the best in terms of […] layout/form”30 and the presence of composer edits in its second release (2011), summarised in Table 5 (p. 116). These strengthen the case that the relationship between composer and performer are more collaborative than ever.
Yet, there are still hints of performer obligations to the composer. Regarding ten Holt’s supposed praise for the February 2008 recording, Jeroen van Veen also stated that “[as] a piano duo, you of course cannot receive a better compliment from the composer.”31 This statement indicates that the performers remain “indebted” to the composer in one way or another.
However, one could argue that the performers hold more power in their relations to the composer. The composer’s side of the collaboration is forever static with his/her passing (in the form of the score), while the performers are constantly re-inventing with each realisation of Canto Ostinato. One instance is instrumentation. As discussed in Chapter Four, many musicians have arranged Canto for non-keyboard instruments, disregarding ten Holt’s preference for four-piano realisations. However, many other recordings have been created according to the composer’s preference,32 suggesting that some
29 Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song, “Roland Barthes’ ‘Text’ and Aleatoric Music: is the ‘Birth of the Reader’ the Birth of the Listener?,” Muzikologija, no. 2 (2002), 270, http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2002/1450-98140202263J.pdf. 30 Note 8, p. 115. 31 Ibid. 32 Some examples are those by: • Gerard Bouwhuis, Gene Carl, Arielle Vernède, and Cees van Zeeland (1988). “Canto Ostinato,” Recordings, Stichting Simeon ten Holt, https://www.simeontenholt.info/recordings/100082;jsessionid=E5838D8B33AE7B29E A1C276EE138F677; • Fred Oldenburg, Irene Russo, and Sandra and Jeroen van Veen (2005). “Canto Ostinato for four pianos,” CD, Canto Ostinato, http://canto-ostinato.com/styled- 4/styled-9/index.html; • The Rondane Quartet (2010). “Canto Ostinato,” Repertoire, Rondane Kwartet, https://en.rondanekwartet.nl/canto-ostinato; and
143 performers may choose to fulfil whatever obligations they may feel to the composer, while others do not.
To conclude, in contrast to traditional structures and values, form and the roles of the composer, performer, and listener are greatly changed in the twentieth century. Just as form is more fluid, so is the relationship between composer and performer. The listener is also re-educated in their notions of form and sense of teleology.
5.4 Conclusion
This chapter examined the van Veens’ duo recordings of Canto Ostinato through the structural techniques of part omissions, specific amounts of repetition, additional repeats, and employment of the additive process. These recordings highlight the tension between pre-determined structure and indeterminacy and the intersection between minimalist and experimental music. The perspectives of the composer, performer, and listener were also compared with traditional roles and ideas about form, with the former two in a more equal relationship in the re-invention of form, while the listener is introduced to changing ideas of form. The relationship between composer and performer is also more fluid: although performers are more like co-composers, some still uphold the notion of the importance of the composer and the work.
The position of the composer in open form compositions will be evaluated further in the penultimate chapter of this thesis. Other topics include the possible reasons for and implications of the van Veens’ semi-structured realisations of Canto; the variety of unconventional approaches taken by the duo in other performance aspects of Canto; and avenues for further research.
• Alexej Lubimov, Alexander Melnikov, Slava Poprugin, and Alexej Zuev (2017). “Canto Ostinato CD und DVD,” CD Recordings, Service, Steingraeber & Söhne, https://www.steingraeber.de/canto/. All links accessed 2 July 2020.
144 Chapter 6: Discussion
This thesis has thus far examined Canto Ostinato from a number of points of analysis. In Chapter Four, “The ‘melodious avant-garde,’” I identify the elements within the historical composition milieus on which the work draws, demonstrating the ways in which minimalist, indeterminate, and tonally-based elements form Canto. Elements of Simeon ten Holt’s biography are also considered in relation to the composer’s ideas on tonality, minimalism, and indeterminacy in the work. Through an examination of composer versus performer preferences, Barthes’ “The Death of the Author,” and ten Holt’s notion of an ideal performance, this chapter highlights the complex relationship between composer and performer in indeterminate compositions.
Chapter Five, “Analysis of the van Veen duo recordings,” investigates the seven duo recordings by Sandra and Jeroen van Veen in relation to ten Holt’s statement that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible.” 1 Of particular interest is their recording from February 2008. Its apparent endorsement by ten Holt appears to have motivated the piano duo to use the structures conceived in that recording as a model for subsequent recordings. The studio recordings from 2010 and 2013, however, display more variation and extension of form. The chapter also highlighted a more collaborative composer-performer relationship.
6.1 Discussion of score analysis
Some expected results have arisen from the analysis of the score in relation to the time period of its conception. Canto bears characteristics of postmodernism and postminimalism, and its precedents include improvisational elements and indeterminacy in performance. The frequent comparison of Canto to Terry Riley’s In C for an indeterminate number of performers was also examined and yielded some unexpected results, particularly with the numerous similarities
1 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16.
145 demonstrated. If the former were genuinely part of the inspiration for Canto, this would indicate a further “American” connection, which has been established through the influence of John Cage and Philip Corner.
For ten Holt, tonality extends beyond the “merely” musical, and reaches into his actual lived experience. It represented spiritual freedom for the composer: by allowing himself to return to tonal forms of composition, he was able to attain a higher level of unity with his final partner and wife. Additionally, ten Holt’s assertion that each work came into being without his intervention was shown not to stand up to scrutiny. The composer’s comments prohibiting performers from playing un-notated notes and those regarding instrumentation indicate a continued desire for authorial control, despite the experimental aesthetic of relinquishing control. Since ten Holt composed serialist music before moving to tonal music and performance indeterminacy, it is perhaps unsurprising that aspects from both types of writing and the resulting tensions are evident in this evaluation of Canto.
Paul Griffiths avers the philosophical and musical primacy of the composer of indeterminate pieces: “The composition is still the product of an individual mind, though some aspects are left indefinite; the performer has still to realise the composer’s intentions.”2 Additionally, “the most significant choices have usually remained with the composer, whether he [sic] exercised them in notating a score or in directing a performance.”3 However, the proliferation of many Canto arrangements of diverse instrumentation, some performers’ explicit preference for two-piano realisations of the piece, and the analyses of the van Veen recordings (discussed later in this chapter) complicate Griffiths’ statements.
2 Paul Griffiths, "Aleatory,” Grove Music Online, published online 2001, accessed 26 November 2019, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.00509. 3 Ibid.
146 6.2 Discussion of recordings analysis
The pre-determined structures displayed in the van Veens’ recordings—part omissions and specific amounts of repetition in sections 88 and 91, additional repeats in the 2013 recording on synthesizers, and the additive process in the studio recordings—are unexpected in Canto Ostinato, a work intended to be indeterminate in performance. However, because there are no established studies focussing on semi-structured realisations of an indeterminate piece, it is not possible to evaluate how unusual these results are in the performance practice of indeterminate compositions. I will thus focus on my view that these structures were created in response to conditions in live performance, even though the performers do not mention this. I will also examine possible aesthetic reasons for and implications of these structures in relation to the van Veens, Canto as a work, and its listeners.
6.2.1 Structures in response to live performance conditions
Several features highlighted in Chapter Five are similar across the van Veens’ five live recordings, suggesting that the determinacy presented in their recordings is a result of a desire to have increased control time limits in live performance. In a 2015 interview, Jeroen van Veen stated: “A performance of this music is, in a sense, a work in progress. The only things that we determine beforehand are who will begin the piece, and who will play the theme at section 74. Everything else—how we play, and who plays what—happens during the performance.”4
Although there is no mention of the creation of particular structures in the above quote, his recollection of a four-person performance indicates that time limits is certainly an important factor in live performance:
4 Jeroen van Veen, “Jeroen van Veen: The Maximal Minimalist Missionary,” interview by Raymond Tuttle, Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors 38, no. 3 (January/February 2015): 214, https://eds-b-ebscohost- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=23fc1d03-5aa1-4ebc-b484- db1783a88c3d%40pdc-v-sessmgr05.
147 Playing Canto is like a meeting. The more everyone has a say on each subject, the longer each subject takes. But you have over one hundred topics to discuss, in let’s say two and a half hours. In 2007 four of us played Canto at Utrecht Central, in the station hall. The concert was also broadcast on the radio so it had to be performed within a limited amount of time. But there was so much input, each section was so long, that at one point I had to get up and say: boys, we skip forty pages now, otherwise we will not make it. Two people can simply get through it a lot quicker than four.5
The above comments are telling on many levels. Firstly, the final statement indicates that playing as a duo results in a shortening of Canto’s overall duration. Another important point relates to the timeline of this event in relation to the recordings analysed. Could the structuring first heard in the February 2008 recording be a result of the above experience, which was only a year prior (or of similar experiences to the one above)? This is speculation, but the dates seem too close to be simply coincidental.
The restricted timeframe that Jeroen van Veen pointed out in his recollection could also apply to several other live performances, as well as the attention spans of audiences. A typical classical music concert includes an interval or (or two). However, each performance of Canto is continuous from start to end,6 placing demands on sustained audience concentration. Thus, it is likely that the
5 “Het spelen van Canto is als een vergadering. Hoe meer iedereen erop staat bij elk onderwerp zijn zegje te doen, hoe langer elk onderwerp duurt. Maar je hebt een dikke honderd onderwerpen te bespreken, in pak ’m beet tweeënhalf uur tijd. In 2007 speelden we Canto met zijn vieren op Utrecht Centraal, in de stationshal. Het concert werd ook op de radio uitgezonden dus het moest in een beperkte tijd worden uitgevoerd. Maar er was zo veel input, elke sectie duurde zo lang, dat ik op een gegeven moment moest opstaan en zeggen: jongens, we slaan nu veertig bladzijden over, anders redden we het niet. Met zijn tweeën ben je er gewoon snelle doorheen dan met zijn vieren.” Sandra van Veen and Jeroen van Veen, "Haantjesgedrag kan niet, bij Canto,” in Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016), 137-38. The performance that Jeroen mentioned was possibly on 2 November 2007 – there are no other performances found that matched the details given above. However, that performance consisted of five pianists, not four. See “Pianomarathon op Utrecht Centraal,” Trouw, 18 October 2007, https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/pianomarathon-op-utrecht- centraal~bce9bc8e/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. 6 See the section Wat is een Ligconcert® in “Ligconcerten,” Theater Kantoor, accessed 27 November 2019, https://www.theaterkantoor.nl/ligconcerten/.
148 pre-performance structures as shown in the recordings analyses were created to counteract the issue of lengthy concert duration.
6.2.2 Aesthetic considerations and establishing a “trademark”
The previous section examined the notion that the structures in the van Veens’ duo recordings were devised due to time restrictions during live performances. This section considers reasons for and effects of these structures, such as serialist versus experimental principles; the structures as a result of working in a group; and the notion of a van Veen musical “trademark.” These points relate mainly to the performers and how they have altered Canto Ostinato as a work.
Firstly, it is possible that these structures were created as a result of aesthetic considerations. There cannot be indeterminacy without determinacy; Herman Sabbe makes a salient point in pointing out similarities between serialism and indeterminacy, both of which arose around the same period:7
One could say that Cage and his companions achieved discontinuity and hence indeterminacy by means of “under-determination” and the serialists by “over-determination”: the first by foreseeing as little as possible and the latter by foreseeing so much that at any given time just everything could occur.8
The resulting musical similarity suggests a dialectical relationship between serialism and indeterminacy. Similarly, the determinacy created by the van Veens allows further understanding and appreciation of the indeterminacy in Canto. As addressed in Chapter Five, the structures in sections 88 and 91 are not perceivable, drawing a parallel to serialism. On the other hand, the creation of additional repeats in the synthesizer recording alludes to ten Holt’s electronic
7 Guy de Bièvre, "Open, Mobile and Indeterminate Forms" (PhD diss., Brunel University, 2012), 12. 8 Quote and note 27: “SABBE, Herman, 1977, Het muzikale serialisme als techniek en als denkmethode, unpublished thesis, Rijksuniversiteit Gent, 414 (fn) (transl. Guy De Bièvre)” from ibid.
149 music output and to repetition in minimalism. Thirdly, the adoption of the additive process aligns Canto to the original minimalist movement, strengthening the American connection that has already been established through the influence of John Cage and Philip Corner and the similarities that Canto Ostinato shares with Terry Riley’s In C.
