Rob du Bois is a Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, pianist

Pianist

A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

, and jurist

Jurist

A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

.

Background and education

Rob (Robert Louis) du Bois was born in Amsterdam

Amsterdam

Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. His French ancestry can be seen from his name, and he maintains a sympathy for the French mentality and language (Vetter 1966). After graduating from the Vossius Gymnasium

Vossius Gymnasium

Vossius Gymnasium is one of the five categorial gymnasia in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the other being Barlaeus Gymnasium, Ignatius Gymnasium, Cygnus Gymnasium and Het 4e Gymnasium. It is named after Gerardus Joannes Ernie Vossius, and was established in 1926....

 in Amsterdam he studied law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 at the Gemeentelijke Universiteit in the same city. He began studying music with Chris Rabé at the Volksmuziekschool, later taking piano lessons, initially with Hans Sachs, and later with T. Hart Nibbrig–de Graeff. He decided to become a composer after hearing two symphonies by Matthijs Vermeulen

Matthijs Vermeulen

Matthijs Vermeulen , was a Dutch composer and music journalist.- Early life :...

 in 1949. As a composer he is self-taught, with influences especially from his contact during the 1950s with the composers Kees van Baaren

Kees van Baaren

Kees van Baaren was a Dutch composer and teacher.Van Baaren was born in Enschede. His early studies were in Berlin with Rudolph Breithaupt and Friedrich Koch at the Stern conservatory. After returning to the Netherlands in 1929, he studied with Willem Pijper...

 and Daniel Ruyneman (Anon. 1999; Ramaer 2001a).

Musician

In 1959, Bois became associated with the group of composers formed around the Gaudeamus Foundation

Gaudeamus Foundation

The Gaudeamus Foundation and Contemporary Music Center is a renowned center for contemporary music. The Gaudeamus Foundation organizes and promotes contemporary musical activities and concerts both in the Netherlands and abroad...

, of which he later became a board member (Anon. 1999). He first became known outside of Holland as a composer when his music was performed at the Zagreb Biennale and the Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn

Warsaw Autumn is the largest international Polish festival of contemporary music. Indeed, for many years, it was the only festival of its type in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1956 by two composers, Tadeusz Baird and Kazimierz Serocki, and officially established by the Head Board...

, in both 1967 and 1969, and at the Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music

International Society for Contemporary Music

The International Society for Contemporary Music is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music.ISCM was established in 1922, in Salzburg. Its core activity is the World Music Days Festival, held every year at a different location. The festival includes cutting edge productions...

 in 1967 in Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 (Anon. 1973).

In the late 1960s, Bois became a performing member of the ICP (Instant Composers Pool), which had been founded in 1967 by saxophonist Willem Breuker

Willem Breuker

Willem Breuker was a Dutch jazz bandleader, composer, arranger, saxophonist, and bass clarinetist....

, pianist Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg

Misha Mengelberg is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in 1961.-Biography:...

, and drummer Han Bennink

Han Bennink

Han Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....

 (Whitehead 2002). It was for Breuker that du Bois composed the Breuker Concerto in 1967, a work for two clarinets, four saxophones, and 21 strings, which was premiered by Breuker with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra is a Dutch symphony orchestra based in Rotterdam. Its primary venue is the concert hall De Doelen. The RPhO is considered one of the Netherlands' two principal orchestras of international standing, second to the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam...

 (Buzelin and Buzelin 1992, 43). Du Bois played keyboards in a number of ICP projects, including Breuker’s grandiose February 1969 “happening

Happening

A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...

”, Mozart Opera, which also featured Derek Bailey on guitar, Paul Rutherford

Paul Rutherford (trombone player)

Paul William Rutherford was an English free improvising trombonist.-Biography:Born in Greenwich, South East London, Rutherford initially played saxophone but switched to trombone...

 and Willem van Manen on trombones, and Han Bennink on drums (Buzelin and Buzelin 1992, 36). In 1972, du Bois alternated with Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...

 in the ensemble that accompanied viola soloist Lodewijk de Boer in performances of Breuker's Speelplan for viola, seven instruments, and live electronics, the latter performed by Michel Waisvisz

Michel Waisvisz

Michel Waisvisz was a Dutch composer, performer and inventor of experimental electronic musical instruments...

 (Buzelin and Buzelin 1992, 44). Bois also participated in recordings of Breuker’s music—mostly incidental music

Incidental music

Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

 for various theatre productions—by the ICP and other groups between 1968 and 1977. Some of these were released on LP in the early 1970s, and some others more recently on a CD on Breuker’s BVHaast label.

For Dutch composers of Bois's generation, the search for a politically and socially engaged music

Music and politics

The connection between music and politics, particularly political expression in music, has been seen in many cultures. Although music influences political movements and rituals, it is not clear how or even if, general audiences relate music on a political level...

 has been of paramount importance (Wouters and Samama 2001). A number of Bois’s more militant colleagues began staging public protests, the most widely reported being the Nutcracker Action on 17 November 1969 when demonstrators disrupted a performance by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, whose activities they claimed were “maintaining an undemocratic artistic environment”. Many of the demonstrators, such as Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen

Louis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...

