WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.339 Welcome in. It's so great to have you joining 00:00:03.339 --> 00:00:05.940 us for this deep dive. We are unpacking a truly 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:08.500 fascinating journey today. Yeah, a really incredible 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:11.119 life story. Right. We're guided by this comprehensive 00:00:11.119 --> 00:00:14.820 set of source material that details the life, 00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:18.730 the... profound struggles and the revolutionary 00:00:18.730 --> 00:00:21.170 work of Matthijs Vermeulen. And if you're asking 00:00:21.170 --> 00:00:23.390 yourself, you know, who is Matthijs Vermeulen? 00:00:23.649 --> 00:00:25.890 Well, that is exactly our mission today. We're 00:00:25.890 --> 00:00:29.210 going to explore how a blacksmith's son revolutionized 00:00:29.210 --> 00:00:32.310 Dutch music, fought the traditionalist establishment 00:00:32.310 --> 00:00:35.530 tooth and nail. Literally tooth and nail. Endured 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:38.869 just unimaginable personal tragedy and still 00:00:38.869 --> 00:00:41.869 managed to encode his deepest political and philosophical 00:00:41.869 --> 00:00:44.549 beliefs into some of the most radical compositions 00:00:44.549 --> 00:00:47.210 of the 20th century. And to give you some overarching 00:00:47.210 --> 00:00:50.049 context right out of the gate, it's crucial to 00:00:50.049 --> 00:00:52.070 understand that Vermeulen wasn't just, you know, 00:00:52.090 --> 00:00:54.509 a man composing notes on a page to make a pleasant 00:00:54.509 --> 00:00:55.990 sound. Right. It wasn't just about entertainment. 00:00:56.289 --> 00:00:58.969 Exactly. For him, music was an aesthetic and 00:00:58.969 --> 00:01:01.890 an ethical message. It was a literal oral blueprint 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:04.390 for how a free and functioning society should 00:01:04.390 --> 00:01:08.140 operate. A blueprint for society. Yeah. He viewed 00:01:08.140 --> 00:01:10.780 his symphonies as living, breathing representations 00:01:10.780 --> 00:01:14.280 of human interaction. Which is such a massive, 00:01:14.319 --> 00:01:17.219 ambitious concept to wrap your head around. But 00:01:17.219 --> 00:01:19.920 whether you're a hardcore music theory nerd who 00:01:19.920 --> 00:01:23.180 loves unpacking avant -garde structures, or you're 00:01:23.180 --> 00:01:25.239 just someone who appreciates a gripping story 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:27.819 of rebellion and resilience against the odds, 00:01:28.459 --> 00:01:30.680 Vermeulen's life is a masterclass in sticking 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:33.180 to your convictions. Oh, absolutely. So let's 00:01:33.180 --> 00:01:35.040 start at the beginning. He was born. in 1888 00:01:35.040 --> 00:01:37.980 in the town of Helmond in the Netherlands. But 00:01:37.980 --> 00:01:42.120 his birth name was Matthias Christianus Franciscus 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:44.200 van der Meulen. Quite the mouthful. Yeah, a bit 00:01:44.200 --> 00:01:46.140 of a mouthful. And his trajectory was supposed 00:01:46.140 --> 00:01:48.700 to be very different. He was expected to follow 00:01:48.700 --> 00:01:50.700 his father into the family trade right after 00:01:50.700 --> 00:01:53.480 primary school. And his father was a blacksmith. 00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:56.579 Right. Which is a physically demanding, highly 00:01:56.579 --> 00:01:58.920 practical trade. It leaves very little room for 00:01:58.920 --> 00:02:01.659 the arts. Zero room, really. But fate intervened. 00:02:01.930 --> 00:02:04.129 The sources note that he suffered a severe illness 00:02:04.129 --> 00:02:06.450 in his youth, and during that prolonged period 00:02:06.450 --> 00:02:09.009 of recovery, his inclination shifted away from 00:02:09.009 --> 00:02:11.229 manual labor and toward the spiritual. Because 00:02:11.229 --> 00:02:13.310 he was raised in a strict Catholic environment. 00:02:13.469 --> 00:02:16.090 And he eventually decided he wanted to become 00:02:16.090 --> 00:02:19.490 a priest. So he actually entered a Catholic seminary. 00:02:19.900 --> 00:02:23.520 But the irony here is that going to the seminary 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:26.300 to become a priest is the very thing that derailed 00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:28.340 his path to the priesthood. Yeah, completely. 00:02:28.460 --> 00:02:30.439 Or actually pushed him toward his true calling. 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:32.520 So what happened there? Well, he started learning 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:35.949 about music, specifically. the principles of 00:02:35.949 --> 00:02:38.689 counterpoint from the 16th century polyphonic 00:02:38.689 --> 00:02:41.330 masters. Counterpoint? Right. Now, to put it 00:02:41.330 --> 00:02:44.150 simply, counterpoint is the art of interweaving 00:02:44.150 --> 00:02:46.930 different musical voices. Imagine several people 00:02:46.930 --> 00:02:48.990 singing different melodies at the exact same 00:02:48.990 --> 00:02:51.610 time, but instead of clashing... Instead of just 00:02:51.610 --> 00:02:53.930 sounding like noise? Exactly. Instead of clashing, 00:02:54.069 --> 00:02:56.870 they fit together harmonically while remaining 00:02:56.870 --> 00:02:58.990 independent in their rhythm and shape. Which 00:02:58.990 --> 00:03:02.229 is incredible. It is. And studying these 16th 00:03:02.229 --> 00:03:04.530 century masters just flipped a switch in his 00:03:04.530 --> 00:03:07.550 brain. By the time he was 18, he abandoned his 00:03:07.550 --> 00:03:10.469 ideas of the priesthood entirely. He left school, 00:03:10.569 --> 00:03:13.509 and in the spring of 1907, he moved to Amsterdam, 00:03:13.849 --> 00:03:15.969 which is the musical capital of the country. 00:03:16.189 --> 00:03:19.389 Just imagine the sheer courage that takes. You're 00:03:19.389 --> 00:03:22.110 a teenager, you've pivoted from blacksmithing 00:03:22.110 --> 00:03:24.610 to the priesthood, and now you're dropping everything 00:03:24.610 --> 00:03:27.750 to move to the big city for music with no real 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:30.569 safety net. Not at all. And amazingly, it pays 00:03:30.569 --> 00:03:33.650 off. He approaches Daniel Delange, who was the 00:03:33.650 --> 00:03:36.569 director of the conservatory in Amsterdam. And 00:03:36.569 --> 00:03:39.430 Delange clearly spots a rare talent in this kid 00:03:39.430 --> 00:03:41.629 because he ends up giving him free music lessons 00:03:41.629 --> 00:03:44.129 for two whole years. Which gave him the technical 00:03:44.129 --> 00:03:46.490 foundation he desperately needed to survive in 00:03:46.490 --> 00:03:49.030 that world. Yeah. But Vermeulen didn't just want 00:03:49.030 --> 00:03:51.990 to write music. He had fierce opinions about 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:55.699 it, too. In 1909, he began writing for a Catholic 00:03:55.699 --> 00:03:58.240 daily newspaper called Detide. And the music 00:03:58.240 --> 00:04:01.039 journalism of that era was notoriously long -winded, 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:04.080 polite, and dry, right? Incredibly dry. But Vermeulen 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:06.900 brought this resolute, highly personal tone to 00:04:06.900 --> 00:04:10.080 his reviews. He was sharp, he refused to conform 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:12.659 to the meandering style of his peers, and he 00:04:12.659 --> 00:04:14.879 really made waves. People definitely noticed, 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:17.379 specifically a prominent figure named Alphonse 00:04:17.379 --> 00:04:20.160 Diepenbrock. Diepenbrock was struck by the fiery 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:23.040 quality of Vermeulen's reviews. and recommended 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:26.379 him to a progressive weekly paper called De Amsterdammer. 00:04:26.500 --> 00:04:28.800 And that's where Vermeulen really found his voice 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:32.439 as a champion of progressive music. He advocated 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:35.279 for Claude Debussy, Gustav Mahler, and, of course, 00:04:35.439 --> 00:04:38.439 Diepenbrock himself. He even went so far as to 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:42.100 call Diepenbrock his matre spiritel, his spiritual 00:04:42.100 --> 00:04:44.870 master. Yeah. And while he was building this 00:04:44.870 --> 00:04:47.910 reputation as a formidable critic, he was quietly 00:04:47.910 --> 00:04:50.529 honing his own crack on the side. Right, because 00:04:50.529 --> 00:04:54.269 between 1912 and 1914, he composed what is considered 00:04:54.269 --> 00:04:57.470 his opus one, his first symphony. He titled it 00:04:57.470 --> 00:04:59.790 