https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TB6SrcFqFNk

In this film, I re-arranged and edited several short video fragments made and shared (cheers for that!) by Cottonbro. In how I arranged all the fragments, the film corresponds loosely to the structure of the canon. 

This three-part 'grounded' canon actually started out as an assignment I made for Berklee College of Music: make a string arrangement on four chords. I decided to make a 3 part canon above a 'ground', in a baroque manner. Be it not strict though - but rather with a contemporary and soundtrack-ish feel. Kitschy? Perhaps - I'd prefer 'Baroque 2.0'. 

Enjoy!

I used the authentic Miroire lib by Orchestral Tools and added the very nice Viola da Gamba lib by Cinesamples. Mixing and mastering plugins by Waves, Izotope and Fabfilter.

Canon A 3 'Common Ground' | modern baroque for film

This was my entry for the Oticons Competition of 2020. My first attempt in applying traditional notation to filmscoring. In this video, only the original script is visible. I will upload a score-only version later on. 

Follow the full score on Youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU5W7_bW3P8

NB This is NOT a DAW mix down. All music is directly generated by Finale (notation software) using mainly Spitfire BBC, East West Symphony Orchestra and a bunch of synths.

BLUEBEARD | Scenes for (Hybrid) Orchestra | Score

Talking Music
	
 	The construction
 	This prelude draws from a technique similar to twelve-tone technique- but only to a certain degree. Whereas dodecaphony rises all chromatic tones to equality, I chose to leave distinct tonal markers in the genome of this piece, in order for it to remain communicating. The choice of material helped. The single 16-note progression upon which material is based, was derived from the already rather chromatic dux of a baroque (so utterly tonal) fugue I wrote around the year 2000. This tonal dux fitted the purpose of a rather strict use in bending, tossing around and transposing utterly smoothly, because of the chromatic aspects of it and almost complete use of a chromatic scale. Retrograde motion, transposition and inversion were used in the context of a traditional formal structure and a free tonal harmonic vocabulary, the balance between tonal and atonal shifting now and then. 
	The piece
	The structural model for Breakdown is the Baroque Prelude.  The principal sequence of notes (called 0) is stated repeatedly, be it at first in ‘cells’ of four sixteenth notes, in a fluid rain of notes. Then the theme appears more or less complete and is repeated in various ways, increasingly interrupted by fragments of itself. Towards the end all material is disintegrating to continuously shrinking fragments that are mixed unrecognizably, deteriorating to a musical void. The piece ends with a sudden and short moment of relived brightness.  
On (a)tonality
	Hopefully this modest addition to the still ever-growing symphonic repertory may contribute to the definitive defeat of the convulsive (and still rather powerful) modernistic view, in which all things should be new for the sake of being new. What wrong lies in the synthesis of something Old and something New? Why completely abandon principals that already proved their merits, purely for the sake of abandoning? And why trying to reach musical goals by solely using dissonances? Or complex systems that possess hardly any communitive properties? Just like light exists only exists because darkness does, consonance and dissonance are the Ying and Yang in music. They are in fact the Ferdinand and Isabella that make our musical realm complete.
	I refuse to understand why music without consonances should be more worthwhile to create, perform or listen to than music predominantly consonant. I think it is out of sheer intellectual elitism that we’ve presumed otherwise for so long. It is time we dare admit that the Emperor is, in fact, naked.
	So, in this aphoristic  musical statement, I have sought to combine tonal and atonal principals, and to bring together old and new forms. In harmony.   

Breakdown is the result of my final assignment for a Berklee Orchestration class in 2022.

Breakdown

Breakdown, a prelude for orchestra, by Sipke Hoekstra (=Fugitempus)

Some fifteen years ago I wrote a sonata for flute and harpsichord, baroque style, based on the famous La Folia-theme. Some years later I made a simple arrangement for organ and trumpet and later yet one for flute, harpsichord and strings (bc). The version for organ and trumpet can be heard on of my soundclouds, The Eckmann Family. 

Here, I bounced the Finale file in Cubase, using baroque instruments by Orchestral Tools (Miroire), Cinesamples (viola da gamba) and UVi (harpsichord, Flemish). I mixed with Waves and Izotope plugins. Enjoy!

The Craze - Concerto Grosso For Flute, Harpsichord And Strings

‘Fair Wells’ is actually one of my first ever DAW-productions, dating from 2018, when I was making my first, unsecure steps from notated music to improvised music and DAW. 

Here I let Alicia’s Keys (that wonderful piano vst plugin based on Alicia Keys’ favorite Yamaha grand piano) team up with a small chamber orchestra, containing no more than a solo soprano sax (Garritan Jazzband 3), accompanied by French Horn and Bassoon (both East West SO), low strings (East West SO + Spitfire Appassionata strings). 

At the core of this short atmospheric piece lies a live improvisation. The rest was added later on. Plugins are mainly by Waves, Izotope and Audiaire.


native-instruments.com/en/products/komplete/keys/alicias-keys/

"The instrument samples come from Alicia Keys' very own Yamaha­™ C3 Neo grand piano. This unique and highly-sought after instrument was built to celebrate Yamaha's 100th anniversary in 2002 and represents the very top of the Conservatory Collection line. [...]

ALICIA'S KEYS was sampled from her own playing, recorded in the artist's own studio under the supervision of her trusted engineer, Ann Mincieli."

Fair Wells | perspectives on Alicia's Keys part 3 (with small orchestra)

Commissioned work (2014) that helped the Frysk Jeugd Orkest win the National Competition for Youth Orchestra's in 2015, in De Doelen in Rotterdam. 

During the period that I was roughly sketching the outlines of what would eventually become the symphonic poem ‘Saga’, I was deeply moved by some anonymous Second World War graves I ran across during a random visit to a random graveyard. The men who had been buried there, died for the freedom of other people, having willingly taken that risk. 

They lay there without their names, without their identities. It made me realize very, very clearly that hero´s mainly are hero´s, not by nature or ambition, but by context and necessity. Is this the most tragic and therefore, perhaps, the most pure kind of heroism? 

This all inspired me in structuring the piece loosely in parallel with what well could have been a hero’s life: birth (Intro), youth (A + B), battle, (C) returning home (D), building up for and fighting the last battle (E) death (F), mourning (G) and the memory of the hero being honoured proudly for a while (H)) before that as well slips out of the collective remembrance.

By creating the poem in this specific way, I wanted ‘Saga’ to be a tribute to all persons, female and male, now forgotten, who helped change the world towards being a better place.

Performed by Frysk Jeugd Orkest, conducted by Theo Brouwer.
Fugitempus = Sipke Hoekstra

Saga | Soundtrack To The Life of a Forgotten Hero [live by the FJO]

Have a look at the movie I made right here: https://youtu.be/2PX2vRqY3RE (Read in Frisian, not UK English)

In 2020 my mother, Hinke Veenstra, published her second book of Frisian poems, called ‘Heit en ik’, meaning as much as ‘Dad and I’. In this book she combines poems by her father, my grandfather, the Frisian poet Sipke Veenstra, with poems of her own that deal with similar topics. 

This particular poem, ‘Wiete klinkers’ (‘Wet paving stones’) struck me because of its nostalgic beauty, its atmospheric qualities and rich metaphors. I decided to make a project out of it and surprise her with it! 

Beneath you’ll find the original poem in Frisian, the language that is closest of all languages to the English language, accompanied by my English translation. Enjoy. 

(I used Alicia’s Keys terrific piano VST, along with orchestral VST’s by East West and Spitfire (BBC SO.) For mixing and mastering I used plugins by Waves, Izotope and Fabfilter)

wiete klinkers                    wet paving stones

boartsjend yn ‘e sinne`           playing in the sun
of op wiete klinkers            or on wet paving stones
ferklaaipartijen, beltsjedrukke               dressing up, playing ring-and-run
krythinkelje, iepen knibbels,          hopscotch, sore knees
út ‘e bocht fleane op roltsjeredens  out of control on roller skates
in tút fan mem, safolle mear as   mum’s kiss, so much more than 
pleisterplakke             sticking band-aid

naïveteit as gids liet de sinne sakje  naivety as guide lowered the sun
ûnwaar as ûnheil yn ‘e sinne          thunder as doom afar
rinne, efteromsjen                    walking, looking back
de bui foarbliuwe wolle                   wanting to stay ahead

yn ‘e klauwen fan in tongerbui  in thunder’s claws
dy’t tichteby ynsloech           striking nearby
himelfjoer dat it sicht ûntnaam   heaven’s fire blocking view

