Jan Boerman

Jan Boerman (The Hague, 30 June 1923 – 25 October 2020) was a Dutch composer who specialised in electronic music from 1959.

Boerman was trained in the traditional manner as a pianist and composer, and his initial exposure to the electronic music studio was both a shock and a revelation.

There was relatively little "repertoire" in this new domain, so, while he had been struggling with serialism and "finding his voice", Boerman intuited that here was a vast new terrain to explore, free from the stylistic pressures (i.e., the triumvirate of Paris, Darmstadt, and Cologne) that were so powerfully felt at that time in Europe.

Boerman studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in his home town, with Léon Orthel (piano) and, from 1945, with Hendrik Andriessen (composition).

From 1956 onwards, Boerman worked in the electronic studios of Delft Polytechnic, Utrecht State University and of The Hague Royal Conservatory of Music, where he has also taught electronic composition (after 1974) and piano.

A select few composers were invited to work at Eindhoven, including Edgard Varèse (who created his Poème électronique there in 1958) but, by 1960, Philips decided to close the facilities.

It passed its equipment on to the Delft Polytechnic, which became the primary site for electronic music in the Netherlands.

Administrative problems, however, caused both Boerman and Dick Raaijmakers to leave Utrecht in 1963, whereupon they began setting up a private studio in the Hague.

Raaijmakers had been studying broadcasting, recording, and applied electronics at Philips, so was more drawn into the world of studio composition.

Their facility eventually became incorporated into the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and both men became members of the faculty.

From the 1970s, he integrated live electronic music with instrumental and vocal music.

Boerman also composed theatre and ballet music, "music for the listening museum" and, in collaboration with architect Jan Hoogstad, "music as architectonic space".

From 1974, as Professor of Electronic Composition at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague, he assisted many young composers in finding their way forward.

Notable students include Sinta Wullur.

The Delft Polytechnic in Utrecht, from which the Institute of Sonology was developed, housed the first electronic music studio in the Netherlands after the Philips laboratory in Eindhoven, which was not generally open to composers.

It was not until 1976, that Boerman ventured to include "live" sounds in his work: the result was Vocalise - Voorstudie (Preparatory study for a Vocalise).

It was followed by an "orthodox" tape: Kompositie 1979.

Boerman received the Matthijs Vermeulen Award Prize for his entire body of work in 1981 and the Willem Pijper Prize for his composition Vocalise 1994 in 1997.

For the ensemble Het Nieuwe Leven, he composed "Weerstand" ("Resistance", 1982) for tape and percussion, and later "Ontketening" ("Unchainment", 1983), for tape and metal instruments.

Boerman has also written electronic ballet music, including "De touwen van de tijd" ("The ropes of time") and "Monument voor een gestorven jongen" ("Monument for a dead boy").

Years later, in 1986, the Institute of Sonology echoed their move by transferring from Utrecht to the Royal Conservatory in the Hague.

"Muziek voor slagwerk en orkest" ("Music for percussion and orchestra", 1991) was performed during the Holland Festival of 1991.

* score published by Donemus, Amsterdam.

Boerman wrote his last major work, Ruïne, in 1997.

The Complete Tape Music of Jan Boerman appeared in 1998 on CD (CV-NEAR 04/05/06/07/08), and won the Edison award for Dutch recorded music.

Boerman has composed a number of orchestral and chamber music works; the main part of his oeuvre, however, consists of electronic music.

He is one of the few composers who persisted in composing for tape.

He died in October 2020 at the age of 97.

The complete tape music of Jan Boerman has been published on CD by the NEAR / Donemus label.