Symphonia Carminum, and it was an expression 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:03.329 of the joys of summer and youth. But structurally, 00:05:03.410 --> 00:05:05.350 it laid the groundwork for the radical techniques 00:05:05.350 --> 00:05:07.629 he would use for the rest of his life. He didn't 00:05:07.629 --> 00:05:09.370 just write about summer and youth, though. By 00:05:09.370 --> 00:05:12.370 1917, the First World War is raging across Europe, 00:05:12.449 --> 00:05:15.029 and he writes four songs that display his profound 00:05:15.029 --> 00:05:17.850 preoccupation with the war. Every piece handled 00:05:17.850 --> 00:05:20.769 the topic in its own unique manner. And by 1915, 00:05:20.870 --> 00:05:22.430 he had become the head of the art and literature 00:05:22.430 --> 00:05:25.230 department for The Telegraph, which was a major 00:05:25.230 --> 00:05:27.629 daily newspaper. And in his writing there, he 00:05:27.629 --> 00:05:31.139 made one thing absolutely clear. Politics and 00:05:31.139 --> 00:05:33.600 culture were entirely inseparable. You could 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:37.240 not divorce the art a society produced from the 00:05:37.240 --> 00:05:40.079 political reality of that society. And that underlying 00:05:40.079 --> 00:05:43.480 belief is the spark that ignited the massive 00:05:43.480 --> 00:05:46.459 conflicts that would soon derail his career in 00:05:46.459 --> 00:05:49.360 the Netherlands. Vermeulen harbored an intense 00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:51.879 disdain for the unidirectional German orientation 00:05:51.879 --> 00:05:54.920 of Dutch musical life at the time. He felt the 00:05:54.920 --> 00:05:57.120 local establishment was just suffocating under 00:05:57.120 --> 00:05:59.199 this singular foreign influence. Here's where 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:01.560 it gets really interesting, because this disdain 00:06:01.560 --> 00:06:04.600 leads to a climax that history calls the Vermeulen 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.279 Incident. The famous incident. Right. To understand 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:09.600 how we get to this explosive moment, we have 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:12.560 to look at the timeline. Vermeulen had a complex 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.279 relationship with the musical establishment. 00:06:14.579 --> 00:06:17.740 He deeply admired Willem Mengelberg, the legendary 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:20.160 chief conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:22.939 Right. And Vermeulen presented his beautiful 00:06:22.939 --> 00:06:25.620 first symphony to Mengelberg, hoping his idol 00:06:25.620 --> 00:06:28.720 would bring it to life on stage. And he waited 00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:32.379 for a whole year. Just imagine the agonizing 00:06:32.379 --> 00:06:36.180 anticipation of waiting for your hero. to validate 00:06:36.180 --> 00:06:38.860 your life's work. A whole year of waiting. And 00:06:38.860 --> 00:06:41.939 after 12 months of silence, Mengelberg rejected 00:06:41.939 --> 00:06:44.600 it with open disdain. Ouch. The rejection was 00:06:44.600 --> 00:06:46.800 devastating. Because of Mengelberg's immense 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:49.939 influence, Vermeulen's orchestral work suddenly 00:06:49.939 --> 00:06:53.319 had no future in Amsterdam. So he's bruised, 00:06:53.360 --> 00:06:55.980 he's frustrated, and the tension is simmering. 00:06:56.199 --> 00:07:00.240 Let's fast forward to November 1918. You are 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:02.680 sitting in the stands of the famed Concertgebouw 00:07:02.680 --> 00:07:05.819 in Amsterdam. The traditionalist composer Cornelis 00:07:05.819 --> 00:07:08.339 Stopper is on the podium conducting his own seventh 00:07:08.339 --> 00:07:11.199 symphony. It is the ultimate display of the traditional 00:07:11.199 --> 00:07:14.060 establishment parading its power. Right there, 00:07:14.100 --> 00:07:15.879 in the middle of the concert, Vermeulen stands 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:17.980 up in the stands and shouts at the top of his 00:07:17.980 --> 00:07:21.060 lungs, Long live Sousa! Referring to the American 00:07:21.060 --> 00:07:23.180 March King, John Philip Sousa. Exactly. What's 00:07:23.180 --> 00:07:25.620 fascinating here is the sheer volatility of the 00:07:25.620 --> 00:07:27.660 