, Reinbert de Leeuw, Misha Mengelberg, and Peter Schat

Peter Schat

Peter Schat was a Dutch composer.Schat studied composition with Kees van Baaren at the conservatories in Utrecht and The Hague from 1952 until 1958, and then went on to study in London with Mátyás Seiber in 1959 and with Pierre Boulez in Basle in 1960–61...

 were Bois’s close friends and, a month or two after the Nutcracker Action, Bois led—together with Konrad Boehmer

Konrad Boehmer

Konrad Boehmer is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s...

 and Sytze Smit—working groups mobilised under the general leadership of Mengelberg in support of “a radical and democratic renewal of musical life” (Beer 1994).

In May 1972, Bois's music was performed by Willem Breuker and Louis Andriessen’s Orkest de Volharding

Orkest de Volharding

Orkest de Volharding is a Dutch music ensemble, founded in 1972 by Louis Andriessen and saxophonist Willem Breuker, named after the eponymous Andriessen work. The line up for the original concert, on May 12, 1972, was three each of trumpets saxes and trombones, plus Andriessen on the piano...

, which had been formed in the wake of the 1969 anti-establishment

Anti-establishment

An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political and social agenda...

 Nutcracker Action with the object of taking contemporary music out of the concert halls and bringing it directly to ordinary people who never frequent such places (Beer 1994; Buzelin and Buzelin 1992, 68). Du Bois's Springtime for ten winds and piano (1978) was composed for de Volharding.

In 1976, the ensemble ICÉ from Hilversum, led by Will Eisma, with bass-clarinet soloist Harry Sparnaay

Harry Sparnaay

Harry Sparnaay is a noted Dutch bass clarinetist, composer, and teacher. He is the most well-known player of new music for the bass clarinet and has won the following: First Prize Gaudeamus Contest , Swedish Record Prize , Bulgarian Composers Union Award , Inaugural Sounds Australian Award ,...

, took Bois's composition Heliotrope (for a soloist and an optional number of accompanists, 1967) to the Wittinger Tage für neue Kammermusik, where Sparnaay created a sensation (Diederichs-Lafite 1976, 383). Bois created a number of other works especially for Sparnaay: Chemin for solo bass clarinet (1971), Fusion voor deux for bass clarinet and piano, and Iguanodon (1982), for 6 bass clarinets and 3 contrabass clarinets (Anon. 1999; Heim 1979, 20; Heim 1980, 22; Swift 1972).

Many of Bois’s other compositions have also been written for friends and colleagues. For example, his Concerto pour Hrisanide (1968–71) was composed for the Romanian composer, improviser, and piano virtuoso Alexandru Hrisanide. It quotes from Hrisanide’s own compositions, and requires the soloist to play not only piano, but an electronic organ, a toy piano, and a large tom-tom (Anon. 1973). The 1980 Sonata for violin and piano is also dedicated to Hrisanide, along with the Hungarian violinist György Hamza (who is also the dedicatee of the Concerto for Two Violins and Orchestra). Bois also composed pieces for two other Romanian musicians: the clarinetist Sonia Dumitrescu, for whom he composed Une danse pour Sonia (1973), and the viola player Vladimir Mendelssohn, for whom he wrote the Sonata for solo viola (1981) and Vladimir's Hyde-Away for viola and piano. In 1991, a group of Bois’s Romanian friends arranged a concert in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

 in his honour (Ramaer 2001a).

Allegro (1987) and Gaberbocchus (1996), both for the unusual combination of four pianos, were composed for Maarten Bon's Amsterdam Piano Quartet, founded in 1983. Many years earlier, Bon and Bois had both studied piano with Hans Sachs at the same time (Ramaer 2001b). Four years later, Bon revised Bois’s 1992 Song without Words no. 4.

Although he has never composed an opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

, Bois’s output includes two extended music-theatre works: the ballet Midas (1970), and Vandaag is het morgen van gisteren: (helaas geen sprookje) (1975), an hour-long extravaganza for soloists, children’s choir, orchestra and brass band. Bois's other larger-scale works include a Chamber Symphony for 13 winds, a Violin Concerto, a Concerto for Two Violins, and two Piano Concertos. The greatest part of his compositional output, however, consists of chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 for a wide variety of ensembles, including four string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

s, two wind quintet

Wind quintet

A wind quintet, also sometimes known as a woodwind quintet, is a group of five wind players . The term also applies to a composition for such a group....

s, and a concerted work for solo double bass with double wind quintet. The two wind quintets (Chants en contrepoints from 1962 and Réflexions sur le jour où Pérotin le Grand ressuscitera from 1969) were both written for the Danzi Quintet

Danzi Quintet

The Danzi Quintet was a Dutch wind quintet, one of the most highly regarded quintets active in the 1960s and 1970sThe quintet took its name from the 18th/19th-century composer Franz Danzi , and was founded in 1956 or 1957 by the flutist Frans Vester...

, and Bois also wrote solo pieces for some of the members of this well-known ensemble: flutist Frans Vester (Muziek for solo flute, 1961), oboist Koen van Slogteren (Beams, for oboe and piano, 1979), and clarinetist Piet Honingh (Vertiges, 1987).

Bois has shown a special interest in composing for the recorder

Recorder

The recorder is a woodwind musical instrument of the family known as fipple flutes or internal duct flutes—whistle-like instruments which include the tin whistle. The recorder is end-blown and the mouth of the instrument is constricted by a wooden plug, known as a block or fipple...

