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Leading role for TU/e motto in mega piece of music

Student music group Quadrivium will be performing a piece of music written specially for all one hundred and forty of its members. Never before has a composition been written in which a choir, a wind orchestra and a symphony orchestra play together. At least, the composer has looked, “but was unable to find" any such piece. In honor of Quadrivium's eleventh lustrum, he wrote ‘Agitatrix’, based on TU/e’s motto Mens Agitat Molem.

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photo Quadrivium

Following Maestro, sQratch and yet more activities, Quadrivium finds itself in the middle of its lustrum year. Still to come are a ballet, a musical and a concert trip to Munich and Turin. Scheduled for next week is the ‘Klassiek van Eigen Bodem’ concert, a celebration of Dutch classical music.

The commissioned work entitled Agitatrix will be performed as part of this event. Brand new, it will be performed in Eindhoven's Muziekgebouw and in Theater Hanzehof in Zutphen. Lustrum commissioner Wouter Kuyper is very enthusiastic. This fourth-year student of Applied Physics, who says he could read notes earlier than letters, calls it “appealingly modern”.

Clarinet player Vera Beerens (Chemical Engineering) especially likes how the choir adds to the whole effect and Vera Nijhuis (also clarinet, student at the Electrical Engineering department) loves the bombastic end. “The last minute gives me goosebumps,” she says. “It's a good piece for the clarinet. People are playing all around me and it makes me think, wow, I'm part of this group that can make such beautiful music.” In mid-February Quadrivium held a rehearsal for all the musicians: wind orchestra Auletes, symphony orchestra Ensuite and the Vokollage choir. A hall in the Student Sports Centre was just big enough for them all.

At the rehearsal. Photo | Quadrivium

The music's composer, Dennis Hazenoot, felt the TU/e motto would make a nice starting point. “Mens Agitat Molem (‘the human mind sets matter in motion’ or simply, ‘mind over matter’, ed.) gave me a conceptual basis for the seven-part Agitatrix. I was surprised to find such a lively student music association at this technical university. It clearly shows that technology and melody reinforce rather than restrain each other. I sought inspiration in other works for wind and symphony and choir, but was unable to find any. So this really is a unique project.”

It would be a shame to play such an extraordinary piece only once, thought Quadrivium. “We went in search of a suitable venue beyond Brabant, also partly to attract a new audience,” says Kuyper. “Zutphen has a lovely music venue, relatively small, but big enough for us to fill it. We'll be playing only works by Dutch composers, especially those working after the Second World War. For example, ‘Ricercare’ by Hendrik Andriessen, but also less well-known pieces.”

Seed of Satan

Also in celebration of the lustrum year, Auletes will be staging a musical in early June. This event will take place in the open-air theater in Overloon, in cooperation with seven actors and singers from the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Tilburg. “It is called ‘Seed of Satan’ and is about a witch hunt in the Middle Ages; a woman is pregnant by the devil.” Auletes has never before performed outdoors and, says Vera Berens, “a bad weather scenario is in the making”.

Before this year is out, Ensuite will give a ballet performance in the Parktheater. “The dancers won't be from Footloose because the Eindhoven student dance association has its hands full with its own program,” says Winston Schilp, the leader of this project. “We've currently got some 25 dancers from ballet studio Valentijn taking part. The ballet is called the 'Metamorphosis Suite' because the stories we are playing are all based on the tales in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The members of Ensuite will be in the orchestra pit, the dancers will have the stage.”

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