Essay for a Donemus-brochure on Theo Verbey, january 2006
The grammar of listening
In a famous story by the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges the
Aleph is mentioned, 'the place where all places of the earth come
together, seen from all corners, without merging'. In the music of
Theo Verbey one sees the same aspiration to universality. His
oeuvre is less staggering and its diameter is less compact than
the two or three centimetres the author ascribed to the Aleph,
but it is just as Borgesian in its kaleidoscopic richness and its
many references to, for one, the work of Borges: the titles of De
Peryton and De Simorq are derived from his Book of Imaginary
Beings.
Already in 1992 Verbey said, 'I try to compose music that is
influenced almost up to its saturation point: not by fifty, but by
hundreds of years of tradition.' The numerous compositions he
has written since then confirm that his dialogue with the past has
only become more labyrinthian and intense. In a way Verbey can
be compared with the American John Adams, who is also
painstakingly on the lookout for influences and absorbs them
without renouncing his identity. However, the comparison is
bound to fall short. Adams's music has its roots in minimalism,
while Verbey's has its roots in serial music that is based on
numerical structures, even though it has become a lot more
consonant over the years. The influence of Boulez can still be
heard in an early work like Inversie (Inversion, 1987) and until the
present day his music is based on systems of numeric relations -
a way of thinking that comes directly from the 50s and 60s,
although the result is completely different in sound.
Verbey has named this process fractal technique, after the
complex figures discovered by the Polish-French mathematician
Benoît Mandelbrot, of which the shape is repeated down to
infinite micro-levels (another idea that could have been taken
from a story by Borges). Verbey's numerical structures may be
less complex and based on simple numeric relations, but
nevertheless the rhythmical networks he derives from them
often reach to five or six layers, ranging from the proportions
between individual parts to the relations between note values.
The result of this method is that Verbey can achieve all kinds of
musical mimicry without forsaking his own identity. Medieval
polyphony pops up in his Fractal Symphony, the swan from Saint-
Saëns' Carnival des Animaux swims
around in his Trio, the tango music by Piazzolla and a quotation
as an homage to Claude Vivier
wander about in his Schaduw (Shadow), nevertheless his music is
always recognisable with its characteristic asymmetrical swing,
its interwoven foreground and background, its clear structures
and its often mosaic-like set up.
Verbey aims to reconcile the achievements of modernism
and tradition, and to realise a way of composing that
corresponds better with what he describes as the 'grammar of
listening'.
Hence a clear preference for clarity and detachment becomes
apparent in his oeuvre. Verbey's universe has more in common
with that of concise clockmakers such as Reich, Ravel and
Stravinsky, than with Teutonic blusterers such as Reger, Rihm
and Stockhausen. He does not avoid grand gestures, climaxes
and drama, but he does not loose his head and as far as emotions
play a role, this is first of all a value added by the listener.
The same preference for transparency becomes apparent
in his orchestration, which is always designed to please the ear,
as well as to clarify the structure. Characteristic of this, and of
Verbey the analyst, is his frequently performed orchestral
arrangement of Alban Berg's Sonata opus 1, in which he spotlights
the thematic relationships conveyed in the black and white keys,
by giving them colour and contrast.
Borges writes in the Aleph: 'Every language is an alphabet of
symbols, of which the use presumes a past shared by the
interlocutors.' The great thing about Verbey's music is that it
does not exclude any interlocutor. Although it reveals its riches
more readily to those who can recognise the references to
various traditions from the present and the past, it is also
accessible to the listener who has nothing but his ear to go by -
for this is first and foremost the composer's beacon.
(translation: Hilary Staples)
© Frits van der Waa 2008
