So, guys, Kubricks "2001" is discussed here many times but yesterday I was told another nice story about it which I thought is worth sharing. It´s also a story about life and career plans which in this case is very remarkable.
It´s the story about the teacher of my teacher, my grandteacher so to say. His name is Dick Raaijmakers (the name of my teacher is Gilius van Bergeijk) and as a young man he happened to work in the electronic studios of Philips Laboratories. It was in the 50's and everybody was convinced the future of music lies in electronic music and electronic music will bring traditional classical music life to death. (Which happened in a way.) But there were only these weird avant-garde composers out there doing very strange and inconsumable electronic and tape music and so they thought they´re clever and founded "electronic popular" music. Dick Raaijmakers and a colleague, which name I forgot, were hired to produce popular music electronically. So they were doing marches, songs, operette and all that amazing stuff by means of oscillators and tape. Very weird idea, of course. Philips spent quite an amount of money to spread the resulting products all around the world so you could buy them in every record shop under the label "electronic popular". However, for Dick it was only a money job which he actually did under pseudonym. And also because of not really surprising lack of success Philips Laboratories quit the project around 63. Dick happily devoted his life then to his personal artistic work while working as a teacher at the conservatory Den Haag.
When Stanley Kubrick was working on "2001" he imagined a totally electronic score. It was the time when people still believed that a futuristic science-fiction should also have some futuristic music. And so he sent his assistant to go to the record shop and buy every record with electronic music he could find. So, guess what, ... right, there was the "electronic popular" record in his hands. He concluded that this was the music he needs and thus he asked the production to get Dick Raaijmakers.
So one morning in Den Haag in the late 60s there arrived this letter inviting Dick to London. Included flight tickets and all the stuff. How did he react? He basically ignored it. He thought it must have been a mistake or something. Then there came a second letter. Still he didn´t care. And then finally the dutch representatives of the production company rang the bell at his door.
He never heard of Kubrick and so after they explained him the situation he asked them how come that Kubricks wants him to make the music? And so they explained him about the "electronic popular" records. Aah, now well, how did he react?
He refused. "I don´t do this anymore."
That´s it. That´s the story. He refused to make a lot of money and/or become famous and decided to keep on working on his personal stuff. He is now an old man and one of the most important dutch composers. He did extraordinary conceptual stuff combining different media in a quite poetic way and as a teacher he influenced a whole generation of composers (to the good).
Good night, good people,
- Mathis
It´s the story about the teacher of my teacher, my grandteacher so to say. His name is Dick Raaijmakers (the name of my teacher is Gilius van Bergeijk) and as a young man he happened to work in the electronic studios of Philips Laboratories. It was in the 50's and everybody was convinced the future of music lies in electronic music and electronic music will bring traditional classical music life to death. (Which happened in a way.) But there were only these weird avant-garde composers out there doing very strange and inconsumable electronic and tape music and so they thought they´re clever and founded "electronic popular" music. Dick Raaijmakers and a colleague, which name I forgot, were hired to produce popular music electronically. So they were doing marches, songs, operette and all that amazing stuff by means of oscillators and tape. Very weird idea, of course. Philips spent quite an amount of money to spread the resulting products all around the world so you could buy them in every record shop under the label "electronic popular". However, for Dick it was only a money job which he actually did under pseudonym. And also because of not really surprising lack of success Philips Laboratories quit the project around 63. Dick happily devoted his life then to his personal artistic work while working as a teacher at the conservatory Den Haag.
When Stanley Kubrick was working on "2001" he imagined a totally electronic score. It was the time when people still believed that a futuristic science-fiction should also have some futuristic music. And so he sent his assistant to go to the record shop and buy every record with electronic music he could find. So, guess what, ... right, there was the "electronic popular" record in his hands. He concluded that this was the music he needs and thus he asked the production to get Dick Raaijmakers.
So one morning in Den Haag in the late 60s there arrived this letter inviting Dick to London. Included flight tickets and all the stuff. How did he react? He basically ignored it. He thought it must have been a mistake or something. Then there came a second letter. Still he didn´t care. And then finally the dutch representatives of the production company rang the bell at his door.
He never heard of Kubrick and so after they explained him the situation he asked them how come that Kubricks wants him to make the music? And so they explained him about the "electronic popular" records. Aah, now well, how did he react?
He refused. "I don´t do this anymore."
That´s it. That´s the story. He refused to make a lot of money and/or become famous and decided to keep on working on his personal stuff. He is now an old man and one of the most important dutch composers. He did extraordinary conceptual stuff combining different media in a quite poetic way and as a teacher he influenced a whole generation of composers (to the good).
Good night, good people,
- Mathis