Est-ce Deventer . . .

Est-ce Deventer.. was composed upon the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Roel Smit as carillonneur of the city of Deventer. The composition was commissioned by the city of Deventer.
The first performance took place on May the 17th 2012.

Est-ce Deventer... is a three parts double story about
1.The course of the river IJssel (part 1: gently approaching from afar; part 2: vigorously passing the city of Deventer; part 3: flowing into the IJsselmeer) and
2. The career of Roel Smit (part 1: carefully getting acquainted with the highest regions of his instrument and gradually descending; part 2: showing his virtuosity; part 3: looking back to the past with a melancholic melody.

The subtitle of Est-ce Deventer… is “Van Sweelinck tot Smit” (From Sweelinck to Smit)
From origin Sweelinck’s Est ce mars... is a sailors song. That combined with the fact that Sweelinck was born in Deventer and the river IJssel flows into the IJsselmeer (which was formerly a sea) brought me to the idea of making use of this melody.
In the first part of Est-ce Deventer... fragments of the first half of the melody of Est-ce Mars... appear once in a while (each fragment being longer than the one before) . The second part of Est-ce Deventer... is totally Sweelinck-free. In the third part the second half of Est-ce Mars... is being used, after which the first half of this melody returns in a totally different harmonic surrounding.

Not being in the possession of a good carillon recording (with all the noise in the city carillions are very hard to record!), you can still hear the piano sound version on the Music preview.

Duration: 10’00” Price: € 13,50