Ludovicus Mirandolle
1.1 Who was Ludovicus Mirandolle (21 september 1904 - 6 januari 1974)?
Not a lot has been written down about Ludovicus Mirandolle. Looking for information about him has been a great struggle as there are also no relatives to be contacted who could help us with providing information about his life. Luckily a few people and one magazine article could give us a brief view on who Ludovicus Mirandolle was.
Born September 21, 1904 in Hamburg, The Mirandolle family moved to Amsterdam where Ludovicus Mirandolle grew up to become a man of many professions, and a lot of knowledge. At an early age Ludovicus Mirandolle encountered the Antroposophy ideas of Rudolf Steiner, that would inspire him to become a priest at the Christengemeenschap in Amsterdam and The Hague. Here his career as writer started, making new translations of the New Testament from Greek. Developing an interest in the ancient times, "... heeft Ludo zich naast Hebreeuws ook Koptisch, Aramees, spijkerschrift en Egyptische hiëroglyfen eigen gemaakt...",1 whereafter he made translations of Babylon texts and hymnes from the Pistis Sophia. Next to his work as priest and writer, Mirandolle started writing music. Influenced by his strong belief and knowledge of the ancient times, a lot of this music was played at the service.2
1.2 Corry de Roo-Vierdag
Corry de Roo-Vierdag (1925) has been playing a big role in this research as she knew Ludovicus Mirandolle personally and had written an article about his life for the magazine In Beweging of the Christengemeenschap.
Corry de Roo-Vierdag, born 26 July 1925 in Utrecht, started her piano, harpsichord and cello study at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague in 1940. Here she followed lessons with Léon Orthel, Theo van der Pas, C. Walther Boer, Carel van Leeuwen-Boomkamp and Janny van Wering. She became a member of the Residentie Orchestra in The Hague and started teaching at de Vrije School Den Haag, and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague.3
Corry de Roo-Vierdag was one of the first members of the Christengemeenschap, an independent church denomination that identifies as a movement towards religious regeneration inside of Christianity.4 During her time at the Christengemeenschap she got to meet Ludovicus Mirandolle. He was appointed as priest and also started composing for the services. Corry de Roo-Vierdag who played organ and piano during these services would also got to play his compositions.
Ludovicus Mirandolle and his wife Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk did not have any children and therefore appointed Corry de Roo-Vierdag as their legal inheritor for after their death. After Ludovicus passing away, Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk moved to another house. During the move, Annie already started giving away scores to interested people, the rest would be stored in the attic. After Annie’s death, the son of Corry, Paul de Roo, moved into the house and took care of Annie’s belongings.
Family de Roo, had to decide what to do with all the books, manuscripts, sketches, and letters of Ludovicus Mirandolle. Mirandolle who had a great interest in various subjects and who kept learning until his death, created a big home library. Paul de Roo, approached various auction houses and antiquarians to offer them this great collection, and auctioned the library of Ludovicus Mirandolle.
The collection of music by Ludovicus Mirandolle, was offered to the Nederlands Muziek Instituut, who added it to their archives.5 6
1.3 Nederlands Muziek Instituut
When we go to the library catalogue of archive 550 in the Nederlands Muziek Instituut (NMI)7 in The Hague and look for Ludovicus Mirandolle, we will find a list of 12 pages containing his compositions. In the archives they keep five boxes, for the majority, filled with manuscripts and sketches of his compositions. Only a few of the compositions by Ludovicus Mirandolle have been previously published. Most of them were published by Éditions Musicales ALPHONSE LEDUC.
The Nederlands Muziek Instituut made copies of all the editions and manuscripts that included the clarinet/basset horn that they had in their possession. Unfortunately the collection of clarinet music is not complete. As Ludovicus Mirandolle tended to give away manuscripts and some of the music ended up in auction houses, they probably are stored in private collections.