ôfhinklik en oerlevere oan in rezjym dependent, subjected to a regime
mei in Babylonyske tongfal           with Babylonian accent
monologen om oerein te bliuwen  monologues to remain standing 

yn ‘e spelonken fan it brein           in the caves of the brain
waard in rekwiëm skreaun           a requiem was written
de noaten kopswier hingjend  the notes heavy-headed
oan the balken, net wittend hokker  on the staves, not knowing which
partij se kieze moatte            side to choose 
de toansoart fersille            the key bemused

in iepen slot…             an open ending…

Hinke Veenstra
(Translation from Frisian by Fugitempus (=Sipke Hoekstra))

Wet Paving Stones ('Wiete Klinkers', a Frisian Poem) UK ENG version

View the video here: 
One of my first ever efforts in the realm of DAW, revisited in 2023, strengthening the palet, mix and master. 

Used Cubase, a Prophet V synth and lots of other synths and fx. Plugins mainly by Waves and Izotope. 

Hope you enjoy!

STARDOME

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-S5hH8CSSg
Unfortunately I was a bit lost in time myself and had to skip BIFSC 2023. But I couldn't resist at least sharing my ideas for the closing credits - hope you won't mind :-) 

The theme I composed is anticipated in several (fragmented) ways throughout the score. Perhaps I will finish it some day and share the whole thing later on. 

For the closing titles I used Spitfire appassionata strings and ethnic instruments and voices by East West. Mixing and mastering mainly with Waves and Izotope.

Lost In Time | BIFSC 2023 | Closing Credits

C-Implicity | Duet for 2 Pianos

This track is the result of me recomposing, arranging and orchestrating one of my all time favorite folk songs, The Maid of Coolmore. 
In this version for string orchestra, I unraveled the fabric of the original song and wove the strands into new harmonic and melodic textures. Enjoy!
Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xu5ozk0aaVY

(String VST's by Spitfire (BBC SO, Appasionata Strings), East West SO and UVI. Mixed and mastered mainly with Izotope and Waves plugins)

Coolmore

A track I made using KWAYA, the unique African vocal vst-lib featuring the renown Aba Taano Choir. 

Always wanted to create something like this, honoring Africa as perhaps our world's most intriguing continent and above all as the womb of all humanity. Lest we forget. 

Additional African sounds by UVI World Suite and others. Mixing and mastering was done mainly with Waves and Izotope plugins.

NO SEM BU!

NO SEM BU

This is a mockup of how I initially scored the closing credits for GENESIS. Decided late in the process, however, to go with an other, less retro approach. Remained fond of the theme and thought I ought to share it. So > here it is!

GENESIS Scoring the Closing Credits [Initial Version Mockup]

Part of the score (just the closing credits) for ESCAPE, the movie I scored for the  Berlin International Film Scoring Competition 2020.

Have a look at the full movie here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpxin7iD26I

ESCAPE Closing Credits Only Scored by FUGITEMPUS

Soundtrack I made for the BIFSC 2024 movie score competition. Sound fx are by Adam Chilcote, who won the 1st Prize in the Berlin International Sound Design Competition. 

Used instruments mainly by Spitfire, East West, 8dio, UVI. For Mixxing and mastering mainly UA, Waves and Izotope. 

FILM SYNOPSIS: A contemplative journey throughout the steps of the world's creation, inspired by an old Native Americans legend from the Pawnee tribe.

FILM CREDITS: Animated & Directed by Baptiste JAQUEMET, Lucas TEBIB, Yahnis VENTURA, Fiona VILLATE.

Trail Of Light Alternative Soundtrack BIFSC 2024

Music & Concept: Sipke Hoekstra Mastering & Sparring: Jeff Hijlkema (a NOTEKNITTERS production) This movie was created purely for the purpose of showing how my music is capable of interacting with video. It consists solely of free stock clips made available by Pexel.com. I designed the storyline, produced/assembled the movie and composed the music and produced/mixed it in Cubase. Jeff Hijlkema mastered the audio of this version - cheers mate!

COLOR | Film & Music by FUGITEMPUS

Fugitempus = Sipke Hoekstra = Eckmann
Composer/orchestrator/arranger/producer of whatever music or sounds I like 
(classical stuff published by Donemus and released on Spotify)

FUGITEMPUS

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