Stephane Vande Ginste, born in Kisangani (Congo) on 7 January 1971, took the Latin-Greek secondary programme at St Amands’ College and St Joseph’s Institute in Kortrijk. From 1979 to 1990, he studied at the municipal conservatory in Kortrijk, graduating with a final diploma and the "regeringsmedaille" in piano, as well as final diplomas in chamber music and written harmony. After this he studied piano, harmony, counterpoint and composition (with André Laporte) at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, where he earned a number of first prizes, including piano and composition. In addition, he took a number of masterclasses with Daniel Capelletti, Garrett List and Frederic Rzewski. In the 1990s, he took part in several composition competitions, consistently doing well. He was a three-time winner of the “Competition for young composers” in 1990, 1991 and 1992. In 1994 he won the Muizelhuis Prize, in 1995 the DMP (Digital Music Print) Prize and in 1996 the Cantabile Prize. Since 2000, Stephane Vande Ginste has been composer-in-residence with the Emanon Ensemble. He combines his composing activities with performances as a soloist and in chamber music, with a particular focus on contemporary music. In September 2000, Vande Ginste gave an interview about his career as a composer/pianist for Radio 3 (the Flemish classical broadcaster, now Klara) in the series “De K van Jong”. He regularly leads workshops in piano for young children, with the result that didactic works have become an important part of his oeuvre. In his own words: “I attempt to write music that is attractive for young people and yet remains contemporary in style.”

Work review

The compositions of Stephane Vande Ginste are impossible to categorise. Without attempting to put them into strict categories, it is possible to distinguish a number of salient tendencies.

To begin with, the influences of Webern, Kurtag and Ligeti are clear in several works written in the early 1990s. In the first section of his 3 Miniatures for piano, he is clearly out to create a Webern-like atmosphere. A limited pitch reservoir, although not forming a dodecaphonic series, is the basis of this short movement. After the presentation of this group of notes, distributed over 5 octaves, there follows a short, static intervention in which practically the only note is a’. After this we arrive in the style of the first movement, in which the group of notes from the beginning is presented in retrograde. The second movement in this composition tends more towards the aesthetic of György Ligeti. There is here a continuous series of semiquavers in both hands, whereby the right hand plays groups of 4 (or 2) notes, while the left hand plays the notes in groups of 3. The resulting metrical discrepancy is reminiscent of such compositions as Désordre and Continuum, both by Ligeti.
Moreover, both voices gradually evolve towards a higher register, as so often happens in the work of Ligeti. Finally, the right hand plays only the white keys and the left hand the black, as in Désordre. The final movement returns to the style of the first movement. The structure is simple: a recurring group of two bars (consisting of the group of 4 notes played twice) is alternated with other cells.
In the unpublished work Fragmenten for 2 transverse flutes, Vande Ginste develops a different musical thought in each of the 12 short pieces. A few of the approaches taken include imitations between the voices (movement 1), repetition of a motif in inversion (movement 2), the systematic lengthening of a motif (movements 4 and 5), and the use of the hoquetus technique (movements 7 and 11). Although Ide-fix for piano has as its suggestive subtitle “Weberniade in one movement”, the work is not a stylistic imitation of the works of Anton Webern. Several characteristics of Webern’s oeuvre are nonetheless incorporated; for instance, the dynamic is highly differentiated and is generally soft. Except for a few passages, for example when fortissimo clusters are played, the style involves the playing of only 1 note at a time, with the notes spaced widely in different registers.

In a second tendency, a number of works are inspired by contemporary jazz music.
The composition Blue for Two for 2 pianos is based on blues scales. The 2 compositions On the Road and Rock’romantique (the compulsory work for Axion Classics 2002) were written for a blues project set up by the Dutch pianist Marcel Worms. Variations on Bluesette, a set of variations on a theme by the jazz and harmonica legend Toots Thielemans, is another example of this tendency. The instrumentation chosen by Vande Ginste combines typical jazz sounds (alto saxophone and piano) with the more classical sound of the flute.

