Backers, Cor

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Backers, Cor

Backers, Cor, Dutch pianist, conductor, music historian, and composer; b. Rotterdam, June 5, 1910. He studied piano with Dirk Schafer and composition at the Rotterdam Cons. He gave piano recitals in the Netherlands; also traveled through Europe and East Africa; conducted the chamber choir Haags Kamerkoor (1950–60), specializing in forgotten masterpieces of the past. He publ. a valuable compendium, Nederlandse componisten van 1400 tot op onze tijd (The Hague, 1941; 2nd éd., enl., 1948), which details the evolution of music in the Netherlands, with particular emphasis on modern Dutch music; he also publ. monographs on Handel, Puccini, Gershwin, and others. He composed mostly for voices and organ, numbering among his works a “declamatorio,” Joost de Decker, for Narrator and Piano; a Piano Sonata (1935); Six Goethe-Lieder for Chorus (1969); Missa Sancta for Soloists, Chorus, and Organ (1973–74); and Te Deum Laudamus for Chorus and Organ or Orch. (1973–75).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire