Rodney Sharman is een veelgespeeld Canadese componist, woonachtig te Vancouver. Hij schreef onder meer tal van orkestwerken en in samenwerking met regisseur Atom Egoyan een kameropera, Elsewhereless die vele malen is opgevoerd. Een van zijn werken, Nader tot U uit 1990-1992 op tekst van Gerard Reve, wordt uitgevoerd tijdens de Nederlandse Muziekdagen. De Muziekplein-redactie legde hem Vier Vragen voor.

1. How did you come across the texts by Reve and what made you decide to use these texts?

2. Could you characterize what kind of musicality you find in these particular texts? And can you say something about how that character relates to your own musical language?

I was first introduced to Reve's work by Dutch author and comic Herman Koch, and first read "Nader tot U" in Reve's own German version, "Naeher zu Dir". Curiously, the German and Dutch books include material unique to each version and are not always translations of one another. I speak German fluently and rather laboured Dutch, but these were the first poems in the Dutch language which I committed to memory, and which moved me as a reader. When I wanted to set his texts, I discussed the poems with the Nieuw Ensemble's conductor, Ed Spanjaard, who had a personal connection to Reve through friends. Mr. Spanjaard was able to receive permission to set the texts from Reve himself. I chose these three poems for their atmosphere and musicality. On a technical level, musicality in text, for me, has to do in part with text rhythm and the presence of long vowels, particularly in words that are not clipped by final consonants. Dutch is similar to English with its many diphthongs, so perhaps I have an advantage that, say, a French-speaking composer would not have.

3. Reve's work has a central role in modern Dutch literature but it's often thought by Dutch readers to be so deeply rooted in Dutch culture that it's assumed that foreigners would never get it. Yet you are a Canadian, using exactly these very Revian texts. Is cultural specificity an issue at all when you read and set Reve?

Reve wrote in Dutch, German, English and French and lived much of his adult life in France. I consider him a world figure, as well as a great Dutch writer. I was very pleased by the reaction of colleagues and audiences in the Netherlands to my settings of the Dutch language, who were surprised, I think, that I "get it". I like to think of myself as sensitive to the sound of language, as well as the meaning and tone of the words. The third of these songs has been performed many times in the USA by Bang-on-a-Can's Robert Black, who both sings and plays the bass part. American audiences who do not understand the language always understand the sense of suspension and longing - a musical reflection of the poem.



4. Can you finish these sentences?

Music is like language because it can employ syntax to create meaning.

Music is unlike language because it creates unspecific meanings through specific means.

(Alas, language expressed in poetry can do this too, so maybe your sentence cannot be completed and remain true.)

Nader tot U van Rodney Sharman op tekst van Gerard Reve wordt uitgevoerd tijdens de Nederlandse Muziekdagen in de Muziekgebouw aan 't IJ op 11 oktober om 16.00, door het Nieuw Ensemble onder leiding van Hans Leenders met bariton Mattijs van de Woerd.