D'Ase Dirk
- Compositions
- General Information
- Education
- Performances (Selection)
- Commissions (Selection)
- Description of Style
- Press Reviews
- Librettist of (Composition)
- Contact, Links
Compositions
General Information
The Austrian Dirk D'Ase established himself over the past few years with compositions for opera and orchestras. Among his most significant works are 6 operas, 4 solo concerts, 1 symphony, orchestra pieces, as well as orchestra songs. He was appointed composer in residence by the Viennese Concert Verein for season 2003/2004. During that season, his opera "Einstein, Spuren des Lichts" was launched on the occasion of the 125th anniversary of Albert Einstein in Ulm and his cello concert was performed at the Bregenz Festival. For this concert he was granted the scholarship for composition by the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. Presently, D'Ase is working on his sixth full-length opera "Don Juan wird sechzig" (libretto: Robert Schindel) commissioned by the Vienna Mozartjahr 2006. Furthermore, his tango opera AZRAEL was performed at the city theatre Trier, Germany. D'Ase was "Composer Of The Year" at the Brussels opera "La Monnaie" (director Gerhard Mortier), as well as composer in residence at the Flanders Festival and the Conservatory in Vienna. His works have been performed, among others, at the Vienna Musikverein, Vienna Konzerthaus, at the Carnegie Hall NY, Juilliard School of Music NY, Zurich opera, Brussels opera and by the Philharmonic Orchestra Cologne, as well as at the Bregenz Festival. D'Ase worked with artists, such as Sylvain Cambreling, Ulf Schirmer, Hugo Wolf Quartett, Wolfgang Schultz, Peter Turrini etc. He studied composition with Luciano Berio, Friedrich Cerha, and Krzysztof Penderecki, undertook long journeys through southern Africa and wrote his diploma thesis about South-East African traditional music. His trips and research in Africa have had a fundamental influence on his compositions.
Education
| Period | Education | Instrument | Teacher | Education Organisation | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1981 - 1986
|
composition | ||||
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1985
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private lessons in composition | ||||
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1987
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Vienna, Radicondoli, Salzburg: private lessons in composition | ||||
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1988 - 1989
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folk music research and ethno-musicology (Walter Deutsch, Gerhard Kubik) |
Performances (Selection)
| Period | Performance | Composition | Organisation | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1996
|
Carnegie Hall, New York: song cycle for the Austrian mezzo-soprano Brigitte Pinter | |||
|
2000
|
At the festival "Die lange Nacht der neuen Klänge" | |||
|
2000
| ||||
|
2004
|
Theatre Ulm: opera commissioned by the City of Ulm |
Commissions (Selection)
| Period | Commission | Composition | Commissioner (Organisation) | Commissioner (Person) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1983
|
La Monnaie, Brussels: commission for the appointment as composer of the year | |||
|
1987
|
Flanders Festival, commission for the appointment as composer in residence: | |||
|
1991
|
La Monnaie, Brussels, Quatuor Danel: commission for the appointment as composer of the year | |||
|
1993
|
European Capital of Culture, Antwerp: opera for the opening of the opera festival: | |||
|
1995
| ||||
|
2000
| ||||
|
2000
| ||||
|
2001
|
concert for clarinet | |||
|
2003
|
commission for the appointment as composer in residence | |||
|
2004
|
City of Ulm: opera for the 125th anniversary celebrations of Albert Einstein: | |||
|
2006
|
opera in 3 acts following a libretto by Robert Schindel |
Description of Style
The focus of Dirk D'Ase's music lies on the particular characteristics and timbre of instruments and the human voice. He develops soft, characterising vocal and instrumental lines, which atonally combine big interval leaps with sound repetitions in an evident and plausible way. His fundamental notes are major-second sounds of many shades, from acrimonious acuity to the "will-o'-the-wisp"-like sound carpet, often superimposed or dissolved in elusive instrumental gestures. "Everything I do, I look for in and from life, " defines Dirk D'Ase a kind of artistic credo not only noticeable in the vital features of his instrumentals, but also in the personal-interpersonal conflicts D'Ase has always dealt with while tracing the dramatic: the world, the people, life - for D'Ase everything is based on emotions, which have to be confronted: it is direct, immediate communication that interests him: to strike a chord and being struck with a chord. D'Ase has acquired an individual rhythmic technique, which has become a feature in his compositions and is based on the basic principle of African traditional music: the interlocking system. D'Ase also uses this technique in creating sounds where individual melodies grow together to result in a new, virtual sound. He often works with shorter note values, therefore making the music more charged and denser, but always puts this into contrast to slower cantilenas. Speed and density could be the key words for D'Ase's musical oeuvre. The cardinal objective is to strike a chord with the listener during this musical journey and to wake him up in his unconscious inner-self. Dirk D'Ase is obsessed with the re-invention of a new musical language for his musicians, characters and stories.
Press Reviews
2001
D'Ase develops soft vocal lines characterising the figures, atonally combining big interval leaps with sound repetitions in an evident and plausible way. His fundamental note are major-second sounds of many shades, from acrimonious acuity to the "will-o'-the-wisp"-like sound carpet, often superimposed or dissolved in elusive instrumental gestures. His language is pleasantly open and breathing, sometimes humorously touching tonal music or, as for Hornak's portrait, only suggesting Klezmer sounds, avoiding eclecticism.
Die Deutsche Bühne
25. October 2000
He really knows his trade: remains from sound carpets are superimposed by rhythmic pulsations influenced by African music. The instrumentation is used with great harmonic and melodious finesse, block-like shapes alternate with soloist quasi-improvisations. D'Ase skillfully uses all means to put together targeted buildups and climaxes, moods and their abrupt turnarounds are characterised suggestively - in short: musico-dramatic music as it should be. The premiere audience was rightly impressed.
Das Orchester (Gerhard Kramer)
2004
Life between bars. Vienna: Dirk D'Ase's new opera. D'Ase has transformed the story into music with great sensitivity without fancy flourishes in a solidly made mixture of dimension and motor activity and with the idea to entrust a five member concertino with the task to characterise each of the five solo singers: a remarkable and serious piece of work. The warmhearted applause was directed at a piece which does not hide sympathetic motion.
Salzburger Nachrichten (Derek Weber)
The new Einstein opera would have passed any TV PISA test. Dirk D'Ase understood the opera as a mathematical challenge, an attempt to translate Einstein's mathematical and physical thinking into sounds and forms. In this way, he has found an acoustic equivalent for the light quants, discovered a nine-voice vision and relativity chord and used a lot of numerology. What is important, though, is that his main characters can be musically identified ...
Die Welt (Jan Schleusener)
Here, Dirk D'Ase's atonal music, which was presented full of nuances and rich in sound, developed its entire imaginative power and colour. Well thought-out timbre effects (accordion, glockenspiel, triangle, celesta etc.) and compositional finesse serve the acoustic adaptation of the light so important in Einstein's life. Iridescent string clusters, glistening sounds, dramatically charged arches of sound, complicated rhythms and minute inharmoniousness tell more about Einstein's complex inner life than the entire libretto.
Das Orchester (Susanne Rudolph)
Librettist of (Composition)
Contact, Links
dirkdase [dot] com
