Tim-Ba

Dutch composer Willem Jeths (b. 1959) resides and teaches in the Netherlands. He received top honors in composition from the Utrecht Conservatory, and he has since had performances and excellent reviews from venues all over Europe. Jeths is not hesitant to try to articulate what aesthetic he pursues in his creative work:

What can I say about my music? For me, intuition and associations are the keywords while composing, together with striving towards a clarity and economy of musical material. Nature is one of the main sources of my inspiration . . . I believe the art of music has to offer an opening, touching listeners as directly as colors in the visual arts.

TIM/BA was commissioned in 2000 and premiered that season at the composer’s self-titled music festival. Framed by the distinctive sound of breaking glass, TIM/BA achieves otherworldly timbres among the four percussionists involved—one of whom is a pianist. And in addition to many traditional percussion instruments, TIM/BA uses numerous gongs and drums from a Javanese gamelan orchestra. The work lasts 15 minutes, building from a trance-like minimalism toward a climax. Initially, motifs appear in isolation with no logical connection. But by the work’s midpoint a rhythmic pattern has taken hold and true melodic structure begins to appear. At its best, TIM/BA projects multiple layers of activity, and the combination of piano timbre with gamelan is a revelation.

(c) Jason Stell and Willem Jeths