February 16, 2017

Computer searches for composer of Dutch national anthem

Filed under: History,Music by Orangemaster @ 10:22 pm

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According to Wikipedia the melody of the Dutch national anthem, the ‘Wilhelmus’ (‘the William’) was borrowed from a well known Roman Catholic French song titled “Autre chanson de la ville de Chartres assiégée par le prince de Condé” (YouTube song), which made fun of the failed Siege of Chartres in 1568 by the Huguenot Prince de Condé during the French Wars of Religion. The Dutch Protestants basically took over an anti-Protestant song, slowed it down like pros, and adapted it for their own Protestant agenda. And stealing songs back then was all very rap battle like and cool.

However, nobody knows for certain who wrote it, but now there’s a computer trying to figure it out by analysing a huge body of text. So far Petrus Datheen (1531-1588) is the frontrunner and while we’re at it, it has yet to be determined where, when and why the anthem was written. The oldest version of the anthem was written in German in 1573 and the oldest surviving Dutch version is 1576.

Here’s a lovely rendition of the modern-day Wilhelmus with subtitles. The explanation in the video’s comments lets you find out even more about other unanswered questions surrounding the Dutch national anthem.

(Link: nemokennislink, Photo by Quistnix, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 1.0)

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February 3, 2017

Carnival hits 2017: Mexicans, firemen and a favourite

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 6:18 pm

Nothing divides the Dutch like carnival. This year’s harvest is more about drinking and not thinking, but here are two pre-screened videos for your cringeworthy enjoyment, and a classic that I like to sing along with.

1. Watch ‘Mexicans’ build a wall, with English subtitles in ‘Trumpet’ (Grab ‘m By The Pussy)’ by the Bucket Boys ft. DJ Maurice. This hopefully needs no explanation.

2. Vieze Jack with ‘Brandweerman Jack’ (‘Fireman Jack’) is funny enough to actually watch because he’s so over the top. This time all the dirty lyrics are about being on fire and long nozzles while ripping off disco hit Ma Baker by Boney M.

3. ‘Zachte G harde L’ (Soft G Hard L) by Joss van Oss. The Dutch of the South speak with a less guttural G and considered soft, while the L refers to his dick, as the Dutch word is ‘lul’. Put the rest together yourselves.

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January 31, 2017

Musician fined 380 euro for jamming on train

Filed under: General,Music by Orangemaster @ 12:07 pm

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Klezmer clarinettist Nathan Dillen and his brother were on a train from Amsterdam to Kampen, Overijssel when he was fined 380 euro for noise nuisance for playing the clarinet.

Unlike many other European countries, the Netherlands rarely has begging musicians in trains, and this was definitely not the case. A few passengers asked to hear the guy play his clarinet and then they checked with everyone else in that carriage if that was OK, which it was.

According to friends who posted the video below online, it was a nice happening until a ‘special investigating officer’ (‘buitengewoon opsporingsambtenaar’ or ‘BOA’) stopped the guys on the platform where they were changing trains and after which the BOA called over the police who fined the musician 380 euro for noise nuisance. And yeah, they missed their train connection and getting home was even less fun.

Music made by begging musicians, which is a rare sight here but does happen, is a no-no and maybe seen as more of a nuisance because it is imposed on people, which was not the case here. There’s also the fact that most begging musicians aren’t Dutch and often illegally in the Netherlands, which doesn’t help public perception. And if I can go out on a limb, the few times I’ve heard begging musicians, it has been clarinet and accordion players playing similar music.

So technically this was noise nuisance, but then it didn’t bother anyone. Dillen is planning to ignore the fine as well.

(Link: waarmaarraar, Photo by Flickr user Kismihok, some rights reserved)

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December 19, 2016

Rapping Dutch puppets premiere in Amsterdam

Filed under: Music,Shows by Orangemaster @ 2:01 pm

Dutch rappers De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig from Amsterdam are part of a new show entitled ‘Watskeburt?! De Musical’ with muppet-like puppets of themselves, which frankly steal the show. The makers will give a special talk on the stage tonight at the preview showing at the Meervaart in Nieuw-West, while tomorrow’s premiere is already sold out. And the show will move downtown in 2017 at Amsterdam’s main musical venue, DeLaMar theatre.

The song ‘Watskeburt’ from 2005, one of the group’s better known hits and a Dutch party favourite, has been covered and parodied a lot since then. If only Weird Al Yankovic understood Dutch.

According to the Dutch music press, people feel like they are watching a show of De Jeugd van Tegenwoordig since the likeness of the songs and the voices are that good. It’s aimed at young people 18-30, and it is definitely not for kids, as it contains all the strong language, sex, drugs and violence that you need for good Dutch rap music along with their usual dose of humour.

The video of the song ‘Pikante’ is set in Amsterdam’s Kesbeke pickled condiments factory and has that pseudo latin flavour some of their songs have as of late.

(Link: meervaart.nl)

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November 30, 2016

Life-size piano made of Lego to go on tour

Filed under: Art,Dutch first,Music by Orangemaster @ 5:20 pm

Composer and pianist Jeroen van Veen of Culemborg, Gelderland built a life-size working piano using almost 30,000 pieces of Lego. As a huge Lego fan and composer, he wrote the ‘Minimal Prelude 18’ with the nickname ‘Lego music’, which features minimalistic sounds with many repetitions.

Building the instrument started as a bit of fun, something Van Veen did with his two adult sons. The piano is easy to put together and take apart, although they are careful when transporting it. Not only is it mechanically functional, but it is also a hybrid piano, with digital and analogue elements, possibly a world first.

