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Oscar van Dillen

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Music is Sound and Silence

Oscar van Dillen Posted on November 15, 2021 by oscarNovember 27, 2021

November 2021 Oscar van Dillen’s small book Music is Sound and Silence appeared with Donemus Publishing. The book contains a brief biography, an artistic statement, as well as a description of selected works. The book is illustrated and contains two additional original pencil drawings by the composer. “My teachers …
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Posted in Biographical, Composition, Drawings, Music | Tagged composer, oscar van dillen

Dronescape 6.2

Oscar van Dillen Posted on March 25, 2022 by oscarMarch 25, 2022

Although perhaps 5 formal parts plus an introduction can be discerned, the work is here presented as a single track, in the spirit of the sister productions in the Dronescape 6.* series. A single almost 54 minutes long track does require some patience contemporary listeners are mostly unaccustomed to, being used to either the standard 3 minutes long popular songs, the standard 3-7 minutes long jazz recordings, or the standard 12 to 20 minutes long composed works, with which the musical mediascape of today is flooded. In this sense, the listener is offered an opportunity to enter another timescape. A dreamscape. A dronescape, where one can make sense or nonsense at will and decide what threads and paths of sound and music to follow with undivided attention.


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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

Dronescape 8: The four Pillars of Reason

Oscar van Dillen Posted on March 7, 2022 by oscarMarch 8, 2022

Dronescape 8: The four Pillars of Reason is the tenth in a series of albums, containing contemporary Electronic Symphonies by Oscar van Dillen. The work on this album was composed, created, and recorded January-March 2022. Music and cover art were created by Oscar van Dillen. Tracks Identity                                    1:06:36 …
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Posted in Album, Composition

Jñāna – Rigpa

Oscar van Dillen Posted on February 22, 2022 by oscarFebruary 22, 2022

The work Jñāna – Rigpa is exploring the boundaries of autonomous drone composition, both in the sense of its duration (it has the longest single-track duration streaming platforms allow today), as in the sense of its minimalism of musical and technical means used. While creating an atmosphere of almost …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition, modular

Elements 14: Silicon

Oscar van Dillen Posted on January 4, 2022 by oscarFebruary 22, 2022

Silicon is the second most abundant element in the Earth’s crust, after Oxygen, the latter being also abundant in the atmosphere. In the periodic table Si is placed just below C and the two elements share many characteristics. Still, Carbon is the basic element for life, and no Silicon-based …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition, modular

Elements 8: Oxygen – Ozone

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 14, 2021 by oscarFebruary 22, 2022

Oxygen is all around us: surprisingly, it is even the most abundant element on our planet. But the free, breathable oxygen O2 found in the Earth’s atmosphere, without which human and animal life would be impossible, has not always been here; it has been freed from its stable compounds …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition, modular

Elements 6: Carbon

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 9, 2021 by oscarFebruary 22, 2022

Carbon is above all the Element that makes life possible. As symbolized by the pencil drawing at this album’s cover, it forms chains, and as basic carbon-based chains the amino acids are found in all life forms. As are the very long chains of amino acids, such as DNA, …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition, modular

Elements 118: Oganesson

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 9, 2021 by oscarFebruary 22, 2022

Elements 118 Oganesson is the last in the Periodic Table, completing its structure with 7 full layers of electron shells. As an element, Oganesson fits in the group of the so-called “noble gases” but is predicted to be a solid at room temperature. Predicted, because only a handful of …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition, modular

Elements 1: Hydrogen Deuterium Tritium

Oscar van Dillen Posted on November 27, 2021 by oscarNovember 27, 2021

The series Elements are digital compositions which have a more static, installation-like character, crossing the border between musical and spatial composition, linking up music and architecture, both arts concerning Space. Van Dillen’s compositions in the series Elements can be listened to in several ways. Traditionally these are: privately over …
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Posted in Album, Composition, Music

Dronescape 6.1

Oscar van Dillen Posted on July 11, 2021 by oscarJuly 11, 2021

Oneirology 2 In Peter Brook’s 1979 film Meetings with Remarkable Men there is a scene in which musicians will attempt to produce a sound that will make the stones of a valley vibrate. In this re-enacting of a famous scene from Gurdieff’s memoires, Kudsi Erguner is one of the …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

Dronescape 6.0

Oscar van Dillen Posted on April 21, 2021 by oscarApril 21, 2021

Dronescape 6.0 is the sixth in a series of albums, containing new Digital Symphonies by Oscar van Dillen. The work on this album was composed January-April 2021. Similar to the earlier Dronescape releases, this work can be considered to be an Electronic or Digital Symphony. This one-part work is …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

Dronescape 5

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 16, 2020 by oscarApril 21, 2021

Dronescape 5 is the fifth in a series of albums, containing new, digitally created, compositions by Oscar van Dillen. The work on this album was composed November-December 2020. Similar to the other Dronescape releases, this album too can be considered to be an Electronic symphony, the 5th by Oscar …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

12 Eludes

Oscar van Dillen Posted on November 25, 2020 by oscarApril 21, 2021

The title Elude is derived from the verb to elude = to avoid cunningly or adroitly (Penguin Reference 2001), which has as noun the word elusion. However, the composer chose to create for this music the new noun Elude, in assonance to Prelude and words like it, such as …
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Posted in Album, Composition

Dronescape 4

Oscar van Dillen Posted on October 29, 2020 by oscarApril 21, 2021

Dronescape 4 is the fourth in a series of albums, containing new, digitally created, compositions by Oscar van Dillen. The works on this album were composed October 2020.