, an instrument with which he became acquainted initially from the Dutch virtuoso Frans Brüggen

Frans Brüggen

Frans Brüggen is a well-known Dutch conductor, recorder player and baroque flautist.-Biography:Brüggen studied recorder and flute at the Amsterdam Muzieklyceum. He also studied musicology at the University of Amsterdam. In 1955, at the age of 21, he was appointed professor at the Royal...

, for whom he wrote his first recorder piece, Muziek voor altblokfluit, in 1961. Muziek is clearly influenced by Berio’s flute Sequenza

Sequenza I

Sequenza I is a composition written in 1958 by Luciano Berio for the flutist Severino Gazzelloni. It was first published by Suvini-Zerboni, but the notation was revised much later and this version published by Universal Edition in 1992...

(1958), but also by the supple lyricism found in Boulez's Le marteau sans maître

Le marteau sans maître

Le marteau sans maître is a composition by the French composer Pierre Boulez. It is a setting of the surrealist poetry of René Char for alto and six instrumentalists. It was first performed in 1955.-Movements:...

(Samama 2006, 254–55). This piece, based on successive transformations of a twelve-tone row, requires a level of skill that was unprecedented at the time: it employs the full chromatic range of the instrument, featuring extremes of range, rapid, difficult fingerings in complex rhythms, large dynamic changes and a modest range of extended technique

Extended technique

Extended techniques are performance techniques used in music to describe unconventional, unorthodox, or non-traditional techniques of singing, or of playing musical instruments to obtain unusual sounds or instrumental timbres....

s: fluttertonguing

Flutter-tonguing

Flutter-tonguing is a wind instrument tonguing technique in which performers flutter their tongue to make a characteristic "FrrrrFrrrrr" sound. The effect is similar to the growls used by jazz musicians.- Notation :...

, glissando

Glissando

In music, a glissando is a glide from one pitch to another. It is an Italianized musical term derived from the French glisser, to glide. In some contexts it is distinguished from the continuous portamento...

, and finger vibrato (O’Kelly 1990, 51–52; O’Kelly 1995, 157). Initially received even by professional players with dismay over its "unjustifiably" tricky rhythms, as well as its "unintelligible" formal design (Krainis 1963; Noble 1965), Muziek has come to be regarded as one of the best avant-garde works of the 1960s for the instrument (Lasocki 2001), and is considered a central work in the recorder’s 20th-century repertoire, whose technical extravagances have become "a necessary part of the training of every conservatory student" (O’Kelly 1990, 122).

When the German recorder player Michael Vetter

Michael Vetter

Michael Vetter is a German composer, novelist, poet, performer, calligrapher, artist, and teacher.-Biography:Vetter was born in Oberstdorf in the Allgäu region of Germany, and received a conventional school education...

 came to Holland looking for composers to write new works for him, he introduced du Bois and his colleagues Louis Andriessen and Will Eisma to many new techniques, which du Bois explored in Spiel und Zwischenspiel for recorder and piano (1962), a work quite unlike anything previously written for recorder, which employs very high notes, harmonics, multiphonics, white noise

White noise

White noise is a random signal with a flat power spectral density. In other words, the signal contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency...

, glissandos, and what Vetter calls "differentiated vibration techniques" (O’Loughlin 1982b, 37; O’Kelly 1990, 59 and 99–100).

Between 1960 and 1969 Bois composed a series of seven Pastorale

Pastorale

For Beethoven's Pastoral symphony, see Symphony No. 6 Pastorale refers to something of a pastoral nature in music, whether in form or in mood....

s for various instrumental combinations. (Pastorale V, for example, is his Second String Quartet, written in 1966). The numerical order does not correspond to the order of composition. Rather, the pieces are arranged so as to become increasingly remote from the character suggested by the series title (Vetter 1966). He planned the cycle to amount to nine or ten pieces in all, to conclude with a large-dimension composition combining all of the instruments used in the preceding works in the series (Vetter 1966). By far his best-known and often-recorded work is the last work in this series, Pastorale VII (1964) for solo recorder, which employs aleatory techniques and is based on a motivic distribution and filtering of several dense chords. It was Pastorale VII that convinced Louis Andriessen to authorise a recorder version of his Paintings for flute and piano, since he felt the recorder had more potential than the flute for producing new and exciting sounds (O’Loughlin 1982b, 37; O’Kelly 1990, 59 and 95; Vetter 1966). Pastorale II (begun in 1963 but completed only in 1969) also includes the alto recorder, together with flute and guitar.

More recently, Bois composed two pieces for the Dutch recorder virtuoso Baldrick Deerenberg: Adagio cantabile, for tenor recorder and piano (1979), and Spellbound (1976), which bears the extraordinary subtitle: On Baldrick's 110-inch Contrabass Recorder with Extension, or: How Dorinde Got a New-born Brother.

