Willem Frederik Johannes Pijper was a Dutch composer, music critic and music teacher.
10 Facts About Willem Pijper
2.
Willem Pijper was born at Zeist, near Utrecht, on 8 September 1894 of strict Calvinist working-class parents.
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Willem Pijper subsequently discovered the use of sharps and flats and began composing simple melodies.
4.
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, Willem Pijper entered the Utrecht Academy of Music, where he was taught composition by Johan Wagenaar, passing examinations in theoretical subjects in 1915.
5.
Willem Pijper occasionally gave piano recitals, but his activity as a critic was of greater importance.
6.
Willem Pijper has since been criticised for his role in the affair, because his combined functions of critic and advisor for the Tivoli concert hall at least suggested a conflict of interest.
7.
Willem Pijper spent much of his time during the war years working on a new opera, Merlijn, based on the Arthurian legend.
8.
Yet there is no question of Willem Pijper's consciously abandoning tonality; rather his polyphonic way of thinking and his sense of counterpoint made his harmonic style evolve in that direction.
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Nonetheless, Willem Pijper remained a composer of strong emotional character, to which his Third Symphony bears witness.
10.
Willem Pijper 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.