I have to confess guilt: in my posts about Dutch music, I have failed to include Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952), even though she wrote great cello music.
.jpg)
Henriëtte Bosmans's parents were respectively a cellist (with the Concertgebouw Orchestra) and a pianist, so she had music in her blood. As a pianist herself, from the age of seventeen she performed regularly in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. From 1914 she began composing pieces for piano and took composition lessons. In 1919 her violin sonata was performed publicly for the first time. She wrote mainly chamber music and songs and - after orchestration lessons in 1921-22 with Cornelis Dopper - also orchestral music, often with a soloistic role for the cello. As she strove to create more of a contemporary style, she apprenticed with Willem Pijper from 1927 to 1930.
In 1941, she was banned from performing by the German occupiers because she was half-Jewish. After World War II, she began to compose (almost exclusively songs) and perform again.
Bosmans had a remarkably modern style, in which she was inspired by the musical pioneers of her time - especially by Debussy - but still found her own way. From her teacher Pijper she adopted polytonality. Her music is also mainly impressionistic, with a predilection for unexpected twists in measure and key. She wrote sonatas for violin and for cello, two concertos for the cello, for the violin and the flute, a piano trio, a string quartet, and shorter pieces for cello and piano. Between 1920 and 1952 she wrote numerous songs, some even on (translated) texts of Chinese classical poets like Li Bai and Du Fu.
The cello sonata, written in 1919, is played by Lawrence Stomberg, cello, and Ketty Nez, piano. The movements are: allegro maestoso, un poco allegretto, adagio, and allegro molto e con fuoco. It is a very powerful work, with clear lines and sharp edges.
Article about the cello sonata by Bosmans.
(My introduction borrows from the Dutch version of Wikipedia)
Women Composers Index