historical context surrounding that specific 00:07:27.660 --> 00:07:29.980 moment. It wasn't just about the music. Not at 00:07:29.980 --> 00:07:33.399 all. Just days earlier, the socialist leader 00:07:33.879 --> 00:07:36.519 Peter Gels Trolstra had attempted a political 00:07:36.519 --> 00:07:39.259 revolution in the Netherlands. Wow. The country 00:07:39.259 --> 00:07:42.399 was on a knife's edge. Nerves were completely 00:07:42.399 --> 00:07:45.339 frayed. So when Vermeulen disrupts this concert, 00:07:45.560 --> 00:07:48.879 a significant portion of the audience misinterprets 00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:51.560 his intention entirely. They didn't view it as 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.540 a sarcastic musical critique of Dopper's rigid 00:07:54.540 --> 00:07:58.250 style? No, they interpreted his words as Literal, 00:07:58.250 --> 00:08:01.470 dangerous political incitement. And turmoil erupts 00:08:01.470 --> 00:08:04.069 in the concert hall. It triggers a wild flurry 00:08:04.069 --> 00:08:06.449 of publications in the press. The orchestra's 00:08:06.449 --> 00:08:09.129 board actually holds meetings to debate banning 00:08:09.129 --> 00:08:11.430 specific journalists from the hall. It becomes 00:08:11.430 --> 00:08:13.449 a massive scandal. And it essentially forces 00:08:13.449 --> 00:08:15.850 a line in the sand. On one side, you had the 00:08:15.850 --> 00:08:17.670 traditionalists represented by Cornelis Doper 00:08:17.670 --> 00:08:19.610 and Willem Mengelberg. Right. On the other side, 00:08:19.629 --> 00:08:21.649 you had avant -garde figures, including the assistant 00:08:21.649 --> 00:08:24.009 conductor Everett Cornelis and Vermeulen himself. 00:08:25.050 --> 00:08:27.230 This incident ruined relations forever. Which 00:08:27.230 --> 00:08:29.750 leads to the tragic premiere of his first symphony. 00:08:29.889 --> 00:08:32.289 Because Mengelberg shut him out, the symphony 00:08:32.289 --> 00:08:34.590 finally got its first performance by the Arnhem 00:08:34.590 --> 00:08:38.509 Orchestral Society in March 1919. And the sources 00:08:38.509 --> 00:08:41.370 state it took place under abominable circumstances. 00:08:41.710 --> 00:08:44.629 It was a deeply traumatic experience for Vermeulen 00:08:44.629 --> 00:08:47.570 to hear his work played so poorly. And Mengelberg's 00:08:47.570 --> 00:08:49.950 petty vengeance didn't stop there. Vermeulen 00:08:49.950 --> 00:08:52.750 writes his second symphony between 1919 and 1920. 00:08:53.070 --> 00:08:55.389 And Mengelberg publicly states that he refuses 00:08:55.389 --> 00:08:58.110 to even look at the score. Refused to even open 00:08:58.110 --> 00:09:00.629 it. Yeah. Because of this blockade, that symphony 00:09:00.629 --> 00:09:03.629 wouldn't get its premiere until the 1950s. Faced 00:09:03.629 --> 00:09:06.009 with this impenetrable wall of institutional 00:09:06.009 --> 00:09:09.529 hostility, Vermeulen realizes he has no future 00:09:09.529 --> 00:09:12.429 in Amsterdam. He makes one last fruitless appeal 00:09:12.429 --> 00:09:15.149 to Mengelberg. And when that fails, he makes 00:09:15.149 --> 00:09:18.639 a drastic choice. Right. In 1921. backed financially 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:21.279 by some friends, he packs up his family and moves 00:09:21.279 --> 00:09:24.139 to France. Embarking on an exile, he hopes it 00:09:24.139 --> 00:09:26.019 will provide a more favorable climate for his 00:09:26.019 --> 00:09:28.559 avant -garde ideas. OK, let's unpack this. We 00:09:28.559 --> 00:09:30.320 keep using the word avant -garde, but what does 00:09:30.320 --> 00:09:32.980 his music actually sound like? The sources describe 00:09:32.980 --> 00:09:36.299 his symphonies as atonal but extremely contrapuntal. 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:38.879 It involves many different musical lines combining 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:43.159 simultaneously. Exactly. The focus was obsessively 00:09:43.159 --> 00:09:45.960 on melody, but not melody as we traditionally 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:48.600 think of it. If you listen to modern pop or even 00:09:48.600 --> 00:09:51.960 classical period pieces, you hear distinct structures. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:54.860 You have four bar phrases, predictable periods, 00:09:55.100 --> 00:09:58.440 clear beginnings, clear ends. Vermeulen rejected 00:09:58.440 --> 00:10:01.399 all of that. He used what he called free declamation. 