Matthijs Vermeulen

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Matthijs Vermeulen (born Van der Meulen) (February 8, 1888 – July 26, 1967), was a Dutch composer and music journalist. After upsetting the management of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra by shouting Long live Sousa! (the audience thought that Troelstra was meant and feared a revolution) after a performance of the seventh symphony of Cornelis Dopper, ([1]) — the orchestra considered whether or not they could ban specific journalists from the hall. It may also have been due to this that his second symphony, written 1919–20 and entitled Prelude à la nouvelle journée, had to wait until the 1950s for its premiere because the conductor of the orchestra, it is said, would not even look at it (though see also [2]); for whatever reasons Vermeulen decided to practice both his journalism and composition in other lands, in France and in Indonesia, for many years.

His symphonies, especially the last six of his seven, are tonal but also extremely contrapuntal, involving very many musical lines combining simultaneously. In this he resembles Allan Pettersson in some ways. His fifth symphony, which (according to the liner notes of its one recording, on the Dutch label Donemus, anyway) has been performed successfully only during the rehearsals and performance for that recording, and shows these tendencies at their extremes.

His works also include lieder with piano and with orchestra, chamber music including two cello sonatas and a string quartet, and incidental music for The Flying Dutchman.