# Wim Mertens - After Virtue



## Daimonion (Apr 22, 2012)

Dear All,

I am a great fan of Wim Mertens' "After Virtue" - mainly because of its beautiful parsimony of expression. Do you, by a chance, know anything that is similar and at least partly that good?
I will be very grateful for all suggestions. All the best,

Daimonion


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

I see from Wikipaedia that Wim Mertens is a rather obscure, if somewhat prolific, Belgian composer. I would imagine that every country has a lot of composers that are largely unknown outside their own particular fan club. Certainly South Africa does.


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## Daimonion (Apr 22, 2012)

Well, I'm not Belgian, nor do I live in Belgium (if it is what you meant). The first time I heard Mertens was during my daughter's ballet classes. I liked it so much that I made the effort to get to know who is the composer of this music...


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Sorry if I offended. It is just that Mertens, despite a large oeuvre of work, is not particularly well known, so I assumed he is better known in his own country than internationally. 

It is simple melodic piano stuff. Erik Satie is another composer who may please you.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

If you had asked about Mertens in many another venue outside of this forum, a veritable flame war / debate as to if he was 'actually' a classical composer might flare up. The debate does rage on though, and the 'category question' includes Mertens, Michael Nyman, Simeon ten Holt and quite a few others. What it certainly is not is straight-ahead pop music.

Mertens is very close in sound to a genre of pop or musical theater music, overlapping some of the sub-genre called 'new-age' - including the sentiments those tend to evoke: much of music of the type interests some classical fans very little... [His 'Struggle for Pleasure' has a lot of the pop feel to it, or what is called in the pop genre, "Contemporary piano / instrumental."] Of these three mentioned, I am not qualified by extreme 'prejudice against' the music of Nyman - I will leave you to investigate his music on your own.

The last section of recommends are from that 'crossover' area of pop, new-age and alternate. They may be more directly to your taste, but I urge you to check all the below provided links.

You might like or find fascinating Simeon ten Holt's music - in a genre of minimalism but with a strong penchant for clear and tonal harmony harkening back to the common practice period of classical music.

This piece is written in a format which allows a variances from one performance to the next, including the instruments used and number of instruments. It is comprised of musical 'cells' coming along in order, but the number of repetitions by the players -- on the spot -- the performers are also allowed a moderate latitude in how much of any one part is played, or omitted. The duration of the piece also can vary a great deal - it runs continuously over one hour.
The effect is rather like a musical mobile, the various shapes 'seen' in varying positions and perspectives in many different combinations:
Simeon ten Holt ~ Canto Ostinato -- both performances with four pianos --(This performance, 1 hr, 40 min.)




This one, a hair under 3 hrs.




..there are other shorter pieces for solo piano to be found on YouTube.

Others in similar regions of musical vocabulary, of which some will have more, or very much less of the 'sentiment' which I think is also part of what you are looking for as found in some of Mertens pieces:

Erik Satie:
Trois Gymnopedies




Gymnopedies (there are six, a recently discovered seventh (look for the same performer as the above, again, YouTube.)
Petite ouverture a danser 





Claude Debussy ~ Des pas sur la niege, from preludes, book I, no. 6





John Cage ~ two lovely piano pieces:
In a Landscape




Dream





David Lang ~ two piano pieces, the first I'm almost certain will 'float your boat.'
'Wed'




'This was written by hand'




'Child': A five movement chamber piece... I suggest to maybe check first, II - 'Sweet Air,' and V - 'Little Eye.
I - My Very Empty Mouth / II. - Sweet Air / III. - Short Fall / IV - Stick Figure / V - Little Eye





















John Adams ~ China Gates





Gavin Bryars: 
'Epilogue from Wonderlawn' - electric guitar and string quartet




"My first Hommage' -- music for two pianos








'The South Downs' - piano and 'cello





Francis Poulenc ~ Elégie for 2 Pianos (try it, I think you may like it





Nico Muhly:
'Who was she' -- from his film score for 'The Reader.'




'Motion'




and a rather 'wild one' of very different direction and intent (tuneful, exuberant, brash and musical, I happen to like this one a lot.)
'Mothertongue- I. Archive'





Pavel Karmanov:
'Seven before Christmas -- Childlike and charming.




Different Brooks - piano and string quartet, tape (of, yep, the running water in a brook.)




Michael Music - piano and string quartet





Music with a similar aesthetic but of varying dispositions -- I have a diabolical intent in hopes to stretch your ears to find more 'other' music interesting. There is some overlap of 'sensibility' to all the below:

Henry Brant ~ On the Nature of Things. This is deliberately 'directionless' sounding music, steered by a musical intelligence - or it would not 'work.' Very Pleasant, in my opinion.









Works for 'Just Intoned' piano = a variant tuning which may take a few moments for your ears to adjust to.
Michael Harrison - here two segments of his 72 minute long piece 'Revelation' 
Revelation - Tone cloud II




Revelation - Finale





Now to the more 'alternate pop' arena: Different import, shorter and more 'song format' type musics....

Ralf Hildenbeutel - Be Here (Adagio 1) 





Nils Frahm --Piano music and other instruments, including studio engineering and electronics - an admirable musician.
'more.' Much of his work is up on Youtube. 




Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm: Berlin 2011 Improvisation 




Ólafur Arnalds is another whose music you will want to explore - try the 'living room songs' - all available on YouTube, piano, strings, a few well-placed electronics.

[That should be enough to keep you out of trouble and off the streets for a while.]


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Deleted duplicate - apologies for the clutter.


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## Daimonion (Apr 22, 2012)

Dear Moira,
Dear PetrB,

Thank you very much for your suggestions and the "diabological intent" to strech my ears (which I would be happy to happen). It may take me some time but I will certainly check all of this. I have already checked Erik Satie and I liked it and I had already known Claude Debussy (and I like it too). All the best,

Daimonion


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