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Jeroen D’hoe was born in Leuven
(Belgium) on 25
June 1968. He studied musicology at the Katholieke
Universiteit Leuven, graduating in 1992 magna cum laude. From
1994 to 1998 he taught harmony there, and from 1992 to 1996 he
was a research assistant as part of the ABB chair for new
music, the research project around Karel Goeyvaerts and the
ear-training program, UniSono.
At the Lemmens Institute, also in
Leuven, he earned first prizes in solfège (1998), harmony
(1989), practical harmony (1991) counterpoint (1991) and fugue
(1993). In addition, he received a ‘Meestergraad’ in
composition in 1996 under Piet Swerts. He subsequently took an
extra year’s study in composition at the same institute. He
then continued his studies in composition in the Fall of 1998
at the The Juilliard School in New York, with the aid of a
grant from the Belgian American Educational Foundation. In
2000 he graduated with a Master of Music degree (composition),
after studies with John Corigliano, with whom he prepared a
doctoral dissertation that was completed in may 2003. He has
also taught ear training at The Juilliard School since 1999.
In 2001, D’hoe won the Juilliard Composer’s Competition with
Wavechain, a composition for piano and orchestra. This year,
his piano piece Toccata Scherzo was played in the semi-finals
of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth piano competition.
Q: Jeroen, when did you start playing
music?
A: I started playing piano at 7 or 8. I
started playing violin when I was 10 or so. I was a composer
from the start. I enjoyed very much to improvise songs and
play them to myself.
Q: How is the career of a composer related
to that of a professional piano player?
A: They are very closely related.
Initially, I started my musical career as a professional piano
player. Subsequently, I found being a piano player too
repetitive and at 25 I decided to pursue composition in a
professional way.
I am very happy I started as a pianist. It
helped me a lot with my composition. Piano is an instrument
where you can play a melody with one hand and harmony with the
other. Combining the two is the base for composition. This is
not true for the flute, for example, on which you can only
play a melody.
My polyphonic ability was much helped by
the Bach scores I played on the piano. Most of the orchestral
composers, just to name the great ones, Mozart and Beethoven,
for example, started by playing the piano.
Between 20 and 30 I played the double bass
in a jazz quartet. I found this very important for my
experience as a composer. Double bass helped me better
understand the foundations of the compositions I played.
Q: What do you think about pop music? On
nadir_latent an internet based Romanian discussion group,
there was recently a very animated debate about the complexity
of modern rock&pop compositions. Technically speaking, how
complex do you think are the scores of Pink Floyd, Deep
Purple, Yes, etc?
A: Every music has its own subtlety. I like
to listen to all kinds of music. I like, for example, in the
traditional popular music, the sound of the guitar or banjo
and of a capella voices. It is true that most of the pop music
is compositionally speaking, very simple. It is simple but not
at all simplistic. Good pop music is extremely effective and
appealing and this is what counts for the listeners. You know,
a lot of reggae for example is crap, but Bob Marley is
fantastic. The same with the rap. Hip-hop, before anything, is
a social phenomenon, but produces great music when it is done
with taste.
Q: What is your favourite instrument?
A: My favourite instrument is the clarinet.
The clarinet can give you a wide variety of both technical
possibilities and human emotions. It is a very versatile
instrument. In the lower register you it can produce very
nice, warm sounds and in the high register it is an extremely
effective tool to startle the listeners with its shrieking
disquiet sounds. The clarinet can be used both in a slow, very
languish mode and in a fast, ratapatap (Jeroen imitates the
clarinet) awakening mood. It is a very nice soloist
instrument. I like the French horn for the same reasons.
Q: What do you think about composing other
genres like opera, for example?
A: Opera is the hardest. For me, now,
creating an opera seems like building one of those huge,
skyscrapers from downtown Manhattan. I know how to build a
house, but this is not enough. I need to learn more. Opera
will be for later, maybe in 10, 15 years. My next step will be
to write a string quartet. This will be a next important
learning process on the way to larger genres as, for example,
opera.
Q: How important do you think is
inspiration for musical composing?
A: Inspiration is essential. Any creation
starts with a rush of inspiration. Once I have the primum
movens, an idea that I consider valuable, I can start using
the technique I have developed over the years. If you look at
the completed piece you may say that technique represents
almost 90% of the compositional work. But if you look more
profoundly, at the whole process, I think that inspiration and
technique are equally needed.
Q: You use the computer to create music.
How does it help you?
