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Lucien Posman was born on 22 March 1952 in Eeklo. He completed his higher music studies at the Royal Conservatories of Ghent and Antwerp. In Ghent he earned first prizes in solfège, harmony, music history and composition (under Roland Coryn), as well as a teaching certificate for solfège (first and second cycle). In Antwerp he received a first prize for fugue and counterpoint in the class of Nini Bulterys. He also studied music analysis, piano and voice.
Posman works at the Hogeschool Gent as president of the educational board and as teacher composition and teacher training theory. He was co-founder, in 1993, of the cultural organisations De Verenigde Cultuurfabrieken and De Rode Pomp, where he is the artistic director. At present, Lucien Posman is artistic director of De Rode Pomp. He was also involved in setting up the ECCG (European Composers' Collective, Ghent region). In addition, he is on the editorial board of the periodical, Nieuwe Vlaamse Muziekrevue. As an assistant on the Musical Days of Flanders, he organises and programs small festivals abroad (St Petersburg, New York, Bratislava) which aim to confront Belgian works with compositions from the repertoire of other lands.
Posman's compositions have been performed in such festivals as De Week van de Hedendaagse Muziek in Ghent, the Belgian-Dutch Music Days in Maastricht, Muzicii Contemporane Belgiene in Bucharest, Ars Musica, the Flanders Festival, and the Musica Nova Festival in Sao Paulo. Various of his compositions have been recorded for CD, and several programmes have been devoted to him and his works on such radio networks as VRT Radio 3 (the Flemish classical music programme, now Klara), Radio Moscow, and the Dutch, Brazilian (Sao Paulo) and Romanian services. For his song cycle, Songs of Experience (five songs on poems by William Blake, for middle voice and piano) Lucien Posman received the Muizelhuis Prize for chamber music in 1988.

Work review

Lucien Posman's oeuvre already comprises some forty works, including a symphony, an opera, chamber music for various scorings and a relatively large number of vocal works, especially on texts by Blake.

The poems from Blake's collection, Songs of Innocence and Experience were all (except for The Tyger) set for choir or as solo song. These works appeared in the four cycles of Songs of Experience, the first of which was composed in 1988, and the last in 1996. The symbolism of Blake's philosophical texts is musically represented by means of a limited number of ideas, consistently applied. The tension curve of this - directly communicative - music may be described as “traditional-rhetorical”.

Lucien Posman's postmodernist opera, Hercules Haché, the Adventure of a Professor! (1991) enjoyed great success upon its performance by conservatory students during the Week of Contemporary Music 1992 in Ghent. The libretto by Lucien Posman's brother André deals with the heroic quest of a shattered consciousness for a sense of balance. This is presented through various story lines, as the opera is built up in separate scenes. Different styles are employed in order to characterise different personages and situations. A style coupled with a particular character can still develop within this correspondence. Posman draws on highly diverse styles, from classical to electronic music. Thus, the style linked to the central character, Hercules, is expressionist at the beginning, later evolving in the direction of the style used for the saving angel, Theodora. The style for this angel has modal tendencies and is active and transparent, being built up according to sets of triads. It is here that Lucien Posman develops his own typical style.

Posman's De laatste hooivracht (The Last Hayride) is an often-performed chamber music work.
Written in 1994 for flute, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello, its extra-musical reference is to a didactical print depicting a last hayride, with an accompanying text.
The underlying structure is generated by a strict mathematical relationship (the Fibonacci series), a reliance on particular tonal centres and the alternation of particular metres.

Posman's Symfonie één (First Symphony, 1996) consists of five small movements which proceed seamlessly from one to the next. The whole structure is determined down to the smallest details by mathematical series, based on a set of triads. And yet a playful undertone pervades the work with, for instance, a “whistler” appearing in the middle movement.

A typical feature of a Lucien Posman work - excepting those composed in the most recent years - is that micro- and macro-structures are determined by mathematical series (Fibonacci series). These are applied in function of the melodic, harmonic and dynamic progression and the use of timbre. In recent works, more space has been made for the spontaneous and the uncalculated.
The instrumentation of his works is very colourful and the most current new playing techniques are applied. Nevertheless, the colour never becomes an objective for its own sake. In terms of the harmony, Posman strives on the one hand for “directionality” and forward motion; on the other hand, there are frequent moments of harmonic stasis. In the early works, the chords, drawn from the fourth octave of the overtone series, are quite dissonant in their arrangement. The harmony then often generates expressive melodies with a large range. In the later compositions, the harmony is based on sets of triads, which are linked, either freely or according to a plan, and set one above the other. These later works aim for a milder result: the melodies proceeding from the harmony are more refined, very controlled and unpredictable.
The rhythm is often aligned with the perceptible pulse; it is then generally active and nervous.
However, the rhythm also frequently hovers between the beats, as the coincidence of metre and rhythm is avoided. In addition, Posman makes use of combined rhythmic ostinatos, polyrhythms and cross-rhythms. In earlier works the rhythm is derived from the arithmetical series.

