musings | Willem Wander van Nieuwkerk

On being not original (on artistic truth).

Man_seated_at_a_table_in_a_lofty_room

Should an artist be original? From the ‘signature styles’ of Modern Art to the hermetic technical ‘theories’ of composers like Cage and Boulez and Xenakis, the necessity of originality has been virtually built into the appreciation of the work of art. The musing below is just a hint at an attempt to ethically move beyond ‘originality’ as usually understood to a less personal, more objective (or object-oriented) strategy, or method, or path of poetic action. Yes, I think it is a path of poetic action that I am musing on here…

On Some Personal Notes

Composing takes time, gentle reader. In spite of that, here is where the ruminative composer’s feathered quill softly enters verbal blogosphere…more

I don’t remember her singing, ever

How music came into my life. more

A Building with a View

It stands solid as a rock near the Amsterdam’s IJ-bank, run with a firm hand. more

Nothing if not Dutch – an Indo in an empty shul…

Uilenburger Sjoel A truly Dutch theme, a truly Dutch location… The music played, my quintet for guitar and string quartet Over the Water, means a lot to me. more

Do you hear what it means (what you see)?

In the age of The Image, music is all too easily overlooked. But just as much of the instrumental Classical and late romantic music, and instrumental jazz, seems to have grown into independent musical forms right out of verbal soil, we now seem to witness rather an ongoing sonification and musicalization of our ‘visual culture’…more

About me

Musical beauty and simplicity are my aim. My guiding principle is the classical European tradition. Folk music, church music and Early Music are the sources to which I return to seek new melodic beauty. I value musical craftsmanship and intuition highly. Musicians are my first audience. It is their virtuosic interplay, comic or dramatic, but always emotionally charged, that is the musical theater my music presents to the listener. The sounds I cherish most are those that through the musician’s hearts, breath and hands bear the mark of their personal interpretation.
Chamber music is, therefore, central to me – I have written for the Bennewitz Quartet and Harry-Imre Dijkstra, the Skampa Quartet, Rosanne Philippens, the Bartók Trio, the Utrecht String Quartet and many others.
My chamber music for recorders has a special place in my work and is played in large numbers by amateurs. The CD Kadanza is a fruit of decades of collaboration with the best professionals who were often also the best teachers.
For me, choral music is also a species of chamber music. It should challenge and offer musical satisfaction to those many amateur singers – that I am one of.

My music features individual performers – to convey a thought, an emotion, and a story to the audience in a virtuoso and intense fashion.

In rehearsal and performance, the performers and I learn a lot from each other. Sometimes their improvisations are included in the musical story. Scores will always be adapted to their needs.

The interplay between performer and composer is absolutely essential in newly written music. As is the interplay between sponsor and composer.

Would you like me to rehearse with you or do you want to know more about a piece?

Do you want me to write a piece for a particular line-up or event?

Please let me know and I will contact you.

Besides composing, I lecture in New Music at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, with a focus on chamber music and music aesthetics. Some of the writing and thinking that I do there can be found in the ‘text’ section.