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Hello! For some workshops at the conservatorium, I needed to write a very simple piece based on world music. So I decided to write my third melodrama about the fairy tale Ali Baba and the forty thieves. I did not compose a piece about the whole fairy tale, because it needed to be a short piece. The composition ends with an open end. The number of instruments can change, so I decided to cluster the instruments as much as possible. Here is the Dutch text with translation: Ali Baba is mijn naam. Ik ben de rijkste man in heel Perzië. Hoe? Dat zal ik u eens vertellen. Op een dag reisde ik door de woestijn. Het zand brandde mijn huid en de zon verblindde me. Ik besloot met mijn kameel even te rusten in de schaduw van een rots. Totdat ik stemmen hoorde. [Spreek Arabische klanken] Ze zagen eruit als rovers. Ik volgde ze na. Ze liepen naar een rots. En ze riepen ,,Sesam open u!'' En de rots brak open. Toen de rovers binnen waren, verstopte ik me achter de rots. Ik wachtte tot alle veertig rovers weer buiten waren en in het donker sloop ik naar de magische rots toe. En bij de rots aangekomen riep ik de woorden ,,Sesam open u!'' De rots ging open en ik ging naar binnen. Binnen kon ik mijn ogen niet geloven. Bergen met goud, zilver en edelstenen. Ik ben steenrijk! Wahaha! Maar hoe krijg ik het mee naar huis? Ali Baba is my name. I am the richest man in whole Persia. How? I am going to tell you. Once upon a time, I traveled through the desert. The sand burned my skin and the sun dazzled my eyes. I decided to rest a while in the shadow of a rock. Until I heard voices. [Speak Arabic sounds] They looked like thieves. I followed them. They walked to a rock. And they called ,,Open sesame.'' And the rock broke open. When the thieves were inside, I hid myself behind a rock. I waited until all forty thieves were outside again and I sneaked to the magical rock in the dark. And arrived at the rock, I called the words ,,Open sesame!'' The rock opened and I entered. I could not believe my eyes inside. Mountains of gold, silver and jewels. I am rich! Wahaha! But how am I going to bring this all home?

Hello! [Partly the description in the program booklet and youtube video] Maarten Bauer – Melodrama No.1 ''The End of His Story Started Here,'' Op. 45. 11th of August 2017 Dedicated to all the victims in concentration camps during World War II. The music begins at circa 2:00 On the 18th of November 2017 (one of the) most prestigious composition competition(s) in the Benelux took place: Prinses Christina Compositie Concours. I submitted my Melodrama No.1 ‘’The End of His Story Started Here’’ and to my surprise I won the first price of competition! I cannot express my gratitude for the judges, the performers (Trio Burlesco+) and the audience! Furthermore I would like to thank the other participating composers for the amazing experience and relaxed atmosphere during the stressful day. Description This melodrama uses the poem, which I have written in 2014 (see the text below), based on John Boyne’s astonishing book The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. This composition is composed for the Trio Burlesco and a soprano and a percussionist (Trio Burlesco+). The text and music strengthen each other, so none of the two can be omitted. The innocent soprano is both narrator and singer and she symbolizes the actions, the emotions and the thoughts of the main character in the poem: Shmuel. Shmuel is a Jewish boy, who has just arrived in Auschwitz, which is called Out-With by Boyne. He does not know where he is and he cannot find his family, consisting of his father, mother and his big sister, whom I called Anat, which means ‘singing.’ The motivation for me to write such a heavily-weighted piece, namely an innocent young boy who will probably die in a Nazi concentration camp, is because I noticed that people in my surrounding realize less and less that freedom and peace are not obvious. It is the greatest gift that we can live in freedom and peace in the Netherlands. I noticed that this important consciousness gradually drains away by the years. Therefore I wanted to compose a piece, which remembers us that we have to be grateful for the lives we now live and that the indescribable terrible crimes may never be repeated. When I wrote the poem, my tears flowed. When I composed the Melodrama, my tears flowed. And now again, my tears flow, because this may never happen again. Never. https://christinaconcours.nl/alles/9667/

Hello everybody! It tooks ages to get some inspiration and it feels very satisfying to finally post some new music... This composition is going to be submitted to a Dutch concours with the theme ''Lang zullen we ronddraaien.'' This can be translated like: The earth will rotate for still much time. I interpreted the music like we become crazy, which means ''We draaien door.'' The poem is written by me and its theme is the refugees crisis. The form is Mosaic Form. Please tell me your opinion about the music! Feedback is appreciated as well. Maarten We draaien door Kijk om je heen. Voor je, achter je, links van je, rechts van je. Die man, die vrouw Die jij hier ziet zijn bevoorrecht. Dat kind Dat jij opmerkt, heeft geluk Denk na. We beklagen ongeremd Het weer, het eten, het drinken, gisteren, vandaag, morgen; Anderen. Die man, die vrouw, dat kind, Zij en wij leven in een bijna-utopie Die we liever niet met anderen delen. Denk na! Andere mannen, vrouwen, kinderen Die juist nú hulp nodig hebben, Keren wij de rug toe. Ons geluk delen met medemensen Die de hel meemaakten; Lijkt een stap te ver Voor sommigen van ons. We draaien door! Het duizelt me. - Maarten Bauer, 12 september 2017. TRANSLATION We become crazy Look around you In front of you, behind you, left from you, right from you. That man, that woman Who you see there are privileged. That child Who you notice, is lucky. Think. We complaint unbulliently of The weather, the food, the drinks, yesterday, today, tomorrow; Others. That man, that woman, that child They and we live in an 'almost utopia' Which we preferably do bot share with others. Think! We turn our backs upon Other men, women, children Who need help right now. Sharing our fortune with neighbours, Who experiened the Hell, Seems to go too far For some of us. We become crazy! I get dizzy from it. - Maarten Bauer, 12 september 2017.

Hello everybody, I need your help / advice! A few years ago I wrote a poem and I now want to set it on music. However, I want that the soprano tells the story. Only in some cases she is singing along with the other instruments. When I want the soprano to speak, do I have to write down the exact rhythm on the staff or should I trust her interpretation of how the rhythm of the words has to be? How do I notate this? In class, we learned that sprechgesang is not singing, nor speaking. It is between the two, but I want the soprano to talk like actors do in a theater show. Thanks for your help, Maarten