2 languages
Orkest de Volharding
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Orkest de Volharding was a Dutch ensemble for contemporary music from Amsterdam. Louis Andriessen and saxophonist Willem Breuker founded it in 1972, and the name came from Andriessen's work of the same name. The line-up of the first concert, on 12 May 1972, consisted of three trumpets, three saxophones and three trombones, plus Andriessen himself on piano. Flute, horn and bass were then added, and for a time two clarinets as well. This produced the fixed, unusual line-up of one flute, three saxophones, three trumpets, three trombones, a horn and piano.
Music and breakthrough
The original idea was a street orchestra with a political message. Gradually the group grew into a more ordinary ensemble for contemporary music, and in the 1990s it acquired a conductor. Andriessen wrote a number of works for the ensemble before he left in the late 1970s. None of the musicians of the first concert still plays in it, but flautist Dil Engelhard and saxophonist Bob Driessen, who joined immediately after the start, remained members. In 2009 the ensemble ceased to exist. One recording is The Minimalists from 2016.
Influence
De Volharding combines the wind instruments of jazz and the wind band with the ideas of the modern Dutch composers. The ensemble showed that contemporary music can also sound with the energy of a street orchestra, and it belongs to the Dutch movement that linked classical, jazz and minimalist music.