Donemus Webshop — Hoenderdos, Margriet

Margriet Hoenderdos (1952-2010) was born in Santpoort, The Netherlands. At first she studied piano at the Zwolle conservatory with song accompanist Thom Bollen. On the advice of, among others, Jos Kunst, who taught her in the analysis of contemporary music, she then took composition lessons at the Amsterdam conservatory with Ton de Leeuw. She graduated in 1985 with the so-called ‘Prize for Composition’ which she was the first to receive as a female student. Initially also teaching piano at the Zwolle conservatory, she devoted herself full time to composition from 1987 onward.
Hoenderdos' first works are clearly rooted in the musical world of ‘L'Itinéraire’, an ensemble founded in the 1970s, whose members included Tristan Murail and Gérard Grisey. In this sense, Hoenderdos is the first representative in the Netherlands of so-called spectralism – an acoustic music practice in which compositional decisions are often based on the mathematical analysis of sound spectra. This is particularly true of the works 'Blue Time' (1981) for two pianos and 'Het Nieuwe Verlaat' (1985) for orchestra. The 1983 electronic composition 'Bande Amorce' can also be viewed in this light.
At the same time, beginning in the 1980s, Hoenderdos began to work with complex, self-created numerical series as the basis for her compositions. To generate these sequences, she worked initially with Lisp programming language, and later with C++. Characteristic is the way in which Hoenderdos interprets her series in order to create 'sound objects'. In doing so, she structures so-called 'sound aspects', which include the classical parameters such as pitch and dynamics, but also purely instrumental movements.
In her later work, an affinity with the American experimental music tradition emerges. Crucial here is the idea that certain facets of sound, as, for example, time progression, need not be structured independently, but can be the result of other compositional decisions. In this empirical interest in the purely physical manifestation of sound, Hoenderdos distinguishes herself from European counterparts who are more structurally and historically oriented.
Another feature of Hoenderdos' musical practice is her interest in various other art forms. She collaborated with filmmaker Frederieke Jochems on the films ‘Spiegelzaal’ (1985) and ‘Zout/zoet’ (2006), and at the request of mime company De Daders she composed ‘Sur place’ (1995) for violin, and ‘Sela/Aire’ (1996) for bass clarinet. Hans Faverey wrote his last cycle ‘Het ontbrokene’ specifically for Hoenderdos to set it to music, which resulted in a composition for wind quintet ‘De lussen van Faverey’ (1990). Poet and visual artist Bas Geerts wrote several texts for use in compositions by Hoenderdos, including ‘lifdeslit’ (2003) for baritone and piano and ‘warwords’ (2006) for soprano solo.
Hoenderdos’ oeuvre comprises a total of about sixty works, of which some ensemble and orchestral works are still awaiting premiere. Recordings of her works have been released by Edition Wandelweiser among others, and can be listened to via SoundCloud and Bandcamp.