Willem Pijper (1894-1947) crusaded actively for the cause of a Dutch musical style independent from the German and French traditions. His campaign was waged both in his writings and in some nationalist compositions. The opera Halewijn is based on the Halewijn Lied, one of the oldest known Dutch songs. The song recurs within the opera, and in addition, Pijper derived the scalar material of the entire work from one line of the Lied. Pijper's work Six Symphonic Epigrams uses a motive from the Dutch song O Nederland let op U saeck (Oh Netherlands, Heed Thy Cause), which is part of a seventeenth-century collection of national songs.

Works: Willem Pijper: Halewijn (369-70), Six Symphonic Epigrams (370-71).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Nancy Kinsey Totten