Secondly, the interplay between Canto’s indeterminacy and the van Veens’ determinacy is possibly also a result of working in an ensemble. Writing on improvisation, Larry Solomon believes that
[in] the quest for refinement, there is a Darwinian tendency to repeat what is “successful” and eliminate possibilities that seem “unsuccessful.” This is seemingly harmless and beneficial. The quest for group identity creates the same tendency, a trend toward “sameness.” To want improvement is a natural thing, but it is not often realised that this quest for refinement is the antithesis of the process of discovery (of moving on) that is so vital for improvisation. The need for sharing the group effort often leads to concert preparation. This means rehearsing “pieces” that become less and less “improvised,” but more and more “refined” and predictable.9
There are several points for discussion, one being the “unsuccessful” attempts in performance. If my hypothesis about the van Veens’ creation of structure due to limits in live performance is valid, perhaps the performers chose to structure their realisations because their unstructured performances (the default approach) were less “successful.” Additionally, if Solomon’s assertion that refinement “often leads to concert preparation” is correct, would it imply that a composition such as Canto is better suited to non-performance situations? Ten Holt does emphasise the process of playing together as an integral part of Canto: “That interaction [between the performers] is an essential component. Rehearsing is therefore an important process; that you grow together.”10 It is
9 Larry Solomon, “Improvisation II,” Perspectives of New Music 24, no. 2 (Spring–Summer 1986): 227, https://www.jstor.org/stable/833221. 10 “Die interactie is een wezenlijk bestanddeel. Het repeteren is dan ook een belangrijk proces; dat je naar elkaar toegroeit.” Wilma de Rek, “‘Muziek heeft alles met sensualiteit te maken': Interview met Simeon ten Holt,” in Canto Ostinato, 59.
150 thus possible that considerations such as time limit could hinder the creative input of the performers. One could argue that the structures created by the van Veens, an example of what Solomon terms “sameness,” limit the full performance potential offered by Canto.
However, Solomon also states that the resulting predictability “can sometimes by counteracted by changing instruments, playing an unfamiliar instrument, deliberately avoiding refined techniques, or trying large-scale changes in methods.”11 These points are clearly demonstrated in the two studio recordings. The 2010 one is on prepared pianos while the 2013 one was made with synthesizers, allowing them to explore timbre and other sound effects not possible on regular, acoustic pianos. Both recordings use the additive process in different parts of Canto, and also feature the most exploration in sections 88 and 91—the former omits section 88 entirely, while the latter includes additional repeats of certain parts. However, the omission of section 88 is not a novel concept in the van Veens’ performance history of Canto, having been employed in a 1999 recording.12
Inversely, the structures can be viewed as a kind of creativity. Having had a long performance history with Canto, perhaps the van Veens wanted to further challenge themselves by playing around with its form and distilling the most important parts (in section 88), without compromising the material or the nature of the composition. Although the employment of a particular form and specific amounts of repetition lead to “sameness” across the van Veens’ performances, there is arguably still variation—one example being the slightly different structure of section 88 in the 2011 recording (Chart 2a, p. 118). Additionally, these practices are a solution to limited concert time and form a kind of “group identity,” to use Solomon’s phrase.
11 Solomon, “Improvisation II,” 227. 12 “On this CD we skipped sections 88-89 of the score. The composition there lasts one hour instead of the usual approximate two hours.” Jeroen van Veen, liner notes to “CD8: two pianos and two marimbas (live recording during Lek Art 1999),” in Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato XL, various recordings, Brilliant Classics BC 9453, 1999-2013, compact disc, 10.
151 This notion of a “group identity” is also important to investigate, particularly with Canto’s paradoxical ability to “[be] and always [stay] different.”13 Increasing numbers of Canto recordings and performances imply that the van Veens have to work harder to keep their interpretations vivid, valid and interesting to audiences. The structured realisations could even be seen as a van Veen “trademark” to differentiate their interpretations from others.
The above idea of a van Veen “trademark” highlights two factors: that the piano duo has created a niche as Canto Ostinato performers and that interpretation is a method for performers to push its boundaries. It is unusual for performers to focus on a single piece so closely and for a long period of time; most devote their efforts to the canon or revisit a large work after a number of years. However, in this case, the van Veens have cemented their reputation as performers of Canto and other compositions by ten Holt. This focus on minimalist composers and/or multi-keyboard compositions is clear in their output.14
Secondly, interpretation gives opportunities to extend possibilities with Canto. For instance, as shown in the analysis, the van Veens frequently use gradually changing dynamics, in direct opposition to ten Holt’s suggestion of terraced dynamics. This use of gradation could be a way to highlight Canto’s neo- Romanticism in performance. One could also argue that the omission of parts in sections 88 creates a somewhat different structure and is thus contrary to the composer’s concept of Canto. For example, if the van Veens wanted shorter versions of the interlude sections, they could have played each part once, rather than omitting certain parts.
As Chapter Four discussed, Canto illustrates the paradoxical relation of the composer to the indeterminate work; both claiming and rejecting authorial control. Ten Holt advocates performer freedom—whilst simultaneously limiting it by putting his restrictions and preferences forward—with his statements that
13 Chapter 5, note 8, p. 115. 14 “CDs,” Jeroen van Veen, accessed 6 March 2020, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/index.html.
152 the score represents “an open scenario” and “an appeal to the creation of the performers.”15 These indicate that the composer wants the performers to make their own versions of Canto and the piece to be independent of him, and are clearly executed when the van Veens do not always choose to take the composer’s points on board and at times have starkly different aspects in their realisations to what the composer wanted.
Will this “tug-of-war” continue for as long as Canto is performed or does one party have the final say, particularly as the composer is no longer living? It is apparent that Canto Ostinato’s identity as a work is not a fixed entity, but an organism continually evolving through the actions of the performers and indirectly of the listeners. These will be discussed in the following section.
6.2.3 Structures and other techniques in relation to the listener
In the previous section, the idea of a van Veen musical “trademark” from the manipulation of Canto’s structures was highlighted as a way for the performers to distinguish their realisations from others in the market and to further their creativity with Canto. This idea of the structures as a “trademark” brings several issues to the fore from the perspective of the listener. Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song’s notion of the “birth of the listener” will be revisited in relation to how a listener may respond to the semi-structured realisations. Two other aspects that will also be discussed include the categorisation of the van Veens’ Canto recordings under non-classical labels, and the unusual conditions of the duo’s live performances.
Chapter Four included Joe and Song’s evaluation of Roland Barthes’ concept “The Death of the Author” in relation to indeterminate music, where it was noted that the “reader” in music are both the performers and the audience.16 However, the indeterminacy in such compositions is not apparent to the audience when
15 Both quotes in Chapter 4, note 109, p. 85. 16 Jeongwon Joe and S. Hoon Song, “Roland Barthes’ ‘Text’ and Aleatoric Music: is the ‘Birth of the Reader’ the Birth of the Listener?,” Muzikologija, no. 2 (2002), 268, http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2002/1450-98140202263J.pdf.
153 they listen to one realisation of any of these pieces.17 Given this statement, even if the structures were devised to carve a van Veen niche in the Canto market, would the listener detect them?
As two of Klijn’s interviewees note, musically untrained audiences are unlikely to be aware of the improvisatory elements and structural manipulations of melody and repetition in Canto.18 Additionally, the previous chapter presented the fact that the listener would not be able to perceive the structures in sections 88 and 91, as a sense of indeterminacy is maintained. This is compounded by the listener likely only listening to the recording(s), without recourse to the score, and by the listener listening to the music as an accompaniment to their main activity. As the van Veens state, “many listeners use the music to meditate, to rest, or to be inspired to work.”19 Here again arises Goehr’s concept of the “work” and where it resides; where the “action” takes place; and what the requirements of the composer, performer, and listener are in the realisation of a piece.
The fact that there are possibly many musically untrained listeners and that people are likely to be only listening may account for the other two aspects surrounding the van Veens’ recordings and performances. Firstly, two of the recordings analysed are placed under non-classical genres such as “easy listening” and “new age.”20 It is also possible that the need to cater continuously for a wide range of listeners explains the proliferation of recordings and also the multiple releases of several of them.
17 Joe and Song, “Birth of the Listener?”, 270. 18 Sylvie Klijn, “Musical, Sociological and Psychological Aspects of Minimal Music Composition: The Case of “Canto Ostinato” by Simeon ten Holt” (master’s thesis, Utrecht University, 2019), 47. 19 “Opvallend is dat veel luisteraars de muziek gebruiken om bij te mediteren, te rusten of juist geïnspireerd te werken.” Sandra and Jeroen van Veen, "Hoe zit Canto Ostinato in elkaar?: Inleiding door Sandra en Jeroen van Veen,” in de Rek, Canto Ostinato, 74. 20 The 2011 recording in Bergen is categorised as “easy listening” while the 2013 synthesizer recording is labelled differently in both versions. The shorter one is “electronic,” while the full one is “new age.” “Canto Ostinato (Live in Bergen),” https://music.apple.com/au/album/canto-ostinato-live-in- bergen/949717302; “Canto Ostinato for Synthesizers,” https://music.apple.com/nl/album/canto-ostinato-for- synthesizers/734129583; and “Canto Ostinato: Version on Four Keyboards and Synthesizers,” https://music.apple.com/au/album/canto-ostinato-version-on-four-keyboards- synthesizers/734341393. All sources from Apple Music Preview and accessed 16 March 2019.
154 Secondly, the conditions of the van Veens’ live performances continue trends from the 1980s involving unconventional performance spaces and ways of performing. 21 Their highly successful and long-running Ligconcerts, which began in 2010,22 encourage listeners to recline and relax during performances. The commercialisation of these reclining concerts is also evident through the commemoration of particular events, such as Christmas and Valentine’s Day,23 and the novelty of performance venues used. For instance, the 2019 season of Ligconcerts was held in unusual concert spaces such as a museum,24 and the use of repurposed venues, such as the former dome prisons in Arnhem and Breda,25 a former radio transmitter station,26 and a former factory.27 In Jeroen van Veen’s words:
The audience is different from the average classical music audience. There are many young people and people interested in the alternative.
21 Timothy D. Taylor, "Music and Musical Practices in Postmodernity,” in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, ed. Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner (New York and London: Routledge, 2002), 104, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1461077. 22 “Jeroen: ‘In Vancouver hebben we voor het eerst concerten gegeven waarbij mensen op het podium mochten komen. Op het heilige podium: dat was iets bijzonders. Ze mochten liggen, rondlopen, alles.’ Sandra: ‘Een plaatselijke meubelboer had zitzakken, banken en stoelen geregeld: het zag er prachtig uit. Dus zijn we dat ook hier in Nederland gaan doen, vanaf het seizoen 2010-2011.’” Van Veen and van Veen, "Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 139. 23 The latter event has been celebrated with an annual concert since 2015, as indicated in “Valentijns Canto Naarden,” Ligconcert, Theater Kantoor, accessed 4 December 2019, https://www.theaterkantoor.nl/valentijnscantonaarden/. 24 The van Veens have been performing Ligconcerts at Amsterdam’s National Maritime Museum from 2016 to the present, with a potential concert lined up for 2020. “Concerten,” Ligconcert, accessed 2 September 2019, http://www.ligconcert.nl/concertagenda/index.html. See also the listing for a 16 March 2019 performance: “Ligconcert,” Het Scheepvaartmuseum, accessed 26 September 2019, https://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl/ligconcert. 25 The repurposing of these prisons is evident in two articles on the Arnhem and Breda prisons respectively: Sorcha O’Higgins, “Who’s up for a night behind bars?,” Top Hotel News, 21 May 2019, Design, https://tophotel.news/whos-up-for-a-night-behind-bars/, and Agence France- Presse, “Empty Dutch jails become offices, restaurants, homes and entertainment venues for ‘prison escape’ games,” South China Morning Post, 10 July 2017, Europe, https://www.scmp.com/news/world/europe/article/2101982/empty-dutch-jails-become-offices- restaurants-homes-and. From “Concerten,” Ligconcert, see the 19 April 2019 listing for an example of an Arnhem performance; for one in Breda, see the 28 September 2019 listing The Best of Einaudi and Canto Ostinato. 26 Radio Kootwijk stopped operations in 1998. “English version,” Hier Radio Kootwijk, accessed 26 September 2019, http://www.hierradiokootwijk.nl/p/english. The van Veens have held one Ligconcert per year in 2018 and 2019 at Radio Kootwijk, and are planning for one in 2020. See “Concerten,” Ligconcert. 27 “About Van Nelle Fabriek,” Van Nelle Fabriek, accessed 26 September 2019, https://www.vannellefabriekrotterdam.com/en/events/about-van-nelle/. There is a performance scheduled for 19 October 2019. See “Concerten,” Ligconcert.
155 They are people looking for an experience, they want to experience it, they don’t want to listen to a boring concert on a chair.28
This idea recalls a trait of postmodernist music identified by Jonathan Kramer, which “locates meaning and even structure in listeners, more than in scores, performances, or composers.”29
The above discussion highlights several possible reasons and effects of the van Veens’ structured realisations of Canto Ostinato. These may have been created to have more control over time limits during live performances, but could also have been a result of working as an ensemble or to “trademark” their realisations. The van Veens’ semi-structured realisations also demonstrate the complex relationship between composer and performer and how Canto-as-a- work is a fluid concept. The final section focussed on the approaches taken by the van Veens in relation to the listener.
6.3 Future research
The findings of this thesis focus on a delimited scope of Simeon ten Holt’s thinking and output and of Canto Ostinato’s performance practice, thus allowing the prospect of several avenues for further research. I will briefly discuss what can be improved in the present study before focusing on future research on topics such as indeterminacy and the ways in which Canto is performed.
Regarding the methodology and limitations of this project, most information was derived from secondary sources (such as books and websites), as there were many to consult, and the focus of this study was to examine Canto as a whole. There was some personal correspondence with Jeroen van Veen with matters
28 “Het publiek is anders dan het gemiddelde klassieke-muziekpubliek. Er komen veel jongeren op af en mensen uit de alternatieve hoek. Het zijn mensen die een belevenis zoeken, ze willen het ondergáán, ze willen niet op een stoeltje naar een saai concert luisteren.” Van Veen and van Veen, “Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 139. 29 Chapter 2, note 2, p. 22.
156 regarding the recordings analysed (such as recording dates and catalogue numbers), but not in relation to the structures that were found, as an interview would have gone beyond the scope of the project. I used the information I had gathered from the earlier-mentioned secondary sources in my evaluations of the score and the structures in the recordings.
While they proved fruitful in investigating ideas such as “Dutch minimalism,” group identity and a musical “trademark,” it would be helpful to receive further validation. In relation to the contextualisation of Canto and how ten Holt’s ideas related to the piece, one could also conduct interviews with those who knew ten Holt when he was alive to find out if some claims can be validated, or investigate the composer’s diaries, which he had kept since 1949.30 Additionally, given the prominence of the van Veens in Canto’s performing and recording history, future research could centre on them, perhaps through interviews, focusing on the structures shown in their recordings and future plans they have for performing and/or recording Canto Ostinato, if any.
I will now focus on three areas of future research pertaining to the subject material: the first further explores the concept of indeterminacy via a number of paths, including the notion of “faithful” realisations of Canto and topics relating to instrumentation. The second part considers visual and social aspects of Canto, while the final explores live performance conditions of the piece.
6.3.1 Further explorations of the concept of indeterminacy
Owing to the scope of this project, only select sections of the van Veen duo recordings of Canto were analysed in detail. It would be fruitful to examine other parts of the piece, such as those featuring common practice harmonic progressions, to find out if these parts also have pre-determined structures. One could also compare the same sections analysed in this thesis to those in
30 Simeon ten Holt, Het Woud en de Citadel: Memoires van een componist (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2009), 8. Perhaps some ideas for those who may be wishing to commemorate the birth centenary of the composer in 2023?
157 the other Canto recordings by the van Veens to determine if there are similar structures in the other recordings. If so, the role of the van Veens deserves further discussion in the nature of Canto’s indeterminacy.
Another point of interest relates to the van Veens’ gradual change in dynamics and articulation (Table 8, pp. 132-33), which oppose ten Holt’s suggestions. It should be noted that a score cannot account for many factors that occur in its realisation, such as the instrument used, the way a musician plays, and the acoustics of the recording venue. Additionally, an artist’s interpretation of a work is likely to change over time. Still, are there recordings that carry out the composer’s suggestions faithfully, and if so, what effects are created? To recall ten Holt’s idea of the ideal performance, can there be an ideal performance practice for his indeterminate pieces such as Canto, where some approaches are deemed “acceptable” and others “un-acceptable,” just as Cage’s works have?31 If so, what implications does this have for the indeterminacy of the piece? Is there likely to be a judge to weigh in on these issues in Canto or does it simply come back down to the decisions of the performers?
Third, Canto’s position in relation to the other multiple-keyboard pieces of ten Holt’s final compositional period is worthy of research for a larger picture of his concept of indeterminacy in these pieces. This is an important issue given that composers of chance-procedure works gradually decreased the amount of indeterminacy in their pieces or returned to more conventional approaches to composition—thus reinstating authorial control over the “work.”32
31 Judy Lochhead, "Controlling Liberation: David Tudor and the ‘Experimental’ Sound Ideal" (paper, The Art of David Tudor: Indeterminacy and Performance in Postwar Culture Symposium, Getty Research Institute Symposium, Los Angeles, CA, 17-19 May 2001), 1-7, https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/events/david_tudor_symposium/pdf/lochhe ad.pdf. 32 These composers include Pierre Boulez, Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. For Boulez, Cage, and Stockhausen, see Griffiths, "Aleatory.” Boulez is also mentioned in Sabine Feisst, "Negotiating Freedom and Control in Composition: Improvisation and its Offshoots, 1950 to 1980,” in The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies, Volume 2, ed. Benjamin Piekut and George E. Lewis (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013-16), 210-11, http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199892921.001.0001/oxfordhb -9780199892921. For the rest, see de Bièvre, "Indeterminate Forms,” 28.
158 The final topics in this first part concern instrumentation. For instance, one could explore why ten Holt changed his instrumental preferences for Canto, from allowing it to be a solo performance with/out electronics to the particular suggestion of four pianos. Another topic could be to investigate the non- keyboard arrangements of Canto that have been created thus far in relation to ten Holt’s specific preference for four-piano realisations and the roles of the composer and performer(s) in such a piece. One could also experiment with creating a solo version with electronics, as per ten Holt’s earlier suggestion, and document the results of such a project.
6.3.2 Visualising Canto and examining its national and societal identities
This section discusses visual and societal aspects of Canto. Many musicians including the van Veens have paired visuals with live Canto performances,33 and the piece has been used to accompany dances, beginning with Krisztina de Châtel’s Typhoon (1986); 34 Itzik Galili’s Bullet Proof Mamma (2010), choreographed to the van Veens’ prepared pianos recording;35 and numerous other examples in recent years (2015-19).36 In addition, artists such as Fieke
33 The van Veens: “Canto Ostinato+VJ, a live interaction between pianists and visuals,” Jeroen van Veen, 22 October 2012, video, https://youtu.be/6kJjGOBeXK4. Tomoko Mukaiyama’s concert series Multus, which “[invites] listeners to a new experience of music and visual art,” featured two separate performances of Canto in 2012 and 2015 – see “Multus #1: Canto Ostinato” and “Multus #3: Canto Ostinato for 4 pianos,” Works, Tomoko Mukaiyama, https://tomoko.nl/works/multus-1-canto-ostinato/ and https://tomoko.nl/works/multus-3-canto-ostinato-for-4-pianos/. Quote from the latter link. Two other examples include video projections at Diekhuus and a live performance with a painter. “Concert en Videoshow op Diekhuusplein in Middelharnis,” iGO, 8 October 2019, last updated 9 October 2019, https://igo.nl/nieuws/actueel/artikel/25970/Concert-en-Videoshow-op- Diekhuusplein-in-Middelharnis; and “Kwartslag,” Uit in Vlaanderen, https://www.uitinvlaanderen.be/agenda/e/kwartslag/353887e7-41ad-479c-886a- 7891662a8230. All links accessed 3 December 2019. 34 “Typhoon,” Archief, Krisztina de Châtel, http://archief.kdechatel.com/choreo.php?id=75. 35 Jeroen van Veen, liner notes to “CD10: two prepared pianos,” in Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato XL, various recordings, Brilliant Classics BC 9453, 1999-2013, compact disc, 10. 36 See: • Bethany Hopta, “Review: Lucinda Childs Presents a Retrospective ‘Portrait’ at the Joyce,” Zeal NYC, 7 December 2016, https://zealnyc.com/review-lucinda-childs- presents-a-retrospective-portrait-at-the-joyce/; • Belinda McGuire’s “Incantations” under the section “The Picks” in Pamela Espeland, “Ambitious Spanish Music Festival coming up; ‘The Working Dead’ at Brave New Workshop,” Minnpost, 24 February 2016, Artscape,
159 Hordijk and Jan van der Meer have made artworks depicting and inspired by Canto.37 These trends clearly indicate the ever-growing popularity of Canto, but there are also many questions to explore. For instance, are there aspects of the piece that motivate visual (in addition to aural) stimulation? Is the diversification of Canto due to its possibly pliable nature or to other factors?
Other possible routes to pursue are the perception of Canto’s national identity and its place in society. 4.1 “Dutch minimalism”? (p. 58) briefly explored what is considered “Dutch,” but more research could be conducted in this field. Klijn also hinted at the possibility that Canto’s popularity stems from its position as “a new rite” replacing the church in today’s society.38 Although Chapter Four highlights several spiritual aspects of the work, such as its differences to “holy minimalist” compositions, and ten Holt’s apparent spiritual freedom with the re- acceptance of tonality, reception of Canto has only been briefly demonstrated and reasons for its popularity have not been examined. Canto’s fame also mainly centres in its country of origin. Thus, it would be beneficial to investigate factors pertaining to the work’s identity as part of and its reception in the Netherlands.
https://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2016/02/ambitious-spanish-music-festival- coming-working-dead-brave-new-workshop/; • Michael Scheiner, “‚Loops‘ setzt auf minimale Abweichungen,” Mittelbayerische, 12 October 2016, https://www.mittelbayerische.de/kultur-nachrichten/loops-setzt-auf- minimale-abweichungen-21853-art1440206.html; • “SIMEON,” Projecten, Kalpan Arts, http://kalpanarts.com/en/projecten/simeon; • “Canto Ostinato: East Meets West,” Agenda, Tivoli Vredenburg, https://www.tivolivredenburg.nl/agenda/canto-ostinato-10-03- 2019/?fbclid=IwAR3GSFinF7Csv9CuEhAJzLJ2IS7AVC6qr6Y4diRAs1Ga5uWa6awy0 MtV69k; • “Draaiende Derwisj dansen op de Canto Ostinato van componist Simeon ten Holt,” Deventer Post, 18 February 2019, https://www.deventerpost.nl/nieuws/algemeen/647683/-draaiende-derwisj-dansen-op- de-canto-ostinato-van-componist-simeon-ten-holt; and • “New choreography on Canto Ostinato by Didy Veldman,” Donemus, 28 April 2019, http://donemus.nl/new-choreography-on-canto-ostinato-by-didy-veldman/. All links accessed 3 December 2019. 37 “Canto Ostinato,” Fieke Hordijk, accessed 4 December 2019, https://www.fiekehordijk.nl/wandobject-canto-ostinato/, and Bas Moerman, “Canto Ostinato in beeld: Muziekstuk als inspiratie voor houten kunstwerk,” BD, 27 July 2019, https://www.bd.nl/bommelerwaard/canto-ostinato-in-beeld-muziekstuk-als-inspiratie-voor- houten-kunstwerk~a2eb228c/. 38 Klijn, “The Case of “Canto Ostinato”,” 50.
160 6.3.3 Performance conditions
The van Veens’ live recordings of Canto Ostinato feature several practices characteristic of minimalist music, such as the use of gradual change (of dynamics and articulation) and the additive process. Although ten Holt himself was not at pains to label Canto as minimalist, Jeroen van Veen asserts that the composer’s pieces are “absolutely minimalist music.”39 This fervent identifying of ten Holt as a minimalist composer and the positioning of Canto as part of the minimalist canon is similar to contemporary performance ensemble Bang on a Can’s 1997 championing of Brian Eno’s Ambient I: Music for Airports (1979).40
Investigating the programme of Bang on a Can’s first concert, Cecilia Sun argues that the group, which increasingly aimed to fuse elements of classical, jazz, and rock music,41 sought to create a new canon in a postmodern age42 (the inherent contradictions here notwithstanding).43 Eno’s experimental and popular music forays fit well with the group’s aesthetics, and “[in] arranging and performing Music for Airports, Bang on a Can can claim Eno for their own canon of twentieth-century music.”44 Just as Bang on a Can accorded Eno’s recording a new kind of importance, believing the composer’s “‘compositional techniques rival the most intricate of symphonies’,”45 the deliberate realisation of Canto
39 “Ik vind de muziek van Simeon absoluut minimal music.” Van Veen and van Veen, “Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 140. Further, Jeroen van Veen also declares ten Holt’s compositions should be grouped with those of Terry Riley, Philip Glass, and Steve Reich, as shown by two comments. Firstly: “[Simeon ten Holt] hoort helemaal thuis in het ritje Terry Riley, Philip Glass, Steve Reich. Zijn muziek is in dezelfde tijd ontstaan. En Simeon maakt gebruik van dezelfde elementen als herhaling en keuzevrijheid, al heeft hij die elementen op een unieke manier verwerkt.” The second one is: “Mensen houden nu eenmaal van hokjes. Als je in Amerika in een cd-zaak en je bent een Reich-liefhebber, moet je in het bakje met minimal- music-cd’s naast Reich de cd’s van Simeon aantreffen. Maar nu moeten ze bij de gewone klassieke muziek kijken, onder de H, als Simeons muziek er überhaupt al ligt.” Both quotes are from van Veen and van Veen, “Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 140 and 141 respectively. 40 I would like to thank Professor Robert Fink for his suggestions and for directing me to Cecilia Sun’s article (see next note). 41 Cecilia Sun, “Resisting the Airport: Bang on a Can Performs Brian Eno,” Musicology Australia 29, no. 1 (2007), 142, https://www-tandfonline- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/08145857.2007.10416592?needAccess=true&. 42 Ibid., 141-42. 43 Refer to Lyotard’s mistrust of grand narratives in Angélique du Toit’s entry “Grand Narrative, Metanarrative,” in The Lyotard Dictionary, ed. Stuart Sim (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 86-87, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b5xf. 44 Sun, “Resisting the Airport,” 143. 45 Ibid., 137.
