Faà di Bruno, Giovanni Matteo [Horatio, Orazio] 83

Flothuis, Marius (Hendrikus)

(b Amsterdam, 30 Oct 1914). Dutch composer and musicologist. After studying musicology with A. Smijers and K.P. Bernet Kempers at Amsterdam University he was assistant to the artistic director of the Concertgebouw Orchestra (1937–42). During the later years of the war he was interned in concentration camps. After the war he worked as a librarian and music critic before returning to the Concertgebouw in 1953; two years later he was appointed artistic director. In 1974 he left this post to become professor of musicology at Utrecht University until his retirement in 1982. From 1980 to 1994 he was president of the Zentralinstitut für Mozartforschung in Salzburg. Although Flothuis had no instruction in composition, in 1922 he wrote a cadenza for Haydn’s keyboard concerto in D, and this was followed by several piano pieces and an incidental score for Sophocles’ Philoktetes; all the music composed before 1934 has been withdrawn. Important works of the 1940s and 1950s include the Horn Concerto (1945), the charming Four Trifles (1948) the Sonata da Camera for flute and harp (1951) and the lyrical String Quartet no.1 (1952), winner of the Professor van der Leeuw Prize. Symfonische muziek (1957) is a brilliant score somewhat in the vein of César Franck. The first three movements are cyclical, with a single motif linking a vivid scherzo-like Allegro, a funeral march and a tempestuous Allegro agitato, while the finale is a passacaglia built on a related theme. In the symphonic song Hymnus, awarded the Johan Wagenaar Prize, Flothuis presents an accurate musical realisation of the hope and despair permeating Ingeborg Bachmann’s poem An die Sonne. Flothuis’s music is in general lyrical and intimate, tonal and extensively contrapuntal.

WORKS

(selective list)

orchestral

Concertino, small orch, 1940; Conc., fl, small orch, 1944; Conc., hn, small orch, 1945; Dramatische ouverture, 1946; Conc., pf, small orch, 1948; Capriccio, str, 1949; Capriccio, wind, 1949; Conc., vn, small orch, 1950; Fantasia, hp, small orch, 1953; Sinfonietta concertante, cl, a sax, small orch, 1955; Concert ouverture, 1955; Rondo festoso, 1956; Praeludium after Sweelinck, 1956; Cl Conc., 1957; Symfonische muziek, 1957; Spes patriae, small orch, 1962; Espressioni cordiali, str, 1963; Canti e giuochi, wind qnt, str, 1964; Per sonare ed ascoltare, fl, orch, 1971; Nocturne, 1977; Cantus amoris, str, 1979; Poème, hp, chbr orch, 1993

Cadenzas for Mozart’s concertos for piano and for flute and harp

vocal

Choral: Bicinia, female vv, 1944; Cant. silesiana, female vv, fl, str qt, hpd, 1946; Tricinia, male vv, 1947; Het lied van’t degelijks brood (B. Schönlank), 1949; Marschlied (J. Slauerhoff), 1949; 4 antieke fragmenten, 1951; Lente (Flothuis), male vv, 1952; 2 liederen (B. Aafjes), 1953; Sonnet (J. Campert), 1952; Round, 8vv, 1953; Seizoenen (Aafjes, L.P. Braat, H. Michaelis, H. Lodiesen, A. Moriën), male vv, fl, 1960; Celdroom (radio score, H.M. van Randwijk), nar, chorus, orch, 1964; Music for USC, 1980; Herinnering [Remembrance] (Aafjes, C. Eggink), 1985

Solo with ens: 4 liederen (C. Morgenstern), S, orch, 1938; Sonnet (Toller), Mez, orch, 1940; Kleine ouverture (Morgenstern), S, orch, 1942; Love and Strife (K. Raine), A, fl, ob d’amore, va, vc, 1949; To an Old Love (E. Marsh), Mez, orch, 1948; Een Amsterdams lied (Campert), S, Bar, fl, cl, str qt, db, pf, 1951; Negro Lament (L. Hughes), A, a sax, pf, 1953; Odysseus en Nausikaa, S, A, T, B, hp, 1960; Hymnus (I. Bachmann), S, orch, 1965; 4 miniatures rumantschas, 1v, fl, 1966; Fantasia quasi una cantata, Mez, 11 str, hpd, 1968; 2 liederen, Mez, fl, ob d’amore, cl, bn, hn, db, 1969; Vrijheid [Freedom], Mez, 2 spkr, fl, str, 1983; Santa Espina (L. Aragon), Mez, orch, 1986

Songs: Morgenstern-liederen, 1v, pf, 1938; 2 sonetten (Revius, Campert), Mez/Bar, pf, 1940, orchd 1945; Vorfrühling (Morgenstern, H. von Hoffmansthal, R.M. Rilke), Mez, pf, 1943; Rondel (G. Trakl), S, pf, 1943; Lied (J.H. Leopold), 1v, pf, 1943; 4 Trifles (S. Townsend Warner), S/T/A/B, pf, 1948, S/T version orchd 1950; Kleine suite, S, pf, 1953; November (G. Eich, J. Brobowski, P. Huchel), Mez, pf, 1988

chamber and solo instrumental

4–12 insts: Qnt, fl, ob, cl, b cl, bn, 1942; Kleine suite, 12 hp, 1951; Divertimento, cl, bn, hn, vn, va, db, 1952; Str Qt no.1, 1952; 4 invenzioni, 4 hn, 1963; Adagio, 5 perc, pf 4 hands, 1975; Str Qt no.2, 1992; Qnt, fl, vn, va, vc, hp, 1995

