Portrait / About "Dialogue Tremblants"
Statement/review Gary Verkade:
“I have known Ansgar Beste as composer and colleague for approximately 4 years. We have worked together on his composition Dialogues Tremblants for prepared organ and other players. I am also familiar with several other works of Beste for other prepared instruments, for example: Dialogues Sauvages for prepared Paetzold-bass blockflute, Dialogues Rêvants for prepared harp, and Dialogues Fragiles for prepared violin. All of these works reveal Ansgar Beste to be a seriously innovative composer […]. His deep knowledge of instruments – in the cases I am aware of: string and wind instruments – is a continuous source of inspiration. It is the instrument that leads Beste to music; he doesn’t look for instruments to perform ‘his’ music, he delves into the sound-making process itself in order to discover the music hidden there. […]
It follows from what I have just said that Ansgar Beste possesses tremendous conceptual ability and the problem-solving skills that that ability requires in order to produce music. He is one of very few composers who continue to see possibilities for the further development of the playing of acoustic instruments. This independence, for he is not following the trend of many of today’s composers to expansion of expression through electronics, leads Beste to innovation.
He has the ability to bring together groups of people and help them work together in order to produce a work of art. In my case: I and the keyboard and four other players inside the organ. It is clear that such work cannot be done by a person without great communication skills, both written and verbal.
Ansgar Beste is working in a field of music – the expansion of acoustic playing techniques – that had its first burst of creative activity during the 1960’s-1970’s. That burst of activity opened up the door to further exploration, but was overwhelmed by an almost simultaneous burst of activity in the area of digital/electronic sound production. Beste’s commitment to artistic progress has reopened the door to extended playing techniques and he has already proven by his own work that such experimentation is alive and well and aesthetically viable.”