List of works

- Orchestra: Symfonie een (1996)
- Chamber music: 22 for cello solo (1984); Gamaka for clarinet solo (1985); Trio for violin, cello and piano (1986); Marsyas' Zwanezang op sax for saxophone and piano (1988); De laatste hooivracht for flute, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola and cello (1994); Geen noodt, sapperloodt for flute and string quartet (1997); O ! Zon for string quartet (1997); Blaaskwintet for flute, hobo, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1998); Erik, Gustav, Maurits, Arnold, Scott, Igor, Charles, Claude en "De Dwaze Maagd" for 2 oboe's, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns and contrabassoon (1999); De Pauw for flute, clarinet, xylophone, string quartet and 2 piano's (2001); Nocturne for alto flute and string quartet (2003); Bicellium for 2 violoncelli (2004)
- Piano: 12 dodecafonische schietgebeden, ingeleid door improvisaties op antiek Armeens cymbaal (1984); Oeioeioeioeioei (1986); Le Conte de l'Etude Modeste (2000)
- Choir: Five songs of Experience on lyrics by William Blake (1988); Songs of Experience on lyrics by William Blake (1996); To Morning on lyrics by William Blake (2000); To the Evening Star on lyrics by William Blake (2000); An die Parzen for mixed choir and piano (2003); Au commencement for mixed choir (2004)
- Lieder: Songs of Experience for middle voice and piano (and transposed version for soprano) (1986); Five Songs of Experience for high voice, hobo and piano on lyrics by William Blake (1988); …een gevoel van raam for mezzo soprano and piano on lyrics by Hubert Courtens (1999); The Mental Traveller for soprano and recorder trio (2002); Love by fortune sent for high voice and string orchestra (2003); What then for voice and piano
- Chamber opera: Hercules Haché, the adventure of a professor! on lyrics by André Posman (1991)
- Instrumental-vocal: concerto-cantate Wheel within Wheel for soprano, trombone solo and chamber orchestra on lyrics by William Blake(1987); The Elephant for soprano, female choir, male choir and piano on lyrics by Hans Van Heirseele (1994); cantata: Welcome Stranger to this place for soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor, mixed choir, 2 flutes, 2 hobo's, 2 bassoons and four hand piano (1999); The Book of Los for soprano, flute, piano and mixed choir on lyrics by William Blake (2000); The Tyger for 2 soprano's and harpsichord (2003)

Bibliography

- B. ANGELET, Vlaanderen leeft in Hedendaagse Muziek. Buckinx, Nuyts en Posman, in Arcade, 2/2, 1988, p. 10-15
- M. ANSEEUW, Tussen wens en werkelijkheid. Lief en leed van 10 jonge komponisten in Vlaanderen, in Tijdschrift van De Nieuwe Muziekgroep, 10, september 1986, p. 25-37
- D. BLOCKEEL, Lucien Posman. Van een tovenaar die wielen deed draaien en hoe hij verder denkt te zullen rijden, in Ambrozijn, 10/2, 1992-1993, p. 19-33
- B. BUCKINX, De Kleine Pomo of de Muziekgeschiedenis van het Postmodernisme, Peer, 1994, p. 21
- A. BUFFEL, ... ontmoet de componist Lucien Posman, in Vlaams Fluitistentijdschrift, 5/4, juni 1998, p. 15-18
- Y. KNOCKAERT, art. Lucien Posman, in M. DELAERE, Y. KNOCKAERT en H. SABBE, Nieuwe Muziek in Vlaanderen, Brugge, 1998, p. 151-154
- M. DE SMET, Kagel en Posman in Gent, in Muziek, een privilege, 1/6, februari 1992, p. 26
- M. DE SMET, Lucien Posman. 5 songs of Experience, in Tijdschrift van De Nieuwe Muziekgroep, 20, maart 1989, p. 48-51
- Y. KNOCKAERT, Het Postmodernisme in Vlaanderen, in Vlaanderen, 44/5, november-december 1995, p. 360-365
- Y. KNOCKAERT, Hilarische ernst. Vlaamse componisten (23). Lucien Posman, in Kunst & Cultuur, 27/12, december 1994, p. 44-45
- Y. KNOCKAERT, Le conte de l’Étude Modeste, in Contemporary Music in Flanders II. Flemish Piano Music since 1950, uitg. dr. M. DELAERE en J. COMPEERS, Leuven, 2005, p.33-34
- N. VERSCHOORE, Lettres de Flandre Lucien Posman , in La revue Générale, ed. Duculot Louvain-La-Neuve, jg 136 nr. 6; 2001, p. 82-84
- Y. SENDEN, Herdenkingsjaar 2002 Lucien Posman, in Even aanzoemen, 30/4-5, oktober 2002, p. 4-5
- S. CLAEYS, Een gelauwerde Lucien Posman, Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen, jg. 51, nr. 293, 2002, p. 244-246
 

