Willem Frederik Johannes Pijper (; 8 September 189418 March 1947) was a Dutch

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of mu ...

and

music teacher Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a res ...

. Pijper is considered to be among the most important Dutch composers of the first half of the 20th century.

Life

Pijper was born at

Zeist Zeist () is the capital and largest town of the municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht. History The town of "Seist" was first mentioned in a charter in the year 8 ...

, near

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...

, on 8 September 1894 of strict

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John C ...

working-class parents. His father, who sometimes played psalm accompaniments on the harmonium, taught him the names of the notes of the treble clef when he was five. Willem subsequently discovered the use of sharps and flats and began composing simple melodies. His fascination with symmetrical musical structures was evident even at this early age. At ten he began formal piano lessons and made rapid progress. Poor health as a child meant that he was educated at home until age 13, but in 1912, after three years study at the gymnasium (high school), Pijper entered the Utrecht Academy of Music, where he was taught composition by Johan Wagenaar, passing examinations in theoretical subjects in 1915. Apart from his brief study with Wagenaar he was entirely self-taught as a composer. Pijper occasionally gave piano recitals, but his activity as a critic was of greater importance. At the end of the First World War, he became a critic for the ''Utrechtsch Dagblad'', and in that capacity was at least partly responsible for the departure of

Jan van Gilse Jan Pieter Hendrik van Gilse ( Rotterdam, 11 May 1881 – Oegstgeest, 8 September 1944) was a Dutch composer and conductor. Among his works are five symphonies and the Dutch-language opera '' Thijl''. Life Coming from a family of theologians, ...

, then chief conductor of the Utrechts Stedelijk Orkest. Pijper’s constant vitriolic (and often ''ad hominem'') attacks upon Van Gilse forced the latter to demand the orchestra board to refuse Pijper at concerts; after the board had stalled the issue for some time, Van Gilse resigned in 1921. Pijper has since been criticised for his role in the affair, also because his combined functions of critic and advisor for the Tivoli concert hall at least suggested a conflict of interest
Article about the Van Gilse/Pijper conflict
in

De Volkskrant ''de Volkskrant'' (; ''The People's Paper'') is a Dutch daily morning newspaper. Founded in 1919, it has a nationwide circulation of about 250,000. Formerly a leading centre-left Catholic broadsheet, ''de Volkskrant'' today is a medium-sized c ...

(in Dutch)). In 1926, with Paul F. Sanders, he established the periodical ''De Muziek'', to which he contributed many essays. Collections of his essays were published by

Querido Emanuel Querido (6 August 1871 – 23 July 1943) was a successful Dutch publisher as the founder and owner of N.V. Em. Querido Uitgeversmaatschappij, which published Dutch titles, and of , which published titles of German writers in exile from ...

under the title ''De Quintencirckel'' and ''De Stemvork''. Pijper spent much of his time during the war years working on a new opera, ''Merlijn'', based on the

Arthurian legend The Matter of Britain is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Arthur. It was one of the three great Wester ...

. Although he worked on the project for over six years, the work was never completed. In late 1946, he was diagnosed with cancer. During the closing weeks of his life he rewrote the orchestration to his ''Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra''. Pijper died in Utrecht on 18 March 1947.

Music

Pijper quickly chose his own path as a composer. The difference in style between his First Symphony (''Pan''; 1917) (in which Mahler's influence is evident) and the Second (1921) is significant, and between 1918 and 1922 he grew into one of the more advanced composers in Europe. In each successive work he went a step further, starting from his conception that every work of art arises out of a number of "germ

cells Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery w ...

" (somewhat akin to

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century clas ...

's early "cell technique"). From 1919, Pijper's music can be described as

polytonal Polytonality (also polyharmony) is the musical use of more than one key simultaneously. Bitonality is the use of only two different keys at the same time. Polyvalence or polyvalency is the use of more than one harmonic function, from the same key ...

. Yet there is no question of Pijper's consciously abandoning tonality; rather his polyphonic way of thinking and his sense of counterpoint made his harmonic style evolve in that direction. In that sense, he stands quite close to the music of his contemporary

Matthijs Vermeulen Matthijs Vermeulen (born Matheas Christianus Franciscus van der Meulen) (8 February 1888 – 26 July 1967), was a Dutch composer and music journalist. Early life Matthijs Vermeulen was born in Helmond. After primary school he initially wante ...

, but his music does not quite reach the ecstatic level of Vermeulen's. Nonetheless, Pijper remained a composer of strong emotional character, to which his Third Symphony (1926) bears witness. In Pijper's later works the harmonic expression seems at times to approach monotonality. The

octatonic scale An octatonic scale is any eight- note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetric ...

has been called the "Pijper scale" in Dutch.Van der Merwe, Peter (2004). ''Roots of the Classical: The Popular Origins of Western Music'', p.217, 106. . Also

As a teacher, Pijper had a great influence on modern Dutch music, teaching many prominent Dutch composers of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. He was senior teacher of instrumentation at the Amsterdam Conservatoire, and from 1930 until his death in 1947 he acted as principal of the Rotterdam Conservatoire.