161 using minimalist techniques allows the van Veens to situate the piece as part of the minimalist canon, and to also create their own canon. This calls for an examination of the van Veens’ repertoire and the approaches by which they realise minimalist music.
Other aspects of performance conditions relate to unusual concert spaces and typology. Similar to the van Veens’ Ligconcert venues, Melbourne company Play On has been conducting performances since 2016 in spaces such as an underground carpark, a wine-tasting area, and museums. 46 Additionally, classical and electronic artists feature in each of Play On’s concerts.47
A number of other artists have also created their own versions of reclining concerts: Belgian pianist Steven Vrancken began his in 2008, 48 Estonian flautist Tarmo Johannes initiated four “Lying Down” concerts in autumn 2013,49 and English pianist Christina McMaster started her “Lie Down and Listen” series in 2018.50 In the latter’s concerts, “the audience are welcomed, and they have a chance to have a bit of a mingle, they could have a cocktail or a mocktail, they come to their mats and they’ll be guided to a meditation.”51 The audience also perform “restorative yoga” before the concerts begin. 52 Finally, the Batavierhuis, a performance space and collective for budding Rotterdam artists,53 began their Lullaby Sessions on 3 November 2019,54 featuring singer- songwriters Alison Jutta and Nana.55
46 “Past Events,” Play On, accessed 6 April 2020, https://playonmusic.com.au/past-events/. 47 “Story,” Play On, accessed 6 April 2020, https://playonmusic.com.au/story/. 48 See the “informal version” of Vrancken’s biography in “About,” Steven Vrancken, accessed 2 October 2019, https://stevenvrancken.com/about/. 49 Translation from “Lying Down Concerts,” Archive, culture.ee, http://culture.ee/event/lying-down-concerts/; year of performances from “Lamamiskontserdid,” Tarmo Johannes, http://tarmo.uuu.ee/lamamimskontserdid.html. Both links accessed 3 December 2019. 50 See the section “Wellbeing: Lie down + Listen” in the home page of Christina McMaster’s website, accessed 2 October 2019, https://www.christinamcmaster.org/. 51 “Lie down and Listen,” Christina McMaster, 11 October 2018, video, 0:18, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLxWP7-3sVc. 52 “Wellbeing: Lie down + Listen,” Christina McMaster. 53 “Over ons,” Batavierhuis, accessed 3 December 2019, https://www.batavierhuis.nl/over-ons/. 54 “Lullaby Sessions @Batavierhuis,” Batavierhuis, 15 November 2019, accessed 3 December 2019, https://www.batavierhuis.nl/lullaby-sessions-at-batavierhuis/. 55 See the section “Details” as part of the Facebook event “Nana & Alison Jutta at Lullaby Sessions (lying down concert),” 3 November 2019, accessed 3 December 2019, https://www.facebook.com/events/480420419225914/.
162 Although all the abovementioned artists are geographically clustered, it is likely that the idea of reclining concerts is popular in the northern hemisphere. The van Veens’ inspiration for their Ligconcerts came from concerts they gave in Vancouver, where audiences were permitted, among other things, to “lie” and “walk around” the stage, 56 while Nana brought the concept of a reclining audience from New York.57
Finally, what of the effect of these concerts on audiences, in relation to the score analysis that highlighted the physical and emotional effects of Canto on listeners, as well as all the aforementioned artists and the van Veens pointing to relaxation for the listener? 58 Even more specific questions could be investigated—for example, how is the listening experience enhanced when lying down? McMaster’s concerts came following collaboration with King’s College London on Sound Mind, a 2017 investigation as to whether music and psychedelic images could improve wellbeing.59 The results were “[increased] wellbeing in the moment,”60 so how would meditation and yoga together with the concert impact on the audience? Could the positive effects of good wellbeing continue beyond the concert experience?61
To conclude, this chapter highlighted the unexpected results from the analyses of the score and the van Veens’ duo recordings of Canto Ostinato, such as the similarities that the work shares with In C, the importance of the concept of
56 “Jeroen: ‘In Vancouver hebben we voor het eerst concerten gegeven waarbij mensen op het podium mochten komen. Op het heilige podium: dat was iets bijzonders. Ze mochten liggen, rondlopen, alles.’ Sandra: ‘Een plaatselijke meubelboer had zitzakken, banken en stoelen geregeld: het zag er prachtig uit. Dus zijn we dat ook hier in Nederland gaan doen, vanaf het seizoen 2010-2011.’” Van Veen and van Veen, “Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 139. 57 “Lullaby Sessions @Batavierhuis,” Batavierhuis. 58 “About”, Steven Vrancken; “Lying Down Concerts,” culture.ee; “About,” Lie Down + Listen, https://www.liedownandlisten.com/about; and “Lullaby Sessions @Batavierhuis,” Batavierhuis. See also Jeroen’s comment: “De lengte [van onze Canto-concerten] spreekt mensen ook aan. Het sluit aan bij de trend van “slow”: slow food, slow cooking, en dus ook slow music. Lang genieten.” Van Veen and van Veen, "Haantjesgedrag kan niet,” 140. 59 “Lie-down and Listen: A unique classical music concert designed to benefit well-being launching this month,” News, Pianist, https://www.pianistmagazine.com/news/lie-down-and- listen-a-unique-classical-music-concert-designed-to/, and see the two Sound Mind performances on 18 and 31 October 2017 in “Live Events,” Christina McMaster, https://www.christinamcmaster.org/live-events. Both links accessed 3 December 2019. 60 “Lie-down and Listen,” Pianist. Italics in the original. 61 This would necessitate the expertise of music psychologists.
163 tonality in ten Holt’s life, and the unexpected pre-performance structures in the van Veens’ realisations of the work. Several reasons for the structures were investigated, along with the implications arising thereof, such as better control over concert durations, the unintended effects of performing as an ensemble, the creation of a musical “trademark,” and the various approaches that the van Veens have marketed their performances and recordings to the listener. This chapter also examined a variety of avenues for further research, from additional explorations of ten Holt, the van Veens, and other performers in relation to Canto’s indeterminacy, investigating the domains of dance and visual arts, the work’s identity in society, and the pairing of relaxation techniques in live performances. These diverse topics indicate a myriad of approaches that future research on the work of Canto Ostinato can take.
164 Chapter 7: Conclusion
This investigation comprises three aims and research questions: 1) to contextualise Canto Ostinato within the dominant musical periods of its time with the question, How is Canto situated within traditions of minimalism, indeterminacy, and music with tonal elements?; 2) to analyse the piece in relation to biographical elements of ten Holt with the question, How do the composer’s ideas about tonality, minimalism, and indeterminacy relate to Canto?; and 3) to analyse the van Veens’ duo recordings of Canto: How does the dichotomy between pre-determined structure and indeterminacy in Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato play out in the recordings of the van Veen duo?
The structures were also examined with two subsidiary questions: What minimalist/experimentalist compositional tension points are revealed in the duo’s approach to structure? and in relation to ten Holt’s statement that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible” 1 : What of composerly intentionality, particularly with reference to ten Holt’s belief that the most variations can arise from fidelity to the score?
There are many unexpected findings from these aims and questions, such as the numerous similarities between In C and Canto, ten Holt’s relationship with tonality, and the structuring present in the performers’ recordings. One cannot state whether In C was an intended precedent for ten Holt for Canto Ostinato, nor surmise definitively why tonality meant so much to him. Indeed, there are many other questions regarding intentionality, such as the incorporation of performance indeterminacy in many pieces of his final compositional period and how much control he genuinely wanted to cede to the performers in Canto. Yet, one could also argue that it is the mystery of these never-to-be-answered questions that adds to the intrigue around Canto.
It is also clear that ten Holt’s belief that “only with the use of the prescribed notes are the most variations possible” has taken on a different meaning with the structuring in the van Veens’ duo recordings. Taken at face value, it could be assumed that ten Holt
1 Chapter 1, note 68, p. 16.
165 was referring to the choices regarding thin-stemmed motifs, transpositions, dynamics, articulation, pedalling, and which parts were played at any given time. Canto’s structure was denoted as fixed, according to ten Holt’s view that “all parts of Canto have their fixed position in its progress and are not interchangeable without violating the melodic line, the internal logic and form.”2 However, the composer only asks for “the use of the prescribed notes,” indicating that form can be variable. Thus, the van Veens’ structures in their recordings provide another method of variation in Canto, one that is not always immediately obvious.
Another quote to revisit is one by Jeroen van Veen: “A performance of this music is, in a sense, a work in progress.” 3 In light of the analysis of the recordings, this statement can be read in two ways: first, each performance of Canto is “a work in progress,” and second, the performance practice of Canto as “a work in progress,” both in the van Veens’ approach and as a whole. It is apparent that the structuring in the van Veen recordings was refined over time and it is likely to evolve as the performers continue to play the piece. The concept of the “work in progress” can also be used to describe the performance practice of Canto as a whole. With an increasing number of musicians, dancers, and other artists being involved with the piece, the ways and techniques employed in realising Canto will also change with time.
One can also wonder if Paul Janssen’s statement regarding “[ten Holt’s creation of] a Dutch version of minimal music” is a valid description.4 As discussed, the notion of “Dutchness” is a difficult topic to unravel; it is already a point of debate without even going in-depth. Nevertheless, it is clear that Canto is part of minimalism. The similarities identified here between Canto and pieces by composers of the original minimalist movement, such as In C, Piano Phase, and Violin Phase, are a step toward creating further connections with the wider minimalist movement.
The results from the present study have arisen through the exploration of many concepts in Canto, including the nature of a “work”; ten Holt’s beliefs, such as his close
2 Simeon ten Holt, preface to Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments, trans. Ted Szanto (Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010), 2. 3 Chapter 6, note 4, p. 147. 4 Chapter 1, note 16, p. 5.
166 associations with tonality; the back-and-forth relationship of control between composer and performer in indeterminate compositions; and the effects of personal relationships between composer and performer. Additionally, this study has highlighted the complex relationships between performances and recordings and demonstrated the need to further examine the role of the performer in indeterminate compositions. This includes not only in the way the piece is approached, but also how it is marketed and received by audiences. The pliable nature of a piece such as Canto Ostinato continues to evolve through an examination of these factors, re-defining the nature of a “work.”
167 Bibliography
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173 Dixon, Simon, Werner Goebl, and Gerhard Widmer. "The Performance Worm: Real Time Visualisation of Expression based on Langner's Tempo-Loudness Animation.” ICMC (2002): no page numbers. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/90d4/c3b707715873e21de03ca88edb9f813b 1f63.pdf?_ga=2.163706108.2113031034.1578976125- 1667372584.1578976125. Donemus. “Book ‘Arabesk’ about Simeon ten Holt by John Heymans.” Latest News. 30 January 2020. Accessed 31 May 2021. http://donemus.nl/book-arabeks- about-simeon-ten-holt-by-john-heymans/. Donemus. "Dutch Saxophone Octet will record Canto Ostinato.” Latest News. 24 May 2019. Accessed 10 July 2019. http://donemus.nl/dutch-saxophone-octet-will- record-canto-ostinato/. Donemus. “New choreography on Canto Ostinato by Didy Veldman.” 28 April 2019. http://donemus.nl/new-choreography-on-canto-ostinato-by-didy-veldman/. Donemus webshop. “Composition: .. A/ .ta-lon/ : voor mezzo-sopraan, en 36 spelende en pratende instrumentalisten (1967-68) / muziek en tekst van Simeon ten Holt.” Accessed 30 October 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/4379. Donemus webshop. "Composition: Aforisme nr. 2 : Electronische piano improvisatie ‘een oude melodie’ / Simeon ten Holt; transcr. Jeroen van Veen.” Accessed 9 July 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/13250. Donemus webshop. "Composition: Canto ostinato : Version for orchestra / Simeon ten Holt; orchestration Anthony Fiumara.” Accessed 10 July 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/14964. Donemus webshop. “Composition: Canto Ostinato : voor toetsinstrumenten, 1976-79 / Simeon ten Holt.” Accessed 21 May 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/3360. Donemus webshop. “Composition: Horizon : voor toetsinstrumenten = for keyboard instruments, 1983-’85 / Simeon ten Holt.” Accessed 30 October 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/3366. Donemus webshop. “Composition: Incantatie IV : voor toetsinstrumenten = for keyboard instruments, 1987-’90 / Simeon ten Holt.” Accessed 30 October 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/6312.
