MiM quiz – Expert level / Education
Remember, this quiz is not about testing your knowledge about contemporary music. It's all about getting to know the four composers - their music, techniques, but also inspirations and private stories. We invite you to take on this challenge - discover the universe of four personalities and dive in into their music.
Here are some names of performers important to the four composers for some reason. Link them to the right name.
The conductor Reinbert de Leeuw, together with the Dutch ensembles Schönberg Ensemble and Asko Ensemble (now combined into one Asko/Schönberg Ensemble) performed and premiered many of Louis Andriessen’s works.
Maurizio Pollini is a brilliant interpreter of Pierre Boulez’s piano sonatas, especially No. 2, which he believes is a milestone in the repertoire for the instrument on a par with Beethoven’s sonatas.
Gidon Kremer is a great advocate of Arvo Pärt’s music – at his request the composer wrote Tabula Rasa; Kremer was also the first performer of Fratres in the version for violin and piano.
Les Percussions de Strasbourg premiered Kazimierz Serocki’s percussion sextet Continuum.
Creative periods - Pierre Boulez
Which work by the composer is earlier? Which is later?
The earlier one should be indicated.
Discreet use of live electronics (delay, reverb diversification) points to a later period of Pierre Boulez creations, associated with the IRCAM technology (Dialogue de l'ombre double, 1985). In the case of Le marteau sans maître (1954), the earlier date is indicated, inter alia, by the melody characteristic for the avant-garde of the 50s.
Which ones among the four composers created such ensembles?
Many contemporary composers were also performers of their own (and not only their own) music; some even founded ensembles specialising in performances of contemporary works (not only their own).
In 1976 Pierre Boulez founded Ensemble Intercontemporain – an ensemble of 31 soloists specializing in new music, which became a model for similar enterprises in France and other countries. Louis Andriessen sought to create a new type of ensembles, providing an alternative to the line-ups and modes of operation of conventional orchestras and chamber ensembles – he put his concepts into practice in Orkest de Volharding and Hoketus, which he co-founded.
Composers and trends of music of the recent and distant past had a considerable influence on all four composers. Link a source of inspiration to a composer.
The affinity between Stravinsky’s and Louis Andriessen’s music is evidenced not only by the Dutch composer’s works but also by a book devoted to the Russian’s oeuvre which Louis Andriessen co-authored (The Apollonian Clockwork).
The impact of Bartók’s music can easily be discerned in Kazimierz Serocki’s oeuvre of the first half of the 1950s, for example, in his Sonata for piano.
To a large extent the style and techniques Arvo Pärt developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s were a result of his studies of Renaissance and late medieval polyphony, and Gregorian chant.
The avant-garde of the 1950s, including Pierre Boulez, considered the music of Anton Webern to be its predecessor and model to be developed further.
In which example is the sound of instruments transformed electronically?
Choose one or more:
Pierre Boulez – …explosante-fixe… for MIDI flute, two flutes, ensemble and electronics (1991–93).
Louis Andriessen – De Tijd for choir and orchestra (1980–81). Louis Andriessen sometimes used electronics, but the sophisticated colours and effects in the piece are achieved without electronics.
Kazimierz Serocki – Pianophonie for piano with electronic transformation of sound and orchestra (1979).
Arvo Pärt – Miserere (1989–92). Arvo Pärt did not use electronics, the reverberation is, of course, entirely natural.
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