This book presents the musician in dialog with a Polish-Canadian musicologist and three of his Dutch friends and collaborators, Reinbert de Leeuw, Elmer Schoenberger and Frits van der Waa. Topics include his artistic evolution, his relationship to minimalism, his prevalent interest in mysticism and meaning, the use of quotation and writing for the stage and an introduction to his musical language.
Trochimzyck's efforts show a keen sense of the richness that Andriessen's music offers to scholars and critics in its integrity, complexity, depth and paradox. Her book succeeds in raising important themes and, at the same time, presents challenges to its readers. One of the greatest involves the question of its genre, and, by extension, its intended use. -- Iotes
Louis Andriessen has reached the level of seniority in European contemporary music at which a written study of his achievement ought to be available...Maja Trochimczyk's volume is the first to appear in English. From that point of view alone it's an invaluable source of documentation. -- Music Magazine, January 1, 2003
Senior Editor's Foreword Preface, Maja Trochimczyk I. Learning 1. Dialog 1: Learning, Louis Andriessen and Maja Trochimczyk 2. Andriessen and His Habitat, Frits van der Waa 3. The Man and His Music: A Portrait, Maja Trochimczyk II. Composing 4. Dialog 2: Fragments on Composing, Louis Andriessen and Maja Trochimczyk 5. Unisons and the Republic: Andriessen's Minimalism, Maja Trochimczyk 6. On Conceiving Time, Louis Andriessen and Elmer Schoenberger 7. Lectures for Young Composers, Louis Andriessen (Translated and edited by Danuta Gwizdalanka and Maja Trochimczyk) III. Ideas 8. Dialog 3: Interest and Ideas, Louis Andriessen and Maja Trochimczyk 9. Hadewijch: A Mystic in the Cathedral, Maja Trochimczyk 10. Reinbert, a Little Garden Chair, and the American Conncetion, Louis Andriessen (Translated by Marcel Van Baal) 11. Working with Louis, Reinbert de Leeuw IV. Art 12. Dialog 4: Painting, Vermeer, and Art, Louis Andriessen and Maja Trochimczyk 13. Writing to Vermeer: A View of a Filmic Opera, Maja Trochimczyk 14. Andriessen and the Art of Composing, Maja Trochimczyk List of Works * Bibliography * Discography * Notes about the Contributors * Index