Compositional technique and style

In general, Bois’s music includes a penchant for musical comedy and explores the humorous possibilities of avant-garde materials (Ramaer 2001). His earliest compositional style (from his earliest compositions up to the Sonatine for piano of 1960) showed the influence of Willem Pijper

Willem Pijper

Willem Pijper ; Zeist, 8 September 1894 - Utrecht, 18 March 1947) was a Dutch composer, music critic and music teacher.-Life:Pijper was born at Zeist, near Utrecht, on 8 September 1894 of strict Calvinist working-class parents. His father, who sometimes played psalm accompaniments on the harmonium,...

 (Dickinson 1965, 371), but was also close to the younger generation of French composers (Vetter 1966). At this time he employed serial technique

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

 under the stylistic influence of Anton Webern

Anton Webern

Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...

 as well as, amongst others, Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez

Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...

, Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...

, Luigi Nono

Luigi Nono

Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...

, and Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio

Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI was an Italian composer. He is noted for his experimental work and also for his pioneering work in electronic music.-Biography:Berio was born at Oneglia Luciano Berio, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (October 24, 1925 – May 27, 2003) was an Italian...

 (Samama 2006, 251). Representative works of this period include the First String Quartet (1960), Bewegingen, for piccolo and piano (1961), and Spiel en Zwischenspiel (1962).

Tentatively in part III of Muziek voor fluit solo (1961), but especially by the time of Espaces à remplir (1963), the Deuxième série de rondeaux (1964), and Ad libitum (1965), Bois had begun including sections with degrees of improvisation

Musical improvisation

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians...

 (Dickinson 1965, 371; Epstein 1967, 611; McDermott 1967, 152). In these works, du Bois would fix the registers

Register (music)

In music, a register is the relative "height" or range of a note, set of pitches or pitch classes, melody, part, instrument or group of instruments...

 of certain pitch-complexes to create groups that dominate one or more parts, or even the entire ensemble for sections of the score. Sometimes these are twelve-tone complexes and sometimes smaller sets (what Josef Matthias Hauer

Josef Matthias Hauer

Josef Mattias Hauer was an Austrian composer and music theorist. He is most famous for developing, independent of and a year or two before Arnold Schoenberg, a method for composing with all 12 notes of the chromatic scale.Hauer "detested all art that expressed ideas, programmes or feelings,"...

 called “tropes”). These groups serve as the focus of passages that may either be written out in all details, or partly improvised. Bois expertly fashions such sections, either as monolithic blocks or, by contrast, in a counterpointing of different groups (McDermott 1967, 152). Even in a fully notated score such as Muziek voor altblokfluit (1961), when working within these fixed pitch complexes du Bois said he had the feeling of improvising "like a jazz piano player" (quoted in [Brüggen] 1971). Stage layout also became an important part of the score in ensemble pieces such as Espaces a remplir (Read 1998, 125).

His treatment of rhythm became increasingly free over the course of the 1960s. Earlier on, temporal order is maintained, if only in a general way. His early Three Pieces for Clarinet (1958), for example, present metronomically specified, but flexible and varied rhythmic structures without bar lines, which nevertheless are carefully measured rhythmically (O'Loughlin 1982a, 113). However, by the mid-sixties—for example in Pour faire chanter la polonaise (1965)—rhythmic control is almost completely abandoned so far as notation is concerned, while pitch and dynamics continue to be exactly prescribed (McDermott 1967, 152).

By the early seventies, Bois had begun to incorporate quotations

Musical quotation

Musical quotation is the practice of directly quoting another work in a new composition. The quotation may be from the same composer's work , or from a different composer's work ....

 from earlier music, as in the Concerto pour Hrisanide (1971), or just generally familiar material, such as suddenly breaking into "traditional" melody-and-accompaniment figurations in Fusion pour deux (1971) and New Pieces for piano (1972). One of the earliest and most extreme examples is the orchestral music for the ballet Midas (1970), which contains quotations from the works of Johann Strauss, Jr., Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

, Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...

, and John Blow

John Blow

John Blow was an English Baroque composer and organist, appointed to Westminster Abbey in 1669. His pupils included William Croft, Jeremiah Clarke and Henry Purcell. In 1685 he was named a private musician to James II. His only stage composition, Venus and Adonis John Blow (baptised 23 February...

. This return to familiar material was seen on the one hand as the emergence of "a more individual style" (Anon. 1973), displaying "a rare talent for musical comedy as well as a habit of boldly exploring the possibilities of avant-garde matter in a joyful manner" (Ramaer 2001a). On the other hand, particularly by American critics reviewing printed scores rather than performances, this was regarded as a "haphazard and sketchy" carelessness of vertical or linear movement, resulting in textures "perforated by absentminded silences" (Swift 1972)—an arbitrary and unjustified usage of clichés from the "catalog of newly-invented and already-used-up effects" in vogue at that time, as well as an indifference toward sonority, intensified by a "gaucheness of the 'traditional' passages" (Burge 1973, 361).

Although different sylistic fields often overlap in Dutch music of the 1970s and 1980s, Bois did not adopt the minimalism

Minimalist music

Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....

 that became fashionable at that time in the Netherlands. His music from around 1985 is associated with that of composers such as Konrad Boehmer

Konrad Boehmer

Konrad Boehmer is a Dutch composer and writer of German birth.Boehmer was born in Berlin. His music reflects his Marxist political agenda, which is made explicit in many of his writings from the late 1960s and 1970s...

, Walter Hekster

Walter Hekster

Walter Hekster is a Dutch composer, clarinetist and conductor of classical music, specializing in contemporary classical music....