174 Donemus webshop. “Composition: Scenario-X : 1970, voor koper / Simeon ten Holt.” Accessed 30 October 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/1772. Donemus webshop. “Composition: Tripticon : voor slagwerk, (1965) / Simeon ten Holt.” Accessed 30 October 2019. https://webshop.donemus.com/action/front/sheetmusic/2859. Dubinets, Elena. "Between Mobility and Stability: Earle Brown's Compositional Process.” Contemporary Music Review 26, nos. 3/4 (June/August 2007): 409- 26. Echard, William. "Subject to a Trace: The Virtuality of Recorded Music.” In Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, edited by Mine Doğantan-Dack, 22-40. London, Middlesex University Press, 2008. Elsdon, Peter. "Jazz recordings and the capturing of performance.” In Recorded Music: Performance, Culture and Technology, edited by Amanda Bayley, 146- 63. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Espeland, Pamela. “Ambitious Spanish Music Festival coming up; ‘The Working Dead’ at Brave New Workshop.” Minnpost. 24 February 2016. Artscape. https://www.minnpost.com/artscape/2016/02/ambitious-spanish-music- festival-coming-working-dead-brave-new-workshop/. Etcetera Records. “Canto Ostinato for Harp.” Accessed 3 May 2020. https://www.etcetera-records.com/album/152/canto-ostinato-for-harp. Evans, Tristian. “Glass, Philip.” Grove Music Online. Published online 26 March 2018. Accessed 3 June 2021. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view.10.1093/gmo/97815615 92630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-3000000124. Fabian, Dorottya. “Classical Sound Recordings and Live Performances: Artistic and Analytical Perspectives.” In Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, edited by Mine Doğantan-Dack, 232-60. London, Middlesex University Press, 2008. Fabian, Dorottya. A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method Based on Bach’s Solos for Violin. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2015. Facebook. “Nana & Alison Jutta at Lullaby Sessions (lying down concert).” Events. 3 November 2019. Accessed 3 December 2019. https://www.facebook.com/events/480420419225914/.
175 Fèbre, Arnold le. "Muzikale ontdekkingsreis vanaf een luchtbedje.” 3voor 12. 14 April 2016. https://3voor12.vpro.nl/lokaal/utrecht/artikelen/overzicht/2016/april/Muzikale- ontdekkingsreis-vanaf-een-luchtbedje.html. Feisst, Sabine. "Negotiating Freedom and Control in Composition: Improvisation and its Offshoots, 1950 to 1980.” In The Oxford Handbook of Critical Improvisation Studies, Volume 2, edited by Benjamin Piekut and George E. Lewis, 206-29. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013-16. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199892921.001 .0001/oxfordhb-9780199892921. Festival Info. "Simeon Ten Holt Festival 2008.” Festivals. Accessed 5 August 2019. https://www.festivalinfo.nl/festival/8199/Simeon_ten_Holt_Festival/2008/. Flevopost. "Bullet Proof Mamma.” 27 January 2011. https://flevopost.nl/artikel/92847/bullet-proof- mamma.html?harvest_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. Foster, Hal. “(Post)Modern Polemics.” In Recodings: Art, Spectacle, Cultural Politics, 121-36. Seattle, Washington: Bay Press, 1987. Frith, Michael. “‘Donner l’Illusion de la Chose Ecrite’: Reflections on Recordings of Organ Improvisations.” In Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, edited by Mine Doğantan-Dack, 119-36. London, Middlesex University Press, 2008. Gann, Kyle. "A Technically Definable Stream of Postminimalism, Its Characteristics and Its Meanings.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, edited by Keith Potter, Kyle Gann, and Pwyll ap Siôn, 58- 82. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1426849. Gann, Kyle, Keith Potter, and Pwyll ap Siôn. "Introduction: experimental, minimalist, postminimalist? Origins, definitions, communities.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Minimalist and Postminimalist Music, edited by Keith Potter, Kyle Gann, and Pwyll ap Siôn, 3-38. Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2016. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1426849. Gloag, Kenneth. Postmodernism in Music. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
176 Goehr, Lydia. “Conflicting Ideals of Performance Practice in an Imperfect Practice.” In The Quest for Voice: On Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy, 132-73. Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1998. Goehr, Lydia. The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. Oxford Scholarship Online, 2003. https://www-oxfordscholarship- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/view/10.1093/0198235410.001.0001/acprof- 9780198235415. Gracyk, Theodore. "Documentation and Transformation in Musical Recordings.” In Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, edited by Mine Doğantan-Dack, 61-81. London, Middlesex University Press, 2008. Gresser, Clemens. "(Re)-defining the relationships between composer, performer and listener: Earle Brown, John Cage, Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff.” PhD diss., University of Southampton, 2004. Griffiths, Paul. "Aleatory.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 28 January 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.00509. Griffiths, Paul. "Boulez from Memory for the Challenge and the Art.” Review of performance by Taka Kigawa. New York Times, 29 May 2001. https://search- proquest-com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/docview/91968163?accountid=12372. Griffiths, Paul. "Reich, Steve [Stephen] (Michael).” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Works list updated 26 November 2003. Accessed 22 January 2020. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23091. Groot, Rokus de. “Schat, Peter.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Updated 1 February 2005. Accessed 11 November 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.24763. Hagen, Toon. “Canto Ostinato.” CD’s. Accessed 3 May 2020. https://www.toonhagen.nl/product/canto-ostinato/.
177 Haas, Polo de, and Kees Wieringa. "Niemand voert Canto goed uit, behalve wij.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 152-57. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Heaton, Roger. "Reminder: A recording is not a performance.” In The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, edited by Nicholas Cook, Eric Clarke, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and John Rink, 217-20. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1017/CCOL9780521865821. Heeswijk, Linde van. “Less is More: the Role of Expectation in Emotional Responses to Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato.” Musicology Review, no. 8 (2013): 38-61. Het Scheepvaartmuseum. "Ligconcert.” Accessed 26 September 2019. https://www.hetscheepvaartmuseum.nl/ligconcert. Hier Radio Kootwijk. "English version.” Accessed 26 September 2019. http://www.hierradiokootwijk.nl/p/english. Hiller, Paul. Arvo Pärt. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Holt, Simeon ten. Het Woud en de Citadel: Memoires van een componist. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2009. Holt, Simeon ten. "Inleiding op Canto Ostinato: door Simeon ten Holt.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 79- 86. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Holzaepfel, John. “Tudor, David (Eugene).” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Updated 30 August 2004. Accessed 16 January 2020. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.28561. Hopkins, G.W. “Boulez, Pierre.” Revised by Paul Griffiths. Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Updated 30 July 2020. Accessed 3 June 2021. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.03708. Hopta, Bethany. “Review: Lucinda Childs Presents a Retrospective ‘Portrait’ at the Joyce.” Zeal NYC. 7 December 2016. https://zealnyc.com/review-lucinda-childs-presents-a-retrospective-portrait-at- the-joyce/. Hordijk, Fieke. “Canto Ostinato.” Accessed 4 December 2019. https://www.fiekehordijk.nl/wandobject-canto-ostinato/.
178 Hutcheon, Linda. The Politics of Postmodernism. New York: Routledge, 2002. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=181639. iGO. “Concert en Videoshow op Diekhuusplein in Middelharnis.” 8 October 2019. Last updated 9 October 2019. Accessed 3 December 2019. https://igo.nl/nieuws/actueel/artikel/25970/Concert-en-Videoshow-op- Diekhuusplein-in-Middelharnis. Instant Composers Pool. "Misha Mengelberg (1935-2017).” Misha. Published 11 March 2017. Accessed 11 November 2019. http://www.icporchestra.com/misha/2017/3/11/misha-mengelberg-1935-2017. iTunes Preview. "Canto Ostinato, Live Version from Culemborg.” Jeroen van Veen. Accessed 14 March 2019. https://music.apple.com/au/album/canto-ostinato-live-version-from- culemborg/600214320. iTunes Preview. “Simeon Ten Holt: Canto ostinato (Live Version).” Sandra & Jeroen van Veen. Accessed 15 March 2019. https://music.apple.com/nl/album/simeon-ten-holt-canto-ostinato/496048020. Jander, Owen. “Fioritura.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 3 February 2020. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.09704. Janssen, Ivo. “CD’s.” Accessed 3 May 2020. https://www.voidclassics.com/eng/content/cds/VOID9910.html. Janssen, Ivo. "Het is geen religie, het is muziek.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 142-45. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Janssen, Paul. Liner notes to Simeon ten Holt: Highlights. Translated by John Dillon. Composer's Voice 137/145, 2003. Joe, Jeongwon, and S. Hoon Song. “Roland Barthes’ ‘Text’ and Aleatoric Music: is the ‘Birth of the Reader’ the Birth of the Listener?” Muzikologija, no. 2 (2002): 263- 81. http://www.doiserbia.nb.rs/img/doi/1450-9814/2002/1450-98140202263J.pdf. Johannes, Tarmo. "Lamamiskontserdid.” Accessed 3 December 2019. http://tarmo.uuu.ee/lamamimskontserdid.html.
179 Kalpan Arts. "SIMEON.” Projecten. Accessed 3 December 2019. http://kalpanarts.com/en/projecten/simeon. Kania, Andrew. "Works, Recordings, Performances: Classical, Rock, Jazz.” In Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, edited by Mine Doğantan-Dack, 3-21. London, Middlesex University Press, 2008. Klenkes. “Dansgroep Amsterdam – ,Bullet Proof Mamma‘.” Musiktheater. Bühne. Accessed 24 May 2019. https://www.klenkes.de/tageskalender/buehne/musiktheater/event/29803.dans groep-amsterdam---bullet-proof-mamma. Klijn, Sylvie. “Musical, Sociological and Psychological Aspects of Minimal Music Composition: The Case of ‘Canto Ostinato’ by Simeon ten Holt." Master's thesis, Utrecht University, 2019. Kostka, Stefan. Materials and Techniques of Post-Tonal Music. 4th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2012. Kouvaras, Linda Ioanna. Loading the Silence: Australian Sound Art in the Post-Digital Age. Abingdon: Routledge, 2013. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1123200. Kramer, Jonathan. "The Nature and Origins of Musical Postmodernism.” In Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, edited by Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner, 13-26. New York and London: Routledge, 2002. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1461077. Kramer, Jonathan D. “Beyond Unity: Toward an Understanding of Musical Postmodernism.” In Concert Music, Rock, and Jazz since 1945: Essays and Analytical Studies, edited by Elizabeth West Marvin and Richard Hermann, 11- 33. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1995. Kramer, Jonathan D. “Moment Form in Twentieth Century Music,” The Musical Quarterly 64, no. 2 (April 1978): 177-94. https://www.jstor.org/stable/741444. Krauthamer, Lewis. "An Analysis of Two Large-Scale Works by Christian Wolff.” Perspectives of New Music 55, no. 1 (Winter 2017): 75-144. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.55.1.0075. Landy, Leigh. Experimental Music Notebooks. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1994.
180 Landy, Leigh. What's the Matter with Today's Experimental Music?: Organised Sound Too Rarely Heard. Chur, Switzerland: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1991. Lie Down + Listen. “About.” Accessed 2 December 2019. https://www.liedownandlisten.com/about. Ligconcert. “Concerten.” Accessed 2 September 2019. http://www.ligconcert.nl/concertagenda/index.html. Lochhead, Judy. "Controlling Liberation: David Tudor and the ‘Experimental’ Sound Ideal." Paper presented at The Art of David Tudor: Indeterminacy and Performance in Postwar Culture Symposium, 1-7. Getty Research Institute Symposium, Los Angeles, CA, 17-19 May 2001. https://www.getty.edu/research/exhibitions_events/events/david_tudor_sympo sium/pdf/lochhead.pdf. Lochhead, Judith Irene. "Performance Practice in the Indeterminate Works of John Cage.” Performance Practice Review 7, no. 2 (Fall 1994): 233-41. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/ppr/vol7/iss2/11/. Martino, Nicolas. “Canto Ostinato: Paolo Tarsi.” 6 November 2014. Alfabeta2. https://www.alfabeta2.it/2014/11/06/canto-ostinato/. Mauceri, Frank X. "From Experimental Music to Musical Experiment.” Perspectives of New Music 35, no. 1 (Winter, 1997): 187-204. https://www.jstor.org/stable/833684. McElhearn, Kirk. “CD review: Etcetera KTC1317.” Musicweb International. Accessed 22 January 2020. http://www.musicweb- international.com/classrev/2007/Aug07/Holt_ktc1317.htm. McMaster, Christina. “Lie down and Listen.” YouTube, 11 October 2018. Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLxWP7-3sVc. McMaster, Christina. "Live Events.” Accessed 3 December 2019. https://www.christinamcmaster.org/live-events. McMaster, Christina. “Wellbeing: Lie down + Listen.” Home. Accessed 2 October 2019. https://www.christinamcmaster.org/. Miller, David P. "Indeterminacy and Performance Practice in Cage's Variations.” American Music 27, no. 1 (Spring 2009): 60-86. Miller, David P. "The Shapes of Indeterminacy: John Cage's Variations I and Variations II.” Frankfurter Zeitschrift für Musikwissenschaft 6 (2003): 18-45.