00:10:01.720 --> 00:10:03.480 Wait, if he's throwing out all the traditional 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:05.539 structures and mixing all these atonal melodies 00:10:05.539 --> 00:10:07.299 together at the same time, doesn't that just 00:10:07.299 --> 00:10:09.059 sound like a wall of noise? How does that actually 00:10:09.059 --> 00:10:11.100 work in practice? It works through brilliant 00:10:11.100 --> 00:10:13.500 psychological pacing rather than rigid rules. 00:10:13.980 --> 00:10:17.200 He used what the sources call anti -metric figures, 00:10:17.399 --> 00:10:20.500 basically, intentionally writing notes that rebel 00:10:20.500 --> 00:10:23.100 against the steady ticking of a metronome. It 00:10:23.100 --> 00:10:24.980 throws the listener off balance in a beautiful 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:27.559 way. Interesting. He would spin these long flowing 00:10:27.559 --> 00:10:29.879 lines into continuous. melodies where any memory 00:10:29.879 --> 00:10:32.720 of traditional structure is just gone. And unlike 00:10:32.720 --> 00:10:35.120 a composer like Arnold Schoenberg, who essentially 00:10:35.120 --> 00:10:37.419 invented a strict mathematical grid to govern 00:10:37.419 --> 00:10:41.620 his notes, the 12 -tone system, Vermeulen hated 00:10:41.620 --> 00:10:43.879 strict systems. He didn't want to be boxed in. 00:10:44.080 --> 00:10:47.000 Exactly. He let his melodies flow naturally based 00:10:47.000 --> 00:10:50.159 on psychology and emotion, supported by underlying 00:10:50.159 --> 00:10:52.220 harmonies that alternate between tension and 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:54.559 relief. Wow. If we connect this to the bigger 00:10:54.559 --> 00:10:57.740 picture, we get to the core of Vermeulen's genius. 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:01.960 His philosophy of polymelodicism. In his writings, 00:11:02.059 --> 00:11:05.159 Vermeulen drew a direct parallel between melody 00:11:05.159 --> 00:11:07.840 and the individual human being. He wrote, the 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:10.340 melody is a frame of mind expressed in tones. 00:11:10.830 --> 00:11:12.710 That is such a vivid way to look at music, a 00:11:12.710 --> 00:11:15.009 frame of mind expressed in tones. Seen in that 00:11:15.009 --> 00:11:17.769 light, a multi -voiced, polymelodic composition 00:11:17.769 --> 00:11:20.929 isn't just a musical choice. It takes on the 00:11:20.929 --> 00:11:23.169 meaning of an oral representation of society 00:11:23.169 --> 00:11:26.789 itself. By combining several distinct, independent 00:11:26.789 --> 00:11:29.309 melodies, he was revealing his ultimate wish 00:11:29.309 --> 00:11:31.750 for society. Which was? He wanted a world where 00:11:31.750 --> 00:11:34.070 every single individual is able to freely express 00:11:34.070 --> 00:11:36.470 and develop themselves without infringing upon 00:11:36.470 --> 00:11:38.409 other people's freedom to develop their own abilities. 00:11:39.080 --> 00:11:41.700 It is a utopian blueprint encoded into sheet 00:11:41.700 --> 00:11:44.100 music. The open simple textures alternating with 00:11:44.100 --> 00:11:46.240 complex ones. It is literally the sound of a 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:48.799 free society. But despite the brilliance of this 00:11:48.799 --> 00:11:51.620 concept, the reality of his exile in France was 00:11:51.620 --> 00:11:55.230 incredibly harsh. The French concert halls ignored 00:11:55.230 --> 00:11:57.570 his symphonic works, just like the Dutch ones 00:11:57.570 --> 00:12:00.350 had. And you really have to feel for the guy 00:12:00.350 --> 00:12:02.929 here. Oh, Devin. From sheer necessity just to 00:12:02.929 --> 00:12:05.029 put food on the table for his family, he had 00:12:05.029 --> 00:12:07.830 to return to the exhausting grind of journalism. 00:12:08.210 --> 00:12:10.649 And this wasn't just casual occasional writing. 00:12:10.750 --> 00:12:15.129 In 1926, he became the Paris correspondent for 00:12:15.129 --> 00:12:18.429 the Sorabayash Handelsblad, a daily paper in 00:12:18.429 --> 00:12:20.490 the Dutch East Indies, what is now Indonesia. 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:23.399 Think about the crushing weight of that reality. 00:12:23.980 --> 00:12:26.539 For 14 years, he had to write two extensive articles 00:12:26.539 --> 00:12:28.639 a week on every possible topic. I want you to 00:12:28.639 --> 00:12:30.759 really put yourself in his shoes for a second. 00:12:30.879 --> 00:12:33.120 Yeah. Imagine knowing you possess this world 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.679 -changing artistic vision, a vision you are desperate 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:38.639 to share. But instead of composing, you're staring 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:41.519 at a blank page, churning out endless newspaper 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:43.960 copy about daily politics and mundane events 00:12:43.960 --> 00:12:47.399 for a paper thousands of miles away just to survive. 00:12:47.659 --> 00:12:49.379 While your piano just sits silent. Your piano 00:12:49.379 --> 00:12:51.379 sits silent while you meet another looming deadline. 00:12:51.759 --> 00:12:54.710 It is a profound test. of endurance. It took 00:12:54.710 --> 00:12:57.470 a massive mental toll, essentially forcing him 00:12:57.470 --> 00:13:00.549 to hit pause on his life's true work. But his 00:13:00.549 --> 00:13:02.769 creative spirit was never fully extinguished. 00:13:02.950 --> 00:13:06.350 The turning point finally began in 1930. When 00:13:06.350 --> 00:13:08.950 he received a commission. Right, to compose incidental 00:13:08.950 --> 00:13:11.629 music for the play The Leaker to Hollander, The 00:13:11.629 --> 00:13:14.629 Flying Dutchman by Martinus Niehoff. This offered 00:13:14.629 --> 00:13:17.600 him a glimmer of hope. But the monumental breakthrough 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:20.580 comes nine years later in 1939. And this is such 00:13:20.580 --> 00:13:22.879 a triumphant moment. The Concertgebouw Orchestra, 00:13:23.179 --> 00:13:25.139 the very institution that had shunned him for 00:13:25.139 --> 00:13:28.419 decades, finally performs his work. Yes, Edward 00:13:28.419 --> 00:13:31.200 Van Bynum conducted his third symphony. And after 00:13:31.200 --> 00:13:33.200 years of waiting in the wilderness, that long 00:13:33.200 --> 00:13:35.279 -anticipated confrontation with the resounding 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:38.200 notes proved him right. It confirmed the effectiveness 00:13:38.200 --> 00:13:41.370 of his musical concepts in the real world. This 00:13:41.370 --> 00:13:44.110 validation carries him into a new era of productivity, 00:13:44.409 --> 00:13:46.970 even as the world descends into darkness. During 00:13:46.970 --> 00:13:49.429 the heart of World War II, from 1940 to 1944, 00:13:49.789 --> 00:13:52.769 he's composing again. Does his music from this 00:13:52.769 --> 00:13:55.190 era reflect the despair of the war? Actually, 00:13:55.210 --> 00:13:57.970 the exact opposite. During this terrifying period, 00:13:58.169 --> 00:14:00.809 he wrote his fourth and fifth symphonies. titling 00:14:00.809 --> 00:14:03.450 them Les Victoires and Les Lendemains Chantons, 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:05.789 The Victories and The Singing Tomorrows. The 00:14:05.789 --> 00:14:08.629 Singing Tomorrows. The titles alone symbolize 00:14:08.629 --> 00:14:11.370 his unshakable faith in a good outcome for the 00:14:11.370 --> 00:14:15.090 war. He was projecting hope into a dark world. 00:14:15.450 --> 00:14:17.909 But right as the war was reaching its climax, 00:14:18.389 --> 00:14:21.330 Vermeulen was dealt a shattering blow. During 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:24.190 the fall of 1944, in a devastatingly short space 00:14:24.190 --> 00:14:27.399 of time, he lost his wife. And he also lost his 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:29.980 most cherished son, who was tragically killed 00:14:29.980 --> 00:14:32.059 while serving in the French Liberation Army. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:34.559 The magnitude of that loss is difficult to even 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:37.419 comprehend. To maintain such optimism for the 00:14:37.419 --> 00:14:39.440 world, pouring all of your hope into The Singing 00:14:39.440 --> 00:14:41.980 Tomorrows, only to have the war claim the people 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:44.820 you love most. So what does this all mean? How 00:14:44.820 --> 00:14:47.000 does a man whose entire philosophy is built on 00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:49.139 the beauty of human expression process that level 00:14:49.139 --> 00:14:51.460 of grief? Does he just give up? He turned, as 00:14:51.460 --> 00:14:53.120 he always did, to his intellect and his spirit. 