, Ton de Kruyf, and Jan Vriend

Jan Vriend

Jan Vriend is a Dutch classical music composer, conductor and pianist.Vriend was born in Benningbroek, North Holland, and studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory from 1960 to 1967, with Else Krijgsoman , Anthon van der Horst and Jan Felderhof , and Ton de Leeuw...

, who are described as "post-serial" in style (Samama 2006, 315).

Prizes and distinctions

Bois received the ANV Visser Neerlandiaprijs twice: in 1966 for his work Pour deux violons and in 1964 for his Muziek voor Altblokfluit.

Jurist

In the law, Bois has specialised in author/musician rights

Music licensing

Music licensing is the licensed use of copyrighted music. Music licensing is intended to ensure that the creators of musical works get paid for their work. A purchaser of recorded music owns the media on which the music is stored, not the music itself...

 and copyright law, and was legal counsel to (and head of the legal department of) the Dutch musicians-rights organisation BUMA

BUMA/STEMRA

BUMA/STEMRA are two private organizations in the Netherlands, the Buma Association and the Stemra Foundation that operate as one single company that acts as the Dutch collecting society for composers and music publishers.- History :The Buma Association was set up by Dutch music authors and...

 (Bureau voor MuziekAuteursrecht) (Anon. 1999; Bois 1992, 3; Ramaer 2001a).

Bois was consulted by the Dutch Society of Composers in April 1974 in a widely publicized case in which the composer Hans Kox declared himself a victim of "cultural murder" after a number of music critics had unanimously savaged Kox’s opera Dorian Gray, and a group of colleagues led by Tera de Marez Oyens

Tera de Marez Oyens

Tera de Marez Oyens was a Dutch composer.De Marez Oyens was born as Woltera Gerharda Wansink. She studied at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with a major in piano. Here, her talent for composition was discovered as she wrote her first pieces. These included chamber music and song cycles...

 called on the Society to take legal action against a “conspiracy” of "shameful criticism" (Beer 2005).

In addition to his work within the Netherlands, Bois has published internationally on these subjects, and later became recognised as an authority in the area of copyright issues involved with sound sampling

Sampling (music)

In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...

 (Bois 1992). Since his retirement from BUMA in 1994 he has continued to appear at public forums in the Netherlands as an expert in copyright law and music (Beer 1998; Ramaer 2001a).

Music

• 1968. "Zevenentwintig informaties over de vorm." Raster 2, no. 1 (April), 95–109.
• 1976. "And There Were Others Too (Composers in the Netherlands between the End of the First World War and 1930)". Key Notes, no. 3:46–53.
• 1983. "Dead Pigeons Are Falling around Me". Key Notes, no. 18:20–22.
• 1996. "Brieven". Mens en Melodie 51 (October): 464–65.

Law

• 1978. The Author, His Work and His Copyrights Society: General Report for the Congress of the ALAI in Paris, May 29–June 3, 1978. Amsterdam: [n.p.].
• 1988. (with J. van Santbrink and H. Spoorj) "Stijlnabootsing van Muziekwerken". Report commissioned by BUMA.
• 1991. L'histoire de l'ALAI depuis la deuxième guerre mondiale, exprimée en resolutions, commentaires et voeux. Paris: Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale.
• 1992. "Les aspects juridiques du sound sampling". Bulletin du droit d’auteur (UNESCO) 26, no. 2:3–7. ISSN 0304-2928. [English version, “The Legal Aspects of Sound Sampling”, Copyright Bulletin (UNESCO) 26, no. 2:3–6; Spanish version, “Los aspectos jurídicos del muestreo de sonidos (sound sampling)”, Boletín de Derecho de Autor (UNESCO) 26, no. 2:3-7.]

Performer

• 1971: Grusse aus Berchtesgaden: ICP (Instant Composers Pool), 1968–1970. Instant Composers Pool ICP 007/008 (2 LPs). On disc 1, Bois plays glockenspiel and organ on track 1 and piano on track 3 ("Grüsse aus Berchtesgaden" and "François le Marin", both for the play Toller, recorded 28 October 1969); piano on track 5 ("Introduction and First Entrance of the Horsemen" for the play De ruiters, recorded 28 August 1968), and organ on track 6 ("Song of the Lusitanian Bully II" for the play Gezang van de Lusitaanse bullebak, recorded 26 March 1969). On disc 2, Bois plays piano and organ on tracks 1 ("Lass mich nicht weinen IV", recorded 22 November 1969) & 6 ("Tussen de dijen van'n mokkel", recorded 8 January 1970), piano on tracks 2 ("Touches" for the play Toller, recorded 27 October 1969), 3 ("Fascinating Appie" for the play Oog om oog, tand om tand, recorded 7 February 1970) & 7 ("Five Songs from The Lusitanian Bully", for the play Gezang van de Lusitaanse bullebak, recorded 26 March 1969)
• 2001. Willem Breuker, "The Pirate": Previously Unreleased Recordings 1969–1994. BVhaast 0301 (1 CD). Amsterdam: BVHaast. [Bois plays organ on track 1, (Overture to the play Oog om oog, tand om tand, recorded 13 February 1970), piano and synthesizer on tracks 2, 3, 6, 9 (from the incidental music for Koninkrijk, recorded March 1977), and piano and organ on track 15 (Overture to De Spaanse hoer, recorded 21 December 1969)]

