Orchestral Music I Composed (Classical, Soundtracks, Hybrid Styles and Whatever Popped Up)

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

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)

Here's three takes on eight simple chords, combined into one build-up for full orchestra, culminating in a grand orchestral tutti. The sec eight chord sequence is presumably by Berklee's Ben Newhouse, all the thematic and motivic material, including the orchestration, is mine.

Used BBC Symphony Orchestra Pro and mainly Waves plugins.

Eight Chords. Three Takes. One Orchestra.

In this track I used four chords and repeated them twice. Added a short coda. The first take is Shostakovich-ly grim. Winds help change the mood in the second take, after which the third take, with a Holst-like approach, brings hope of a reunion. 

Made in Finale, bounced in Cubase Pro with Spitfire BBC SO, East West SO and UVI OS. Honestly, neither of them performed a realistic legato attack in the pianissimo sections. Only combined they sound rather ok. I later replaced this one with a new version, in which I use mainly Spitfire Appasionata Legato Strings and let the others play just second violin :-) 

Plugins by Waves and Izotope mainly.

Farewell | for orchestra

This Pavana originates from a piano suite I wrote in 2009.. The entire suite was composed using a technique similar to twelve-tone technique- but without the atonal bit ;-)

Retrograde motion, inversion, transposition, augmentation and diminution were used in the context of a traditional formal structure and a free tonal harmonic vocabulary, the balance between (poly)tonal and atonal shifting now and then. 

	Inspiration the for Pavana and its primary rhythm  is the Renaissance dance of that name. So working on the Pavana inevitably evoked images of a late 16th century court. This gave me the idea to make the Pavana a kind of tableau vivant, with every variation or version of the theme portraying one or more courtiers. In fact very much like a Lego-set with minifigures, every figure taking its place and role in a miniature story. The story? About a dancing master who desperately tries to teach the courtiers (the old first minister, the astrologer, the jester, murmuring bishops, a bunch of knights joking around, a light-footed princess, heralds – you name it) the Pavana, before the King enters. Will he succeed? It’s all in the score!

PAVANA - a Dance in Miniatures for 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]

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Hello again! For long I had this wish to make a follow-up on my OASIS 1 & 2, and here it finally is, after two months of working on it, closing the trilogy. I sure took little inspiration from my part 1 & 2, however another part of my inspiration came from the so called ‘earth emotions’ by environment philosopher Glenn Albrecht. Some of his terms I used for my fragment titles:

0:00 – Symbioceen
1:46 – Terraphthora
4:33 – Terranascia
7:02 – Solastalgia
9:14 – A mor stór (uilleann hymne)
10:44 - Eutierria

My hybrid-orchestral palette:
Olafur Arnalds Chamber Waves (strings). 
BBCSO Core – Strings (vlns 1, vlns 2, vlas, celli, basses). 
Chamber strings (vlns 1, vlns 2, vlas, celli, basses).
BBCSO Core - Trumpets a3 (2x), Horns a4 (2x), Trombones a3  (2x).
Albion One – Trumpets XL, Horns XL, Brass XL.
Vocalize 3 - bass drone.
Vocalize 3 – Phrases.
Vocalize 3 – Straight pedal whispers.
Odyssey soprano solo (2x).
Eric Whitacre choir (SATB).
Eric Whitacre Evolution Choir.
Originals Epic Choir.
Rhodope 2 Bulgarian Choir.
Shakespeare’s Church organ.
Mandolin Swarms.
Euphone.
Uilleann pipes.
Duduk.
Lap steel trems.
Resonate Kalimba.
Kannel.
Mercury Solar synth pads (5x).
Albion One - Stephensons steamband syntn paths (6x).
LABS - Glacial pad.
LABS - Reqiuem pad.
Legend HZ synth patches (11x).
Mosaic Bass
Resonate Percussion kits (5x)
LABS – Foghorn
Albion Tundra – Bodhran Hotrods
Hammers Percussion – sticks, snare, darbukas, rototoms, surdos, toms, framedrums, scrap, bassdrum.
Albion One – Cymbals

I compose, mix and master using Cubase Pro 13. For mixing and mastering I’ve been using a wide range of my favorite plugins. Feel free to use the comments and ask for, if there’s a need to know more about this.

The accompanying movie I made using loads of free video footage from Pexels.com. Editing and color grading with Hitfilm and Davinci Resolve. Here's a link to the movie version:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_XqDVcNM9o

Hope you enjoy this musical story.

Be well, 
Jeff Hijlkema

OASIS 3

Inventio II

Inventio I

Fuga a 4 voces super Beethoven

Fuga a 3 in re

2 voces super Corelli per organo

Prelude and Fuge in g, for organ

O, spreek mij niet van Liefde, song for alto and piano

Performed by his grandson, Viktor Markus Eckmann II, just befor the latter died in 1936. Unique recording! 

Sonata for piano in d III, scherzo

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

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

FUGITEMPUS

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