Willem van Otterloo, "Serenade"

Serenade for brass and percussion

Willem van Otterloo

Born: December 27th, 1907, Winterswijk, Netherlands

Died: July 27th, 1978, Melbourne, Australia

Composed: 1944

Duration: 18 minutes

Conductor and composer, Willem van Otterloo was born in Winterswijk, Netherlands and died in Melbourne, Australia. After studying medicine for a time, he went to the Amsterdam Conservatory where he studied cello under Orobio da Castro and composition with Sem Dresden. He was a young cellist with the Utrecht Municipal Orchestra, when his Suite No. 3 won a composition prize given by the Concertgebouw Orchestra. The first performance of his Suite resulted in a conducting debut with the Concertgebouw, and subsequent conducting positions in Utrecht. He was engaged as conductor of the Hague Resedentie Orchestra in 1949, the Sydney Philharmonic Orchestra in 1972, and as general music director in Dusseldorf in 1974. In addition to his Serenade, he composed a Symphonietta for sixteen woodwinds and horns in 1943.

The Serenade is loosely based on the wind serenades of the 18th and 19th centuries and consists of four movements—Marsch, Nocturne, Scherzo and Hymne. The music, written in 1944, is in a post-romantic style and runs the gamut from charming to brilliant to reflective.

van Otterloo's Serenade is published by Donemus.

- Program notes from DRAM.

van Otterloo, Serenade

De Paul Wind Ensemble, Mary Stolper & Mary Saue, conductors

Additional Resources:

- Primephonic: Willem van Otterloo

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