Compositions

• 1966. Opus 66: Highlights in Dutch Avant-Garde Music. Radio Nederland 109582 Y. LP recording: 1 sound disc, analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Hilversum: Radio Nederland. Bois: Quartet, for oboe, violin, viola, violoncello (Netherlands Oboe Quartet: Victor Swillens, oboe; Jan Wittenberg, violin; Adriaan van 't Wout, viola; Max Werner, cello), with music by Kruyf, Straesser, and Eisma.
• 1972. Canti carnascialeschi. Donemus Audio-Visual Series, 1971-72: no. 4. Donemus DAVS 7172/4. LP recording: 1 sound disc, analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo.12 in. Amsterdam: Donemus, DAVS 7172/4. Bois: Summer Music, with music by Heppener, Bruins, Borgart, Eisma, Werner, Hupperts, Voorberg, and Vlijmen
• 1973. Opus 72. Radio Nederland 6808 107. LP recording: 1 sound disc, analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo.; 12 in. Hilversum, Netherlands: Radio Nederland. Bois: Concerto pour Hrisanide (Alexander Hrisanide, piano, electronic organ, toy piano and tom tom; Hilversum Radio Chamber Orchestra; Roelof Krol, conductor); and works by Ton de Leeuw and Tristan Keuris.
• 1973. Il flauto dolce e acerbo. Michael Vetter, recorder. Corona SM30020. LP recording. Reissued 1974, Moeck E.M. 10 003. LP recording. [Ludwigsburg]: Moeck. Reissued 1999 as Il flauto dolce e acerbo: Neue Musik für Blockflöte, Vol. 2. Cadenza CAD 800 850. CD recording. Rob du Bois: Pastorale VII, and music by Jürg Baur
  Jürg Baur
  Jürg Baur was a German composer of classical music.-Education:Baur was born in Düsseldorf, where he achieved early recognition as a composer at the age of 18, when his First String Quartet was premiered at the Düsseldorf Hindenburg Secondary School by the then-famous Prisca Quartet...
  
  , Klaus Hashagen, Dieter Schönbach, and Michael Vetter.
• 1975 Hans-Martin Linde spielt alte und neue Blockflötenmusik. Hans-Martin Linde, recorder; Konrad Ragossnig, guitar & lute. EMI Electrola 1 C 065-28 841. LP recording: 1 sound disc, analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo., 12 in. Cologne: EMI Electrola. Rob du Bois: Pastorale VII, and works by Anonymous, Telemann, Bassano, Bossinensis, and Linde.
• 1975. Music from the 1975 Holland Festival. Benita Valente; Norma Procter; René Jacobs; Alexander Oliver, tenor.; Michael Rippon; Lyne Dourian; Bernard Kruysen; Anne Fournet; Nikolaus Harnoncourt; Jean Fournet; Willem Frederik Bon. Radio Nederland 6808 401—6808 402 LP recording: 2 sound discs, analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Hilversum: Radio Nederland. Bois: Allegro, for strings, and music by Handel, Milhaud, Nico Schuyt, and Willem de Fesch.
• 1979. Nederlandse muziek. EMI His Master's Voice: 1A 051-26331. LP recording 1 sound disc: analog, 33⅓ rpm, stereo, 12 in. Bois: Skarabee, and music by Heppener, Jurriaan Andriessen, Orthel, Frid, Breuker, Delden, Manneke, Flothuis, and Porcelijn.
• 1985. Ein Meister der Blockflöte. Sebastian Kelber, recorder; Elza van der Ven-Ulsamer, harpsichord; Josef Ulsamer, viola da gamba; Gyula Rácz, percussion. Colosseum COL 0643. LP recording: 1 sound disc, analog, stereo, 33⅓ rpm,12 in. Nuremberg: Colosseum Music Entertainment GmbH. Rob du Bois: Pastorale VII, and works by Vivaldi, J. C. Bach, Telemann, Erhard Karkoschka, Berio, and Werner Heider.
• 1993. Kasseler Avantgarde-Reihe I. Nadine Heydemann, recorder; Ute Landwich, piano. Mieroprint EM 6002 (1 CD). Münster: Mieroprint Musikverlag und Versandhandel. Bois: Muziek voor altblokfluit, and compositions by Hirose, Shinohara, Casken, Masuch, Rühling, and Michel.
• 2008. Peschel, Dorit. Neue Blockflötenmusik des 20. Jahrhuderts. Audiotransit ATCD2-004 (1 CD). (Includes Pastoral VII by Rob du Bois, with works by Heider, Berio, Shinohara, Karkoschka, Riehm, Ishii, Braun, Spahn, Rühling, Martini, and Bieler.) [Germany]: C + P Audiotransit.
• 2009. Music in Motion. Abbie de Quant (flute), Elizabeth van Malde (piano). Fineline Classical FL 72413. (Rob Du Bois: Bewegingen, with works by Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Otar Taktakishvili, Robert Zuidam, and Sofia Gubaidulina)

