Jurriaan Andriessen

Who was Jurriaan Andriessen?

Jurriaan Hendrik Andriessen was a Dutch composer, whose father, Hendrik, brother Louis, and uncle Willem have also been notable composers. Andriessen studied composition with his father at the Utrecht Conservatory before moving to Paris where he studied with Olivier Messiaen.

The bulk of Andriessen's output is for the stage; his study in Paris was primarily in writing film music. He had a variety of musical influences which he drew upon, including American film music, Aaron Copland's ballets, folk music of various cultures, neoclassicism, and serialism; this eclecticism combined with his compositional skill made his writing well-suited to scoring dramatic works. His first stage composition was incidental music for "The Miraculous Hour", a play premiered at the celebration of the 50th year of Queen Wilhelmina's reign, in 1948. In 1954 the Haagse Comedie appointed him resident composer, where he wrote scores for Eugene O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, among numerous others.