Bernhard Meyer
Bernhard van den Sigtenhorst Meyer was a Dutch pianist, composer, and publicist, and a leading expert on the work of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck. He was born in Amsterdam on 17 June 1888 and died in The Hague on 17 July 1953.
He was the son of Hendrik Diderik Bernhard Meijer, a butter and cheese merchant known in the chess world, and Anna Gerarda van den Sigtenhorst. After attending secondary school in Amsterdam, he studied music theory with Daniël de Lange, piano with Jean-Baptiste de Pauw, and composition with Bernard Zweers between 1910 and 1912.
His compositional style combined late Romanticism, Impressionism, exoticism, and modernity. Eastern imagery, particularly following his travels to Java and other places, and Western religious thought were frequent sources of inspiration. He destroyed many works from his conservatory years. His study of Renaissance music and Baroque polyphony also informed the imitative, continuously developed structures often found in his music.
In 1916 he met the poet and singer Rient van Santen, with whom he became friends. They presented concerts together from 1916 to 1927 and shared a home in The Hague from 1919, where colleagues and friends gathered. Van Santen had a strong influence on Sigtenhorst Meyer and inspired several compositions. Until 1923, his output was marked by short works and an interest in Eastern philosophy; a joint journey through the Dutch East Indies in 1923 further increased Oriental influences in his music.
In 1935 he co-founded the Association for Protestant Church Music. He worked for many years as a private piano teacher and initially avoided a conservatory career, but later taught piano and composition at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. After the Second World War, he was an active member of the Dutch Federation of Professional Associations of Artists and the Dutch Council of Musicians.
His works include piano pieces such as Of the Flowers, Old China, Six Views of Fuji, The Meuse, Old Castles, two piano sonatas, two sonatinas, and two capriccios. He also wrote string quartets; works for solo violin, flute, cello, and oboe; music for violin and piano; organ works including Passacaglia and Fugue; choral music including the oratorio Buddha's Temptation and a Stabat Mater; sacred songs for women's choir; and psalms.
His extensive research on Sweelinck resulted in two monographs: Sweelinck and His Instrumental Music (1934; second edition, 1946) and The Vocal Music of Sweelinck (1948).