The third episode of Blackbox is on Bert van Herck’s piano piece Méandres. The main focus of this episode lies on the question of how the composer transforms a musical idea that seems secondary at first into an important supporting pillar of his work. Of course, you will also find out how all of this relates to the title of Bert’s piece (and of this episode).
As always the podcast contains many musical examples as well as a full recording of my performance of the piece.
I am looking forward to receiving any feedback or questions from you. Please post your comments below or email me directly at seda@sedaroeder.com
For those of you who couldn’t make it to the last HGNM concert (and of course for those who would like to listen to the piece once again!), I just finished uploading my live recording of Tolga Yayalar’s In the temporal gardens. Enjoy! And please do let me know if you have any comments (you can use the comment form below).
You can also check out the pre-concert podcast that Tolga and I produced for this performance. It contains a lot of background information and some suggestions on how to approach the listening experience!
About the composition
“In the temporal gardens was written for and is dedicated to Seda Röder. This piece, which takes its title from a poem by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpinar, explores Bergson’s idea of material and intuition by reflecting two contrasting experiences of reality. In the piece, this dichotomy manifests itself in various ways and constitutes the backdrop of a dialectic unfolding. The composition is really about the dialectic relationship between various musical layers which are spread throughout the piece both vertically and horizontally.”
– Tolga Yayalar
“A extended work of ferocious difficulty”
– Drew Massey, amusicology
About the composer
A native of Istanbul, Tolga Yayalar studied Jazz Composition at Berklee College of Music. He is currently a PhD candidate at Harvard University. He has studied with Bernard Rands, Harrison Birtwistle, Joshua Fineberg, Brian Ferneyhough, and Helmut Lachenmann.
I have just started a new podcast series: Blackbox. The idea behind this podcast project is that I would like to share with you some of the experiences and questions that arise from my everyday work as a musician.
The Blackbox #001 features a conversation with the Turkish composer Tolga Yayalar on his solo piano piece “in the temporal gardens” which he dedicated to me. In this episode we talk about Tolga’s intention in composing this piece and what the particular challenges in writing for piano are. In addition, I also play specific musical examples that highlight certain aspects we discuss.
The world premiere of “in the temporal gardens” will take place at the next HGNM concert on April 25 at Harvard University.
Tolga and I would be more than happy to hear any comments, or answer all of your questions. Just post them as a comment on my website or email me at seda@sedaroeder.com.
We are very proud to present to our website visitors a recording of Méandres, Bert van Herck’s newest piano composition. Seda gave the US-premiere of Méandres on February 9, 2008 at Paine Hall for an audience of New Music enthusiasts. The following is a live recording of her performance, which you can also download to your computer if you wish:
To receive information about upcoming performances of Seda, please register on this website or send a mesage to info@sedaroeder.com .
The third episode of Blackbox is on Bert van Herck’s piano piece Méandres. The main focus of this episode lies on the question of how the composer transforms a musical idea that seems secondary at first into an important supporting pillar of his work. Of course, you will also find out how all of this relates to the title of Bert’s piece (and of this episode).
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