00:14:53.500 --> 00:14:55.879 The sources note that he documented his agonizing 00:14:55.879 --> 00:14:58.519 mourning process in a deeply moving diary titled 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:01.559 Hatenage Heart, which translates to the singular 00:15:01.559 --> 00:15:04.179 heart. Wow. But he didn't stop at documenting 00:15:04.179 --> 00:15:07.100 his pain. Seeking the true meaning of this loss, 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:10.240 Vermeulen drew up a complex philosophical construction 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:13.519 to process his grief. He further developed this 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:16.580 framework into a book titled Het Avantur Vanden 00:15:16.580 --> 00:15:20.539 Geest, or The Adventure of the Mind. What exactly 00:15:20.539 --> 00:15:22.820 was in this philosophical construction? How did 00:15:22.820 --> 00:15:25.720 it help him survive? He essentially built a philosophical 00:15:25.720 --> 00:15:28.179 house to live in when his real house was destroyed 00:15:28.179 --> 00:15:31.360 by tragedy. The book explored the journey of 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:33.539 the human spirit, searching for enduring meaning 00:15:33.539 --> 00:15:37.139 beyond temporary suffering. Okay. He argued that 00:15:37.139 --> 00:15:39.259 the mind's adventure is to push through the darkest 00:15:39.259 --> 00:15:41.419 elements of human existence and connect with 00:15:41.419 --> 00:15:44.679 a higher, creative source. He used this writing 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:47.259 to spiritually resurrect himself, proving that 00:15:47.259 --> 00:15:49.179 the human spirit could withstand even the most 00:15:49.179 --> 00:15:51.379 crushing blows if it remained focused on the 00:15:51.379 --> 00:15:53.799 pursuit of truth and beauty. Which brings us 00:15:53.799 --> 00:15:56.659 to the final act of his life, a period marked 00:15:56.659 --> 00:16:00.080 by profound activism and remarkably unflagging 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:03.299 optimism. In 1946, he returned to the Netherlands 00:16:03.299 --> 00:16:06.279 and married Thea Deppenbroek. And if that last 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:08.440 name sounds familiar to you, she was the daughter 00:16:08.440 --> 00:16:11.220 of his former mentor, Alphonse Deppenbroek. Right. 00:16:11.679 --> 00:16:13.700 He also went back to work for the weekly De Groen 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:16.320 Amsterdammer, and his articles on music from 00:16:16.320 --> 00:16:18.679 this period are still ranked among the most compelling 00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:21.139 ever written in that area. But he wasn't just 00:16:21.139 --> 00:16:24.480 writing about music anymore. Politics and society 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:27.580 continued to occupy him passionately. As the 00:16:27.580 --> 00:16:29.980 world transitioned from World War II into the 00:16:29.980 --> 00:16:33.440 Cold War, Vermeulen found the stifling, paranoid 00:16:33.440 --> 00:16:37.289 atmosphere increasingly depressing. He was deeply 00:16:37.289 --> 00:16:39.730 afraid of a nuclear confrontation. And we are 00:16:39.730 --> 00:16:41.929 just reporting his stances here based on the 00:16:41.929 --> 00:16:43.909 source material to understand the man. But he 00:16:43.909 --> 00:16:45.970 became fiercely active against the armored race. 00:16:46.110 --> 00:16:48.909 He published his arguments in several periodicals. 00:16:48.909 --> 00:16:50.769 Yeah. And during the first large scale peace 00:16:50.769 --> 00:16:53.169 demonstration in 1955, he gave a speech where 00:16:53.169 --> 00:16:56.549 he stated. The atomic bomb is an anti -life, 00:16:56.590 --> 00:16:59.450 anti -God, anti -man weapon. That's a powerful 00:16:59.450 --> 00:17:02.210 statement. It is. This raises an important question, 00:17:02.250 --> 00:17:04.049 one that Vermeulen answered through his actions. 00:17:04.470 --> 00:17:06.470 What is the role of the artist when the world 00:17:06.470 --> 00:17:09.329 is facing an existential global threat? For Vermeulen, 00:17:09.589 --> 00:17:12.509 the answer was engagement. You cannot separate 00:17:12.509 --> 00:17:14.950 the art from the survival of the society that 00:17:14.950 --> 00:17:17.930 produces it. If you believe your music is a blueprint 00:17:17.930 --> 00:17:20.549 for a free society, you have to fight for that 00:17:20.549 --> 00:17:23.289 society to exist. And the poetic justice of his 00:17:23.289 --> 00:17:26.029 later years is that he finally got the widespread 00:17:26.029 --> 00:17:30.250 validation he deserved. In 1953, his second symphony, 00:17:30.369 --> 00:17:34.089 the exact same symphony that Mengelberg so insultingly 00:17:34.089 --> 00:17:37.049 refused to even look at back in the 1920s, won 00:17:37.049 --> 00:17:39.430 a prize at the Queen Elizabeth Music Competition 00:17:39.430 --> 00:17:41.549 in Brussels. And then it was performed during 00:17:41.549 --> 00:17:44.430 the 1956 Holland Festival. That is just incredible. 00:17:44.730 --> 00:17:47.230 It really is. That performance instigated an 00:17:47.230 --> 00:17:50.130 entirely new burst of creativity for him in his 00:17:50.130 --> 00:17:52.849 late 60s. He moved to the rural town of Lorraine 00:17:52.849 --> 00:17:55.730 with his wife and child. There he composed his 00:17:55.730 --> 00:17:58.450 sixth symphony. followed by various songs and 00:17:58.450 --> 00:18:00.529 a string quartet. And what about his final work? 00:18:00.630 --> 00:18:03.049 What is the tone of his last major composition? 00:18:03.410 --> 00:18:05.589 His final work, his seventh symphony, carries 00:18:05.589 --> 00:18:10.490 the title for the times to come. The source emphasizes 00:18:10.490 --> 00:18:13.069 that this final piece reveals an unflagging optimism. 00:18:13.230 --> 00:18:15.230 After everything he went through. Everything. 00:18:15.769 --> 00:18:18.150 He composed it as an ode to the beauty of the 00:18:18.150 --> 00:18:20.930 earth, maintaining his faith in humanity right 00:18:20.930 --> 00:18:23.690 up until the end. He died of a wasting disease 00:18:23.690 --> 00:18:28.819 on July 26th. When we look at his legacy, it's 00:18:28.819 --> 00:18:31.079 clear that his primary goal was to create music 00:18:31.079 --> 00:18:33.740 that appealed to the spirituality of man. He 00:18:33.740 --> 00:18:36.240 wanted to bestow feelings of happiness and connect 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:39.279 listeners with what he called the creative spirit, 00:18:39.420 --> 00:18:42.400 the source of life. Because his ambitions and 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:44.460 his ethical messages were at right angles to 00:18:44.460 --> 00:18:46.759 the mainstream movements of his time, he didn't 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:48.839 leave behind a specific school of followers or 00:18:48.839 --> 00:18:51.819 direct disciples. Right. He was too unique. Exactly. 00:18:52.039 --> 00:18:54.519 But his work has been cited as seminal by highly 00:18:54.519 --> 00:18:56.880 influential Dutch composers like Louis Anderson. 00:18:57.619 --> 00:18:59.839 Almost all of his true recognition took place 00:18:59.839 --> 00:19:02.559 well after his death. He left behind a body of 00:19:02.559 --> 00:19:04.740 work that includes symphonies, cello sonatas, 00:19:04.859 --> 00:19:07.240 string quartets, and an enduring belief in the 00:19:07.240 --> 00:19:09.920 power of the individual voice. He proved that 00:19:09.920 --> 00:19:12.119 art isn't just entertainment, it's a moral stance, 00:19:12.440 --> 00:19:14.819 which leaves us with a fascinating, provocative 00:19:14.819 --> 00:19:17.640 thought to mull over today. If Matisse Vermeulen 00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:20.779 fundamentally believed that a polymelodic musical 00:19:20.779 --> 00:19:24.200 structure where every individual voice can freely 00:19:24.200 --> 00:19:26.559 express and develop itself without stepping on 00:19:26.559 --> 00:19:29.019 the freedom of the other voices was the ultimate 00:19:29.019 --> 00:19:32.180 oral representation, of a healthy, functioning 00:19:32.180 --> 00:19:35.579 society. Right. What does the heavily manufactured, 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:38.519 highly repetitive, and strictly controlled music 00:19:38.519 --> 00:19:40.920 that dominates so much of our own modern pop 00:19:40.920 --> 00:19:43.259 charts say about the current state of our society? 00:19:43.579 --> 00:19:45.680 That's a great question. Are we fostering free 00:19:45.680 --> 00:19:47.640 expression or just repeating the same tightly 00:19:47.640 --> 00:19:49.720 controlled loops? Something to think about the 00:19:49.720 --> 00:19:52.119 next time you turn on the radio. Thank you so 00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:54.079 much for joining us on this deep dive into the 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:56.579 resilient, revolutionary life of Matisse Vermeulen. 00:19:56.720 --> 00:19:57.859 We will see you next time.