People in the United States and in other countries want to have the piano over their way, so the Lego piano will probably be going on tour. The ‘brand name’ is Van Veen & Sons, a nod not only to how it was built, but also to the grand piano brand Steinway & Sons.

(Link: waarmaarraar, Photo by Sunny Ripert, some rights reserved)

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October 29, 2016

Kyteman jamming at home on his Eurorack modular synthesizer

Filed under: Music by Branko Collin @ 8:10 am

kyteman-eurorackWhen Colin Benders aka Kyteman gets home, he kicks off his shoes (or so I imagine) and turns on his impressive looking Eurorack modular synthesizer for some jams, which he films and the best of which he puts on YouTube. As Metafilter says, just let it run.

Kyteman wrote: “Ever since I came back home I’ve been pushing out tracks non-stop. Finally got something of a workflow going it seems. Not looking forward to editing it all later but that’s another story.”

And tonight on his webcast on Twitch.tv he added: “Next stream is probably going to be on Monday, … Monday and Tuesday. […] After that I am going to get back into recording mode. I really have to start pushing out a couple of tracks, because I want to work to an EP release or something like that.”

So if you want to see him play live, tune in to Colin Benders’ Twitch.tv channel this Monday.

Previously:

(Illustration: crop from the video; video: YouTube / Colin Benders)

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September 28, 2016

‘Booze and Drugs’ is ‘Stoff und Schnaps’ in German

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 10:19 am

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At the start of the summer, we told you about Americans trying to sing Dutch summer hit ‘Drank & Drugs’ (‘Booze and Drugs’) by Lil Kleine & Ronnie Flex. Now it’s time for the next level, the German version ‘Stoff und Schnaps’ (‘Drugs and Schnaps’), complete with lyrics and bouncing ball.

Ronnie Flex says he’d love to more songs in German because there’s “a market of 70 million people!” Actually, 80 million, but we get it, it’s not the Netherlands with its puny 16.8 million and a language dwarfed by German on the world scale as well.

The big question is, how’s their German accent?

(Link: nieuws.nl)

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August 23, 2016

Dutch experimental music to be sent into space

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 11:40 pm

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On 8 September the experimental sounds of Dutch composer Roland Kuit will be heard in space as part of the OSIRIS-REx NASA mission, which will travel to a near-Earth asteroid called ‘Bennu’ and bring a small sample back to Earth for study. The mission’s goal is to get more insight into the origin of life.

Kuit’s sounds will be placed on a chip that will be left on the asteroid, which will send his music into space, powered by solar energy. “I think it’s great that NASA uses science as a vehicle for art, as art is something that differentiates humans from the rest”, explains Kuit.

Listen to the space sounds of Ronald Kuit:

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/230769965″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

(Link: www.waarmaarraar.nl)

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August 22, 2016

Jazz legend Toots Thielemans dies, the Dutch angle

Filed under: Music by Orangemaster @ 9:01 pm

Jazz legend Toots Thielemans dies, the Dutch angle

Here’s a screenshot of the character ‘Baantjer’ from the show of the same name for which Toots Thielemans performed the theme on the mouth harmonica. Thielemans has died today, aged 94. He was very talented and played several instruments, and was well known for playing the mouth harmonica, among others, for Dutch films and series.

Here’s the theme to the Dutch detective series ‘Baantjer’ Circle of smiles (yeah, screenshot typo) composed by Jurre Haanstra, a show that ran for eleven years. And then there’s the catchy intro music to Paul Verhoeven’s classic Dutch film ‘Turks Fruit’ (‘Turkish Delight’), composed by Rogier van Otterloo and performed by Toots Thielemans, a tune many people can whistle to, no problem.

Find out more about Toots Thielemans yourself, as the international name dropping could go on for days.

And then there’s his most popular tune ever, which most of our readers surely know. Can you guess what it could be before you press play? Hint: it’s 47 years old.

(Link: www.theguardian.com)

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July 14, 2016

Police copy uniform design, then pressure choir in giving theirs up

Filed under: Fashion,Music by Branko Collin @ 11:57 pm

politie-uniform-2016At first it seemed a joke to Bravour, a shanty choir from Woerden. When the Dutch police introduced a new uniform in 2014, it turned out to be the spitting image of the choir’s uniform, dark blue with broad yellow bands across the chest.

“We’ve suddenly gained tens of thousands of new members”, the choir’s chair person Ad de Goey quipped in Algemeen Dagblad that year. “The local police also thinks it’s funny. Well, they’re all welcome to join as far as I am concerned.”

But in November that year the joke turned sour when the police let on that somebody was going to have to change their uniforms—and the somebody wasn’t going to be the police. Although the article doesn’t mention it, the police actually had the law on their side—impersonating a police officer, even if it is only by dressing like one, carries a maximum prison sentence of three months.

The shanty choir were all good sports about it. Not only did they come up with a new uniform, but on 26 February 2016 they invited the police choir from Gelderland to the Cross Church in Woerden for a joint performance. As Joe Cocker’s You Can Leave Your Hat On was played over the tannoy, Bravour members performed a striptease in which they tore off their old uniforms, revealing the new uniforms underneath. From now on the shanty choir will perform in dark blue with a broad, light blue wave.

See also: The Netherlands has finally become a police state

(Illustration: these people may dress like a bunch of entertainers, but they are actually Dutch police officers; source: politie.nl)

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