1.4 Letter correspondance
Ludovicus Mirandolle wrote a lot of letters during his life, to a lot of important people. We are able to get some of these letters through a few different options.
1.4a Private archive Corry de Roo-Vierdag (letters)
Firstly, we have a lot of letters from the private archive of Corry de Roo-Vierdag, as she was the legal inheritor of the belongings of Ludovicus Mirandolle and Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk. Some of the letters in this archive have been destroyed as Corry de Roo-Vierdag did not see any value in them, and they would be of no importance.
It turned out that these documents did contain a lot of valuable information about the life of Ludovicus Mirandolle. One document shows a sketch for a letter by Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk to a Madame in France, probably the widow Koechlin. On the last page of the sketch she writes "Les duos pour clarinettes seront intéressant pour des prof. de clarinette. Auguste Périer clarinettiste (?) au conservatoire les a inauguré pour l'ensignement au conservatoire. Mon mari etait élève d'Auguste Perier."8 Here we find another puzzle piece in the life of Ludovicus Miranondolle. He studied with Auguste Périer (1883-1947), possibly following private lessons at Périers home, as we can not prove that Ludovicus Mirandolle followed lessons at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris, and we have no evidence that Mirandolle received a diploma.
In another letter from the private archive of Corry de Roo-Vierdag we can find more information about the music climate Ludovicus Mirandolle was working in. It gives a view on how the people around him were thinking about the music developments that were going on at that time. In a letter coming from Frank and Helene Emmanuel they mention "Mais, dans le climat spirituel et "intellectuel" présent, ni vous ni nous ne devons nous étonner de faire de progrès si lents et si difficiles pour la diffusion de leurs oeuvres respective...". Talking about the difficulty and slow progress they make while trying to publish and distribute the works of Maurice Emmanuel and his wife.
Noteworthy is also the second half of the letter. It gives us an idea how the composers from before the war were struggling with the new developments in the music. They speak about "...une action destructrice menée par ce barbare qui est Pierre Boulez..." , and show a negative attitude toward Boulez, who according to them wants all the music to dissapear, with the (2nd) Viennese school as exception. They even take it a step further and speak of "...terrorisme anti-artistique et anti-culturel ressemble étrangement, par son caractère dictatorial, aux idéologies totalitaires contre lesquelles nous avons combattu dans la Résistance...". It is very clear that the negative attitude towards this new form of music making is very strong, asking if The Netherlands is also struggling with supporters of Boulez.9
Ludovicus Mirandolle did an audition for De Rijksacademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam in September 1923. He got admitted to the evening course of the academic year 1923/1924. Ludovicus Mirandolle graduated this evening course with a sufficient grade. This was confirmed by the office Library and Collections of the Rijksacademie.10
1.4c l'Archive de Yvonne Lefébure et Freddy Goldbeck
Secondly, there are letters stored in the l’Archive de Yvonne Lefébure et Freddy Goldbeck in the Bibliothèque Musicale La Grande Fleuret (Before Médiathèque Musicale Mahler) in Paris. The family Mirandolle was in contact with them since Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk studied piano with Yvonne Lefébure.
To find out more information about Ludovicus Mirandolles international connections we will have to travel to Paris. In the Mediathèque Musicale Mahler/Bibliothèque La Grange Fleuret they have three boxes of the personal archive of Yvonne Lefébure and Freddy Goldbeck containing letters sent by Ludovicus Mirandolle and his wife Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk. Written mostly in French, with a few letters in Dutch, the library does not allow pictures or scans of the documents. Three days had to spend in silence with pen and paper. Reading the letters, but also translating and copying on the spot.
