Extract AJR

A JOYFUL
REVOLUTION
Creating adventurous
music projects
for young audiences

A Joyful Revolution takes us on an inspiring
journey through music creations for young
audiences. Focusing on nine projects
presented at the BIG BANG Festival -
a unique laboratory for experimentation with
music and sound - this publication offers
an in-depth and kaleidoscopic reflection
on innovation within the musical offering for
children. This collection of texts highlighting
original processes and daring artistic
proposals also includes essays by artists
and thinkers that together form a vibrant
anthology on childhood, anarchy and music.
A JOYFUL
REVOLUTION

A JOYFUL
REVOLUTION
Creating adventurous
music projects
for young audiences

12 A JOYFUL REVOLUTION
13
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
16
18
25
43
61
69
PrefAce
A JOYFUL REVOLUTION
introDUction
PIONEERING
by Wim Wabbes
DES MADELEINES
DANS LA GALAXIE
a cosmic voyage aboard the Spat’
by Laurence P. Lafaille
BEING JOHN CAGE
an interview with Letizia Renzini
by Tyyjing Liu
reflections
A CHILD’S GUIDE TO ANARCHY
by Brian Irvine
LIVING MILES DAVIS
when musical interaction and
participation are at the heart
of a young audience’s experience
by Marika Crête-Reizes
91
111
135
153
175
INSIDE FIVE LITTLE HOUSES
an immersive trail through
the project INsono by Sonoscopia
by Ana Luísa Veloso
reflections
IT ALL STARTED WITH A BANG!
MUSIC, CHILDREN AND OTHER
VIBRATIONS
an interview with Wouter Van Looy
by Mélanie Dumont
NEBULA: THE DREAM-MAKING
MACHINE
by Anne-Marie Ouellet
& Thomas Sinou
A DECADE AFTER DANCING VOICES
an interview with Meredith Monk
by Naomi Beeldens
reflections
THE STATE OF FLOW
an interview with
Professor Ferre Laevers
by Wouter Van Looy
187
199
217
236
JOURNEYS IN COMMUNAL
MUSIC-MAKING WITH PAUL
GRIFFITHS
by Purni Morell
PLAYING AROUND!
an interview with Bert Bernaerts
by Annemarie Peeters
THE NECESSITY
OF APPEARING
the atypical adventure
of Deep Fusion Butterfly
by Hélène Élise Blais
ePiloGUe
INTO THE FUTURE
by Madalena Wallenstein

14 A JOYFUL REVOLUTION
15
CONTRIBUTORS
Laurence P. Lafaille
is a stage director,
curator and
co-artistic director for
the multidisciplinary
company Les
Incomplètes, based in
Quebec, Canada.
Madalena Wallenstein
is the coordinator of
the Fábrica das Artes
at the Centro Cultural
de Bélem and the
programmer of BIG
BANG Festival in
Lisbon, Portugal.
Marika Crête-Reizes
is a trainer and
specialist in Aesthetic
Education and develops
and accompanies arts
education projects. She
is based in Montreal,
Canada.
Mélanie Dumont
is a dramaturge,
associate artistic director
of the National Arts
Centre (NAC) French
Theatre and programmer
of the BIG BANG
Festival in Ottawa,
Canada.
Hélène Élise Blais
is a music artist living in
Montreal, Canada, where
she teaches singing and
writing at The Muses,
a one-of-a-kind school
offering professional
artistic training to people
living with a disability.
Ana Luísa Veloso
is a researcher at
INET-md (Institute of
Ethnomusicology- Centre
of Studies in Music and
Dance) and is a member
of the cultural association
Sonoscopia. She is based
in Porto, Portugal.
Brian Irvine
is a composer and coartistic
director of the
creative production
company Dumbworld,
based in Belfast,
Northern-Ireland.
Emma Driesprong
based in Brussels,
Belgium, has a
background in art
history and works as the
international relations
and EU project manager
for Zonzo Compagnie
and the BIG BANG
festival network.
Naomi Beeldens
is a versatile performer
with a predilection
for music theatre,
contemporary music and
all things experimental.
She is part of the music
theatre collective Les
Âmes Perdues and
is based in Antwerp,
Belgium.
Anne-Marie Ouellet
is a researcher and
creator based in
Chelsea, Canada.
She specialises in
directing non-actors
in cutting-edge
contemporary creations.
Thomas Sinou
is a sound designer
and digital artist
who composes and
spatializes sound, based
in Chelsea, Canada.
Wouter Van Looy
is a stage director
of opera and music
theatre. He is resident
stage director at Music
Theatre Transparent,
general and artistic
director of the Antwerp
(Belgium) based Zonzo
Compagnie and founder
of the BIG BANG
Festival.
Annemarie Peeters
is a writer, dramatist
and music journalist
living in Louvain,
Belgium.
Tjyying Liu
is an independent
arts professional,
educator, performer
and writer and is based
in Rotterdam, The
Netherlands.
Wim Wabbes
is the artistic director
of Handelsbeurs
Concert Hall in Ghent,
Belgium.
Purni Morell
is a freelance theatre
director, writer and
translator, based in
Antwerp, Belgium.