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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

Dronescape 3

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 9, 2020 by oscarApril 21, 2021
Dronescape 3

Dronescape 3 is the third in a series of albums, containing new, digitally created, compositions by Oscar van Dillen. The work on this album was composed August-September 2020. The third Dronescape album by Oscar van Dillen contains a single long composition: Infinity – Pantonal Dronescape (duration 2 hours 56 …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

Dronescape 2

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 8, 2020 by oscarApril 21, 2021

Dronescape 2 is the second in a series of albums, containing new, digitally created, compositions by Oscar van Dillen. The works on this album were composed July-August 2020. In music, a drone (or bourdon) is understood to be a continuous sound, interval or chord, usually an accompaniment to a …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

Dronescape 1

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 8, 2020 by oscarApril 21, 2021

Dronescape 1 is the first in a series of albums, containing new, digitally created, compositions by Oscar van Dillen. The works on this album were composed June-July 2020. The title Dronescape suggests the contraction of the terms Drone and Soundscape, inferring a music which might at first sight be …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

De Stad – remastered

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 8, 2020 by oscarApril 21, 2021

de Stad, originally released in a more surround sound type of mix, the time is ripe to now release a remastered version, much better suited for our present times and today’s streaming platforms used for listening. The composer himself has meticulously revised the original recordings, corrected and remastered these …
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Posted in Album, Composition | Tagged composition

OIJ Records launches

Oscar van Dillen Posted on August 5, 2020 by oscarSeptember 9, 2020

During summer and social distancing 3 albums have been created! They are released on OIJ Records / Donemus Records: release date for distribution is 22 August 2020. OIJ Records was founded July 2020. It is a record label dedicated to publishing recordings of the compositions by Oscar van Dillen. …
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Posted in Biographical, Composition, Musings

Students categorizing music 2019

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 22, 2019 by oscarAugust 5, 2020

Introduction When provoking thinking about music in teaching I am used to asking my students how they personally conceptualize and position music in itself, asking them to describe and position music as a middle level category in between 2/3 contained subsets and 2/3 containing supersets. This assignment I call: …
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Posted in Posts | Tagged music philosophy, music theory, philosophy, students

Selfies and other stuff 2013-2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 19, 2018 by oscarDecember 19, 2018
IMG_0937 by .

Here is a first photoblog of my life as artist and teacher, enjoy! ©Oscar van Dillen


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Posted in Biographical | Tagged art education, codarts, composer, composition, interdisciplinary art, students

Whiteboards November 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 4, 2018 by oscarDecember 19, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in November 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
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Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards October 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 4, 2018 by oscarDecember 19, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in October 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
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Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards September 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on December 4, 2018 by oscarDecember 19, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in September 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
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Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards May 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on May 15, 2018 by oscarMay 15, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in May 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
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Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards April 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on May 15, 2018 by oscarMay 15, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in April 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards March 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on May 15, 2018 by oscarMay 15, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in March 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards February 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on May 15, 2018 by oscarMay 15, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in February 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards January 2018

Oscar van Dillen Posted on May 15, 2018 by oscarDecember 19, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in January 2018. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards December 2017

Oscar van Dillen Posted on May 15, 2018 by oscarMay 15, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in December 2017. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
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Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Music for a Sculpture

Oscar van Dillen Posted on March 21, 2018 by oscarMarch 11, 2020

Paradox, Music for A Sculpture was written 2007 to be performed on the sculpture “Grote Sext” by Harmen Brethouwer. The composition was written for two percussionists, and is envisioned to be the first in a series of pieces to be performed on objects becoming instruments. In this way, Edgar Varèses old …
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Posted in Composition | Tagged composition, visual art

Whiteboards November 2017

Oscar van Dillen Posted on November 21, 2017 by oscarDecember 19, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in November 2017. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards October 2017

Oscar van Dillen Posted on November 21, 2017 by oscarDecember 19, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in October 2017. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards September 2017

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 19, 2017 by oscarDecember 19, 2018

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in September 2017. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards | Tagged whiteboard

Whiteboards May 2017

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 19, 2017 by oscarSeptember 19, 2017

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in May 2017. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards

Whiteboards April 2017

Oscar van Dillen Posted on September 19, 2017 by oscarSeptember 19, 2017

Here are the whiteboards and pictures from my lessons in April 2017. All these images and whiteboards deal with art and music, more especially with composition and music theory, so they have some companion pages here that treat at least a part of this in more depth: Basic elements …
read the full text…


Posted in Whiteboards

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  • Dronescape 6.2
  • Dronescape 8: The four Pillars of Reason
  • Jñāna – Rigpa
  • Elements 14: Silicon
  • Elements 8: Oxygen – Ozone
  • Elements 6: Carbon
  • Elements 118: Oganesson
  • Elements 1: Hydrogen Deuterium Tritium
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  • Dronescape 6.1
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