The letters were all neatly placed in plastic folders, but unfortunately did not receive a numbering or ordering by date. As Annie’s name is the first name in the alphabet, we find her letters first in the archive. Most of her letters to Yvonne Lefébure are to add some words to letters that Ludovicus had sent. The majority are to send thanks to Yvonne and Freddy for concerts they had heard, a recording on the radio that they were able to receive in The Hague, all the way from Paris. But most of the letters by Annie are because she wanted to have lessons with Yvonne in Paris and The Netherlands. The first couple of letters are very formal, as you would expect writing to someone you have never written before. She writes many letters to plan lessons with Yvonne, and to tell her about what she is working on at that moment. She is studying a lot of standard French repertoire but also pieces written by Ludovicus. She is also planning on bringing these piano pieces by Ludovicus to the lessons with Yvonne. As years pass, the letters become more friendlier and start to become more personal. She writes Yvonne about different subjects. Like their orphan nephew who had to go the hospital, or the eyes of Ludovicus that started to get worse. Annie also feels more comfortable asking for favours. For example, in one of the letters Annie writes that the woman who normally provides her and Ludovicus with a room in Paris won’t be in town. She does not have enough money to find accommodation as she wants to spend her savings on meals. Because of this Annie asks Yvonne Lefébure if she could perhaps arrange something with the composer Maurice Emmanuel.11 This can’t be a coincidence. Ludovicus was a very great admirer of Emmanuel as we can read in letters to the widow and daughter of Maurice Emmanuel. This could be a nice opportunity to get to know this man.
In the letters of Ludovicus Mirandolle we discover that they became very good acquaintances with Yvonne Lefébure and Freddy Goldbeck. During their tours in The Netherlands, they would often meet with Ludovicus and Annie at the concerts or they would go out for dinner all together. In both the letters of Annie and Ludovicus we often read about a person they mention as “La Madre”. But only in the letter of the passing of “La Madre” we get to read that this person is the mother of Freddy Goldbeck. Ludovicus wrote a letter to Yvonne to send his condolences. Together with this letter he also attached a letter to Freddy in Dutch where he mentions the passing of Freddy’s mother. In his message to Freddy, he tells him about the many things that had to be done after the funeral. The mortgage, the insurance, etc. Ludovicus and Annie must have been very close to “La Madre” as we can see in the other letters. Annie often visited her and wrote Yvonne and Freddy about how she was doing. Unfortunately, there were no envelopes of the letters present in the archive. Since Annie did not write a date on her letters it is difficult to place them on a timeline. We do know that the last letter written by Annie was a New Year’s greeting in 1980, six years after the passing of Ludovicus. Of the fifty-five Mirandolle letters in the archive of Yvonne Lefébure and Freddy Goldbeck, only twelve are written by Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk.
The letters by Ludovicus Mirandolle in the archive start in 1939 and end in 1973, only one month before his death on 6 January 1974. In the earliest letter to Yvonne, Ludovicus writes her because she knows the composer Maurice Emmanuel and played his music.
“Je comprends que vous avez connu personellement cet éminet musicien”.12
Sadly, he never got to meet Maurice Emmanuel and he only got to have a short letter correspondence with him before he died. Ludovicus Mirandolle was a great admirer of Maurice Emmanuel. As we can read in his letter to the family Emmanuel, he was a great influence on his own music. To Yvonne he also writes that even though the correspondence with Emmanuel was short it encouraged him to compose for him. Therefore, he dedicated “DEUX PRELUDES POUR PIANO” (LMW19) to him as an in memoriam after Emmanuels passing on 14 December 1938. Probably there must have been contact with Yvonne already before 1939 as in one of the letters by Annie she asks if she could perhaps stay at the house of Maurice Emmanuel.Since Yvonne Lefébure knew Maurice Emmanuel, Ludovicus will send her a copy of the Preludes “…comme une témoignage de sympathie pour votre belle activité.”13 Ludovicus just finished his sixth Sonatine (LMW25) for piano and wants to dedicate this piece to Yvonne Lefébure. This marks the start of a long collaboration between Ludovicus and Yvonne. For the remaining years of their friendship, he will send her his manuscripts for corrections before sending it to the publisher.