181 Moerman, Bas. “Canto Ostinato in beeld: Muziekstuk als inspiratie voor houten kunstwerk.” BD, 27 July 2019. https://www.bd.nl/bommelerwaard/canto-ostinato-in-beeld-muziekstuk-als- inspiratie-voor-houten-kunstwerk~a2eb228c/. Mol, Sandra, Wilma de Rek, and Jeroen van Veen. Voorwoord to Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 7-11. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Molčanov, Andrej Sergeevič. “Ostinato as a genre.” Vestnik muzykal’noj nauki 1, no. 3 (2014): 12-18. Moody, Ivan. “Tavener, Sir John (Kenneth).” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Works list updated 20 November 2002. Accessed 16 September 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.27569. Mukaiyama, Tomoko. “Multus #1: Canto Ostinato.” Works. Accessed 3 December 2019. https://tomoko.nl/works/multus-1-canto-ostinato/. Mukaiyama, Tomoko. "Multus #3: Canto Ostinato for 4 pianos.” Works. Accessed 3 December 2019. https://tomoko.nl/works/multus-3-canto-ostinato-for-4-pianos/. National Library of Australia. “Een geval van verbeelding / [Door] H. C. ten Berge.” Catalogue. Accessed 11 July 2019. https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2744959. Nelson, Mark D. "Social Dynamics at the Heart of Composition: Implications of Christian Wolff's Indeterminate Music." In Proceedings of the Bowling Green State University New Music and Art Festival 10, edited by William E. Lake, 3- 14. Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio: Contemporary Music Forum, 1989. https://www.academia.edu/29870667/Social_Dynamics_at_the_Heart_of_Co mposition_Implications_of_Christian_Wolff_s_Indeterminate_Music. Nicholls, David, and Keith Potter. “Brown, Earle (Appleton).” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Updated 28 August 2002. Accessed 17 June 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04098.
182 Noël, Colette. "Wat ik in Canto hoor, is een voortdurend zoeken.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 146-51. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Nyman, Michael. “Minimal music, determinacy and the new tonality.” In Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond, 139-71. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. O'Higgins, Sorcha. "Who's up for a night behind bars?" Top Hotel News. 21 May 2019. Design. https://tophotel.news/whos-up-for-a-night-behind-bars/. Orgel Nieuws. “4/11 | 7 Canto Ostinato festival Culemborg.” 21 April 2008. http://www.orgelnieuws.nl/4117-canto-ostinato-festival-culemborg/. Pareles, Jon. “Music: Six at La Mama.” The New York Times. 6 March 1983. https://www.nytimes.com/1983/03/06/arts/music-six-at-la- mama.html?rref=collection%2Fbyline%2Fjon- pareles&action=click&contentCollection=undefined®ion=stream&module=s tream_unit&version=search&contentPlacement=114&pgtype=collection. Pasler, Jann. “Neo-romantic.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 14 February 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40720. Pasler, Jann. "Postmodernism.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 5 February 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.40721. Pereverzeva, Marina. "Musical Mobile as a Genre Genotype of New Music.” Lietuvos muzikologija/Lithuanian musicology, no. 14 (2013): 119-34. http://xn--urnalai-cxb.lmta.lt/wp-content/uploads/2013/lietuvos-muzikologija14- 8-pereverzeva.pdf. Philip, Robert. Performing Music in the Age of Recording. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004. https://www-jstor-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/stable/j.ctt5vkwgk. Pianist. “Lie-down and Listen: A unique classical music concert designed to benefit well-being launching this month.” News. Accessed 3 December 2019. https://www.pianistmagazine.com/news/lie-down-and-listen-a-unique- classical-music-concert-designed-to/.
183 Piano Duo Sandra & Jeroen. CDs. Accessed 18 March 2019. http://www.pianoduo.org/cds/index.html. Play On. “Past Events.” Accessed 6 April 2020. https://playonmusic.com.au/past-events/. Play On. “Story.” Accessed 6 April 2020. https://playonmusic.com.au/story/. Potter, Keith. “Minimalism (USA).” Grove Music Online. Published online 31 January 2014. Updated 30 December 2019. Accessed 3 June 2021. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2257002. Potter, Keith. “The Role of Repetition in Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato.” Paper presented at Minimalism Extended: the Seventh International Conference on Minimalist Music, Cardiff, Wales, 24 August 2019. Pritchett, James, Laura Kuhn and Charles Hiroshi Garrett. "Cage, John (Milton, Jr.).” Grove Music Online. Published online 10 July 2012. Accessed 9 July 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2223954. Quick, Matthew Glenn. “‘Junction +4’: A Foray into the Intersection of Minimalism and Indeterminacy.” Accelerando: BJMD 3, no. 3 (2018). Accessed 14 June 2019. https://accelerandobjmd.weebly.com/issue3/junction4. Ramaer, Huib. “Holt, Simeon ten.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 27 July 2018. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.13256. Rees, Owen. "Canto (i).” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 5 September 2018. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04786. Reich, Steve. “Music as a Gradual Process (1968).” In Writings on Music, 1965-2000, edited by Paul Hillier, chapter 2b. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. https://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195151152. 001.0001/acprof-9780195151152.
184 Reiss, Joshua D., and Andrew McPherson. "Delay Line Effects.” In Audio Effects: Theory, Implementation and Application, 21-58. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=mlHSBQAAQBAJ&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1# v=onepage&q&f=false. Rek, Wilma de. “‘Muziek heeft alles met sensualiteit te maken': Interview met Simeon ten Holt.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 13-69. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Rek, Wilma de. "Overzicht cd's en dvd's van Canto Ostinato.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 173- 76. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Rek, Wilma de. “Overzicht composities Simeon ten Holt.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 170-72. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. RIPM. “Die Reihe [English-language edition].” Accessed 22 January 2020. https://www.ripm.org/?page=JournalInfo&ABB=REI. RKD – Nederlands Instituur voor Kunstgeschiedenis. “Marie Dagnelie.” Explore. Last modified 18 April 2016. Accessed 24 September 2019. https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/artists/19671. Rondane Kwartet. “Canto Ostinato.” Repertoire. Accessed 2 July 2020. https://en.rondanekwartet.nl/canto-ostinato. Ryan, David. "Changing the System: Indeterminacy and Politics in the Early 1970s.” In Changing the System: The Music of Christian Wolff, edited by Stephen Chase and Philip Thomas, 143-69. Farnham, Surrey, England; Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2010. Savage, Steve. "'It could have happened': The evolution of music construction.” In The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, edited by Nicholas Cook, Eric Clarke, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and John Rink, 32-35. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1017/CCOL9780521865821. Scheiner, Michael. “,Loops‘ setzt auf minimale Abweichungen.” Mittelbayerische. 12 October 2016. https://www.mittelbayerische.de/kultur-nachrichten/loops-setzt- auf-minimale-abweichungen-21853-art1440206.html.
185 Schnapper, Laure. “Ostinato.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 31 July 2018. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20547. Schönberger, Elmer. “(4) Louis Andriessen.” In “Andriessen family.” Jos Wouters, Ronald Vermeulen and Elmer Schönberger. Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Works list updated 31 January 2002. Accessed 11 November 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47613. Schwarz, K. Robert. “Process vs. Intuition in the Recent Works of Steve Reich and John Adams.” American Music 8, no. 3 (Autumn 1990): 245-73. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3052096. Shively, David P. "Indeterminacy and Interpretation: Three Realisations.” DMA diss., University of California, San Diego, 2001. Simeon ten Holt Foundation. “CDs.” Accessed 3 May 2020. http://www.simeontenholt.com/CD/index.html. Simeon ten Holt Foundation. Contact. Accessed 24 July 2019. http://www.simeontenholt.com/contact/index.html. Simeon ten Holt Foundation. "Foundation.” Contact. Accessed 24 July 2019. http://www.simeontenholt.com/contact/foundation/index.html. Simeon ten Holt Foundation. Homepage. Updated 2019. Accessed 21 February 2019. http://www.simeontenholt.com/. Simeone, Nigel. "The original cast recording of West Side Story.” In The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, edited by Nicholas Cook, Eric Clarke, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and John Rink, 181-85. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1017/CCOL9780521865821. Smith Brindle, Reginald. "Music Indeterminacy.” Guitar Review, no. 69 (Spring 1987): 1-10. Snellenberg, Dick. "MemoriesIII: Festival 2008.” 11 June 2014. Accessed 5 August 2019. https://vimeo.com/97906831. Solomon, Larry. "Improvisation II." Perspectives of New Music 24, no. 2 (Spring– Summer 1986): 224-35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/833221.
186 Steingraeber & Söhne. “Canto Ostinato CD und DVD.” CD Recordings. Service. Accessed 2 July 2020. https://www.steingraeber.de/canto/. Stichting Simeon ten Holt. “About.” Accessed 13 September 2019. https://www.simeontenholt.info/editorial/about. Stichting Simeon ten Holt. “Canto Ostinato.” More Pianos. Works. Accessed 11 November 2019. https://www.simeontenholt.info/works/id/100030. Stichting Simeon ten Holt. “Canto Ostinato.” Recordings. Accessed 2 July 2020. https://www.simeontenholt.info/recordings/100082;jsessionid=E5838D8B33A E7B29EA1C276EE138F677. Stichting Simeon ten Holt. “Canto Ostinato for cello.” Recordings. Accessed 13 August 2019. https://www.simeontenholt.info/recordings/100094. Stichting Simeon ten Holt. Homepage. Accessed 21 February 2019. https://www.simeontenholt.info/. Stichting Simeon ten Holt. “VICTOR KRAUS GROUP plays Canto Ostinato.” Blog. 28 February 2019. Accessed 10 July 2019. https://www.simeontenholt.info/blog/201902. Stockdale, Robert. The Dorsey Brothers: That’s It! Additions, Corrections and Deletions to the author’s two bio-discographies “Tommy Dorsey: On the Side” and “Jimmy Dorsey: A Study in Contrasts.” Self published, 2008. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=BlMZ8tjKN3UC&lpg=PA344&dq=%22 we%20were%20only%20walking%20in%20the%20moonlight%22&pg=PA179 #v=onepage&q=%22we%20were%20only%20walking%20in%20the%20moon light%22&f=false. Strickland, Edward. "Riley, Terry (Mitchell).” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 10 July 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.23474. Sun, Cecilia. “Experimental Music.” Grove Music Online. Published online 10 July 2012. Accessed 8 November 2018. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.A2224296.
187 Sun, Cecilia. "Resisting the Airport: Bang on a Can Performs Brian Eno.” Musicology Australia 29, no. 1 (2007): 135-59. https://www-tandfonline- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/08145857.2007.10416592?need Access=true&. Tagg, Philip. “Troubles with Tonal Terminology.” (2011/ 2013): 1-32. https://www.tagg.org/xpdfs/Aharonian2011.pdf. Taylor, Timothy D. "Music and Musical Practices in Postmodernity.” In Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, edited by Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner, 93- 118. New York and London: Routledge, 2002. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unimelb/detail.action?docID=1461077. Theater Kantoor. Homepage. Accessed 21 February 2019. https://www.theaterkantoor.nl/. Theater Kantoor. "Ligconcerten.” Accessed 13 August 2019. https://www.theaterkantoor.nl/ligconcerten/. Theater Kantoor. “Valentijns Canto Naarden.” Ligconcert. Accessed 26 September 2019. https://www.theaterkantoor.nl/valentijnscantonaarden/. Thomas, Philip. "Berio's Sequenza IV: Approaches to Performance and Interpretation.” Contemporary Music Review 26, no. 2 (April 2007): 189-205. Thomas, Philip. "Determining the Indeterminate.” Contemporary Music Review 26, no. 2 (April 2007): 129-40. Thomas, Philip. "A Prescription for Action.” In The Ashgate Research Companion to Experimental Music, edited by James Saunders, 77-98. Surrey: Ashgate, 2009. Thomas, Philip. "Understanding Indeterminate Music Through Performance: Cage's Solo for Piano,” Twentieth-Century Music 10, no. 1 (2013): 91-113. Tilbury, John. “Cardew, Cornelius.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 22 January 2020. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.04912. Tilmouth, Michael. "Moto perpetuo.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Accessed 9 July 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.19224.
