Wig 31

lG HENNEMAN

Outside the Rain has Stopped

Outside the Rain has Stopped is a collection of music that represents different phases of my long musical journey. Listening back I realized that these pieces, all together, represent the perspective I created out of my experiences in rock music, poetry, jazz, improvisation, colours, experimental and classical music: it's my world.
"Galina U" is an ode to the Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya, written as a foundation from which to improvise on her characteristic dynamic extremes and structural severity. "Solo Song for Cello –As if –" is inspired by the poem "I felt a Cleaving in my Mind" from Emily Dickinson. The poem is treated like a song, and there is room for guided improvisation. "February's Turn" is a long languid investigation into the magnificent colours of the Verschueren organ, a Cavaillé-Coll type. The poem "Orgelend -een improvisatie voor ih" is my 75th birthday present from Anneke Brassinga. Anneke's voice is also featured in her poem about loss "Heen". She is reading as if her words are sounds. Duo Baars-Henneman's improvisation complements Brassinga's words. This is a collaboration that has taken place many times throughout the years. "Bow Valley" is an autobiographical soundscape featuring the Canadian Rocky Mountains; the field recordings in and around my studio form a layer on which the musicians find their way with both improvisation and a notated score. Lastly, the title track "Outside the Rain has Stopped" is a stringquartet from which the pianist/improviser Cecil Taylor’s intuitive, energetic, loosely structured flow was an important source of inspiration.
This is where I am.
-Ig Henneman