Alphons Diepenbrock was born on September 2, 1862 in Amsterdam. Between 1900 and 1920 he was without a doubt the best known and most celebrated composer in the Netherlands. His life and career are characterized by the rise of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and conductor Willem Mengelberg, by the renewed revival of Catholic cultural expressions in our country, by his close relationship with the literary movement “De Tachtigers” and by his friendship with numerous intellectuals and artists, including Gustav Mahler. As a composer, Diepenbrock composed almost exclusively vocal music. He wrote many songs, for piano and orchestra. With the orchestral songs he developed a genre that was virtually unknown at the time.
With “Alphons Diepenbrock. Composer of the Vocal” Leo Samama wrote a tribute to this special composer. Diepenbrock’s life as well as his music are central and are enlivened with numerous illustrations and musical examples.
The author Leo Samama is a composer and musicologist. For many years he was a teacher at the Utrecht Conservatory and Utrecht University, and subsequently affiliated with the Residentie Orkest as an artistic coordinator and as director of the Nederlands Kamerkoor. He has previously written, among others, “Thousand Years of British Music”, “Entartete Musik” and “Dutch Music in the 20th Century”.