188 Tivoli Vredenburg. “Canto Ostinato: East Meets West.” Agenda. Accessed 3 December 2019. https://www.tivolivredenburg.nl/agenda/canto-ostinato-10-03- 2019/?fbclid=IwAR3GSFinF7Csv9CuEhAJzLJ2IS7AVC6qr6Y4diRAs1Ga5uW a6awy0MtV69k. Toit, Angélique du. "Grand Narrative, Metanarrative.” In The Lyotard Dictionary, edited by Stuart Sim, 86-89. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011. https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0b5xf. Toma, Kevin. “About Canto: melodieën die levens complete veranderen.” Volkskrant. 16 November 2011. Nieuws & Achtergrond. https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/about-canto-melodieen-die- levens-compleet-veranderen~bc97844c/. Toop, Richard. “Stockhausen, Karlheinz.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Updated 22 October 2008. Accessed 11 November 2019. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26808. Trezise, Simon. "Distortions and Masks: Transmutations of the 'Performing Breath' in the Studio Take.” In Recorded Music: Philosophical and Critical Reflections, edited by Mine Doğantan-Dack, 261-90. London, Middlesex University Press, 2008. Trezise, Simon. "The recorded document: Interpretation and discography.” In The Cambridge Companion to Recorded Music, edited by Nicholas Cook, Eric Clarke, Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, and John Rink, 186-209. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. https://doi-org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1017/CCOL9780521865821. Trouw. “Pianomarathon op Utrecht Centraal.” 18 October 2007. https://www.trouw.nl/nieuws/pianomarathon-op-utrecht- centraal~bce9bc8e/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. Uit in Vlaanderen. “Kwartslag.” Accessed 3 December 2019. https://www.uitinvlaanderen.be/agenda/e/kwartslag/353887e7-41ad-479c- 886a-7891662a8230. Uitgeverij IJzer. “Arabesk (Over Simeon ten Holt).” Boeken. Accessed 31 May 2021. https://www.uitgeverij-ijzer.nl/boeken/254-arabesk-over-simeon-ten- holt?highlight=WyJhcmFiZXNrIl0=.
189 Van Nelle Fabriek. "About Van Nelle Fabriek.” Accessed 26 September 2019. https://www.vannellefabriekrotterdam.com/en/events/about-van-nelle/. Van Veen Productions. "Canto Ostinato, live version.” CDs. Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.vanveenproductions.com/cds/page28/page28.html. Van Veen Productions. "Canto Ostinato, live version.” iTunes. Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.vanveenproductions.com/page8/page79/page79.html. Van Veen Productions. “CDs.” Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.vanveenproductions.com/cds/index.html. Van Veen Productions. Homepage. Accessed 4 September 2019. http://www.vanveenproductions.com/. Van Veen Productions. "Horizon on four pianos LIVE, Simeon ten Holt.” CDs. Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.vanveenproductions.com/cds/Horizon/index.html. Van Veen Productions. "Horizon on four pianos LIVE, Simeon ten Holt.” iTunes. Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.vanveenproductions.com/page8/page84/page84.html. Van Veen Productions. “iTunes.” Accessed 22 March 2019. http://www.vanveenproductions.com/page8/page8.html. Veen, Jeroen van. "(No title).” Simeon ten Holt (blog). 25 October 2009. http://simeontenholt.blogspot.com/2009/10/. Veen, Jeroen van. "Canto Ostinato.” Download Audio. Download. Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/Download/styled-9/page40/page40.html. Veen, Jeroen van. "Canto Ostinato (Composers Choice).” CDs. Accessed 14 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page35/page35.html. Veen, Jeroen van. “Canto Ostinato (tulips).” CDs. Accessed 20 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page11/page11.html. Veen, Jeroen van. “Canto Ostinato, live BERGEN.” iTunes. Accessed 16 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/styled-22/styled-26/page96.html. Veen, Jeroen van. "Canto Ostinato, live CULEMBORG.” iTunes. Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/styled-22/styled-24/page94.html. Veen, Jeroen van. "Canto Ostinato for synthesizers.” CDs. Accessed 22 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/styled-4/index.html. Veen, Jeroen van. “Canto Ostinato for two pianos.” CDs. Jeroen van Veen. Accessed 14 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page5/page5.html.
190 Veen, Jeroen van. “Canto Ostinato for two prepared pianos.” Download Audio. Download. Accessed 20 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/Download/styled-9/page37/page37.html. Veen, Jeroen van. “Canto Ostinato+VJ, a live interaction between pianists and visuals.” YouTube, 22 October 2012. Video. https://youtu.be/6kJjGOBeXK4. Veen, Jeroen van. “CDs.” Accessed 14 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/index.html. Veen, Jeroen van. Homepage. Accessed 21 February 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/. Veen, Jeroen van. "Horizon.” Download Audio. Download. Accessed 15 March 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/Download/styled-9/page41/page41.html. Veen, Jeroen van. “Jeroen van Veen: The Maximal Minimalist Missionary.” Interview by Raymond Tuttle. Fanfare: The Magazine for Serious Record Collectors 38, no. 3 (January/February 2015): 213-19. https://eds-b-ebscohost- com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=23fc1d03- 5aa1-4ebc-b484-db1783a88c3d%40pdc-v-sessmgr05. Veen, Jeroen van. Liner notes to "CD8: two pianos and two marimbas (live recording during Lek Art 1999).” In Holt, Simeon ten. Canto Ostinato XL. Various recordings. Brilliant Classics BC 9453. 1999-2013. Compact disc. Veen, Jeroen van. Liner notes to "CD10: two prepared pianos.” In ten Holt, Simeon. Canto Ostinato XL. Various recordings. Brilliant Classics BC 9453. 1999-2013. Compact disc. Veen, Jeroen van. Liner notes to "CD11-12: synthesizers.” In ten Holt, Simeon. Canto Ostinato XL. Various recordings. Brilliant Classics BC 9453. 1999-2013. Compact disc. Veen, Jeroen van. “Workshop.” Projects. Accessed 13 September 2019. http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/projects/workshop/. Veen, Sandra van, and Jeroen van Veen. “Canto Ostinato, Simeon ten Holt.” In Minimal Piano Collection. Volume X. Brilliant Classics BC9171. 2010. Compact disc. Back cover. Veen, Sandra van, and Jeroen van Veen. "Haantjesgedrag kan niet, bij Canto.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 136-141. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016.
191 Veen, Sandra van, and Jeroen van Veen. "Hoe zit Canto Ostinato in elkaar?: Inleiding door Sandra en Jeroen van Veen.” In Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed., Wilma de Rek, 73-76. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016. Veselinović-Hofman, Mirjana. "Musical Notation: the more or the less than sound.” New Sound: International Magazine for Music, no. 35 (2010): 39-57. Volkskrant. “Een mooie, bedwelmende reis in muziek en dans.” 13 December 2010. Nieuws & Achtergrond. https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/een- mooie-bedwelmende-reis-in-muziek-en- dans~bde98619/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2F. Vrancken, Steven. “Informal version.” About. Accessed 2 October 2019. https://stevenvrancken.com/about/. Walinga, Ruurd. “Twee wereldpremières op City Proms: ‘Messa di gloria’ voor harmonium en ‘Canto Ostinato’ voor strijkers.” Friesch Dagblad. 27 June 2019. https://frieschdagblad.nl/2019/6/27/twee-wereldpremieres-op-city-proms- messa-di-gloria-voor-harmonium-en-canto-ostinato-voor- strijkers?harvest_referrer=https:%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. Wennekes, Emile. “Leeuw, Reinbert de.” Grove Music Online. Published online 2001. Updated 23 December 2020. Accessed 3 June 2021. https://doi- org.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47330. West Australian Ballet. "Itzik Galili Long Bio 2013-14.” Accessed 24 May 2019. https://waballet.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Itzik-Galili.pdf. Wiel, Francine van der. “‘Jujubes’ dansen aardse dans van Galili.” NRC. 24 December 2010. https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2010/12/24/jujubes-dansen-aardse-dans-van- galili-11982661-a902961. Wieringa, Kees. "Biography.” Translated by Herman te Loo. Simeon ten Holt Foundation. Accessed 17 May 2021. http://www.simeontenholt.com/Bio/index.html. Wieringa, Kees. "Biography.” Translated by Herman te Loo. Stichting Simeon ten Holt. Accessed 17 May 2021. https://www.simeontenholt.info/editorial/biography. Worldcat. “Arabesk: over Simeon ten Holt.” Accessed 31 May 2021. https://www.worldcat.org/title/arabesk-over-simeon-ten-holt/oclc/1130761219. WorldCat. “Domselaer, Jakob van 1890-1960.” OCLC WorldCat Identities. Accessed 2 July 2019. https://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n2002066468/.
192 Scores Holt, Simeon ten. Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments. Amsterdam: Donemus, 1979. Holt, Simeon ten. Canto Ostinato for keyboard instruments. Amsterdam: Donemus, 2010. Holt, Simeon ten. Canto Ostinato for Orchestra. Orchestrated by Anthony Fiumara. Rijswijk: Stichting Donemus Beheer, 2016.
Audio Extracts February 2008 recording Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato for Two Pianos: Section 60.” YouTube, 22 March 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/vJvcIWiqy_k. Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato for Two Pianos: Section 69.” YouTube, 21 March 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/6l5vKLnLSjY. Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato for Two Pianos: Section 88.” YouTube, 21 March 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/FxecPlIrGJM. Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato for Two Pianos: Section 89.” YouTube, 21 March 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/35XG5QE6Byo.
2010 recording Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato: In An Arrangement for Two Prepared Pianos.” YouTube, 28 October 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/PC7dj3g4vx8.
2013 recording Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato for Synthesizers: Section 40.” YouTube, 21 March 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/9iBjdj51FXg. Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato for Synthesizers: Section 88.” YouTube, 22 March 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/eDVlraswhCo?t=1456. Jeroen Van Veen – Topic. “Canto Ostinato for Synthesizers: Section 91.” YouTube, 21 March 2015. Video. https://youtu.be/LdaEJc-ZAVU?t=413.
193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 Appendix II: Background information on recordings in this thesis
This section provides background information—location and date of recording, and date(s) of release—on the seven recordings analysed in this thesis, as summarised in Table 4 (pp. 113-14) in Chapter Five. Discrepancies regarding catalogue numbers, dates of recording, and numbers of discs will also be investigated.
The first recording, “Live Version from Culemborg,”1 was made in the Hervormde Barbarakerk in September 1996,2 as part of the Lek Art Festival.3 It was released in the same year,4 in January 2001,5 and on 1 October 2006.6 There are two possible album covers of this recording. On the body of the CD landing page of Jeroen van Veen’s website (hereafter JVV),7 the two CDs labelled “PP 9600, Ten Holt – Canto Ostinato for two pianos” (black and orange cover, towards the bottom of the page) and “PP 9610, Ten Holt – Canto Ostinato” (black and grey cover, further up) link to the same CD product page (showing the black and grey cover).8 There are also links in the left column on the CD landing page, but only for PP 9600. In addition, de Rek’s catalogue (hereafter DR) and the CD landing page of the van Veens’ piano duo website (hereafter VVPD) only lists the former.9 Thus, PP 9600 will be used when referring to this recording in this thesis.
Another discrepancy with this recording concerns the number of discs. The link on the left column of JVV for PP 9600 lists two CDs, and the subtitle “volume 1” can also be found on the black and orange cover.10 However, this recording only consists of a
1 I am using this title as it best distinguishes this recording. Title from “Canto Ostinato, Live Version from Culemborg,” Jeroen van Veen, iTunes Preview, accessed 14 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/au/album/canto-ostinato-live-version-from-culemborg/600214320. 2 “Canto Ostinato for two pianos,” CDs, Jeroen van Veen, accessed 14 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page5/page5.html. 3 Jeroen van Veen, email message to author, 22 March 2019. 4 Wilma de Rek, “Overzicht cd’s en dvd’s van Canto Ostinato,” in Canto Ostinato: Simeon ten Holt over zijn meesterwerk, 2nd ed. (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Balans, 2016), 173. 5 “CDs,” Piano Duo Sandra & Jeroen, accessed 18 March 2019, http://www.pianoduo.org/cds/index.html. 6 “Canto Ostinato, Live Version from Culemborg,” iTunes Preview. 7 “CDs,” JVV, accessed 14 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/index.html. 8 “Canto Ostinato for two pianos,” JVV. 9 De Rek, “Overzicht cd’s en dvd’s,” 173, and “CDs,” Piano Duo. Note: the link from the album cover picture, http://www.vanveenproductions.com/cds/Canto_Ostinato/index.html, was “not found.” Both links accessed 18 March 2019. 10 The picture is on the CD landing page as PP 9600, but a clearer one is in “Canto Ostinato, Live Version from Culemborg,” iTunes Preview.
