Alexander Voormolen
Alexander Nicolaas Voormolen was a Dutch composer.
Family
Voormolen was the son of Alieda/Aleida Maria Wentholt and the Rotterdam chief of police Willem Voormolen, who died when Alexander was fourteen. His mother died in 1913, when he was 18. In 1918, he married Marcelle Henriette Chouillet, the daughter of a minister; a divorce followed two years later. In 1928, he married Alice Clifford Grierson, daughter of Herbert [John Clifford Grierson], professor of English literature at the University of Edinburgh. This marriage also did not last long, as she remarried to physician Frederik van Nouhuijs in 1934. In later years, he became friends with singer/singing teacher Titi Fermin, daughter of concert singer Adelin Fermin and pupil of Berthe Seroen. Voormolen died in the Prinsenhof nursing home in Leidschendam after a long illness. He was cremated at the Ockenburgh Crematorium in The Hague. His daughter from his second marriage, Alice Lucie Adrienne Voormolen, was the goddaughter of Lucie van Dam van Isselt and worked for many years as a secretary at the Netherlands Red Cross.Education
Voormolen studied piano with Willem and Marinus Petri and composition with Johan Wagenaar at the Toonkunst Musical Academy in Utrecht. His classmates included Willem Pijper and Jacob van Domselaer. He went to Paris in 1915 at the invitation of conductor Rhené-Bâton, where he studied with Albert Roussel and met Maurice Ravel and Frederick Delius, among others.Activities
He returned to the Netherlands in 1919 and settled in Veere, later in The Hague from 1923. He was a music reviewer at the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant and librarian of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague for many years.Compositions
Understandably, Voormolen was initially mainly influenced by French impressionism. Later, more Dutch influences were noticeable, for instance in his compositions Tableaux des Pays-Bas, two "children's books", both Baron Hop suites and the Pastorale for oboe and string orchestra. Voormolen was an admirer of Louis Couperus. He composed a number of orchestral works inspired by Couperus, such as Eline and the Kleine Haagse suite. The Canzone from the oboe concert was used as a tune for the Dutch TV show De kleine zielen, based on Couperus' novel. Finally, the influence of Max Reger and Anton Bruckner can be heard in later works, such as the Sinfonia Concertante and the Ciacona e fuga.He dedicated his Manchmal geschieht es in tiefer Nacht to Lien Korter, and his work Madrigal to singer Elisabeth Cooymans. His works were performed by major orchestras. For example, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra performed Sinfonia under the direction of Willem Mengelberg; this combination also gave performances of De drie ruitertjes and Baron Hop-suite nr. 2. Voormolen also conducted the orchestra himself four times, one of which included a performance of his Concerto for ''two oboes with Haakon Stotijn and Jaap Stotijn as soloists. The work was also performed in the same combination under the baton of Eduard van Beinum, Willem Mengelberg, Hein Jordans and Jean Fournet. Voormolen's works were performed at 39 of that orchestra's concerts. The Residentie Orchestra, conducted by Willem van Otterloo, and the Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Henk Spruit, also performed his work.
Voormolen destroyed several of his works after World War II, including the aforementioned Sinfonia''.