Music that is based on text, accompanied by spoken word, has the power to reveal something about the text. This revelation is always a revelation of the musical promise of the text. As Samuel Vriezen's Motet reveals something about the musical - in this case contrapuntal - qualities of bits of random prose. As Dante Boon's Uitdrijving reveals something about the melodic tension in the phrase lengths in Hans Faverey's poem of the same title.
For such a revelation to occur, the cards must be on the table: the preparation takes place in the title of the piece, which should open up the mind to the textual reference of what is about to sound. In this scenario, it is quite understandable and defendable to name a piece of music. But what of all that music that is not based on text? My guess is that, similarly, even in those abundant cases, music reveals something about a concept - and as is the case with any other revelation, it need not be brought to terms but is rather experienced. My hope is that my piece 'nocturnes' will be a place for an unforeseeable experience - or somehow being touched - and my guess is that this being touched will be related to the atmosphere of the 'nocturnal' - that which, with all its dim contours, makes up the nocturne.
This, however, cannot be the function of titles. For, what to say about a marvellous title like Christian Wolff's I Am A Dangerous Woman?
In my music, titles function either along the lines of the above, or are dedications. In fact, 'nocturnes', is my only title so far that is not a dedication. In my text about the audience I distance myself from the idea of a consistent 'humanity' as addressee of my pieces. In that light, it is easy to understand that my pieces bear titles such as for joseph kudirka or for blinky palermo. I wrote those pieces for a person - when that's established, who cares about the title, about the name?
The piece for joseph kudirka is dedicated to him because I like the person and I believe some of the techniques I used were derived from his music.
The piece for blinky palermo is dedicated to him because I like his work and I think the piece has something to do with it. I believe that connecting two works that deal with similar things can make those things more meaningful.
The piece for louis couperin was titled that way because it was an attempt to revive a tradition of keyboard notation that way invented by him. At the same time it was an affirmation of our shared outlooks.
The piece for antoine beuger is dedicated to him for many reasons, including the above, but mostly because I wrote it for us to play together.
To bear a title. The sounding mass of the piece bears the weight of text, which leaves an imprint. The art is to have an imprint, a trough, through which the music may flow more gracefully.
Amsterdam, xii '09
