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"In music, the most fascinating and mysterious element to me is consonance, harmony: two tones sounding simultaneously are so much more than two single tones, and a third tone offers completely new vistas again.
The indifference of consonance in serial music, and especially the arbitrariness of the consonances, in this and related techniques have always appeared to me to be the greatest shortcoming of the style.
I want to write music which derives its musical meaning not only from form, rhythm, melody and timbre, but especially music which gives new content to harmonic coherence without treading any well-trodden paths."
Geert van Keulen was born in Amsterdam on October 11, 1943.
Education
He studied clarinet and bass clarinet at the Conservatory of Amsterdam, composition with Robert Heppener, instrumentation with Hans Henkemans and conducting with Anton Kersjes and David Zinman.
Activities
Since 1966 he is bass clarinettist with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Up to the end of 1988, he was a member of the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (Netherlands Wind Ensemble). He was also active as a performer of chamber music, as a conductor and as a concert organizer. From 1978 to 1995 he taught composition and instrumentation at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.
Compositions
In 1986 he composed the opera Aan de Wannsee (Picnic by the Wannsee) on a libretto by Louis Ferron; in 1988 he wrote Armonia, for string orchestra, commissioned by the Amsterdam Arts Fund for the Concertgebouw Orchestra's centenary. This work was premièred on October 25, 1990, under Riccardo Chailly. A commission by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, also for the centenary, resulted in Tympan pour grand orchestre (1990). In 1991 he wrote Fingers for tenor saxophone and orchestra and in 2001 Hoornconcert for Jacob Slagter and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
2001
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Download Donemus brochure (1995)
No avant-garde without tradition
by Rokus de Groot
photo: Marco Borggreve
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