List of works

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l music **Symphony No. 1 ''Pan'' (1917) **Symphony No. 2 (1921) **Symphony No. 3 (1926) **Six Adagios (1940) **Six Symphonic Epigrams (1928) **Concerto for Piano & Orchestra (1927) **Orchestral Piece with Piano (1915) **Concerto for Violin & Orchestra (1938–39) **Concerto for Violoncello Solo & Orchestra (1936/47) *

Chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small nu ...

**Septet for flute/piccolo, oboe/English horn, clarinet, bassoon, horn, double bass & piano (1920) **Sextet for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn & piano (1923) **Phantasie for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn & piano (1927) on Mozart's ''Phantasie für eine Spieluhr'', 1791 **Quintet for woodwinds: flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon & horn (1929) **String Quartet No. 1 (1914) **String Quartet No. 2 (1920) **String Quartet No. 3 (1923) **String Quartet No. 4 (1928) **String Quartet No. 5 (1946) **Quattro Pezzi Antichi for 3 violins & violoncello (1923) **Trio for flute, clarinet & bassoon (1926–27) **Trio No. 1 for violin, violoncello & piano (1914) **Trio No. 2 for violin, violoncello & piano (1921) **Sonata for flute & piano (1925) **Sonata No. 1 for violin & piano (1919) **Sonata No. 2 for violin & piano (1922) **Sonata No. 1 for violoncello & piano (1919) **Sonata No. 2 for violoncello & piano (1924) **Sonata for violin solo (1931) **Passapied for

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoni ...

(1916) *

Piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

music **''De Boufon'', ''Het Patertje Langs den Kant'', ''Scharmoes'' for piano solo (1926) in the series "Folk Dances of the World" **Sonata for piano (1930) **Sonata for two 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 **''La fille morte dans ses amours'' (1921) from "Deux Ballades de Paul Fort" **''Le marchand de sable geork'' nos. 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) **''Heer Danielken'' (1925) **''

Heer Halewijn Heer Halewijn (also known as ''Van Here Halewijn'' and ''Jan Albers'', and in English ''The Song of Lord Halewijn'') is a Dutch folk tale which survives in folk ballad. Although the first printed version of the song only appears in an anthology p ...

'' (1920) **''Vanden Coning van Castilien'' (1936) *Vocal (with instrumental accompaniment) **''Fête Galantes'' (1916) (Paul Verlaine) **''Hymne'' (1941–43) (

Pieter Cornelis Boutens Pieter Cornelis BoutensHis original family name was changed from Bouters to Boutens by a decision of the District Court of Middelburg, 14 March 1898, Act No. 79 (February 20, 1870 – March 14, 1943) was a Dutch poet, classicist, and mystic. Bi ...

) **Songs from "''The Tempest''" (1930) (William Shakespeare) **''Die Nächliche Heerschau'' (1922/43) (Carl Löwe) **''Romance sans paroles'', C'est le chien de Jean de Nivelle (1921) (

Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (; ; 30 March 1844 – 8 January 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement and the Decadent movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the '' fin de siècle'' in international and ...

) *Voice and piano **''Allerseelen'' (1914) (H. von Gilm) **''Douwdeuntje'' (1916) (René de Clercq) **''Fêtes Galantes'' (1916) (

) **''Two Songs on Ancient Dutch Texts'' (1923) **''Four Songs'' (1916) (Bertha de Bruyn) **''La Maumariée'' (1919–20) **''Huit Noëls de France'' (1919) **''Acht oud-Hollandsche liederen'', first series (1924) **''Acht oud-Hollandsche liederen'', second series (1935) **''Oud-Hollandsche '' (1920/1942) **''Vieilles chansons de France'' (1918/1946) **''Twee Wachterliederen'' (1934) **''Zestiende-eeuwsch Marialied'' (1929) *

Incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

**''Antigone'' (1920/1926) (

Sophocles Sophocles (; grc, Σοφοκλῆς, , Sophoklễs; 497/6 – winter 406/5 BC)Sommerstein (2002), p. 41. is one of three ancient Greek tragedians, at least one of whose plays has survived in full. His first plays were written later than, or c ...

/Balthazar Verhagen) **''De Bacchanten'' (1924) (

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...

/Verhagen) **''De Cycloop'' (1925) (Euripides/Verhagen) **''Faëton'' of Reuckelose Stoutheit (1937) (

Joost van den Vondel Joost van den Vondel (; 17 November 1587 – 5 February 1679) was a Dutch poet, writer and playwright. He is considered the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century. His plays are the ones from that period that are still mos ...

) **''The Tempest'' (1929–30) (

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

) *

Opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a libr ...

**'' Halewijn'' (1932–34), Symphonic drama in 9 scenes **'' Merlijn'' (1939–42) (Unfinished), Symphonic drama in 3 acts (

Simon Vestdijk Simon Vestdijk (; 17 October 1898 – 23 March 1971) was a Dutch writer. He was nominated for the Nobel prize in literature fifteen times. Life Born in the small Frisian town of Harlingen, Vestdijk studied medicine in Amsterdam, but turned t ...

, libretto) Adapted with permission from John Craton'
Willem Pijper web page
Selected recordings dit*The complete String Quartets. The Schönberg Quartet, Olympia Explorer, 1994

Notes

References

External links