Geert ter Horst's Page

"I'll weigh in, too. The piece seemed to have elements of dissonant counterpoint, particularly the rhythmic "dissonances." I found that interesting. And in terms of a thought exercise, this piece does wonderfully. On the planes of…"

"Hello Geert, it was only meant as a brief interjection and as a general remark, not necessarily towards your piece. I perceived that there are pieces in which you can sense the structure clearer than in other pieces; have still to get at the root of…"

"I agree with your observation, although not entirely with your conclusion. I think I can explain this "improvisational" impression. It has to do with the function of harmony. The serialistic structure excludes explicit harmonic cadences,…"

"Geert, without judging the piece, I think, yes, this can happen. A piece can be "rigidly organized but have a improvisational effect." I had this impression often when listening to Brahms."

"Hello H.S., Thanks for your comment. I’m aware that I could have gone much further with my method of composition, but this piece is just a first attempt and obviously no piece can really exhaust a method or theory. To explore other…"

"Many years ago a colleague of mine composed a piece and had it performed by the local orchestra. As a result, a publisher offered him a contract, which contained conditions similar to those offered to you in that he had to forfeit his copyright.…"

"I somewhat agree with Gregorio, though I wouldn't go as far as saying the whole thing is just one chord, I think what's missing here is more variations along the parameters you've chosen to restrict yourself in. For example, the…"

"By odd cycles I was just trying to think of a short way to describe what you said here: "Its repetitive structure doesn't coincide with the lenght of a measure, but falls short a half beat, and thus shifts more and more away from the…"

"Thanks for your reply. The main problem with the robotic sound as I get it is the impossibility of adding the kind of articulation and phrasing demanded by the piece, which should be much in line with traditional baroque techniques. Listen for…"

"I'm afraid I also have to say that it sounded very robotic to me.  In a way, some Bach also sounds robotic, but he still brings a human element to it.  I'm quite a technical person myself (I'm a programmer and fan of maths),…"

"Hi Geert,  I  read this again to get a better idea of your intentions in Jollity. I now believe I see what you are doing with this.  I often make music transpositions when I play piano for a group. This is mainly because the keys some…"

"Hi Geert, I am certainly not yet understanding this which is certainly no fault of yours. I intend to re read it again and hopefully digest it so that I  can at the least have a better grasp of your objectives. In the beginning I can only…"

"Hello Tim, No, it is not about keeping exact the same intervals at all times in the sense of your example of making a song out of only fifts or thirds. It is about having a kind of compositional core in the form of an ordered tone row — or…"

"Hello Tim, I would never suspect you of disrespect. "Geert" is correct. "Geert ter Horst" is not three names, but two. "Geert" is my first name and "Ter Horst" my family name. Here in Holland we often…"

"Hello Tim, I have listened to this piece several times, with pleasure, and I like it. I especially appreciate its free flowing tonal/modal style, which helps to attain the goal of escaping traditional and outworn harmonic schedules by different…"

"Thanks for sharing Geert. Is you approach philosophical, mathematical or both? If I understand correctly, in your own imposed construct you seek to keep exact intervals at all times? To my thinking all of music is about intervals that are generally…"