Requiem for the Red Box

After seven concert seasons, the broadcasting series takes 'The Friday of Vredenburg' farewell to emergency venue Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, better known as 'The Red Box'. From September, the concerts will again take place in the restored Great Hall of the otherwise brand-new TivoliVredenburg. The concert on 6 June will feature the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and the Groot Omroepkoor, conducted by Antony Hermus. They will play music by Beethoven, Richard Strauss and a brand new piece by Wim Laman, Requiem Songs.

A good week before the premiere of his Requiem Songs for choir, orchestra, baritone and soprano, Wim Laman is somewhat nervous: 'It is very exciting, because only three days before the first performance I hear a run-through for the first time. I didn't want to get in the way of choirmaster Klaas Stok, or rather the singers, by being present at all rehearsals. However, I did go through some details with Klaas. For instance, a passage for the altos turned out to be a bit too high, which is now performed by the sopranos. By the way, I deliberately aimed for a fairly traditional approach to the voice and avoided weird interval jumps or crazy techniques.

Singers have the most difficult job in music, for several reasons. They are completely dependent on how they are in physical condition, because they have to be in complete control of their 'apparatus' at all times. This is not just about breath control, but also articulation, how you convey the text, how you interpret it. There has to be musical intelligence and you have to be in complete control of your voice both physically and musically.

It also matters whether you perform in a concert setting, or in an opera or oratorio. That requires enormous concentration and thorough preparation. The Requiem of Verdi requires a very different approach than Aventures/Nouvelles aventures by György Ligeti. Ligeti demands the utmost in expression and vocal possibilities, Verdi requires more of a fluent bel canto. I have deliberately chosen to treat the voice as a human element and avoid all kinds of antics that you would rather associate with instrumental music. My approach is very sober.

How did you design your piece?

Initially, I wanted to write a full-blown Requiem, but I thought that was too narrow; besides, you then carry a huge burden of the past. So I opted for Requiem Songs. I started from Spinoza's idea that you shouldn't see death as something negative; you can't grasp it anyway. Therefore, take a positive attitude: seize the day, don't sit around moping. This approach assumes more of the individual than the traditional texts of the death mass, which have a religious context with a universal message. There is a certain threat involved: anything can happen in the afterlife, you will go to heaven or hell.

To contrast these two worlds, I use texts from the Catholic requiem as well as verses by Novalis, Petrarch and Dylan Thomas. The Latin texts are sung by the choir and a solo soprano, who acts a bit like the cantor in the Gregorian mass service. This frames the three poems. They are performed by a baritone.

Right after opening with the 'Requiem aeternam' (Give them eternal rest), Novalis' 'Die Welt wird Traum' follows, in which he emphasises how intimately life and death are connected. This immediately creates a contrast between the collective and the individual, as Novalis describes a melancholic person, writing things down in high distress. This is symbolised musically as the baritone sings the first line completely unaccompanied.

Because Novalis lived in the late 18th century and was pretty much the pacesetter of Romanticism, the music there sounds quite romantic. It is a dramatic text and that had to just be sung by a baritone. I can't explain why, I felt that from my musical intuition. It also contains a long solo by the horn, a typically romantic instrument that evokes longing and melancholy.

Petrarch was a medievalist who was at the forefront of the Renaissance, Thomas lived in the 20th century, did you tap into the music of their time in their poems?

I pursued the austerity of Gregorian chant and use many modal scales that were common in its time, but essentially the same harmonies sound in all songs as in the beginning. However, because I use a different combination of instruments each time, with solo strings, solo horns and some percussion, a very different sound association emerges. As soon as I read Petrarch, music emerges spontaneously, because of the sentence structure and rhythm, which already dictate a musical poetics. I chose the poem "Che fai?" (What are you doing), a lament over the death of a loved one. I translate the verbal and aesthetic images Petrarch evokes in it into sound, creating an extra dimension. This is again about feeling and intuition.

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Dylan Thomas' poem 'Do not go gentle into that good night' is an indictment of death, especially that of his father. I dissected it and gave each phrase its own musical context. The anger comes through in aggressive percussion and fierce rhythm. There are also more sedate passages in it, in which he muses on the loss of his father. For instance, I set the text 'And you my father, there on the sad height' softly and melancholically. A bass marimba, two stopped trumpets and a trombone also playing with a mute perform a lamento over a roaring bass line from the cellos. While composing this movement, I was inspired by Thomas' own recitation, which gives me goosebumps every time, and which I found on YouTube.

Have you also been inspired by the Red Box itself?

No, not at all. When programmer Astrid in 't Veld asked me to write a piece for her series, I was already running around with this idea. It is actually a coincidence that the Requiem Songs their premiere at the Red Box's farewell concert. That will not be a sad, by the way, but a festive evening, entirely in the spirit of Spinoza!

6 June 2014: Vredenburg Leidsche Rijn, 8.15pm. RFO and GOK / Antony Hermus; Katrien Baerts, soprano; Detlef Roth, baritone. Beethoven: Elegischer Gesang; Strauss: Tod und Verklärung; Laman: Requiem Songs.