The few pieces by Ludovicus Mirandolle that were lucky to get published, were edited by M. Leduc. In Mirandolle’s letters to Yvonne we can read that he is not that content with how things are developing. He complains that the publisher is taking too long. Partly, this is because there was a paper scarcity in Europe that caused a great delay on the whole process. Also, he does not trust M. Leduc to correct his music, therefore he sent his music to Yvonne Lefébure for correction instead. There are a lot of problems at M. Leduc. In a letter of 20 March 1944, he writes that he sent a copy of a new piece to Yvonne in Paris. This is one of the few copies that are still left. There used to be more copies, but they all got destroyed when the publishing house got bombed by the “Anglo-Americans”.14
In 1945 is the first letter by Ludovicus to Freddy Goldbeck. Freddy was the husband of Yvonne Lefébure and worked as a conductor and musicologist. After he moved to France, he started the music magazine Contrepoint, and wrote articles for Le Figaro. 1945, is the year that Ludovicus meets Freddy. He joins Yvonne during one of her tours in The Netherlands, and they get to meet the Mirandolle’s after one of her concerts. Ludovicus, who likes to write himself as well, sees this as an opportunity to publish his own writings. In the letter he describes that he has written about different subjects before and will add a list of all the works that he already previously had sent to Yvonne. He also promises Freddy that he will write an article whenever he hears something interesting.
In this same letter, Ludovicus writes: “Vroeger schreef ik ook nog een klarinetten kwartet (’37) dat ik zelf niet meer heb doch wel Hamelin (colombes 68 rue de champerons)”.15 As also later described in the chapter Ludovicus Mirandolle Werken Catalogue, this is another proof that Mirandolle sent the manuscript of the clarinet quartet to Gaston Hamelin. Unfortunately, after the lot that it was part of, got auctioned, there is no trace left of its whereabouts. The auction house is not allowed to give personal information of the buyers. Also, there was no answer from the buyer after the auction house sent the person a message asking about the music score of Mirandolle.
Because of the many years of letter correspondence with Yvonne Lefébure and Freddy Goldbeck, we have a lot of address information of where the Mirandolles lived.
1) Johannes Verhulststraat 101hs
2) Nicolaas Maesstraat 108(II), Amsterdam Zuid
3) Gerard Brandstraat 6B, Amsterdam
4) Kolpinghuis Z-O Buitensingel 138, 's-Gravenhage
5) Van Aerssenstraat 196, 's-Gravenhage
6) Lange Beestenmarkt 100, 's-Gravenhage
7) Groot Hertoginnenlaan 2, 's-Gravenhage
8) Th. M. Bouwmeesterlaan 1, 's-Gravenhage
9) Adelheidstraat 99, 's-Gravenhage
In 1943, Ludovicus writes to Yvonne and Freddy that they need to move out of their home at the Van Aerssenstraat because of "...le bureau d'evacuation...".16 In the archive of Corry de Roo-Vierdag we can find back the notice they received.
