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HOKETUS: OF HIERARCHY AND HICCUPS1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2015

Nick Williams
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Abstract

Between 1976 and 1986 the Dutch group Hoketus were central to the creation of the sound and aesthetic of the Hague school. Through their rehearsal process they challenged and redefined the role of the composers who wrote for them in relation to the ensemble, and in doing so they challenged conventional notions of composer privilege and power. While not going as far as free improvisation groups in erasing the boundaries between composers and performers, they created a situation in which traditional hierarchies were overturned. Without ever claiming co-ownership of the resulting works, the group actively participated in the creative process and so could claim a higher degree of ownership and responsibility for the music they played than is usually the case.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 69 , Issue 273 , July 2015 , pp. 5 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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Footnotes

1

A shorter version of this article was presented at the conference ‘Classical Music, Critical Challenges' at King's College, London, on 17 October 2014. I would like to thank composers and former members of Hoketus for their invaluable help, in particular Louis Andriessen, Cornelis de Bondt, Huib Emmer, Diderik Wagenaar and Patricio Wang.

References

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3 A pun on ‘nutcrackers'. Noten can mean both nuts and notes, and ‘krakers' refers to squatters (squatting had become a contentious issue in Amsterdam at this time). For information on the Notenkrakers, see Adlington, Robert, Composing Dissent: Avant-garde Music in 1960s Amsterdam (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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10 Diderik Wagenaar, private email communication with the author, 12 September 2014.

11 Private email communication with the author, 8 October 2014. I have retained the original English.

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24 In 2012 Cornelis de Bondt withdrew all his scores from public circulation, but he has since made a new version of Bint for a different instrumentation.

25 Huib Emmer, in De Beer, ‘Hoketus stopt na tien jaar’.

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