Uploaded November 2010 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
Entelechie I, Op. 12 (1961) was written for the Donauschingen Festival and is scored for five groups of instruments. Partly because of the lack of any melodic point of reference, the rigor with which Schat applies the principles of organization to every aspect of the work may no longer be audible. Intuitive musical expression has been entirely subordinated to "structural sections," "retrospective and anticipatory quotations, "sound shadows," double cannons and "heterophonic" treatment. Many years later, Schat confided to the Music critic Eric Voermann that the composition was not about the music per se: "Actualy it was homework. The process was what was important, hence the word 'entelechy,' which means the realization of potential, the evolution of the row." In Schat's own notes to Entelechie I, he writes, "It is a 'thesis' on Boulez in the Stravinskian sense, a creative reaction."
Peter Schat (June 5, 1935, in Utrecht - February 10, 2003, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch composer.
Schat studied composition with Kees van Baaren at the conservatories in Utrecht and The Hague from 1952 until 1958, and then went on to study in London with Mátyás Seiber in 1959 and with Pierre Boulez in Basle in 1960--61. His early training with van Baaren and Mátyás Seiber disposed him toward twelve-tone technique, and his earliest compositions, such as the Introductie en adagio in oude stijl (1954) and the Septet (1957), combine traditional forms with dodecaphony. Boulez, however, led him to a more radical, strict form of serialism, and he was regarded in the Netherlands as one of the outstanding representatives of the avant garde (Groot 2001). While still a student he created his opus 1, Passacaglia and Fugue for organ (1954), and Septet (1957). In 1957 he also won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award.
In the late sixties Schat became associated with the radical student movement, and was involved in the notorious 1969 "notenkrakersactie" (Nutcracker Action) in which a group of activists interrupted a concert by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, demanding an open discussion of music policy (Beer 1994). That same year, Schat contributed, together with the composers Reinbert de Leeuw, Louis Andriessen, Jan van Vlijmen, and Misha Mengelberg, and the writers Harry Mulisch and Hugo Claus, in Reconstructie, a sort of opera, or "morality" theatre work, about the conflict between American imperialism and liberation (Groot 2001).
Entelechie I, Op. 12 (1961) was written for the Donauschingen Festival and is scored for five groups of instruments. Partly because of the lack of any melodic point of reference, the rigor with which Schat applies the principles of organization to every aspect of the work may no longer be audible. Intuitive musical expression has been entirely subordinated to "structural sections," "retrospective and anticipatory quotations, "sound shadows," double cannons and "heterophonic" treatment. Many years later, Schat confided to the Music critic Eric Voermann that the composition was not about the music per se: "Actualy it was homework. The process was what was important, hence the word 'entelechy,' which means the realization of potential, the evolution of the row." In Schat's own notes to Entelechie I, he writes, "It is a 'thesis' on Boulez in the Stravinskian sense, a creative reaction."
Peter Schat (June 5, 1935, in Utrecht - February 10, 2003, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch composer.
Schat studied composition with Kees van Baaren at the conservatories in Utrecht and The Hague from 1952 until 1958, and then went on to study in London with Mátyás Seiber in 1959 and with Pierre Boulez in Basle in 1960--61. His early training with van Baaren and Mátyás Seiber disposed him toward twelve-tone technique, and his earliest compositions, such as the Introductie en adagio in oude stijl (1954) and the Septet (1957), combine traditional forms with dodecaphony. Boulez, however, led him to a more radical, strict form of serialism, and he was regarded in the Netherlands as one of the outstanding representatives of the avant garde (Groot 2001). While still a student he created his opus 1, Passacaglia and Fugue for organ (1954), and Septet (1957). In 1957 he also won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award.
In the late sixties Schat became associated with the radical student movement, and was involved in the notorious 1969 "notenkrakersactie" (Nutcracker Action) in which a group of activists interrupted a concert by the Concertgebouw Orchestra, demanding an open discussion of music policy (Beer 1994). That same year, Schat contributed, together with the composers Reinbert de Leeuw, Louis Andriessen, Jan van Vlijmen, and Misha Mengelberg, and the writers Harry Mulisch and Hugo Claus, in Reconstructie, a sort of opera, or "morality" theatre work, about the conflict between American imperialism and liberation (Groot 2001).