On the 18th of June 1947, Ludovicus sends a big package to Freddy Goldbeck. Inside is a letter accompanied by a 68 pages long article with the title "Quelques aspects de la vie musicale dans l'antiquité... ...et de nos jours."17 , meant for the next publication of Contrepoint. This article is a combination of all his knowledge. He starts with quoting and comparing many writers like Plato, Aristoteles, Schiller, Berdiaeff etc. After this he makes a jump to the Greek antiquity where he gives a secription of "...Les Muses...", to continue giving a critique on "...le Nazisme...". Here he mentions how the government can be a great danger to music. Especially to new music, that at that moment had to go through an examination. Many quotes come together with very long footnotes, that could be published as seperate articles on their own, looking at the length. Ludovicus continues with giving an explanation of "...la Kithara...", "Le comma synthonique ou Didymique...", Babylon and ancient China, the Old and New Testament, Apollo, "...Aulos...", Gilgamesh and ends with Don Giovanni. Ludovicus was already thinking ahead and asked if Freddy could correct his French, even though it should be perfect already. Also, in the case the article is too long, Ludovicus would not mind for it to be published in two or three parts.18
"C'est ainsi que la musique s'experimera dans son propre langage sur un mode toujours nouveau..."19
1.4d Private archive family Maurice Emmanuel
Thirdly and finally, we have letters from the personal archive of the family Maurice Emmanuel, provided by the granddaughter of Maurice Emmanuel, Anne Eichner-Emmanuel. Maurice Emmanuel was a composer and musicologist who had Yvonne Lefébure as one of his students. Ludovicus Mirandolle was a great admirer of him and his music, but never got to meet him in person. Ludovicus Mirandolle had a long letter correspondence with the widow Emmanuel, and the children Frank and Helene. In one of the letters, sending his condolences to the wife and daughter of Maurice Emmanuel, he mentiones that unfortunately it is impossible now to meet Maurice Emmanuel in person. Ludovicus Mirandolle felt a great and deep admiration for Maurice Emmanuel and was influenced by his work, "...j'ai senti une grande et profonde admiration pour lui et il fut pour moi comme si une influence attirante émane de ses oeuvres sur moi".20
1.6 Instruments
Among the many things and objects that Corry de Roo-Vierdag inherited from Ludovicus Mirandolle and Annie Mirandolle-Sleeswijk, there were also three instruments: two historical clarinets and one bassoon-like basset horn.
1.6a The two Clarinets
There are two historical clarinets. The first one is a five-key clarinet in Bb made by Freyer in Potsdam. The second instrument is a six-key instrument made in Europe and provided with a stamp in the United States of America by Briley 29 Chatham St. N-York.
1.6b The Basset horn
The Basset horn ressembles very much an instrument shown in the book Das Bassetthorn (2004). Here we can see a basset horn made in Markneukirchen by the firm Fritz Schüller Markneukirchen with the same bassoon-like shape as Mirandolle's basset horn.21 Mirandolles basset horn is not exactly the same as the instrument shown in the book. The shape and build are exactly the same, but there are a few differences in the keys. The original shown in the book has open holes, while Mirandolles basset horn has extra keys covering or surrounding the finger holes of the instrument.
It was not possible to play on the basset horn of Ludovicus Mirandolle as holes were not closing and the bell kept falling from the body. Bert Wijnand has cleaned and restored the instrument professionaly, and we are able to play on it again.
1.4b Private archive Corry de Roo-Vierdag (other)
The private archive of Corry de Roo-Vierdag did not only contain letters. Ludovicus Mirandolle himself already started to collect publications mentioning and talking about his work. Many of these descriptions are a great way to see how his music was received by other musicians, composers, and listeners.
In 1966, Burnet C. Tuthill publishes an article in Journal of research in music education called "The sonatas for clarinet and piano". In this article, where he tries to list all the published sonatas for clarinet and piano of that period, he also mentions the Sonate (Ed. Alphonse Leduc, Paris, 1938) and Sonatine (Ed. Alphonse Leduc, Paris, 1940) and writes about these compositions: "Rather vague and wandering music that does not seem to arrive anywhere. Both works requiere virtuoso technique and good ensemble"22
Another great piece of information among these documents is a list of critiques by various musicians and composers etc. about the works of Ludovicus Mirandolle. Unfortunately this only exists as a copy and there is no trace of the original document. When we compare the print to the publication of deux morceaux pour instruments à vent we can conclude that it is the same font and same way of notating. As this editions has been published by Ludovicus Mirandolle himself in The Hague, we can assume that the source containing various critiques about his work has been edited and published by Ludovicus Mirandolle himself as well.
This list shows the connections Ludovicus Mirandolle had with various people from countries like France, Czech Republic, Yugoslavia, Italy, Germany etc.
