Cornelis 'Kees' Dopper was a Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

, conductor and teacher.

Reputation

Dopper's reputation as a composer has suffered from the accusation of being 'too German' for much of his career, and still haunts him to this day. Very popular with concert audiences, his works never received much critical acclaim in his home country (unlike abroad). His reputation among the musical avant-garde further suffered because of the so-called 'Vermeulen incident' of November 1918. After a performance of Dopper's Seventh Symphony (which ends with a march) under the baton of the composer, his dissatisfied colleague Matthijs Vermeulen

Matthijs Vermeulen

Matthijs Vermeulen , was a Dutch composer and music journalist.- Early life :...

 stood up in the hall of the Concertgebouw and shouted: "Leve Sousa" ("Long live Sousa"); the implication being that Dopper was of little more value as a composer than the critically reviled American marchsmith John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa

John Philip Sousa was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J....

 (1854–1932). This caused uproar, not just because of Vermeulen's affront, but also because a great part of the audience understood it to be "Long live Troelstra

Pieter Jelles Troelstra

Pieter Jelles Troelstra was a Dutch politician active in the socialist workers' movement. He is most remembered for his fight for universal suffrage and his failed call for revolution at the end of World War I...

!" (the name of the socialist leader who'd attempted to unleash a revolution days before), and therefore as a call to revolution. In the aftermath, Vermeulen was banned from attending the Concertgebouw for one week, but the subsequent scandal also caused the orchestra board to 'relegate' Dopper.

The same piece, the Seventh Symphony, played a more positive role when it was played at the Concertgebouw

Concertgebouw

The Concertgebouw is a concert hall in Amsterdam, Netherlands. The Dutch term "concertgebouw" literally translates into English as "concert building"...

 in November 1940, six months after the German occupation of the Netherlands. The piece contains many songs from Valerius' Nederlandtsche Gedenck-Clanck (Dutch Song of Remembrance), a collection of anti-Spanish songs originating from the Revolt of the Netherlands against the Spanish in the 16th and early 17th century. The finale ends with an 'anti-march', composed by Dopper as a reflection of the First World War, similar to the way in which Ravel

Maurice Ravel

Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...

's La Valse is a perversion of the sorrowless waltzes of Vienna before that war. The performance, obviously programmed before the German invasion and conducted by Mengelberg, erupted into a patriotic ovation. The recording of that event can be heard today in what is one of two performances of the Seventh Symphony available on record.

Revival

Although most of Dopper's works slid into oblivion after his death, a recent revival has done much to rekindle interest in his music. A biography was published in 1998 by Joop Stam (revised in 2009), and the British Chandos

Chandos Records

Chandos Records is an independent classical music recording company based in Colchester, Essex, in the United Kingdom, founded in 1979 by Brian Couzens.- Background :...

 label released two CDs with works by Dopper (the 2nd, 3rd, and 6th symphonies, and two symphonic poems). In February, 2005, Dopper's First Symphony Diana received its world premiere by the Noord Nederlands Orkest in Leeuwarden. Dopper's two masterworks, the Seventh Symphony and the Ciaconna Gotica, were recorded in 1995 under the baton of Kees Bakels

Kees Bakels

Kees Bakels is a Dutch conductor.Bakels began his musical career as a violinist, and later studied conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena, Italy...

. They are also available in vintage and (in the case of the Ciaconna) severely cut versions (albeit conducted by Willem Mengelberg).

The Stichting Cornelis Dopper in Stadskanaal

Stadskanaal

Stadskanaal is a Canal, municipality and a town in the northeastern Netherlands.The area is known for its peat mining.- Population centres :...

 works to keep the memory of Cornelis Dopper alive. In 2009-2010 a Dopper festival took place at several venues in the north of the country, at which the revised version of Joop Stam's biography was presented and Dopper's Requiem

Requiem

A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...

 from 1935 was premiered.

Stage works

• De Blinde van Castel-Cuillé (The Blind Girl of Castel-Cuillé), opera on a libretto by H.C. Meursinge-Offers (composed 1892, premiered The Hague
  The Hague
  The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
  
  , 1894)
• Frithjof, opera after Bueninck (composed 1895, unperformed)
• William Ratcliff, opera in 2 acts after Heinrich Heine
  Heinrich Heine
  Christian Johann Heinrich Heine was one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. He was also a journalist, essayist, and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder by composers such as Robert Schumann...
  
   (composed 1896-1901, premiered Weimar
  Weimar
  Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
  
  , 1909)
• Het Eerekruis The Cross of Honour, opera in 1 act on a libretto by H. Engelen (composed 1903, premiered Amsterdam
  Amsterdam
  Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
  
  , 1903)
• Don Quichote, opera after Cervantes
  Cervantes
  -People:*Alfonso J. Cervantes , mayor of St. Louis, Missouri*Francisco Cervantes de Salazar, 16th-century man of letters*Ignacio Cervantes, Cuban composer*Jorge Cervantes, a world-renowned expert on indoor, outdoor, and greenhouse cannabis cultivation...
  
   (unfinished)

Orchestral works

• Dance Symphony No. 1, "Diana" (composed 1895, revised 1921)
• Symphony No. 2, "Scottish" (composed 1903)
• Symphony No. 3, "Rembrandt" (composed 1892, revised 1904)
• Symphony No. 4, "Sinfonietta" (composed 1905)
• Symphony No. 5, "Symphonia epica" (composed 1908)
• Cello Concerto (composed 1910, revised 1923)
• Concerto for trumpet, 3 timpani, and orchestra (composed 1910)
• Symphony No. 6, "Amsterdam" (composed 1912)
• Päân No. 1 (composed 1915)
• Päân No. 2 (composed 1915)
• Symphony No. 7, "Zuiderzee" (composed 1917)
• Ciaconna Gotica (composed 1920)

External links

The website of the Cornelis Dopper Foundation.

• Dopper page at the Dutch Music Association (Donemus) with downloadable English-language biography (MS Word-format) and list of works and recordings.
• A review of the Chandos recording of Dopper's Second Symphony (ClassicsToday.com).
• A review of the Chandos recording of Dopper's Third and Sixth Symphonies (ClassicsToday.com).
• List of Dopper's works