Ave Maria, gratia plena, Dominus tecum.
Benedicta tu in mulieribus,
et benedictus fructus ventris tui, Jesus.
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis peccatoribus,
nunc et in hora mortis nostrae. Amen.
Coen Vermeeren's musical roots can
be traced back to his early youth, when he sang as a boy alto in the Choir
of the Sacrament Church in Breda (NL). Under the guidance of Walther
Cantrijn, the Director of Music, he became familiar with choral music
ranging from the renaissance to the 20th century. A background such as this
can be of enormous importance for a child; if the child is musically gifted
it may turn out to be a determining factor for his future career, perhaps as
a professional musician.
The musical career Coen Vermeeren pursued was by a slightly unusual route.
His studies at Delft University of Technology eventually led to a doctorate
and he was appointed as a University Lecturer at the faculty of Aerospace
Engineering. Music remained as a significant pastime: from 1981 to 2001 he
was Codirector of Music of the Chorale of the Great Church in Breda, an all
male choir that had its origins in the choir of the Sacrament Church in
Breda. In 1995 he started the vocal and instrumental ensemble 'i buoni
antichi'. The ensemble has a flexible composition and one of its projects is
a series of Bach-cantatas in the St Anthony Cathedral in Breda. Besides
conducting and singing, Coen Vermeeren became increasingly active in writing
music himself and has attended lessons with Daan Manneke, composer and
teacher of Composition at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam.
In light of his background it is not surprising that Vermeeren's music is
largely choral. The human voice is, in his own opinion, the instrument he is
most familiar with, but the choice to write vocal music also bears a
practical consideration: it is important for a composer that his music is
performed, and in the form of the Chorale of the Great Church, Vermeeren had
an able group of performers. His music is therefore often written with the
male voices in mind, which complements his personal style of writing.
Vermeeren draws his inspiration from Gregorian plainchant, renaissance
polyphony and the so-called 'neospiritual music' of composers such as Arvo
Pärt. He sees himself mainly as a composer of church music, for which he
considers the 'pure and innocent' quality of the treble timbre particularly
appropriate.
Coen Vermeeren is a mainly autodidactic composer and therefore does not
belong to a specific 'school', unlike many other composers. Under the
tutelage of Daan Manneke he became versed in various techniques of
composition and instrumentation and found an affirmation of his personal
style of composing. Manneke also encouraged him to seek inspiration in other
disciplines of art and in philosophy.
Vermeeren himself, therefore, describes his style primarily as intuitive. He
does not write his music within the framework or conventions of a specific
style, but follows exclusively the inspiration that the texts and other
sources lend him.
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