As a professor at Codarts, University of the Arts, Rotterdam, Willem Tanke communicates the vision of interpretation, improvisation/composition and analysis as essential parts of the daily practice. He initiated a course named Rhythmic Melodic Patterns in the 21st Century for students of the classical, jazz, world music and pop academies:
04/08/2019
21/06/2019
Copy tekst Playing KI
For my own music I regard the Hauptwerk Organ as an extraordinary synthesizer. The following text for "Olivier Messiaen and the flutist of the Chauvet cave" shows how its stimulates my imagination:
"In 2017 I saw Werner Herzog's "The Cave of Forgotten Dreams", a fascinating film documentary about the Chauvet Cave in the south of France. Evidently, a flute was found in the cave, made of the bone of a vulture and probably about 30.000 years old. To my astonishment this flute appeared to be made for pentatonic melodies, similar to what I refer to as "timeless modality". I had a view of a flutist in the cave, 30.000 years ago, imitating a bird that might well have been a far ancestor of a bird that Olivier Messiaen transcribed in his atonal style in the 20th century, while traveling around France. Consequently, in this piece I use timeless, pentatonic melodies in combination with atonal melodies based on passages from organ works by Messiaen which I internalised over the years and now use for improvisation."
13/06/2019
19/05/2019
Copy website Home 19.5.2019
Ralph Blakely on Willem Tanke's Super Audio CD Meditations for a lent in American Record Guide:
"I reviewed two fantasies by Willem Tanke in the March/April issue this year. I found Tanke one of the most fascinating composers I had encountered. Now, this work confirms and augments that judgement...However, ingenuity does not make art; it is the remarkable beauty of this work that does. This recording will be a the top of my critic’s-choice list for the year. I believe it may be the most important recording I’ve reviewed for ARG. Tanke wrote that he intended to explore the direction music is headed in the 21st Century. If that be so, I am excited about where it is going."
Willem Tanke develops a new way of playing keyboard instruments, inspired by percussion instruments which generate melodies out of rhythmical patterns, like tabla and darbuka:
He gives a new dimension to avant-garde jazz and improvised music by putting atonal bird song passages from organ works of Olivier Messiaen in an entirely new context:
Willem Tanke uses the mobile Haupwerk Organ—possibly in combination with an analogue synthesizer—to create new music on a variety of locations, no longer depending on churches:
Some of his organ pieces have no deeper meaning than that of expressing a mood of sincere, uncomplicated joy:
His musicianship is rooted in the quiet concentration of his contemplative pieces:
CLASSICAL ORGAN REPERTOIRE
Through his own music Willem Tanke learnt to play the classical organ repertoire in a particularly fluent and profound way, making the organ—the most machine-like of instruments—breathe and live:
As one of very few organists Willem Tanke masters the huge technical difficulties in Max Reger's major organ works with the utmost sensitivity and expression:
Willem Tanke's CD and DVD recordings of the complete organ works by Olivier Messiaen have been critically acclaimed:
Willem Tanke believes that his musicianship is not primarily an expression of his personal feelings, but a manifestation of a supernatural source, coloured by those feelings. He documents his expertise on a special website, called Playing Keyboard Instruments in the 21st Century
His recordings are almost always made in one track, without edits, to preserve the natural flow of performance and provide authenticity.
Willem Tanke is particularly grateful to Jan Welmers, his former organ teacher and lifelong friend, for having stimulated all aspects of his musicianship.
15/05/2019
Copy "Paradoxically"
Paradoxically, Willem Tanke's good fortune has been that his musicianship came hardly under the notice of the genral public, allowing hom to develop his musicianship entirely according to his own insights.
14/04/2019
Copy About 14.4.2019
Gecorrigeerd door Howard
In 1996 Willem Tanke wrote an organ piece called Stillness, which became a metaphor for his musical practice. It captured a vision referring to his ancestors, who during many centuries were peasant labourers in the fields with a small piece of land in Twente, a region in the east of Holland, bordering Germany:
It is springtime. At the end of a hard day’s work a farm worker is resting a while before going home. He is leaning against a tree, his face towards the late afternoon sun, his thoughts directed nowhere. Suddenly, and for a brief moment, he sees Eternity. Some years later it happens again: after that, no more. But the longing for it encourages him during the rest of his life and strengthens him at the hour of death.
Similarly, Willem Tanke has two areas of special interest which he pursues every day: the classical repertoire and his own improvisations and compositions, solo and with other musicians.
His lifelong project is to document his expertise in playing the organ, the piano and synthesizers/electronic keyboards on the website Playing Keyboard Instruments in the 21st Century
The goal of this project is in particular:
- to update and vitalize awareness on classical music, world music, jazz and pop
- to show that creating new music and interpreting the classical repertoire can be fully integrated to the benefit of both.
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03/01/2019
Copy Lons-le-Saunier
Callinet organ Église des Cordeliers Lons-le-Saunier (France, 1842-1844)
On October 21, 2018 flutist Martijn Alsters and I gave a recital at the Église des Cordeliers in Lons-le-Saunier, the capital of the Jura in France. The main organ of this church was built by Callinet between 1842 and 1844.
For information about the organ click here
The program of the recital was:
1. Évocation du Cornet
2. J.S. Bach - Prélude et fugue en ut mineur BWV 546
3. Calme intérieur des Flûtes et Bourdons
4. J.S. Bach - Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ (« Je crie vers toi, Seigneur Jésus Christ ») BWV 639
5. J.S. Bach - Nun freut euch, lieben Christen g’mein (« Maintenant, réjouissez-vous ensemble, chrétiens bien-aimés ») BWV 734
6. Joie des fées dans la forêt
7. J.S. Bach - Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland (« Viens maintenant, Sauveur des païens ») BWV 659
8. J.S. Bach - Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme (« Réveillez-vous, la voix du veilleur nous appelle ») BWV 645
9. J.S. Bach - Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ (« Reste près de nous, Seigneur Jésus Christ ») BWV 649
10. J.S. Bach - Wir glauben all’ an einen Gott, Vater (« Nous croyons tous en un seul Dieu, Père ») BWV 740
11. Prélude sauvage - Mon ami l’Indien
12. Max Reger - Introduction et passacaille en ré mineur (sans numéro d’opus)
Playing Reger on the Callinet organ turned out to be a special experience:
Moreover, playing Bach on this so-called "transition organ" (between the 18th century and the second half of the 19th century) was a considerable step forward in my life long project of Bach interpretation. The following recordings were made (in order of BWV number):
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