Articles

In the article entitled Presence and absence of music in The Quarry (2004) R Casteels breaks down Marion Hänsel’s film (2000) into the four compositional themes employed by the composer, Takashi Kako. Casteels effectively brings the reader to his conclusion that it is “the different but complementary roles played by music and moving images” that results in the “magic” of movies. In the essay entitled Mes films sont fragiles (2004), Casteels examines the relation between music and image in the movie Clouds-Letters to My Son, a film by Marion Hänsel. The essay analyses the formal structure of the movie with respect to its use of sound, what the music seeks to portray, its style, tonality; the sounds of nature; and finally, silence and its effect. The document entitled Hänsel_Casteels Movies_Music is the programme book a festival cum concerts entitled The Magic of Music in Movies was the title of a festival cum concerts, organized in collaboration with film director Marion Hänsel, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the National University of Singapore Centre for the Arts in 2004.

Mozart - Varèse was the title of a thought-provoking multi-media concert collaboration between actors and The Philharmonic Winds in 2002. In a startling and mind-opening contrast, the concert alternated movements from Mozart’s Gran Partita music with Varese’s works, interspersed with the reading of extracts from the correspondence and writings of these two misunderstood rhythmicians and rebels of the 18th and 20th c. Poster here.

As founding member, ExCo member, Treasurer and Vice-President of the Singapore Composers Society (CSS), Casteels was instrumental in organizing in Singapore the 31st festival on the Asia Composers League in 2013.

In this article Robert Casteels traces the evolution of the black and white keys of present-day pianos. The headings of the paragraphs are as following: Early keyboards: the Italian look; 18th century innovation; 19th century French colour revolution; 20th century Austrian imperial style; organisation of the keys; ergonomics; colour symbolism. The article comprises four colour pictures of a Flemish harpsichord, a 1722 pianoforte by Cristofori, Mozart's pianoforte and a 2002 Steinway grand piano. The article was published in the magazine of the Friends of the Museum Singapore, PASSAGE, 2023 issue III (the Black and White Issue), page 7-10.

In the 2012 special project Music from the Heart, the heart is taken literally and figuratively, as real sounds of human heartbeats are incorporated in a cycle of eight art songs. Each song is based on a poem in a different language that treats of in a positive way of eight kinds of human love. The cycle concludes with a finale entitled Happy End. Additional document here.

An outdoor sound and video happening during which a massive orchestra of 189 brass players from 17 Singaporean bands was positioned around the audience on the lawn of NUS U-Town. The live music engages in a dialogue with micro-wave signals captured by radio-telescopes.

This document lists concerts given by GENUS (the Niibori Guitar Orchestra of the National University of Singapore) as well as 807 compositions or arrangements for Niibori Guitar Orchestra. Casteels was Music Director of GENUS from August 2016 to December 2022 (part of NUS’s Centre For The Arts, where Casteels worked since 1996).

No Face was a 1999 ambitious and groundbreaking multimedia performance for dancers, actors, musicians and visual artists, the first time when all six Schools of Design, Drama, Fine Art, Multimedia Art, Dance and Music of LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts collaborated in an artistic project. Poster, Programme notes, and Youtube links: one, two, three, four, five, six and seven.

L'orchestre du vingt-et-unième siècle est un article écrit en 1993 par R Casteels pour le International Eötvös Institute Foundation décrivant la sclérose dont souffre l'orchestre européen. Facing the Music is the title of an article written by R Casteels and published by the arts magazine/ esplanade/ issue May + June 1998, pages 22-26. Casteels describes the rise of the western symphony orchestra, its stagnation and fall. After asking the question 'what's next?', Casteels proposes a 21st century philharmonic orchestra whose (quote) "leadership is in the hands and ears of the chief acoustician, conductor and ingenieur". He lists the instruments that constitute (in this order) the percussion section, the aerophones and finally the chordophones. Conducting (2001 and 2025) is the lesson plans of two conducting modules taught at LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts in 2001 and at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts in 2025.