Jos Beijer: The organworks of Ton Bruynèl

Jos Beijer The organworks of Ton Bruynèl
het ORGEL 95 (1999), nr. 2, 28-32 [summary]

On 5 May 1998 the Dutch composer, Ton Bruynèl died inMailly (France). When he was studying piano at the Utrecht Conservatory, Bruynèl (*1934)was part of the group that gathe-red around the composer Kees van Baaren, together withPeter Schat and Jan van Vlijmen. He built his own electronic studio in 1957. He was ateacher of composition at the Utrecht Conserva-tory in the 1970s and 1980s. Bruynel almostalways composed for a combination of an acous-tical instrument and electronic sounds.Characteristic are the quality of tore colour (sensual, saturated) and the continuousmovement While composing the electronic sounds, Bruynèl liked to be inspired by everydaysounds. In 1982 he stated: I object to the qualification of sound as a thought process bythe human brain rather than by the ear. What happens in serial music is the evaluation ofsound beyond the human ear Bruynèl composed four organ pieces.

• Reliëf (1964) has three parts: organ and electronic sounds are first exposed separately, then they are combined, and finally the merge into each other.
• Arc (1966) is based on enlargement and reduction of sound sculptures and structures.
• Kolom (1987) is a “column” of sound indeed, the segments of which are defined by changing sound combinations.
• Whereas these three works require a large three manual organ, Dust (1992) is fit for a small instrument, It is an ode to transitoriness on a small, tired organ; Bruynèl remarked.

Before long the electronic sound belonging to these organworks will be published on cd, which will make the performance of Bruynèl’s organrepertoire much easier.

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