A few quotes from this list:23
Louis Laloy: "...Trois Duos où les sonorités de la clarinette en si bémol ou en la, savamment combinées, produisent d'éloquentes harmonies." (La Page Musicale, Paris, 27 janv. 11939, 4e Année No. 62)
Gawann: "...dont je vourdrais pouvoir vour parler moins vite, montrent chez M. Ludovicus Mirandolle des qualités musicales que le regretté Maurice Emmanuel avait raison de priser" (La Page Paris, 2 Juin 1939, 4e Année No. 126. p. 101)
Maurice Emmanuel: "...La Sonate pour clarinette me paraît admirablement écrit pour ce bel instrument..." (Paris, 13 Xbre 1937)
Yvonne Lefébure: "...J'ai parcouru avec le plus grand intérèt les pièces pour piano ("Trois Pièces" et "Deux Préludes") et avec beaucoup d'intérèt je tâcherai de les faire jouer..." (Paris, le 31 juillet 1939)
Stanislav Krticka: "...La Sonatine pour Clarinette et Piano...etwas so ausserordentlich feines und geschmackvolles kann nur...(Mirandolle) allein schöpfen." (Brno, 15. Juni 1941)
Charles Koechlin: "...au concert du Triptyque... Sonate en trio...Les instruments y sont bien traités, à ce qu'il me semble...Les contrepoints ond du mouvement" (Paris, 22 Juillet 1943)
Alfred Cortot: "...j'ai eu grand plaisir à subir l'attrait de la plus vive ingéniosité artistique et d'ume sensibilité qui, dans les morceaux dédiés à la mémoires de notre cher Maurice Emmanuel (Deux Préludes), revêt un caractère de la plus attachante qualité..." (Paris, 4 Déc, 41)
- Next -
Tuthill, Burnet C. (1966), "The Sonatas for clarinet and piano" in: Journal of research in music education, United States, SAGE Publishing, Vol. 14, Issue 3 (p. 207)
1.5 Christengemeenschap publications
Ludovicus Mirandolle published some books and articles, working as a priest for the Christengemeenschap.
In the catalogue of Bibliotheek van de Antroposofische Vereniging, we can find the following publications by Ludovicus Mirandolle.
- "De uitnemende en wijt-beroemde Rembrandt van Rhijn". Article (1956)
- Beeld, woord, daad : gedachten over eeredienst en sacrament in onzen tijd. Book (1929)
- Broeder Dood in Babylon. Article (1950)
- Christelijke cultus : Christen-Gemeenschap (Christengemeinschaft). Book (1924)
- Enige opmerkingen in verband met onzen Michaël-tijd. Article (1948)
- Hemelvaart. Article (1946)
- In memoriam Gerrit Anthonie Gerretsen. Article (1960)
- Jeanne d'Arc : Haar leven - wezen – beteekenis. Book (1930)
- De kleuren van het altaar in de loop van het jaar. Book
- De kleuren van het Altaar in de loop van het jaar. Article (1951)
- L'Apocalypse de Jean. Book
- Michaël- tijd. Article (1948)
- Oorsprong en wezen van het boze. Article (1964)
- Pistis Sophia : eenige hymnen uit de Pistis Sophia. Book
- Raffaëllo Sanrio. Article (1922)
- Uit het leven der Christengemeenschap. Article (1949)
- Waarheid en schoonheid. Article (1957)
- Werkelijkheid en zin van het boze oorsprong en wezen van het boze (2). Article (1964)
- Werkelijkheid en zin van het boze oorsprong en wezen van het boze (3). Article (1964)
1.7 Death of Ludovicus Mirandolle
On the last day of his life, Three-Kings-Day, while getting ready to preach for the Christengemeenschap, Ludovicus Mirandolle gets a heart attack. He is brought to the intensive care of the hospital, where he passed away on 6 January 1974.24
"Jetzt sind die heiligen drei Könige mit ihrem herzenswarmen Weisheitslicht die Paten seiner leibbefreiten Existenz"25
