Marius Flothuis (1914-2001)
Dutch composer, musicologist, and music critic
Despite composing around 100 works, in almost every genre, Marius Flothuis had no formal training in composition. He had studied piano from an early age, and inventing new music had always gone hand-in-hand with his explorations of the instrument. He premiered his first creations while still in grammar school. Otherwise, his music education and subsequent work centered mainly around musicology. He wrote extensively, authoring many articles, critical reviews, and several books. In his research, he displayed a special preference for Mozart. His doctoral thesis was on Mozart’s arrangements of his own works and of works by other composers, and his book “Mozart’s Piano Concertos” explores the classical composer’s evolution through his concertos. Flothuis arranged the Divertimenti for piano and completed cadenzas for all of Mozart’s piano concertos, for which they had not already been written. Many harpists may be familiar with his cadenzas for Mozart’s flute and harp concerto, arguably the most stylistically sensitive we have to choose from.
The positions Flothuis held over the years gave him a central place within the musical society of the Netherlands in the 20th century. He was associated with the famous Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra for many years, serving first as assistant to the artistic director, then as programme editor, and finally as artistic director himself. He also worked as a music critic, the librarian at Donemus Amsterdam, professor of musicology in Utrecht, and chairman of the Zentralinstitut für Mozart-Forschung in Salzburg. It is amazing to think that he found time for composing, on top of all these responsibilities he assumed.
His prefered genre was chamber music, and he also featured the voice in many of his works. Strangely, of all the songs he composed – with either piano or orchestral accompaniment – the one genre he never pursued was opera. His œuvre also includes many lesser-known pieces for harp, or for various combinations of chamber ensemble with harp. For those who have discovered Flothuis through the Pour le tombeau d’Orphée, it may be particularly interesting to explore the rest of what he has written for the instrument.
- Kleine suite, for twelve harps (1951)
- Sonata da camera, for flute and harp, (1951), awarded the Northern California
Harpists Association Prize. - Berceuse brève, for harp, op. 75, no. 1
(1963) - Allegro vivace, for two harps, op. 75,
no. 2 (1969) - Molto lento, for harp, op. 75, no. 3
(1975) - Allegro, con precisione, for harp, op.
75, no. 4 (1978) - Allegro fugato, for three harps, op. 75,
no. 5 (1984/1994) - Six easy studies, for harp, op. 87
(1985-6) - Sonorités opposées, for harp, op. 75,
no. 6 (1986) - Rapsodie, for harp, op. 102 (1999)
- Saraband, for mezzo-soprano and harp, op. 103 (2001)
- Odysseus and Nausikaa, madrigal for voice quartet and harp, op. 60 (1958-60)
- Trois nocturnes, for cello and harp, op. 84 (1983-4)
- Poeme, for harp and small orchestra, op. 96 (1993)
The solo that will be performed by the contestants in the Dutch Harp Competition – Pour le tombeau d’Orphée – was written in 1950. Flothuis dedicated the piece to Phia Berghout, one of the most highly regarded harpists of his generation in Holland. She played with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and, later in life, was one of the founders of the World Harp Congress. Even just within the Tombeau we can see many characteristic elements of Flothuis’ style. Above all, he was concerned with the quest for purity and beauty. His most important musical influences were Mozart, Debussy, and Willem Pijper (a Dutch composer of the generation previous to Flothuis). Like the former two, Flothuis concentrated much of his attention on form and the relationship of form to content. In these aspects, his work is concise and displays clarity and balance. Borrowing from Pijper’s germ-cell technique, he had a style of constructing very short motives, each with a limited range and minimal repetition of notes, and then sending these motives through endless variation. This technique appears from the very beginning of the Tombeau. His melodies – those in the Tombeau being no exception – have a way of winding along chromatically by whole- and half-steps. He makes use of polyrhythms, polymeters, and irregular meters, which appear here as unexpected devices to create variation throughout the piece. And, while he was aware of the post-modernist drive to free music of tonality, and he did experiment with dodecaphonism in some of his works, his could not deny the need for his music to gravitate to one or more tonal center.
It is said that Marius Flothuis lead his life – both professional and personal – with great integrity. Even throughout the tumult that the second world war caused in Western Europe, he stuck to his ideals, upheld his sense of morality, and always sought truth. In as much as one’s soul is made transparent through music, Flothuis’ compositions reflect this admirable character. This is as great a legacy as anyone could hope to leave.
References:
- Joyce Kiliaan, ‘Marius Flothuis’, Amsterdam: 1999
- Stichting Donemus, ‘Catalogus van werken van Nederlandse componisten; 5: Marius Flothuis’, Amsterdam 1950