Cornelis de Bondt
componist, theoreticus, schrijver
Cornelis de bondt (1953, Den Haag)
Cornelis de Bondt studied composition and music theory at the Royal Conservatoire in Den Haag (Netherlands). His composition teachers were Jan van Vlijmen and Louis Andriessen. He is teaching at the Royal Conservatoire since 1987, first in music theory and from 2004 in the composition department, where he set up a new theory program for composition students. He started to teach composition as well from 2006. At the conservatoire he started up several projects like the aesthetic class ‘The Technique of Beauty’; the ‘Atelier’ with Jeremiah Runnels and Yedo Gibson [2011], a laboratory with students and alumni from different departments; several projects with the Early Music department; the ‘Research Concert Cycle’ with Ivan Babinchak and Stefano Sgarbi; and recently the MS-DOS lab.
De Bondt composed various works for different musicians, ensembles, orchestras, like Bint for Hoketus, Grand Hotel for Gerard Bouwhuis, De Tragische Handeling (The Tragic Act) for the LOOS ensemble, De Deuren Gesloten for Kaalslag, late played a number of times by the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and the series of Bloed for Nederlands Blazers Ensemble and the Hilliard Ensemble.
In 2013 De Bondt withdrew all his scores from public space, as a reaction on the new policy on art by the government, which states artists to be ‘cultural entrepreneurs’, a tragic mistake on what the essence of art is. The ‘erasing’ of his scores served two goals: juridical investigation of the matter of musical heritage and creating new space for a new music practice. In the MS-DOS lab he is researching and developing a new kind of scores: digital user guides with which each performer can create his or hers own version of a score. In the first trial this will lead to a set op piano sonatas, which can be played on their own as solo pieces, but also be combined to sets of two, three or possibly even more at the same time.
[2015]