What happens when you hear the tone of the daily news not from a speaker, but from the bells of a carillon? Composer Renske Vrolijk explores this in her work America for carillon. The piece translates the sound and rhythm of news reports from the United States into a composition for carillon. Here, the melody of spoken language determines the musical lines.
for performers and concert programmers
Premiere at the Chicago Carillon Festival
The work America premiered in late May 2018. This took place during a carillon festival at the Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in Chicago. The initiative for the composition came from Joey Brink, the carillonist of the University of Chicago. Indeed, he asked Renske Vrolijk to write a piece specifically for this festival.
The sources of inspiration for ‘America’
As the title suggests, the inspiration for this piece comes from the United States. Although the media is full of news about America, this is the first carillon piece in which Vrolijk does not use a soundtrack. Instead, there are other sources of inspiration. For example, the composer uses an old American folk song as one of the elements.
Additionally, the speech melody of American English is an important building block. This refers to the rhythm and pitch used by newsreaders. An exclamation like ‘Outrage’, for instance, is recognizable in the music. However, the composer deliberately leaves it up to the listener to recognize what other texts and news reports can be heard in the sounds of America for carillon.
For performers
Instruments:
car
Duration:
5′
Year:
2018
Premiere:
26 May 2018
Rockefeller
Memorial Chapel
Chicago, IL
Category:
2018
Language:
—
Lyricist:
—
Are you interested in performing this work? Please contact my publisher.
Renske’s sheet music
is published by Deuss Music.