Classical and contemporary classical music of Netherlands

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck who was a Dutch composer, organist and pedagogue whose effort spanned the end of the Rebirth and beginning of the Baroques years, Sweelinck was the master improviser and attained the informal title of the Orpheus of Amsterdam. Over 70 keyboard of his work have existed and many of them are similar to the improvisations that inhabitants of Amsterdam around 1600 were it is likely heard. Even his vocal music which is more conservative than his keyboard writing indicates a striking rhythmic difficulty and which is an unusual richness of the contrapuntal devices.

source of picture: www.theguardian.com

He got his influence from overseas and some of his music emerges in the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book which also mainly contains the work of English composers. Sweelinck wrote many varieties on John Dowland’s internationally popular Lachrimae Pavane and John Bull and the English keyboard composer wrote a set of varieties on the theme of Sweelinck showing the close relation between the diverse schools of composition throughout the North Sea.

Jacob van Eyck 1590 to 1657 was a blind recorder and organ virtuoso who composed a distinctive collection of flute music.

Unico Wihelm van Wassenaer 1692 to 1766 was an accompanied baroque composer who has work on Concerti Armonici and it was mistakenly attributed to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi. Igor Stravinsky also uses the unico’s music for Pulcinella.

Alphons Diepenbrock in September 2, 1862 in Amsterdam and Netherlands April 5, 1921 where he invented a musical idiom in a highly personnel manner that mixed the 16^th century polyphony with Wagneria chromaticism to which in the later years it was added as the impressionistic refinement which he came up in Debussy’s music.

Willem Pijper (from 1894 to 1947) who is generally considered as one of the most prominent person in the new Dutch music, from 1918 to 1922 he grew into one of the most advanced composers in Europe. In each of his successive work he went to a step further and in 1919, Pijper’s music has been considered as atonal. Though he remained the composer that has the strong emotional character in which his third symphony 1926 bears witness. In later Pijper’s work the harmonic expression seems to be the time to approach monotonality. Pijper who is a teacher had a great influence on the new Dutch music which he teaches many renowned Dutch composers during the 1950s, 60s and 70s.

Ton de Leeuw who was born in Rotterdam in 16 November 1926 and died in Paris on May 1996 is known for his experiments with microtonality and he also wrote one opera known as Antigone in 1990 to 1991.

Lex van Delden from 1919 to 1988 was a prominent composer.

Louis Andriessen who was born on June 6, 1939, is a composer and has his early works that indicate the experimentation with different current movement: the post war serialism from 1958, pastiche (Anachronie I, from 1966 to 67) and tape (II Duce from 1973). The mature music of Andriessen’s blends the influences of Stavinsky and American minimalism. His vocal writing avoids the consonant protocol of much simplicity, preferring the post war European dissonance which is often crystallized into large blocks of sound. Some of the large-scale piece include De Staat (Republic from 1972 to 76) for instance, are influenced by the energy of the big ensemble music of Count Basie and Stan Kenton and the repetitive methods of Steve Reich which both blended with bright, clashing dissonances. Andriessen’s music is based on anti-Germanic and anti-Romantic and which marks the departure of the post war European serialism and its outgrowth. He also played an important role in bringing the alternatives to traditional performance practice methods which is often specify the forceful, rhythmic speech, amplified and non-vibrato singing.