Henri François Robert Brandts Buys (1850-1905)

[UnsungMasterpieces]

This unsung composer died in my hometown and he's also buried there, so that's how I came across this one.

I've put an English translation of his Dutch Wikipedia article down below:

Henri François Robert Brandts Buijs (Deventer, 20 April 1850 - Ede, 17 October 1905) was a Dutch conductor and composer. He wrote one of the few Dutch operas, Albrecht Beiling, which was performed in 1891. He is a member of the Brandts Buys family, a family well known in music. Like his father Cornelis Alijander Brandts Buys and older brothers Marius Adrianus and Ludwig Felix, he was born with musicality in his genes and chose a profession in music.

Henri perceived the duties of his father as the conductor of the mixed music choir Swelingh in 1868-1869. Then he left for Cologne to further develop his skills as a pianist and composer. Returning to the Netherlands in 1878 he became conductor of a mixed choir in Lochem and the Deventer Mannenkoor which he expanded in 1877 by making a mixed choir. He would remain conductor there until 1880. He was also conductor of the mixed choir Erato from Nijmegen and in the season 1877-1878 he conducted the music choir Zutphen.

From 1878 to 1885 he was conductor of the Amstel Mannenkoor in Amsterdam, and also of the Amsterdam choir Oefening Baart Kunst and Musis Sacrum. He has conducted several major concerts, such as the concert celebrating King William III's seventieth birthday, in which 5000 schoolchildren sang national songs written by members of the Brandts Buys family.

He married on 1 August 1880 in Gorssel to Martine Hesselink, a sister of Pauline Hesselink, the wife of his brother. They had one son, Willem Alijander Hans, whose descendants now live in the United States of America and Tahiti.

A website in Dutch (opusklassiek) mentions that with his "Albrecht Beiling", he composed a for the Dutch music remarkably original Wagnerian work, but that the effect of the dramatic and expressive music is weakened by moments of overthrown pathetics and a weak libretto.

Unfortunately I haven't found any recordings of his music yet, and I doubt there are any.

[Mark Thomas]

I'm guessing that the relatively well-known Dutch composer Jan Brandts Buys is his nephew?

[UnsungMasterpieces]

You're correct! The father of Jan was Marius Adrianus, and Henri François Robert was one of his brothers.

[Ilja]

The Brandts Buyses formed something of a musical dynasty, spread out over five generations beginning in the early 19th century. Grijp's Muziekgeschiedenis der Nederlanden (Musical History of the Low Countries (i.e., including Belgium)) mentions four: Henri, Hans, Ludwig Felix and Marius. The latter two preceded Jan, who despite being by far the most famous of the family curiously isn't even mentioned, probably because he mainly worked outside of the Netherlands and in predominantly "non-serious" music (there is a hint of snobbery in some of the chapters). Hans was an instrumental (pun intended) person in the authentic instruments movement after World War 2.

[eschiss1]

Odd that as I mostly know of Jan for his estimable "serious" music (eg several substantial chamber works, a piano concerto...) (I see his Patria op.36 - for organ or in arrangement?- is recorded on a CD that streams over NML, besides.)

[Ilja]

He seems to have made his living mainly by composing light operas and adaptations of works by older masters. The more "serious" orchestral works, most of which he composed at an advanced age, were already quite old-fashioned by the time he wrote them. The exceptions are the tone poem "Meeressang" (1895), the Piano Concerto and the Karneval overture (both 1899). There is a small output of chamber music, too.