Jan van Gilse – Symphony no. 3, ‘Elevation’

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Jan van Gilse – Symphony no. 3, ‘Elevation’

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Jan van Gilse – Symphony no. 3, ‘Elevation’

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(1881- 1944). Dutch composer Jan van Gilse (1881-1944) studied composition and conducting with Franz Wüllner at Cologne University (1897–1902). In 1902 he was awarded a prize for his First Symphony by the Beethoven Haus in Bonn. After studying with Humperdinck at the Akademische Meisterschule in Berlin, he worked as a conductor at the Bremen Opera, then at the Noord-Nederlandsche Opera in Amsterdam. In 1909 his Third Symphony was awarded the Michael Beer prize, which enabled him to work and study in Italy for two years. Afterwards he settled in Munich. During World War I van Gilse and his family returned to the Netherlands, and in 1917 he was appointed conductor of the Utrecht SO, with whom he gave many performances of works by contemporary French and Dutch composers. A conflict with the young Dutch composer Willem Pijper led to his resignation in 1922. After a short stay in Switzerland van Gilse settled in Berlin, where he started work on his autobiography (MS, NL-DHgm). He returned to the Netherlands, where he was appointed principal of the Utrecht Conservatory. In 1937 he resigned his position in order to devote himself to composition. In 1940 he completed his opera Thijl, based on the story of Tijl Uilenspiegel. After the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940, van Gilse publicly opposed the banning of Jews from concert halls. After organizing a petition in protest against the Nazification of Dutch artistic life, he was accused of high treason and went into hiding. During this period his two sons, also active in the resistance movement, were killed by the Nazis. Van Gilse could not cope with his grief and died after a short illness.

In addition to his work as a composer, van Gilse played a role in founding institutions designed to promote the interests of Dutch composers: the Genootschap van Nederlandsche Componisten (1911), the Bureau voor Muziek Auteursrecht (BUMA, the composers’ performing rights society, 1913). In 1935 van Gilse founded the Stichtung Nederlandsche Muziekbelangen to promote the performance of Dutch music. The foundation’s archive containing microfilms of Dutch music manuscripts became, after van Gilse’s death, the basis of the publishing house Donemus (founded in 1947).

Van Gilse took a relatively long time to develop a personal style as a composer. His German training, and the music of Mahler especially, left its mark on his early works up to 1916. Those written during and shortly after his years in Utrecht (1917–22) testify to his intensive study of the works of French composers such as Debussy, Ravel and Roussel, particularly in their use of short motifs, augmented chords, parallel harmonies and their striving after colourful, transparent orchestration. From these German and French influences, a synthesis gradually developed, culminating in the cantata Der Kreis des Lebens (1928–9), the opera Thijl (1938–40) and the unfinished declamation Rotterdam (1942). In these three works van Gilse achieved an individual style, which rejects the anti-Romanticism of the French-style works. In Rotterdam and Thijl he makes use of elements from folk music.