16
PREFACE
A JOYFUL
REVOLUTION
A Joyful Revolution projects us
simultaneously into the buzz of the present
and the perspective of a near future.
Because although this publication aims
to bear witness to innovation within the
musical offering for young audiences, it
also sees itself as a call to continue and
spread the work that is already going on
and, assuredly, to continue opening up new
avenues of exploration.
Let’s begin by noting that this
publication is rooted in a unique laboratory
for experimentation with music and
sound, known as BIG BANG Festival. This
international festival of musical adventures
for young audiences has provided a context
for this in-depth, intentionally kaleidoscopic
reflection on current musical practices
aimed at children.
This is the setting in which the nine
projects that form the main thread of this
publication were conceived or presented.
Consequently, what emerges most clearly
from these pages, serving as a guide for
our reflections, is precisely the originality
and daring that characterises this range
of projects undertaken by unique artists.
Whether they flirt with contemporary sounds
or revisit tradition, whether they invent
new ways of listening or try out modes of
interaction, these processes are an inspiring
journey along uncommon pathways towards
creation for and with this audience of today,
here and now.
This collection of texts also includes a
number of essays by artists and thinkers, as
well as the voices of those who have helped
to organise the BIG BANG Festival in their
own cities, in Europe and elsewhere. It is a
vibrant anthology that stimulates reflection
on childhood, anarchy and music.
As a state of play and a projection into
the future, this publication also reads as a
story in pictures that takes a multicoloured
look at the rich world of music and sound art
as a sanctuary for imagination and creativity.
Emma Driesprong
Mélanie Dumont
Wouter Van Looy

18
INTRODUCTION
Wim Wabbes
19
The BIG BANG festival used to be
called ‘Oorsmeer’, which is Dutch for ear
wax. That actually summed it up well. It
sounds a bit dirty, like something contrary
to the mainstream, and at the same time it
is beneficial and important for the ears.
When Wouter Van Looy started brainstorming
about the festival with me, as the
music programmer at Vooruit in Ghent,
the starting point was that there was an
urgent need for new music for children,
in addition to the pure entertainment that
often treats them rather condescendingly.
We both had young children and were
active on the music scene. We saw a big
gap and a huge potential. It’s not about the
music. A lot of music that appeals to adults
can also fascinate children. It just needs
to be a bit more intimate, concerts should
be a bit shorter and the atmosphere has to
encourage an optimal concert experience.
We asked musicians if they wanted to
play for a young audience for the first time
in their career. It was surprising how many
of them took us up on it. Children are a
rewarding audience. They’re extremely
PIONEERING
honest and social conventions don’t bother
them. If they’re not interested, you’ve lost
their attention. The American cellist Tom
Cora experienced that when he played
his first solo concert for children at one
of the first editions of Oorsmeer. The kids
lost interest. At his third attempt, they
were captivated by every vibration of the
strings. Cora believes that the secret of his
success lay in two things: playing the best
concert of his life and communicating with
the children – looking at them, smiling,
showing the intensity of what he was doing
and not hiding behind his instrument.
It was pioneering work. Searching.
Falling and getting back up again. The
same applied to the artists and ensembles
we confronted with our requests.
It resulted in wonderful concerts that
brought many musical universes together.
To protect the children from their overenthusiastic
parents, no one was allowed to
attend two consecutive concerts. You were
obliged to take a break after every concert.
That is why we organised a trail of sound
installations. We called that part of the
festival ‘Voor de smeer’, which means ‘for
waxing it’, or lubrication. It included robots,
giant bamboo flutes as wide as an elevator
shaft, in which the rise and fall of the elevator
car changed the pitch of the flute, a
musical mobile with tuned clay flowerpots,
a musical haunted castle and so on.
We also organised an improvisation
session with children. The Brussels violinist
Baudouin De Jaer – today the head of
a music school – made graphic scores and
got dozens of children to perform them.
At the end of the session, the parents
were surprised with a little concert. If you
closed your eyes, it sounded like listening
to a group of adult musicians. That is how
intense, how good, the music was.
However, Oorsmeer did not limit itself
to the question of whether musicians
wanted to play for a young audience; it
also wanted to increase what was on offer.
We commissioned musicians to create
new work. The Czech violinist Iva Bittova
was one of them. She had made an album
in 1997 for which she worked with a
children’s choir. That idea was developed
into a fully-fledged production. It was an
exciting working process that unfolded
very organically. The playfulness that
Bittova brings to her music spread to the
children. Later, during the première, it
had a contagious effect on the audience as
well.
“A lot of music that
appeals to adults
can also fascinate
children.”
Oorsmeer challenged a generation of
musicians to play and create productions
for a young audience. The premise was
always that it had to be adult music performed
with a child’s energy. The festival
has astonished hundreds of children’s ears
with unusual music and enticed them into
listening more deeply and discovering new
worlds.
Oorsmeer has been called Big Bang
for some time now, and it has really taken
off. Today it is an internationally renowned
music festival for children that has made
a name for itself in many European cities
and even on other continents.
Recently I saw the production Liedjes
met Wortels (Songs with Roots) by Zonzo
Compagnie: a gorgeous production in
which three vocalists perform songs from
all over the world. After the concert I
learned that one of them had participated
in the production with Iva Bittova as a
child. The festival had come full circle…
Translated from Dutch
by Lot Yan Teresa