Bells for Freedom – a new project by Marion von Tilzer

Marion von Tilzer is excited to introduce her new project: 4 Bells for Freedom, a participatory, multidisciplinary art project that will culminate in a large-scale new choral work for the youth choir Nieuw Vocaal Amsterdam, together with a multicultural ensemble featuring kamancheh, clarinet, string quartet, tabla, and piano, alongside a light sculpture by Rob van den Broek.

The project takes place in Amsterdam’s Nieuwmarkt neighbourhood around the Zuiderkerk in September and October 2025. The participatory part includes several meetings on Saturday mornings at the market square, and two discussion evenings with Linda Nooitmeer (former chair of the Institute for Slavery History), Rob Hartmans (Spinoza Kring), Zahra Sadeghi (Iranian humanitarian worker), and writer Rashid Novaire. They will also hold a workshop in a local primary school, centred on the theme of freedom. Words and thoughts from well-known and lesser-known voices are interwoven into a specially composed Cantica Libertatis — a cantata for freedom — which will be premiered on 4 October 2025 in the Zuiderkerk.

During and after the concert, the audience can visit a pop-up exhibition of children’s artworks and other results of the neighbourhood encounters, alongside the impressive banners with 11,447 names of the families of slaves who were liberated on 1 July 1863; these will be presented on the top floor of the church.

The title, 4 Bells for Freedom, refers to the four bells of the Zuiderkerk’s tower, in particular the newest bell, named ‘Freedom’, which bears the inscription:
Protect freedom above all, oh Amsterdam, so that it may protect you.
(Behoed de vrijheid bovenal, o Amsterdam, opdat zij u behouden zal.)

The title is also a reference to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 “Four Freedoms” speech, in which he named four fundamental freedoms for all human beings. 4 Bells for Freedom is created for the commemoration of 80 years of liberation, coinciding with Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary — a special double commemoration. It is meant as a reminder to guard the essential values of an open, tolerant, and free society — an urgent call in the current climate of the world.

How the music of Cantica Libertatis (Latin for “Songs of Freedom”) took shape

The Freedom Cantata ‘Cantica Libertatis’ consists of seven parts, each dedicated to a free thinker, or to quotes from the children and residents of Amsterdam: the Prologue; Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech; a song with an excerpt from Spinoza’s Tractatus Politicus; an interludium with quotes from residents collected during our street interactions, recited by spoken word artist Lisette Ma Neza and the choir; the Anne Frank Song; the Song of Names (with the names of the enslaved); and the final Epilogue, which contains texts about freedom from the children.

I met with the young singers of Nieuw Vocaal Amsterdam for two workshops where we discussed the inscription on the bell, their thoughts and concerns about the world, and selected words for the Prologue. In these workshops, I asked which quotations touched them most deeply and why — both personally and in relation to the city and the world. These conversations became the basis for their own texts, which form the first and last pieces of the cantata. In this way, the singers created their own lyrics on freedom. It was beautiful to create the music around the words of the children, reading their thoughts and ideas about freedom. 

Writing the music has been a very exciting and intense process — finding the right harmonies, sounds, structures, and musical gestures for the words of each of the free thinkers, deciding how to amplify their meaning and transform them into another medium. I realised that each piece is a project in itself.

The structure moves between whispered fears, sighs of history (in the Song of Names, where the children recite the names of liberated slaves), rhythmic proclamations, polyphonic a cappella passages, spoken word, and moments where bells ring into melodies. The music shifts from intimate to urgent, from lament to celebration — ending in a finale where choir and audience join in singing the bell’s inscription.

At its heart, 4 Bells for Freedom is an invitation: to listen to voices from the present, to remember voices from the past, and to imagine together what freedom can mean — today and for the future.

Links to tickets for concert 4th of october, 20.00h: 

ALL DATES:

• Straatmeetings – Nieuwmarkt bij de Waag, Saturday mornings 10:00–13:00h: 6, 13, 20 en 27 september
• Lectures / Discussion evenings: –19:30h, free entrance, donations welcome, please reserve, click hier
  • 16 september – with Linda Nooitmeer & Rashid Novaire (Leger des Heils, Oudezijds Achterburgwal 45, Amsterdam, walking distance Central Station)
  • 24 september – with Rob Hartmans & Zahra Sadeghi (Marionetten Theater, Nieuwe Jonkerstraat 8, Amsterdam, walking distance Central Station)
• Concert: Saturday, 4th of October,20.00h,  Zuiderkerk Amsterdam. 

Reserve for the discussion evenings here…