Jurriaan Andriessen's Time Spirit

On 23 August 1996, the composer Jurriaan Andriessen, a descendant of a well-known family of artists, died. His grandfather Willem and his father Hendrik were also composers and his brother Louis still is. His sisters Caecilia (who passed away last week) and Heleen were also active in music. His uncle Mari Andriessen was a sculptor, his uncle Nico was an architect and cousin Jurriaan was a visual artist. Although he wrote a large, varied oeuvre encompassing symphonies and other orchestral works, an opera, ballet, church and chamber music as well as film music (e.g. for Dorp aan de rivier and De Aanslag by Fons Rademakers), his highly successful younger brother Louis would always overshadow him.

A good example of his versatility is the symphony Time Spirit, a musical theatre piece written for TV to which a clarinettist is put centre stage. A symphony orchestra, ballet dancers and the then emerging pop group Focus (with Thijs van Leer) surround this central figure. The symphony was accompanied by 34 slide projections of prints by Escher. Although the graphic artist had said no to Mick Jagger early in 1969 (he wanted to use a work by Escher for an album cover by The Rolling Stones), Escher was sympathetic towards Andriessen’s project. In a letter to Gerd Arntz he wrote:

Time Spirit is a half-hour triptych in which the parts (entitled ‘Reptiles’, ‘Fish and Birds’ and ‘Encounter’) are interconnected by danced intermezzi. The clarinettist is the central figure whose loneliness is the main theme of the piece. ‘The personification of human life, from birth to adulthood. The circle of musicians expresses the surrounding world’, as Andriessen described it in an interview with De Tijd.

The premiere was staged at De Doelen in Rotterdam on 19 November 1970. Reprises would follow at Delft University of Technology and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Escher was a guest at the premiere and wrote about it to son George and his wife Corrie:

Hence Escher was enthusiastic, but the music critics were divided in their opinions. Time Spirit was characterised as ‘surprising’ and ‘overwhelming’, though also as ‘kitsch’ and ‘audiovisual fuss’. The NCRV broadcasting organisation made recordings during the premiere and aired Time Spirit in January 1972. To the delight of Andriessen, who was keen for his work to reach as many people as possible