Jacob ter Veldhuis: Paradiddle (World Premiere)

PARADIDDLE for symphony orchestra and mixed choir was composed in early 2022, commissioned by AVROTROS and the Netherlands Broadcasting Foundation. The work is dedicated to the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the Groot Omroepkoor, chief conductors Karina Cannelakis and James Goodson, and this concert series’s loyal and enthusiastic audience.

Special thanks to artistic programmer Astrid in’t Veld, who has programmed the AVROTROS Friday Concert for many years and will be stepping down after this season.

The premiere will take place on 16 September 2022 during the opening concert of the new season of the AVROTROS Vrijdagconcert 2022-2023 in Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht, and will be broadcast live on NPO Radio 4.

Paradiddle is based on three original quotes by the Roman poet-philosopher Lucretius.

Jacob ter Veldhuis:

Paradiddle

In ‘De Rerum Natura’ ( The Nature of Things), the Roman philosopher Lucretius, around 50 B.C., examines Epicurean physics and attempts to explain the world. In verse, he discusses and analyses the atoms, the cosmos, mind and soul, feeling and thinking and the development of everything he could perceive. A world he believes to be guided by chance and not by divine intervention.

Inspiration

De Rerum Natura contains so much inspiration that I could use it for years. I also find the Latin quite suitable for setting to music. Who knows, maybe I will write more pieces on the beautiful lyricism of Lucretius. Astrid in ‘t Veld had asked me to compose a positive, optimistic festive opening piece. Not easy in these oppressive times, but I think Paradiddle has become an energetic, hopeful and dynamic work. Partly in the light of the current global turbulence, Lucretius’ relativising thoughts appealed to me, particularly his ideas about the relativity and temporary nature of everything, the futility of human existence and the indifference of cosmic laws.

In summary, his message in Paradiddle boils down to this: 
We are stardust. Tiny particles move eternally in an endless dance. Generations come and go.

Title

Not a note had been written yet, but I found the right title in Paradiddle. As a composition student, I took a minor course in percussion, among other things, and so I became acquainted early on with this indispensable technique for percussionists, which is the basis for the roll. 
Para = single stroke and diddle = double stroke. So a paradiddle is a drum technique that combines both. The pattern of the paradiddle is: LRLLRLRR ( L=left, R=right). A paradiddle on a snare drum sounds like constant noise, because the sticks move so fast that the individual taps can no longer be distinguished, partly because of the vibrating spring underneath the drum. On a marimba, the paradiddle sounds like a long sustained note, a tremolo.

Paradiddle is a metaphor for Lucretius’ tiny particles that make up everything. I do not think that listeners will be able to distinguish the many paradiddles in this work, for they, like those minuscule particles, are too small to perceive. But the two marimbas, which are placed stereo in the orchestra, give voice to Lucretius’ particulae supra, infra, sine fine tripudio.

  1. Caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi.
    From heaven’s seed we have all sprung.
    Book 2, line 991
  2. Omnia perpetuo motu durant.
    Ex infinito veniunt particulae supra,
    infra, sine fine tripudio.
    Everything keeps moving forever.
    From the infinite, innumerable particles arise,
    all around in an endless dance.
    Book I line 999
  3. Sic rerum summa novatur semper,
    et inter se mortales mutua vivunt.
    augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,
    inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum
    et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.
    Thus, the sum of things is always renewed and mortal beings depend on each other.
    Some increase in number and others decrease.
    And in a short time whole generations of creatures are changed and pass on – as runners – the torch of life.
    Book 2, line 75

Lucretius – De Rerum Natura
Translation: JacobTV

More info about the concert


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Published 3 years ago

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