Stage

• Midas, ballet music, for orchestra (1970)
• Vandaag is het morgen van gisteren: (helaas geen sprookje) [Today Is the Tomorrow of Yesterday: (Alas, Not a Fairytale)], for speaking voice, soprano, SA children’s choir, orchestra, and brass band (text by Rob du Bois and Willem Jan Wegerif) (1975)

Orchestra/band

• Allegro, for string orchestra (1973)
• A Flower Given to My Daughter, for orchestra (1970)
• My Daughter's Flower, for brass band (1982)
• Simultaneous, for orchestra (1965)
• Skarabee, for orchestra (1977)
• Suite no. 1, for orchestra (1973)
• Tre pezzi, for orchestra (1973)

Concertante

• Breuker Concerto, for 4 saxophones, 2 clarinets, and 21 strings (1967)
• Cercle, for piano, 9 wind instruments, and percussion (1963)
• Concertino, for school orchestra (1963)
• Concerto for piano and orchestra (1960; rev. 1968)
• Concerto for violin and orchestra (1975)
• Concerto for two violins and orchestra (1979)
• Le Concerto pour Hrisanide, for piano and orchestra (1968–71)
• Heliotrope, for a solo instrument and an optional number of accompanists (1967)
• Vertiges, for contrabass and two wind quintets (1987)

Chamber orchestra/large ensemble

• Espaces à remplir, for eleven musicians (1963)
• Fleeting, for clarinet choir (1997)
• Sinfonia da camera, for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, contrabassoon and 4 horns (1980)
• Springtime, for 11 musicians: piccolo, soprano-, tenor- and alto saxophone, horn, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, tuba, and piano (1978)

Chamber music

• Ad libitum, for violin and piano (1965)
• Adagio cantabile, for tenor recorder and piano (1979)
• Allegro, for four pianos (1978)
• Amalgamated music, for 4 slide trombones (1978)
• Ars aequi, for piano and two contrabasses (1984)
• Autumn leaves, for guitar and harpsichord (1984)
• Axioma, for two pianos, each four-hands (1982)
• Bagatellen (7), for flute and piano (1971)
• Basso doble, for contrabass and piano (1973)
• Beams, for oboe and piano (1979)
• Beat music, for 2 percussionists (1967)
• Bewegingen [Movements], for piccolo and piano (1961; later rev. flute and piano)
• Because It Is, for 4 clarinets (1973)
• The Caretaker: Three Impressions after Harold Pinter, for alto saxophone and marimba (1986)
• Chansons voor appâter les chéiroptères, for oboe, 2 oboes d'amore, and 2 English horns (1975)
• Chants en contrepoints, for wind quintet (1962)
• A Combination of Voices, for 2 pianos (1968)
• Danses tristes (3), for horn in F and viola (1954)
• The Dog Named Boo Has a Master Called Lobo, for clarinet, violin, and piano (1972)
• The Eighteenth of June, for 4 saxophones (1974)
• Elegia, for oboe d'amore, violin, viola, and cello (1980, arr. oboe d'amore and string orchestra 1995)
• Enigma, for flute, bass clarinet, percussion, and piano (1969)
• Forever Amber, for two guitars (1985)
• Fünf, for oboe, clarinet, and bassoon (1996)
• Fusion voor deux, for bass clarinet and piano (1971)
• Gaberbocchus, for 4 pianos (1996)
• Die Gretchenfrage, for flute and piano (2004)
• Herman's Hide-Away, for soprano saxophone and piano (1976)
• His Flow of Spirits Is Something Wonderful: Cheerful Music, for flute, bass clarinet, and piano (1979)
• Hyperion, for clarinet, horn, viola, and piano (1984; rev. 1985)
• Iguanodon, for 6 bass clarinets and 3 contrabass clarinets (1982)
• The Independent (Fourth String Quartet) (1989–90)
• Das Liebesverbot, for four Wagner tubas (1986)
• Little Pieces (7), for violin and piano (1965) [transcribed from Seven Little Piano Pieces, date unknown]
• Luna, for alto flute and piano (1987; orchestrated 1987)
• Melody, for bass clarinet and string quartet (1974)
• Mir träumte von einem Königskind, for horn and piano (1979)
• Mood music, for oboe and organ (1965)
• Musica per quattro, for horn, 2 trumpets, and trombone (1967)
• Musique d'atelier, for bass clarinet, trombone, cello, and piano (1968; rev. 1973)
• My River Runs to Thee, for 3 guitars (1978)
• Night music, for flute, viola, and guitar (1967)
• Odes (2), for violin and piano (1975) (contribution to Een suite voor De Suite, ten compositions for piano (2- and 4-handed), two pianos, and violin and piano, by ten composers)
• Pastorale I, for oboe, clarinet, and harp (1960; rev. 1969)
• Pastorale II, for recorder, flute, and guitar (1963–69)
• Pastorale III, for E-flat clarinet, bongos, and contrabass (1963)
• Pastorale V, for string quartet (String Quartet No. 2) (1966)
• Per due, for flute and harp (1968)
• Polonaise, for a pianist and a percussionist (1971)
• Pour deux violons, for two violins (1966)
• Quartet no. 1, for strings (1960)
• Quartet no. 2, for strings [see: Pastorale V] (1966)
• Quartet no. 3, for strings (1981)
• Quartet no. 4, for strings [see: The Independent] (1990)
• Quartet, for oboe, violin, violin, and cello (1960; rev. 1964)
• Réflexions sur le jour où Pérotin le Grand ressuscitera, for wind quintet (1969)
• Rondeaux pour deux, for piano four-hands, optional percussion and optional speaking voice (text by R. du Bois and L. Langeveld) (1962).
• Rondeaux (Deuxième série), for piano four-hands and optional percussion (1964)
• Rounds, for clarinet and piano (1967)
• Sad Dances (3), for 2 violas (1954)
• Sonata for cello and piano (1982)
• Sonata for violin and piano (1980)
• Songs, for violin, cello, and piano (1998)
• Spiel en Zwischenspiel, for alto recorder and piano (1962)
• Stukken (2) (Two Pieces), for flute, oboe, and cello (1962)
• Summer Music, for alto saxophone, violin, and cello (1967)
• Symphorine, for flute and string trio (1987)
• Symposion, for oboe, violin, viola, and cello (1969)
• Thalatta, Thalatta, for four bass flutes (1987)
• Tracery, for bass clarinet and 4 percussionists (1979)
• Trio for flute, oboe, and clarinet (1961)
• Trio, for violin, viola, and cello (1967)
• Trio agitato, for horn, trombone, and tuba (1969)
• Ut supra, for viola and piano (1973)
• Vladimir's Hyde Away, for viola and piano
• Zodiak, for one or more instruments or instrumental groups (1977)

