Badings, Henk (actually, Hendrik Herman)

Badings, Henk (actually, Hendrik Herman), eminent Dutch composer and pedagogue; b. Bandung, Dutch East Indies, Jan. 17, 1907; d. Maar-heeze, June 26, 1987. He was orphaned at an early age and taken to the Netherlands; studied mining engineering at the Delft Polytechnic Univ. before taking up composition without formal training; an early sym. was premiered by Mengelberg and the Concertgebouw Orch. in Amsterdam (July 6, 1930). After composition lessons with Pijper (1930–31), he taught at the Rotterdam Cons. (1934–37), the Amsterdam Lyceum (1937–41), and the Royal Cons. of Music at The Hague (1941–45). In 1945 he was barred from professional activities as a cultural collaborator during the Nazi occupation of his homeland, but in 1947 was permitted to resume his career. From 1961 to 1977 he taught at the Univ. of Utrecht musicological inst.; also was a prof. of composition at the Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik (1966–72). Badings began his career as a composer in the Romantic vein. In his melodic foundation, he often employed the scale of alternating major and minor seconds. From 1950 he experimented with electronic sound and also adapted some of his works to the scale of 31 melodic divisions devised by the Dutch physicist Adriaan Fokker.

Works

DRAMATIC: Opera: De Nachtwacht (The Night Watch; 1942; Antwerp, May 13, 1950); Liebesranke (Love’s Ruses; 1944–45; Hilversum, Jan. 6, 1948); Orestes, radio opera (Florence, Sept. 24, 1954); Asterion, radio opera (Johannesburg, April 11, 1958); Salto mortale, television chamber opera (Dutch TV, Eindhoven, June 19, 1959; first opera to be accompanied solely by electronic sound); Martin Korda, D.P. (Amsterdam, June 15, 1960). ballet for instruments:Balletto Grottesco for 2 Pianos (1939); Orpheus und Eurydike for Soloists, Chorus, and Orch. (Amsterdam, April 17, 1941); Balletto Serioso for Orch. or 2 Pianos (1955); Balletto Notturno for 2 Pianos (1975). Ballet For Electronic Sound: Kain und Abel (The Hague, June 21, 1958; first all-electronic sound ballet); Evolutions (Hannover, Sept. 28, 1958); Der sechste Tag (Innsbruck, Nov. 7, 1959); Jungle (Amsterdam, 1959); The Woman of Andras (Hannover, April 14, 1960); Marionetten (Salzburg, 1961). ORCH.: 4 violin concertos (1928; 1933–35; 1944; 1947); 1 unnumbered sym. (Amsterdam, July 6, 1930); 14 numbered syms.: No. 1 for 16 Solo Instruments (1932; Hilversum, March 19, 1959), No. 2 (Amsterdam, Oct. 5, 1932), No. 3 (1934; Amsterdam, May 2, 1935), No. 4 (1943; Rotterdam, Oct. 13, 1947), No. 5 (Amsterdam, Dec. 7, 1949), No. 6, Psalm, for Chorus and Orch. (Haarlem, June 25, 1953), No. 7, Louisville (1954; Louisville, Ky, Feb. 26, 1955), No. 8, Hannover (1956; Vancouver, Jan. 11, 1957), No. 9 for Strings (1959; Amsterdam, Dec. 17, 1960), No. 10 (1961; Rotterdam, Jan. 29, 1962), No. 11, Sinfonia Giocosa (Eindhoven, Oct. 26, 1964), No. 12, Symphonische klang-figuren (The Hague, Nov. 20, 1964), No. 13 for Wind Orch. (Pittsburgh, June 29, 1967), and No. 14, Symphonische Triptiek (Ghent, Sept. 4, 1968); 2 cello concertos (1930, 1939); 2 piano concertos (1939; Atlantic Dances, 1955); Saxophone Concerto (1951–52); 2 organ concertos (1952, 1966); 2 concertos for 2 Violins and Orch. (1954, 1969); 2 flute concertos (1956, 1963); Concerto for Bassoon, Double Bassoon, and Wind Orch. (1964); Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orch. (1964); Concerto for Viola and Strings (1965); Pittsburgh Concerto for Clarinet, Brass, Percussion, and Tape (1965); Concerto for Violin, Viola, and Orch. (1965); Concerto for 3 Horns, Wind Orch., and Tape (1970); American Folk Song Suite, concerto for English Horn and Wind Orch. (1975); Azioni musicali (1980); Triple Concerto No. 3 for Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, and Orch. (1981); Concerto for Orch. (1982); Quadruple Concerto for 4 Saxophones and Orchestra (1984); Serenade for Strings (1985). CHAMBER: 6 quintets: No. 1 for Flute, Piano, and String Trio (1928), No. 2 for Wind Quintet (1929), No. 3 for Harp, Flute, and String Trio (1936), No. 4 for Wind Quintet (1948), No. 5 for Piano Quintet (1952), and No. 6 for Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Guitar, and Harp (1986); 2 cello sonatas (1929, 1934); 6 string quartets (1931, 1936, 1944, 1966, 1980, 1984); 5 violin sonatas (1933; 1939; 1952; 1931, rescored 1966; 1984); 9 trios for Various Instrumental Combinations (1934–62); 3 sonatas for Solo Violin (1940, 1951, 1951); 2 sonatas for Solo Cello (1941, 1951); Sonata for Solo Harp (1944); Viola Sonata (1951); much piano music, including 6 sonatas (1934, 1941, 1944, 1945, 1945, 1947); organ pieces. VOCAL: Oratorios: Apocalypse (1948; Rotterdam, Nov. 25, 1959) and Jonah (Adelaide, Sept. 30, 1963); St. Mark Passion (1971; Rotterdam, May 18, 1992); Missa antiphonica (1985); cantatas; choral pieces.

Bibliography

P. Klemme, Catalog of the Works of H. B., 1907–87 (Warren, Mich., 1993).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire