Music building honours founder Jan Wolff with sound monument

It took a while, but soon Jan Wolff (1941-2012), founder of the Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ, will get his well-deserved tribute. On Monday 22 August - his dying day - the concert hall will conclude its celebration of the tenth anniversary With the unveiling of the interactive sound system Howl of the Wolff. It was designed by composer Martijn Padding and realised by Johan van Kreij and René Bakker. The festive inauguration will be musically graced by house ensemble Asko|Schönberg.

Modern music temple: from Amstel to IJ

The Muziekgebouw was the long-awaited successor to the stage de IJsbreker on the Amstel, opened in 1980 by Jan Wolff, a stone's throw from the stately Amstel Hotel. However cramped, it was the world's first concert hall dedicated entirely to contemporary music.

Despite its lousy acoustics, the IJsbreker soon acquired world fame, but Wolff kept pushing for a more beautiful hall with better acoustics. In 2005, after a quarter-century of tough fighting, he was able to proudly show off the glass music palace on the IJ. It was opened with three gong strikes by then Queen Beatrix.

Wolff was not only a great advocate of modern music, but also a lover of water, boating and his own instrument, the horn. With all this in mind, the Muziekgebouw asked Martijn Padding to design a sound monument. This installation will be placed on the bank of the IJ and 'controlled' by meteorological data around the building, such as wind speed and humidity. After its opening, it will sound every 22^e of the month to be heard.

Wolf(f) on Gene side

Howl of the Wolff has a strong metaphysical slant. In the form of a question & answer game, it aims to contact 'the wolf on the other side' from our physical world. A nice find, because the question & answer game is a primal form of human communication, in which wolves also seem to excel. Moreover, it is a favourite procedure in music, where two or more musicians respond to each other's musical phrases from different positions.

I quote the press release: 'Wolves respond to each other in choruses and lamentations, sometimes over long distances. In the installation Howl of the Wolff the wolf from this side summons the wolf from the other side. Whether that wolf from the other side will actually howl back, and how, depends on the parameters of temperature, humidity, wind direction and wind speed around the Music Building at the time. They determine whether both wolves howl long or short, what melodic and dynamic curves they will howl, and whether they come to a duet.'

Lone wolf

It is an interesting thought, especially as Jan Wolff felt like a voice in the desert for years with his grand plans. He was sent from pillar to post by the authorities - and back again. Nor did he receive the broad support you might expect from the modern music world; people often spoke meekly of his alleged delusions of grandeur. That the Muziekgebouw eventually came about in all its glory is thanks to his unprecedented perseverance.

Great that this lone wolf four years after his death, he still gets the appreciation he so often lacked in life. Curious how he will react to this memorial.