Keyboard

• The Andino Sonata, for piano (1988)
• Archipels for harpsichord (1974)
• Cadences, for piano (1975)
• Études (3), for piano (1967)
• Four Indulgent Pieces, for piano (1988)
• Just Like a Little Sonata, for piano (1964)
• Kleine Klavierstücke (7) (1953; rev. 1968) [also arr. violin and piano (see: Chamber music)]
• New Pieces, for piano (1972)
• Pastorale VI, for piano (1964)
• Sonatine for piano (1960)
• Song (without words) no. 4, for piano solo (1992; rev. 2000 by Maarten Bon)
• Voices, for piano (1966)

Other instruments

• Chemin, for bass clarinet solo (1971)
• Une Danse pour Sonia, for clarinet solo (1973)
• Jeu, for oboe (1969)
• Mercy for John Vincent Moon, for piano (1976)
• Music for Solo Flute (1961)
• Music for Alto Recorder (1961)
• Music for a Slide Trombone (1968)
• On a Lion's Interlude, for alto flute (1986)
• Pastorale IV, for guitar (1963)
• Pastorale VII, for alto recorder (1964)
• Pieces (3), for clarinet (1958)
• Quatre invocations, for bassoon solo (1976)
• Ranta music, for a percussionist (1968; rev. 1971)
• Sketch, for cello and piano (1968)
• Sonata for solo viola (1981)
• Sonata no. 1, for solo violin (1955)
• Sonata no. 2, for solo violin (1992)
• Souvenir, for violin (Soir pour violon) (1969)
• Spellbound: on Baldrick's 110-inch Contrabass Recorder with Extension, or: How Dorinde Got a New-born Brother, for contrabass recorder (1976)

Vocal

• Because Going Nowhere Takes a Long Time, for medium voice, flute and piano (text by Kenneth Patchen
  Kenneth Patchen
  Kenneth Patchen was an American poet and novelist. Though he denied any direct connection, Patchen's work and ideas regarding the role of artists paralleled those of the Dadaists, the Beats, and Surrealists...
  
  ) (1967); version for soprano, clarinet, and piano (1969)
• Diotima, for a singer, clarinet, viola, and piano, on a text by Friedrich Hölderlin
  Friedrich Hölderlin
  Johann Christian Friedrich Hölderlin was a major German lyric poet, commonly associated with the artistic movement known as Romanticism. Hölderlin was also an important thinker in the development of German Idealism, particularly his early association with and philosophical influence on his...
  
   (1984; rev. 1985)
• Drei traurige Tänze, for alto voice and viola (texts by Stefan George
  Stefan George
  Stefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
  
  ’s Das Jahr der Seele) (1954)
• Une façon de dire que les hommes de cent vingt ans ne chantent plus, for soprano, piano, and 4 percussion instruments (1963)
• Inferno, for soprano, 2 violins, cello, and harpsichord (text by Dante Alighieri
  Dante Alighieri
  Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
  
  ) (1974)
• Lieder (20), for voice and piano (1951–71)
• Pour faire chanter la polonaise for flute, soprano, and 3 pianos (1965)
• Eine Rede, for soprano, clarinet, basset horn, and bass clarinet (text by Walther von der Vogelweide
  Walther von der Vogelweide
  Walther von der Vogelweide is the most celebrated of the Middle High German lyric poets.-Life history:For all his fame, Walther's name is not found in contemporary records, with the exception of a solitary mention in the travelling accounts of Bishop Wolfger of Erla of the Passau diocese:...
  
  ) (1974)
• Songs of Innocence: countertenor, tenor recorder, and contrabass, on a text by Willem Jan Wegerif (1974)
• Les Voyages de Gulliver: four fragments, for mezzo-soprano and piano (1967)
• Words, for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, and piano (1966)