201 single disc: there is no mention of a second disc on the abovementioned CD product page,11 and both DR and VVPD list this recording as existing only on one CD.12
The next recording was made on 5 or 25 February 2008 in the Zweeuse Concertzaal, Middelburg,13 and released a number of times. However, overall, there are two main releases. The first, titled “Tulips Digipack,”14 was released twice in the same year as the recording—1 September on iTunes,15 and 12 September,16 the first of three days of a festival celebrating the composer’s eighty-fifth birthday.17 These were made under Zefir Records (ZEF 9615), although it is listed on the CD product page of Jeroen van Veen’s website as produced by “Van Veen Productions for Zefir.”18 The second main release is dated 30 September 2011,19 and is released under the Van Veens’ label (PP 2027).20 It also has a slightly modified cover picture to the earlier release.21
The third listing is a live recording made during Who’s Afraid of Canto Ostinato.22 Organised by Jeroen van Veen, this festival ran from 4 to 11 July 2008 in Culemborg,23 and aimed to increase the public’s awareness of the composition.24 The recording was
11 “Canto Ostinato for two pianos,” JVV. 12 De Rek, “Overzicht cd’s en dvd’s,” 173, and “CDs,” Piano Duo. 13 First date from back cover of Sandra and Jeroen van Veen, “Canto Ostinato, Simeon ten Holt,” Minimal Piano Collection: Volume X, Brilliant Classics BC 9171, 2010, compact disc. Kindly provided by Charissa Lord from Brilliant Classics, email message to author, 31 October 2018. Second date from “Canto Ostinato (tulips),” CDs, JVV, accessed 20 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page11/page11.html. Venue of recording correlates in both sources. 14 As shown on the left column of “CDs,” JVV. 15 “Simeon ten Holt: Canto ostinato,” Jeroen van Veen, Apple Music Preview, accessed 14 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/au/album/simeon-ten-holt-canto-ostinato/1084505633. 16 “CDs,” Piano Duo. 17 See the description of Dick Snellenberg’s video “MemoriesIII: Festival 2008,” 11 June 2014, https://vimeo.com/97906831. Dates of the festival from “Simeon Ten Holt Festival 2008,” Festivals, Festival Info, https://www.festivalinfo.nl/festival/8199/Simeon_ten_Holt_Festival/2008/. Both links accessed 5 August 2019. 18 “Canto Ostinato (tulips),” JVV. 19 “Simeon Ten Holt: Canto Ostinato,” Jeroen van Veen, Apple Music Preview, accessed 20 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/au/album/simeon-ten-holt-canto-ostinato/475903746. 20 “CDs,” JVV. 21 Compare the covers and different banners at the bottom in “Canto Ostinato (tulips),” JVV and “Canto Ostinato (Composers Choice),” CDs, JVV, accessed 14 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/page35/page35.html. 22 “Canto Ostinato, live CULEMBORG,” iTunes, Canto Ostinato, http://www.canto-ostinato.com/styled-19/styled-21/page32.html. The original title in Dutch is Wie is bang voor Canto Ostinato, “4/11 | 7 Canto Ostinato festival Culemborg,” Orgel Nieuws, 21 April 2008, http://www.orgelnieuws.nl/4117-canto-ostinato-festival-culemborg/. Both links accessed 22 March 2019. 23 “Canto Ostinato festival,” Orgel Nieuws. 24 Ibid.
202 released on 1 January 2012 on iTunes. 25 There are discrepancies regarding its catalogue number. This recording is not in DR, so all information was based on two websites managed by the van Veens, JVV and Van Veen Productions (hereafter VVP).
Catalogue number PP 2030 is given on the CD landing pages of both websites.26 However, VVP has two product pages of this recording, one via the CD landing page, and the second via the iTunes landing page,27 both with “Item: PP 2031” at the bottom of the descriptions.28 The matter is further complicated with a live recording of another of ten Holt’s compositions, Horizon on four pianos, listed as PP 2031 on the CD landing page of VVP, but as PP 2030 on its two product pages.29 The Horizon recording is also listed as PP 2031 in the CD landing page of JVV, but there is no catalogue number on the CD product page.30 Similarly, an examination of the links provided for the Canto recording does not yield any results, as there is no catalogue number given in the CD product pages accessed from both the CD and the iTunes landing pages.31 When asked, Jeroen van Veen indicated the catalogue number of this CD was neither PP 2030 nor 2031, but PP 2026. 32 Given the anomalies surrounding the catalogue number of this recording, none will be used when referring to it.
25 “Simeon Ten Holt: Canto ostinato (Live Version),” Sandra & Jeroen van Veen, iTunes Preview, accessed 15 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/nl/album/simeon-ten-holt-canto-ostinato/496048020. 26 “CDs,” JVV, and “CDs,” Van Veen Productions (hereafter VVP), http://www.vanveenproductions.com/cds/index.html. Both links accessed 15 March 2019. 27 The recording is listed as “Canto, Live Version” on the left column of each of these landing pages. See “CDs,” VVP, and “iTunes,” VVP, accessed 22 March 2019, http://www.vanveenproductions.com/page8/page8.html. 28 “Canto Ostinato, live version,” CDs, VVP, http://www.vanveenproductions.com/cds/page28/page28.html, and “Canto Ostinato, live version,” iTunes, VVP, http://www.vanveenproductions.com/page8/page79/page79.html. Both links accessed 15 March 2019. 29 "Horizon on four pianos LIVE, Simeon ten Holt,” CDs, VVP, http://www.vanveenproductions.com/cds/Horizon/index.html, and “Horizon on four pianos LIVE, Simeon ten Holt,” iTunes, VVP, http://www.vanveenproductions.com/page8/page84/page84.html. Both links accessed 15 March 2019. 30 "Horizon,” Download Audio, Download, JVV, accessed 15 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/Download/styled-9/page41/page41.html. 31 “Canto Ostinato,” Download Audio, Download, JVV, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/Download/styled-9/page40/page40.html, and “Canto Ostinato, live CULEMBORG,” iTunes, JVV, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/styled-22/styled-24/page94.html. Both links accessed 15 March 2019. Note: the latter link came from “Canto Ostinato, Live Culemborg,” second link from the top in the left column of the iTunes landing page. The picture of the recording in the main part of the iTunes landing page, labelled “2 pianos, CULEMBORG,” leads to a different recording that is not relevant to this project. 32 Jeroen van Veen, email message to author, 22 March 2019. However, this would mean that the catalogue number for the recording on two prepared pianos (the following recording) would be incorrect.
203 The fourth recording, PP 2026,33 is a studio recording on two prepared pianos,34 modified by Jeroen van Veen.35 It was released on 30 September 2011 on iTunes.36 As for its recording date, DR dates it to 2011,37 while Jeroen van Veen states it was made in October 2011,38 conflicting with the abovementioned release date. However, the recording was used in the dance Bullet Proof Mamma, choreographed by Itzik Galili for Dance Group Amsterdam in 2010.39 Even though Jeroen van Veen dates the performance to 9 December 2012,40 news and blog articles referring to Bullet Proof Mamma date from late 2010 to early 2011.41 Additionally, a biographical piece on Galili from the West Australian Ballet states that he worked with Dance Group Amsterdam “until the end of 2010.”42 All of this indicates the recording must have been made in 2010, to be used in Bullet Proof Mamma.
33 “CDs,” JVV. 34 De Rek, “Overzicht cd’s en dvd’s,” 175. The studio that the recording was made in is in Culemborg— see the homepage of VVP, accessed 4 September 2019, http://www.vanveenproductions.com/. 35 A subtitle on the album cover reads: “arranged by Jeroen van Veen.” Images of the modified pianos can be seen at “Canto Ostinato for two prepared pianos,” Download Audio, Download, JVV, accessed 20 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/Download/styled-9/page37/page37.html. 36 “Canto Ostinato: In An Arrangement for Two Prepared Pianos,” Sandra van Veen, Apple Music Preview, accessed 14 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/au/album/canto-ostinato-in-an-arrangement-for-two-prepared- pianos/485779285. 37 De Rek, “Overzicht cd’s en dvd’s,” 175. 38 Jeroen van Veen, email message to author, 22 March 2019. 39 “Een mooie, bedwelmende reis in muziek en dans,” Volkskrant, 13 December 2010, Nieuws & Achtergrond, https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-achtergrond/een-mooie-bedwelmende-reis-in-muziek- en-dans~bde98619/?referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com.au%2F. 40 Jeroen van Veen, liner notes to “CD10: two prepared pianos,” in Simeon ten Holt, Canto Ostinato XL, various recordings, Brilliant Classics BC 9453, 1999-2013, compact disc, 10. 41 Suzan, “bullet proof mamma, de nieuwe Galili,” dansen.blog.nl, 3 December 2010, https://dansen.blog.nl/bekende-dansers-en-choreografen/gezelschappen/2010/12/03/bullet-proof- mamma-de-nieuwe-galili; Francine van der Wiel, “‘Jujubes’ dansen aardse dans van Galili,” NRC, 24 December 2010, https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2010/12/24/jujubes-dansen-aardse-dans-van-galili- 11982661-a902961; “Dansgroep Amsterdam – ,Bullet Proof Mamma‘,” Musiktheater, Bühne, Klenkes, accessed 24 May 2019, https://www.klenkes.de/tageskalender/buehne/musiktheater/event/29803.dansgroep-amsterdam--- bullet-proof-mamma; and “Bullet Proof Mamma,” Flevopost, 27 January 2011, https://flevopost.nl/artikel/92847/bullet-proof- mamma.html?harvest_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F. 42 Page 1 of the document at https://waballet.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Itzik-Galili.pdf, accessed 24 May 2019.
204 “Live in Bergen”43 is the fifth recording. It was made in the Ruïnekerk on 5 June 2011,44 and released on 1 December 2014.45 Although it is not on the CD landing page of JVV, it is listed on the iTunes landing page. This may account for the absence of a catalogue number.46 Another live recording (PP 2039) was made in Musis Sacrum, Arnhem, in 2012 and released in the same year. This is the recording attached to de Rek’s book on Canto.47
The final example for this thesis, “Version on Four Keyboards and Synthesizers”48 (PP 2047),49 was recorded on keyboards and synthesizers in September and October 2013,50 and released twice in the same year on iTunes. This two-CD collection was first released on 11 October, featuring a black and green cover and only the contents of the first CD (finishing with section 84).51 The second has a purple cover and features the full recording in two tracks, one for each CD.52 It was released on 15 December.53
43 “Canto Ostinato (Live in Bergen),” Sandra and Jeroen van Veen, Apple Music Preview, accessed 16 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/au/album/canto-ostinato-live-in-bergen/949717302. 44 Location from “Canto Ostinato, live BERGEN,” iTunes, JVV, accessed 16 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/styled-22/styled-26/page96.html. Date of recording from Jeroen van Veen, email message to author, 22 March 2019. 45 “Canto Ostinato (Live in Bergen),” Apple Music Preview. 46 Find the CD product page via “Canto Ostinato, Live Bergen NH” in the left column; the “2 pianos, BERGEN” listing in the body of the iTunes landing page featuring the album cover picture leads to a different part of the website. The title taken for this recording is from “Canto Ostinato (Live in Bergen),” Apple Music Preview. 47 All information on this recording is from de Rek, “Overzicht cd’s en dvd’s,” 175. This recording is not on iTunes and was generously provided by Jeroen van Veen, email message to author, 16 March 2019. 48 “Canto Ostinato: Version on Four Keyboards and Synthesizers,” Sandra & Jeroen van Veen, Apple Music Preview, accessed 16 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/au/album/canto-ostinato-version-on-four-keyboards-synthesizers/734341393. 49 “Canto Ostinato for synthesizers,” JVV, accessed 22 March 2019, http://www.jeroenvanveen.com/cd/styled-4/index.html. 50 “Canto Ostinato for synthesizers,” JVV. 51 “Canto Ostinato for Synthesizers,” Sandra & Jeroen van Veen, Apple Music Preview, accessed 16 March 2019, https://music.apple.com/nl/album/canto-ostinato-for-synthesizers/734129583. It is listed as a two-CD collection at “Canto Ostinato for synthesizers,” JVV. 52 Ibid. 53 Ibid.
205
Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne
Author/s: Low, Stacey Litong
Title: The “Work” of Simeon ten Holt’s Canto Ostinato through the Van Veen Recordings
Date: 2020
Persistent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11343/276985
File Description: Final thesis file
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