Written for marimba, female voice and electronic backing track. Performed live.

My first contribution to the World Music Contest we attended with my percussion ensemble.
This piece was an opening to our program, going by the theme of "water" in it's broadest sense. 
The singer, Marjolein Oosterloo (who interpreted the piece magnificently) sang in her role as a so called Siren, a mermaid-like creature living in the ocean seducing us as musicians to play music for her, backed by the sound of a raging sea and sinking ships. 
The Lyrics:

Beware,
the flood is rising. 
Obey me,
only you can change the tide.
Save yourselves!
have no fear,
and play this music.
Stormy seas at my command;
I will not linger.

Prelude - Song Of The Siren (Live - WMC 2013)

A surviving soldier:&#13;
„It came out of nowhere, descending in sunlight, soaring down to the ground landing on it’s rear feet, quaking the ground we stood on. It took a few seconds before the burning rays of sunlight faded from our eyes to behold the magnificent creature; a pure phantasm of might, a white dragon. &#13;
The legends were true, here it stood right before us. Dust flaking to the ground, sunlight reflecting on its platinum-like skin, revealing even more of the beast’s magnificence and glory every second.&#13;
&#13;
And it hadn’t come to help us.” &#13;
&#13;
I present to you: White Dragon. Once again a “musical story” as I’d like to call it. In line with “An Elder Witch” and “Griffins!”, which both sport the same concept. &#13;
Inspired by Sandara’s magnificent artwork on deviantART (http://sandara.deviantart.com/art/White-Dragon-391820143) I wrote a lot of this piece in a short period of time, but sadly it had to make way for lots of school assignments and even some composition assignments, so this one took a lot longer to create than any other track till date for my album Chimera.&#13;
&#13;
The track could be divided into these virtual parts, which I imagined while writing the piece:&#13;
(0:00) Divine magnificence - dragon being pretty&#13;
(1:10) Airborne - oh shit.&#13;
(2:19) We strike back! - boom baby&#13;
(3:11) Die, foul beast! - the tides have turned&#13;
(3:45) A legend comes to die - a glorious death, though&#13;
&#13;
By all means, I hope you enjoy, and may the gods be by your side in battle!&#13;
&#13;
&#13;
Whew. Not only I had some difficulties working on this absolutely enormous track, my poor macbook also had a rough time processing a blithering total of 75 individual virtual instruments. The poor thing. Even my 16 GB’s of ram could just barely handle the sheer size of loaded instruments. I’ve truly pushed everything to its limits for this one. Oh well, enough with the geekery. Once again, enjoy!

White Dragon

This is the first piece of a bundle currently in the writing for percussion duet. 
This first movement is called "Just Barely a Continuum", and the other movements will bear the same thought; all just barely 'something'.

I'll be selling the sheet music as soon as the bundle is complete, stay tuned!

"Just Barely" for Marimba duet

Originally played by Pat Metheny, transcribed by Menno Bosgra.

After 11 (!) years with my percussion ensemble the time has come mo broaden my horizon into other instruments, ensembles and cities. This unfortunately means I have to leave this amazing ensemble which I basically grew up with.

I hereby share with you one of the many highlights I was lucky enough to experience with this group: a beautifully written vibraphone solo with mallet-ensemble accompaniment. Yours truly plays the solo-vibraphone part.



Pat Metheny - A Map of the World

Excerpt from String Quartet no. 3 "Sorrow"

A recording of "Dusk", a piece I wrote for the Utrecht Studenten Cantorij (www.uscantorij.nl).
Performed on the 20th and the 21st of June 2015 in respectively Utrecht and Amsterdam as part of their programme "Twilight Zone".

After Dusk - SATB choir

Well, well, well.

So, this was a school assignment (harmonics) to write an apres-ski hit a while back. Turned out pretty bouncy!
The title means "Octopus plays accordeon" because of the sporadic accordeon part that is impossible to play with two arms, or you'd die. 

Hope this makes your day! Feel free to download. 
(I was amazed by the fact google images presented me with a painting of an accordeon-playing octopus, the internet is a funny place) 

Tintenfisch spielt Akkordeon - School assignment, apres-ski (Co-op)

This time the assignment was to write and produce a piece of music containing the so-called "moll-dur". I could explain this whole phenomena to you, but I suggest you take a listen instead :) 

We decided to go for something chanson-like (in dutch better known as "kleinkunst"), hence the lyrics are dutch. 

Nola Klop: vocals, composition
Quinten Schram: composition
Joey Bouwkamp: mixing
Niels Hak: composition, scoring

Niets Veranderd - Schoolassignment (Co-op)

A cover of the popular bossa nova "So Danço Samba".

In co-operation with the same people as previous schoolassignments like "La Cinquème Chute" and "Niets Veranderd". 

So Danco Samba - Bossa Nova (school assignment - co-op)

Blasting copper, woofing strings, flying woodwinds and carrying voices is what you need to musically translate the spectacular appearance of griffins coming in from the horizon. 
And they serve some awesome purpose too, as seen in this magnificent artwork (http://sandara.deviantart.com/art/Red-Wings-325431536) by *sandara on Deviantart, which inspired me to write this piece. 

By all means, I hope you enjoy, and may the griffins come alive for a moment!

Griffins!

A solo piece for Celesta, a highly underrated piano-like instrument. My aim was to write a short solo-piece based on a theme and expanding it by variations. 

Sheet music is available at no charge, so feel free to ask!

Etude for celesta: Dance of the Forest Sprites

During my travels through Scotland in August of 2019 the opening theme came to mind. The island is simply beyond belief, a truly otherworldly place unlike any other. With this music I try to show just a tiny fraction of that beauty. I hope you enjoy!

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TLNvMyUYpI

Strings recorded at the City Monastery of Utrecht, The Netherlands. 

My eternal thanks go out to the awesome people who recorded the music with me:
Violins:
Anne Nelissen
Beatrix Vogelaar
Izak Perdijk
Jeanette Halter
Maartje Rosmulder
Myrthe van der Mullen
Nienke Prins
Wouter Torringa

Violas:
Anne Ouwerling
Floris Heeres
Maarten Bolten

Cellos: 
Anne Sophie Franssen
Berend Stumphius
Esther Halter
Laurine Slingerland

Double bass: 
Daniël Muskitta

website: https://www.nielshak.com
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nielshakart
instagram: https://www.instagram.com/niels_hak

Sem Hak - Skye

DMdaodZ – Water... Overal water...

DMdaodZ – Hoe ik hem haatte! Stijve koude dood!

DMdaodZ – Hij lokt, hij jokt, hij wiegt hij wrijft en verwerpt!

DMdaodZ – Als ik het ruisen van de zee ontken

DMdaodZ – Wiegen van het Luchtbed

DMdaodZ – Help... Ik drijf af... Op de zee

Written for the Dutch Student Chamber Orchestra (NESKO) as a short reprise for their bird-themed programme in 2017. Conducted by Frans-Aert Burghgraef.

Formations

In these socially-distanced times, personal affection is hard to come by. Friends, family and lovers; everyone needs a solid hug from time to time. That’s why I wrote Embrace – an auditory embrace. Send this track to your loved ones, maybe listen to it together over the internet, and find each other in joined auditory experience.

Sem Hak

Popular tracks