Willem Pijper

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Willem Pijper

Willem Frederik Johannes Pijper (born September 8, 1894 in Zeist , province of Utrecht , † March 18, 1947 in Leidschendam , province of Zuid-Holland ) was a Dutch composer .

Life

Pijper was born into a strictly Calvinist family from the working class. His father, who occasionally played psalm accompaniment on the harmonium , taught him the notes of the treble clef when he was five years old. Willem then discovered how to use sharp and flat accidents and began composing simple melodies. His interest in symmetrical musical structures was already evident at this early age. Regular piano lessons began at age ten and he made rapid progress.

His weak constitution as a child meant that he was homeschooled until the age of 13, but in 1912, after three years at high school, Pijper came to the Utrecht Music Academy, where Johan Wagenaar became his composition teacher. In 1915 he passed the exams in the theory subjects. Apart from this short period of study with Wagenaar, Pijper was self-taught as a composer.

Pijper's musical development was rapid. The stylistic difference between his 1st symphony (in which Mahler's influence is unmistakable) and the 2nd symphony is considerable, and between 1918 and 1922 he became one of the more progressive European composers. In each successive work, he went one step further, starting from his conception that every work of art had to emerge from a number of "germ cells" (a principle that may derive from his interest in botany as a boy).

From 1919 on, Pijper's music can be described as atonal . This is less a question of Pijper's conscious abandonment of tonality; rather, the development of his harmonic style in this direction came about through his polyphonic thinking and his understanding of counterpoint . Nevertheless, Pijper remained a composer with a markedly emotional character, as his 3rd Symphony shows. Pijper's later work uses a “peritonal” (or polytonal) style based on self-developed scales.

As a teacher, Pijper was a major influence on modern Dutch music and was the teacher of many Dutch composers who then became prominent from the 1950s to 1970s. He was professor of instrumentation at the Amsterdam Conservatory and from 1930 until his death in 1947 Rector at the Rotterdam Conservatory .

Pijper gave occasional piano recitals, but his work as a critic was more important. In 1926 he founded the magazine De Muziek with Paul F. Sanders , to which he contributed numerous articles. Collections of his Essys were published by Querido (Amsterdam) under the title De Quintencirckel and De Stemvork respectively.

During the war years, Pijper spent a lot of time working on the opera Merlijn , which is based on the Arthurian legend. He worked on the project for six years, although the work was never completed.

In late 1946 he was diagnosed with cancer. During the last weeks of his life he revised the instrumentation of his concerto for cello and orchestra. Pijper is considered to be one of the most important phenomena in Dutch music. In the 53 years of his life he succeeded in securing the music of his country an outstanding place in European musical life. In 1950 he was posthumously awarded honorary membership of the International Society for Contemporary Music ISCM .

Works

Orchestral music

  • 1st symphony "Pan" (1917)
  • 2nd symphony (1921)
  • 3rd symphony (1926)
  • 6 Adagios (1940)
  • 6 symphonic epigrams (1928)
  • Concerto for piano and orchestra (1927)
  • Orchestral piece with piano (1915)
  • Concerto for violin and orchestra (1938–39)
  • Concerto for cello and orchestra (1936/47)

Chamber music

  • Septet for flute / piccolo, oboe / english horn, clarinet, bassoon, horn, double bass and piano (1920)
  • Sextet for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano (1923)
  • Fantasy for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano (1927) on Mozart's fantasy for a music box
  • Wind quintet (1929)
  • 1st string quartet (1914)
  • 2nd string quartet (1920)
  • 3rd string quartet (1923)
  • 4th string quartet (1928)
  • 5th string quartet (1946)
  • Quattro Pezzi Antichi for 3 violins and cello (1923)
  • Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon (1926-27)
  • Trio No. 1 for violin, cello and piano (1914)
  • Trio No. 2 for violin, cello and piano (1921)
  • Sonata for flute and piano (1925)
  • Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano (1919)
  • Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano (1922)
  • Sonata No. 1 for cello and piano (1919)
  • Sonata No. 2 for cello and piano (1924)
  • Sonata for solo violin (1931)
  • Passapied for Carillon (1916)

Piano music

  • De Boufon , Het Patertje Langs den Kant , Scharmoes for piano solo (1926) in the series "Folk Dances of the World"
  • Piano Sonata (1930)
  • Sonata for 2 pianos (1935)
  • Sonatina No. 1 for piano (1917)
  • Sonatina No. 2 for piano (1925)
  • Sonatina No. 3 for piano (1925)
  • Theme and five variations for piano solo (1913)
  • Three aphorisms for piano solo (1915)

Choral works

  • La fille morte dans ses amours (1921) from "Deux Ballades de Paul Fort"
  • Le marchand de sable geork No. 1 & 2 (1934) from "Deux Ballades de Paul Fort"
  • Chanson Réveilles-vous piccars (1932–33)
  • De Lente Komt (1917) (René de Clercq)
  • Op den Weefstoel (1918) (René de Clercq)
  • Army Danielken (1925)
  • Army Halewijn (1920)
  • Vanden Coning van Castilien (1936)

Vocals (with instrumental accompaniment)

  • Fête Galantes (1916) (Paul Verlaine)
  • Hymn (1941–43) (PC Boutens)
  • Songs from " The Storm " (1930) (William Shakespeare)
  • The Night Army Show (1922/43) (Carl Löwe)
  • Romance sans paroles , C'est le chien de Jean de Nivelle (1921) (Paul Verlaine)

Voice and piano

  • All Souls' Day (1914) (H. von Gilm)
  • Douwdeuntje (1916) (René de Clercq)
  • Fêtes Galantes (1916) (Paul Verlaine)
  • 2 songs on old Dutch texts (1923)
  • Four Songs (1916) (Bertha de Bruyn)
  • La Maumariée (1919-20)
  • Huit Noëls de France (1919)
  • Eight oud-Holland songs , first series (1924)
  • Eight oud-Holland songs , second series (1935)
  • Oud-Hollandsche minneliederen (1920/1942)
  • Vieilles chansons de France (1918/1946)
  • Twee Wachterliederen (1934)
  • Zestiende-eeuwsch Marialied (1929)

Incidental music

  • Antigone (1920/1926) (Sophocles / Balthazar Verhagen)
  • De Bacchanten (1924) (Euripides / Balthazar Verhagen)
  • De Cycloop (1925) (Euripides / Balthazar Verhagen)
  • Faëton of Reuckelose Stoutheit (1937) (van Joost van den Vondel)
  • The Tempest (1929-30) (William Shakespeare)

Operas

  • Halewijn (1932–34), symphonic drama in 9 scenes
  • Merlijn (1939–42) (unfinished), symphonic drama in 3 acts (Simon Vestdijk, libretto)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Honorary members. ISCM , accessed June 30, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Pijper, Willem
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pijper, Willem Frederik Johannes (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Dutch composer
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Zeist , Utrecht Province
DATE OF DEATH March 18, 1947
Place of death Leidschendam , province of Zuid-Holland