A: A good infrastructure is important. If
you have a good road you get from New York to Boston quicker.
Boston will be as beautiful, of course, even if you choose a
slower road. You see, now with the help of computer, once I
have the full score of an orchestral piece, I can write the
instrumental parts in 2-3 days.
Q: What was going on before the 80`s?
A: I remember that my colleagues would
spend the entire summer copying scores for each instrument.
The great classical composers had their own copyists helping
them but still it took them sometimes 2-3 months to finish
what today can be done in few days.
Q: Are you interested in electronic music?
A: I like any music and I listen to all
sorts of music. The thing that I do and I like is writing
classical music for orchestra. One cannot do everything. One
has to be pragmatic in this respect.
Q: Who are the modern composers that
influenced you?
A: One of them is Lutos³awski. His second
symphony influenced my work a lot. Then Ligeti, Shostakovich,
and who has not been influenced by Shostakovitch? Then Bartok,
who, of course, is also more like a general influence.
Recently I was influenced by the work of the composer with
whom I worked at Julliard, John Corigliano. His symphony no.
1, that he dedicated to the victims of AIDS, is excellent. He
also wrote the score for a movie, “The red violin”, for which
he received an Oscar.
I came to New York to study with him
because I liked very much the way he combined very innovative
sounds with direct emotional expression. Corigliano worked
with Leonard Bernstein and showed his work to Copland and
Barber. It is a great tradition to witness first-hand.
Q: How do you attribute different parts of
the score to different instruments?
I think in groups. Woodwinds, brass,
percussion, strings. Generally speaking, strings can bring a
lot of warm emotions, brass add an exuberant, majestic,
extroverted feeling. Woodwinds can give you either brilliance
or nostalgia, according to the way they are used. When all the
instruments play together, or ‘tutti,’ you can create a very
powerful effect.
Q: Are you discovering the form as it is
created or you outline it from the start?
A: I like to know what I am doing from the
beginning. For me, composition is a linear process. I like to
draw a graph of the evolution of the composition. I want to
know in advance the whole form before writing it. The graph
will be like a curve of ascending and descending tension. I
like to know precisely where the climax is located. Other
composers might use different strategies.
Q: Your works generally start with a theme
and in the end return to the same theme?
A: Yes, I like closed-form compositions.
Other composers choose open form; it is just a question of
preference.
Q: Is the length of the piece
predetermined?
A: You see, I almost always write on
commission, so I know in advance that the piece must be, for
example, 20 or 45 minutes long. I also know the type of
ensemble.
Q: Where do you write?
A: Sometimes, last summer I was driving
upstate New York, at 7 lakes, near Bear Mountain. I like it
there. It is peaceful and there is a lot of space. I would go
there in the morning with a notebook and a pen and I would
return home in the evening. Other times, at home, I would use
the MIDI interface that automatically transcribes my keyboard
playing into a written score. Afterwards I would take a look
and choose the most interesting parts. You know, similar to
film editing.
Q: What is your music all about?
For me personally, it represents vitalism.
At the beginning at the century, after the First World War in
Europe, many composers were writing dark, tormented music. You
know, expressionism. I would like to express in my music
exactly the contrary feelings, exactly the opposite emotions.
I want to bring joy to the listener. My music is like a
positive reflection, and intends to be a joyful experience.
Q: What about some other, darker
experiences of yours?
A: I lost my father when I was 18, but
until now I did not feel the need to write a sad piece.
Last year, I had a commission to write a
choral work for 9/11. I did not write a requiem like or a
mournful piece. My intention was to bring a message of hope to
the audience. I found this more comforting than just writing a
sad piece. Maybe this is how I am.
Q: Do you think of images or colours when
you listen or compose music?
Scriabin did some experiments like that.
When I listen to or I compose music I do not make any kind of
visual associations other than the pre-compositional formal
graphs I referred to earlier.
Q: What is music for you?
It is energy and joy and excitement. It is
surprise. I want to be surprised. Of course, it is a paradox:
one cannot surprise oneself. So, sometimes I create a pattern,
something very logical, and then I give it a twist, like, for
example, in my last piece ‘Toccata-Scherzo.’
Q: What is your advise for the listeners?
Although you may have all the knowledge,
each time you must try to be like a naïve child that wonders
at the novelty of the sounds. You must try to be as an
analphabetic that discovers words for the first time.
Everything in music is about freshness. Music reinvents itself
every time you listen to it.
The interview was taken in New York on
June 1, 2003
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