Plans for a New Studio in Utrecht

to an introductory presentation by Kok on September 28, 1957, at the Technische Hogeschool at Mijnbouwplein 11 in Delft. 28 A national press release drew substantial notice, and the lecture hall at TH Delft proved too small for the 70-plus people who came to the meeting. One of them was Edgard Varèse, who had just started work in Eindhoven on his music for the Philips Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. At the formal opening of the studio in Delft, Varèse’s instrumental work Intégrales was played to the audience on phonograph record. Examples of the cynicism with which contemporary and electronic music were discussed in the serious press in the Netherlands have already been given (Paap’s articles in Mens en Melodie). Now the composer and music critic Jan Mul expressed his disapproval in a major Dutch newspaper, de Volkskrant:

Figure 8. The electronic music studio at Technische Hogeschool Delft in its original state.

28 Minutes of the CEM assembly of September 9, 1957. 29 Jan Mul, “Verslag opening studio Delft,” de Volkskrant,

September 30, 1957: 2. The invention of sound recording tape has created the possibility of producing the most unrestrained sounds through loudspeakers. This is called “electronic music”. […] The advantages of electronic music are enormous: orchestras will become obsolete, and so will conductors; conservatories can close their doors. […] Meanwhile, the dangers of this pet project of young composers must not be overrated. True composers will soon discover that there is more music to be found in a badly played mandolin, and they will find that it is completely unnecessary to distort a tone using electronic devices. The type of bizarre sounds that can be achieved using normal musical instruments could be heard on a phonograph record of a 1926 work by the 71-year-old [sic] Edgard Varèse, who honored the inauguration of the studio with his presence. Dr. Maasj [sic], the father of the so-called Gaudeamus composers, shouted with joy that this electronic studio gave the Netherlands a future again. Thank goodness! 29