# Matthijs Vermeulen (1888 – 1967)



## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

From wikipedia:

_Matthijs Vermeulen (born Matheas Christianus Franciscus van der Meulen) (8 February 1888 - 26 July 1967), was a Dutch composer and music journalist.

Matthijs Vermeulen was born in Helmond. After primary school he initially wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father, who was a blacksmith. During a serious illness his inclination towards the spiritual gained the upper hand. Inspired by a thoroughly Catholic environment, he decided to become a priest. However, at the seminary, where he learned about the principles of counterpoint of the sixteenth-century polyphonic masters, his true calling - music - came to light. On his eighteenth he abandoned his initial ideas and left school. In the spring of 1907 he moved to Amsterdam, the country's musical capital. There he approached Daniël de Lange, the director of the conservatory, who recognized his talent and gave him free lessons for two years. In 1909 Vermeulen began to write for the Catholic daily newspaper De Tijd, where he soon distinguished himself by a personal, resolute tone which stood out in stark contrast to the usually long-winded music journalism of the day. The quality of his reviews also struck Alphons Diepenbrock. He warmly recommended Vermeulen with the progressive weekly De Amsterdammer. There Vermeulen revealed himself as an advocate of the music of Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler and Alphons Diepenbrock, whom he later used to call his "maître spirituel".

In the years 1912-1914 Vermeulen composed his actual opus 1, the First Symphony, which he called Symphonia carminum. In this work, expressing the joys of summer and youth, he already employed the technique he would remain loyal to for the rest of his life: polymelodicism.

Vermeulen's polemic against the unidirectional German orientation of Dutch musical life got him into trouble. After having presented his First Symphony to Willem Mengelberg, whom he much admired, he was disdainfully rejected after a one-year period of keen anticipation. Consequently, Vermeulen's orchestral work did not stand a chance in Amsterdam.

His symphonies, especially the last six of his seven, are atonal but also extremely contrapuntal, involving many musical lines combining simultaneously. In this he resembles Charles Ives in some ways. In his compositional work Vermeulen always focused his attention on melody.
_

There's a lot of Vermeulen's music available in Wellesz Theatre's channel in youtube. My picks are:


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

I have never heard of this composer before. I'll listen to these works later today and get back to you.


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## ST4 (Oct 27, 2016)

Wasn't there already a thread for him? I remember posting quite excitedly about him last year


Anyhow, for starters his symphonies are amazing!! :tiphat:


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

ST4 said:


> Wasn't there already a thread for him? I remember posting quite excitedly about him last year


I searched the forums and couldn't find any.


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## Lenny (Jul 19, 2016)

ST4 said:


> Wasn't there already a thread for him? I remember posting quite excitedly about him last year
> 
> Anyhow, for starters his symphonies are amazing!! :tiphat:


I found some threads with some discussion, but not actual Guestbooks entry.

Spotify users, be aware. I found a bug in Spotify player.









In that album, parts 2-3 of symphony #5 clearly are not from that symphony. I just reported the bug, so hopefully it will be fixed soon.


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Wow! Everything I heard really impressed me! I'm off to Amazon...


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Vermeulen is great. The second symphony is often called "the dutch Rite of spring", not to say that it's an imitation (it's not), but because it was a very powerful and groundbreaking work, with all the originality of the harmonic language of Vermeulen. It's one of my favorite symphonies.


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