A third group of works has a more literary source of inspiration. What the thunder said is a musical poem on a text by T. S. Eliot (from The Waste Land) for 7 instruments (clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, violin, double bass and percussion), 2 spoken voices and tape. Part of the text and the music is played by the tape recorder through speakers placed behind the audience. This composition was written in 1997 for the Emanon Ensemble. In the Little Suite for 4 instruments (viola, flute, clarinet and guitar), the musicians themselves recite texts by Paul Van Ostaijen. Here the composer found inspiration in Opus Number Zoo by Luciano Berio. Other compositions in which Vande Ginste uses texts by Van Ostaijen are Diverse verzen (Diverse verses) for soprano and violin, and Rommelen in de pot (Rummaging/Rumbling in the pot) for bass clarinet and percussion.

As mentioned, didactic works and compositions for young people have come to occupy an increasingly important place in the oeuvre of Stephane Vande Ginste. Het lied van Hiawatha (The song of Hiawatha) is a musical for different possible forces on a text by Guido Gezelle (after Longfellow). This work was written for the Gezelle commemoration in Kortrijk in 2000, and also exists in a version for piano four-hands (selections) and as orchestral suite for youth orchestra. De moddersmijters (The mudslingers) is a children’s story set to music for clarinet, flute, bassoon, trombone and double bass.
The story is by Stefan Boonen.

List of works

- Piano solo: Trois Préludes (1990); Drie Miniaturen (1991); Three easy pieces for children (1994); Ide-Fix (1994); Zes variaties op een tango-thema (1995); On the Road (1997); Sonatine (2001); Rock’romatique (2002)
- Solo instruments: Notturno I for percussion (1993); Five short pieces for clarinet (1994); Three short pieces for percussion (1995); Three pieces for double bass (1995); On the Road for guitar (1995); Kleine Suite for harp (1998); Short piece for guitar solo (1999)
- Chamber music: Human Zoo for 3 trombones and 2 piano’s (1990); 12 fragments for 2 flutes (1990); Threnos for percussion and piano (1993); A little Tango for violin and piano (1995); Orphée ou le Petit Bestiaire for horn and piano (1995); Variations on Bluesette (theme byn Toots Thielemans) for alto sax, flute and piano (1996); Blue for Two for 2 piano’s (1997); What the Thunder said for ensemble, reciter and tape (1997); Drie Impressies for clarinet, flute and voice (1998); Suite for guitar, flute, clarinet and viola (2001); Kleine Suite (on text by P. Van Ostaijen) for flute, clarinet, viola and guitar (2002); Epitaffio for flute and piano (2002); Rommelen in de pot (on text by P. Van Ostaijen) for percussion, bass clarinet and voice (2003); Roof of the world, a song for Tibet for clarinet choir (2003); Suite for flute, viola and double bass (2003)
- Vocal music: Trois Chansons sur textes d’Apollinaire for soprano and piano (1997); Diverse Verzen (on text by P. Van Ostaijen) for soprano and violin (1997)
- Orchestra: Concertino for piano and orchestra (1998); Kleine dans for 2 cellos and orchestra (1998); The song of Hiawatha, suite for youth orchestra (1999); Variations on “Raindrops falling on my head” for clarinet solo, string orchestra and jazz combo (2001)
- Theatre: The song of Hiawatha (musical on text by G. Gezelle/Longfellow) for variable instruments (1999); Vera en de lachdieven for children's chorus and orchestra (2000); De Moddersmijters for ensemble and 2 actors (2001); Man for ensemble and voice (2003)
- Sound tracks: Heksenfee (story: Brigitte Minne; performed by Arco Baleno) (2002)

Bibliography

Not available

Discography

Not available

Publisher

Lantro Music (Grimbergen, Belgium)
Digital Music Print (Antwerp, Belgium)
 

Links

http://www.composers21.com/compdocs/vandegis.htm
http://www.muziekcentrum.be

Coördinaten

Kromvendreef 17, 2900 Schoten (Belgium)
tel +32 3 237 32 52
vandeginste [at] telenet [dot] be


©2005 Klaas Coulembier, voor MATRIX