Muziek Centrum Nederland: Jacob ter Veldhuis

Contemporary

Jacob ter Veldhuis

‘Avant pop’ - that’s how a New York music critic labelled the music by Jacob ter Veldhuis, or JacobTV, as he is known in America. It is a characterisation he agrees with: ‘I try to compose intuitively, moving between complete predictability à la Rieu and complete surprise à la Stockhausen.’

Ter Veldhuis (1951) grew up with classical music, but in the 1960s he became drawn into rock and roll. He played in several rock bands while studying composition and electronic music at the Conservatory of Groningen. These two aesthetic worlds, classical beauty and the unpolished roughness of rock, have both found their way into his works. Half of his oeuvre consists of works for orchestra or string quartet that are mellifluous and play around with kitsch à la Jeff Koons, the other half of so-called boombox works, rough urban songs that are based on samples of human speech. ‘I don’t leave the house without a video camera and a recorder. I want to capture the sound of this era in my work.’

When composing ter Veldhuis does not follow a predetermined structure, but rather he is led by his ears, searching for ‘music that doesn’t yet exist’. An important tool is his high-tech home studio. In an era in which all possible sounds are available with a press on a button, he believes the future of music lies in the growing importance of multimediality: ‘Now the surprise comes from mixed forms.’

Joep Stapel

Three characteristic statements by Jacob ter Veldhuis: en van Jacob ter Veldhuis:

‘I spice my music with sugar’.

‘The composer is the architect, the musician the building contractor and together they build a house in which, if it is any good, the audience will want to live. But in new music many houses are unoccupied. I try to address that market.’

‘Overall there are two things I want to express. On the one hand, in recent years I have become more and more attracted to the harmony model, also as a statement against the chase for dissonants. At the risk of being taken for a new age composer, I want to examine to what extent my harmony can be experienced as new beauty. I love design. I try to make music that is as shiny, round and perfect as my granite tabletop. On the other hand, I get carried away by human suffering. For example, the seamy side of life is a huge inspiration for me, see my boombox repertory.’

current events & premieres

Current events and premieres:
Wednesday 22 July: La Lucerna del Mondo (world premiere) by the Dutch Youth Orchestra.
Lengerich (Germany).
Repeated on 24 July in France, 27 and 29 July in Spain, 2 August in Veere (the Netherlands), 3 August in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

Thursday 6 August: Things like that
Chamber Music Festival, Bridgehampton (US).
Repeated on 2 October at the University of South Carolina (US).

: Jacob ter Veldhuis [foto: Jacq Vanderfeesten]

A concise personal portrait:

Jacob ter Veldhuis’ interests:
Wining & dining, travelling, reading, design, film.

Jacob ter Veldhuis’ heroes and inspiration:
Blues, jazz and rock and roll;
Bob Dylan, Beethoven, Bartók, Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Jack Kerouac, JacobTV, Steely Dan, Little Feat, Steve Reich, Cannonball Adderley, Palestrina, Rameau, Muddy Waters.

Jacob ter Veldhuis’ greatest musical experience abroad: