Dead as Disco (2006)
for orchestra

Information
Duration: 12'30"
Premiere: 16th February 2007
Composed for De Radio Kamer Filharmonie
Commissioned by Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst and NPS
Published by MCN

Programme notes
Giel Vleggaar's Dead as Disco takes the listener on an journey back in time, ferried rather unexpectedly on the back of a full orchestra. We are swept up by a loving treatment of disco's sound and energy made larger than life by the colour and freedom of this symphonic instrument. But it is not to last, and we find ourselves at the end of this gloriously upbeat movement: a rather unfortunate demise at the hands of the gloom and doom of the eighties. Vleggaar reinterprets pop nostalgia in an orchestral context, with the resulting emotions caleidoscoping from humour to horror. He winks at us as we stop to ponder, who exactly is as dead? The musicians and music of that era? The orchestra currently playing? Or perhaps just all those looking back with rose-coloured glasses?

Press
Giel Vleggaar... set the hall on fire. Dead as Disco moves back and forth with virtuosity between hopscotch Stravinsky, Barry White-esque soul and the tight rhythmic feel of dance music. A true find is the ending, where music and lighting fade out in one fluent motion.

(Guido van Oorschot, De Volkskrant, February 19th 2007)

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