Discography

- Cantate The Book of Los, 10 Songs of Experience, To Morning, To The Eveningstar, LUCIEN POSMAN - SOME BLAKE WORKS (Goeyvaerts Consort o.l.v. M.M. De Smet; sopraan: Els Crommen; fluiten: Marc Legros; piano: Bart Meynkens) Cyprès 4616
- O!Zon, Songs of experience (2 cycli liederen), Symfonie een, LUCIEN POSMAN (Rimsky-Korsakov String Quartet, bariton: Mikhail Lukonin, piano: Yuri Serov, sopraan: Victoria Evtodieva, klarinet: Dmitry Makhovikov, St. Petersburg State Academic Capella Symphony o.l.v. Edward Serov), Gents Muzikaal Archief, 7, RP/GMA 002
- De Pauw, CARNAVAL DES ANIMAUX (Arco Baleno), Codaex CX 4003
- Le Conte de L’Etude Modeste, NEW BELGIAN ETUDES, (piano: Jose Martins) RP/GMA 044
- Geen noodt, Sapperloodt (Arco Baleno), IDENTITIES. 20TH CENTURY CHAMBER MUSIC FOR FLUTE AND STRING QUARTET, René Gailly CD87 169
- Serenata for 2OOO (Serenata Forlana), Edition Compusic EDCO 99-01
- Oeioeioeioeioei (piano: Iris De Blaere), IN FLANDERS' FIELD PRIZE WINNERS OF THE BIENNALE COMPOSITION CONTEST FOR CHAMBER MUSIC, C+P Muizelhuis-Projecten vzw, DDD WW-IG-09
- Guido Gezelle (1830-1899). Gij rookers, gij snuivers... (sopraan: Sylvie De Pauw, piano: Joost Vanmaele, voordracht: Chris Lomme, Rubio Strijkkwartet), Davidsfonds, Globe GLO 6047
- 10 Songs of Experience voor koor (Novecanto o.l.v. Katrijn Friant), PKP Producties PKP 012
- To Morning, To the Eveningstar, INTERNATIONALE KOORWEDSTRIJD VAN VLAANDEREN –MAASMECHELEN 2001, (1: Pro Musica, Hongarije o.l.v. Dénes Szabo, 1: Liepajas gemengd koor, Letland o.l.v. Andris Lekstoekis), IKV 2001
- De laatste hooivracht, BELGIAN CONTEMPORARY CHAMBER MUSIC (Spectra Ensemble o.l.v. Filip Rathé), René Gailly, Vox Temporis Productions CD 92 026
- Marsyas' zwanenzang op sax (sax: Hans De Jong, piano: Paul Hermsen), VINTAGE OF EUROPEAN SAXOPHONE MUSIC, volume 2/ Belgium, Cassa Nova Records, CNR 3011
- Pizziola & Pizziello, MINIATUREN VOOR ARCHIPEL, 25 VLAAMSE COMPONISTEN (altviool: Kris Matthynssens; cello: Pieter stas), ACCSN.01
 

Publisher

CVM (Antwerp, Belgium)
Golden River Music (Mechelen, Belgium)
P.J.Tonger Musikverlag (Köln, Germany)

Links

http://composers21.com/compdocs/posmanl.htm

Coördinaten

Bijlokevest 39, 9000 Ghent, Belgium
tel (0032) 9 223 87 50 - fax (0032) 9 223 87 50
posman [dot] coussement [at] kynet [dot] be
lucien [dot] posman [at] hogent [dot] be


©2001 Klaartje Gonnissen, voor MATRIX
©2005 Klaas Coulembier, voor MATRIX (update)