2–3 insts: Nocturne, fl, ob, cl, 1941; Sonata da camera, fl, pf, 1943; Aria, tpt, pf, 1944; Duettino pastorale, 2 vn, 1944; 3 pieces, 2 hn, 1945; Ronde champêtre, fl, hpd, 1945; Sonata, hn, tpt, trbn, 1945; 4 bagatellen, vn, pf, 1946; Partita, vn, pf, 1950; Sonata da camera, fl, hp, 1951; Trio serio, pf trio, 1951; Kleine suite, ob/cl/s sax/tpt, pf, 1952, arr. S, pf, 1953; 3 Encores, vn, pf, 1954; Cantilena e ritmi, rec, va, hpd, 1961; Partita, 2 vn, 1966; Allegro vivace, 2 hp, 1969; 3 moments musicaux, a sax, pf, 1982; 3 nocturnes, vc, hp, 1984; Sonata, ob, hn, hpd, 1985; Preludio, Notturno e Capriccio, str trio, 1989

Solo inst: Scherzino, pf, 1934; 10 eenvoudige klavierstukken, 1936; Pf Suite, 1938; Sonata, vc, 1938; Aubade, fl, 1944; 2 stukken, gui, 1944; Valses nobles, pf duet, 1944; Valses sentimentales, pf duet, 1944, orchd 1946; Sonata, vn, 1945; Moment musical, pf, 1946; 6 moments musicaux, pf, 1947; Pour le tombeau d’Orphée, hp, 1950; Suite, hpd, 1953; 5 Epigramme und ein Capriccio, pf, 1970; Romeo’s Lament, hn, 1975; Sonata, fl + a fl, 1975; Impromptu, a sax, 1976; Diana’s Dream, hn, 1978; Paesaggi, pf, 1990

editions

J. Haydn: Arianna a Naxos (Wien, 1965)

W.A. Mozart: Klavierkonzerte, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, v/15/i (Kassel, 1972)

W.A. Mozart: 25 Stücke für 2 Bassetthörner, KV 439b, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke (Kassel, 1974)

I. de Charrière [B. van Zuylen]: Oeuvres complëtes, vol.10 (Amsterdam, 1981)

W.A. Mozart: Tänze und Märsche, Bd.2, Neue Ausgabe sämtlicher Werke, xxvii (Kassel, 1988)

C.W. von Gluck: Iphigénie en Aulide (Kassel, 1989)

M. Haydn: Str Qt, F (Bad Reichenhall, 1991)

Principal publishers: Donemus, Broekmans & van Poppel

WRITINGS

Mozart (The Hague, 1940)

‘Franz Schubert’, De vrije katheder (31 Jan 1947)

Hedendaagse Engelse componisten (Amsterdam, 1949)

‘Spel en expressie in de muziek’, Kroniek voor kunst en kultur (1949), Dec

‘Willem Pijper’, Thot (1953), July

Pianomuziek (Bilthoven, 1958)

‘Über die Notwendigkeit einer kritischen Gesamtausgabe der Werke Leoš Janáčeks’, Sborník prací filosofické fakulty brněnské university, F9 (1965)

‘Vocal Compositions by Dutch Composers based on English Texts’, MO, lxxxviii (1965), 471

‘Jupiter oder Sarastro?’, MJb 1965–6, 121

Mozarts Bearbeitungen eigener und fremder Werke, Schriftenreihe der Internationalen Stiftung Mozarteum, ii (Salzburg and Kassel, 1969)

‘Die Bläserstücke KV 439b’, Idomeneo Conference: Salzburg 1973 [MJb 1973–4], 202–10

Notes on Notes: Selected Essays (Buren, 1974)

‘Über einige metrische Probleme bei Mozart’, MJb 1978–9, 47

W.A. Mozart: Streichquintett g-moll KV 516 (Munich, 1987)

‘Quelques observations concernant les mélodies de Claude Debussy’, SMz, cxxix (1989), 271–82

Denken over muziek (Kampen, 1993)

‘… exprimer l’inexprimable…’: essai sur la mélodie française depuis Duparc (Amsterdam, 1996)

Mozarts Klavierkonzerte (Munich, 1998)

Mozarts Streichquartette (Munich, 1998)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

W. Paap: ‘Marius Flothuis’, Sonorum speculum, no.6 (1961), 2–9

J. Wouters: ‘Symphonic music’, Sonorum speculum, no.6 (1961), 45–8

‘Marius Flothuis on himself’, Key Notes, no.4 (1976), 57–9

JOS WOUTERS/LEO SAMAMA