Pieter Hellendaal

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Pieter Hellendaal (1 April 1721 – 19 April 1799) was an organist and violinist, and one of the most famous composers of Dutch origin in the 1700s. At age 30, he migrated to England where he lived for the last 48 of his 78 years.

Contents

[edit] Life

[edit] Early and Student Years

Hellendaal was born in Rotterdam. At age 12, with little musical training, Hellendaal was appointed in 1733 as organist for the St. Nicholas church in Utrecht. Four years later, at age 15, he embarked on an educational journey to Italy for six years (1737-1743). For two years of this journey (1740-1742) he studied in Padua with Giuseppe Tartini, the most famous violinist of that time.

Returning in 1742 from Italy to the Netherlands, Hellendaal sometime in 1744-5 completed his first published work, his Six Violin Sonatas. For two years, 1749 until 1751, he continued his musical studies at Leiden University.

[edit] England

In 1752, at age thirty, Hellendaal moved to England where in London he established himself as a prominent composer and violin soloist. He soon made the acquaintance of George Frideric Handel, and in 1754, he helped Handel with a presentation of Acis and Galatea (HWV49a/b). From 1760 to 1762, he made his living expenses by working as the organist for St. Margaret's Church in King's Lynn, Norfolk, a port town about 110 miles northwest of London.

[edit] Cambridge University

When he was age forty, in 1762, the university's Pembroke College hired Hellendaal as organist. He taught, gave concerts, composed, and in 1777 was appointed organist in the Chapel of the university's Peterhouse College. Here he stayed and worked until he died 37 years later in 1799.

[edit] Works

His works include virtuoso violin sonatas in the Italian late Baroque style; Three Grand Lessons for keyboard, violin, and continuo (published ca. 1790); a cantata, and vocal works (including canons, catches, and glees). His Six Concerti Grossi (published ca.1758, Opus 3, in eight parts) retained the older style - where several different soloists interact with a somewhat larger group of players who provide the larger orchestral texture - because its popularity lingered for decades after it became unfashionable on the Continent.

[edit] Some Prominent Works

  • Six grand concertos opera terzo. - Huntigdon : King's Music, 1991 (Repr. d. Ausg. London 1758)
  • A collection of psalms and hymns for the use of parish churches (1793)