Eltjo de Lang (1955) did not finish his studies in physics at the university of Groningen because he was too busy making music to excess. In the same city he attended the primary piano training at the conservatory. In addition to that he studied composition for a year with Louis Andriessen at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He worked as a professional jazz pianist/composer in numerous combinations and also played the piano as accompanist of modern dance performances.

As a composer he is mainly a self-educated man, like a number of illustrious predecessors. Louis Andriessen once said that all music is about other music and also in the works of de Lang other composers do play a part. His pieces show a reminiscence of the Groupe des Six or Stravinsky and Ravel is a notable inspiration. He describes his own music as “neo-classical with a pathological inclination towards counterpoint”. Even when he plays around with a new years song like Auld Lang Syne this leads to a contrapuntally woven texture and there are more such examples to be found in his works. Techniques from the Renaissance are employed as well: compositions built around a given melody acting as a cantus firmus or the transformation of characters and words into musical notes.

However accessible and tonal his work may appear to be at first hearing, you will not come across the familiar tonal patterns. This is because de Lang likes to apply tonally orientated twelve-tone rows to determine, below the surface, the flow of his pieces. His style is always playful, brief and concise and the titles are often of an anecdotal or programmatic nature.

Paul Herruer

Dubbing in a part (Palermo 1987):		Keppelish Tango, measure 12 (1985):
photo by Liesbeth van Welzen		photo by Arnoud Gravestein

painting by Jean-Denis Lepage

photo by Philip de Josselin de Jong