Lou Lichtveld

Lodewijk "Lou" Lichtveld was born on 7 November 1903 in Paramaribo (Suriname, at that time still a colony of the Netherlands). His father was of both Dutch and Creole heritage, worked as a senior official at the Suriname tax collection agency and so the family belonged to the nonwhite elite class. At the age of 11 Lou Lichtveld is sent to the Netherlands to attend the first seminary at the Kapel in 't Zand in Roermond. He finished the education in 1916 and returned to Paramaribo and continued school. Additionally Lou Lichtveld received music lessons by Frater Anselmus (birth name: Carel Bonten) in piano, harmony, composition, flute and organ and by Rene Chalut in violin and orchestration. At the age of 17 Lou Lichtveld became organist at the local cathedral and wrote his first compositions. In 1922 he moved to Amsterdam and started to compose music seriously. He found his place in the circle of musicians in Amsterdam, in 1927 Lou Lichtveld even married Helena Mengelberg, the niece of the renowned conductor Willem Mengelberg.

Beside his musical composition Lou Lichtveld also wrote texts which he published under different pseudonyms, but mostly under his best known pen name Albert Helman. His first book "Zuid Zuid West" about the exploitation of Suriname by the Dutch colonizers is released in 1926. And in contrast to his musical compositions this became an immediate success. So Lou Lichtveld more and more focussed on writing prose, essays, lyric and other sorts of texts and his musical compositions became less and less. The result is that he is better known today under his pen name Albert Helman than under his birth name Lou Lichtveld.

After 1930 Lou Lichtveld lived a highly political life. In 1932 he moved to Spain and fought on the side of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War against the fascists under General Franco. After Franco's victory Lichtveld fled to North Africa and Mexico and finally returned to the Netherlands in 1939. After the German invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Lou Lichtveld became a part of the resistance, forged personal documents and published anti-Fascist slogans and books. In 1949 he returned to Suriname, where he was the Minister of Education and National Development and Minister of Health until 1951. After his resignation as Minister, he still held various other offices. He was chairman of the Court of Audit of Suriname and director of the office folk reading. In 1961 he was appointed to the Dutch Embassy in Washington. And this political life was always accompanied by his writings, in total more than 130 books and hundreds of articles and essays. His most important writings are „Zuid-Zuid-West“ (1926), „Mijn aap schreit“ (1928), „De stille plantage“ (1931), „De rancho der X mysteries“ (1941), „De laaiende stilte“ (1952), „De foltering van Eldorado“ (1983) and „Hoofden van de Oayapok!“ (1984). In 1962 Lou Lichtveld was awarded honorary doctorate of the university of Amsterdam.

After retiring, Lou Lichtveld settled on Tobago, later in Airole (Italy) and finally in Amsterdam, where he died on 10 July 1996.

As mentioned before the composer Lou Lichtveld is nearly forgotten nowadays. Therefore it is difficult to find a work catalogue of his compositions. For this reason I would like to present here a list of his musical creations. My main reference was the important biography on Lou Lichtveld "Rusteloos en overal" by Michiel van Kempen:

• Omhoog, for voice and orchestra (1921)
• Ajax-marsch, for orchestra (1921)
• Kerstlied, for voice and piano (1924)
• Les vacances du Pantin, for piano (1925)
• Triptiek, for piano (1925)
• A song of Kalua, for voice and piano (1925)
• Dat scoonste kint es ons gheboren (1925)
• Prelude, Romance et Fugue, for piano (ca. 1925)
• Quatre morceaux romantiques, for piano (ca. 1925)
• I want to be ready (Negro song), for voice and piano (1926)
• Arcadia, for piano (1926)
• Berusting, for voice and piano (1926)
• Dismal Sam, for piano (1927)
• A la maniere d'une Sonate, for flute and piano (1927)
• Five songs for voice and piano (1929)
• Cancio mistica, oratorio for soprano, bariton, mixed choir and orchestra (1929)
• Music for the film "Regen" by Joris Ivens (1929)
• Dormi, for bariton and piano (1930)
• Music for the film "Philips-Radio" by Joris Ivens (1930)
• Violin sonata (1931)
• Concertino for piano and orchestra (1932)
• 26 oude kinderliedjes (1934)

Lou Lichtveld Archive

In my possession are several autograph manuscripts of the music compositions by Lou Lichtveld. These works are:

1) oratorio "Cancio mistica"

2) Songs of Kalua

3) Dismal Sam

4) Quatre morceaux romantiques

5) I want to be ready (Negro song)

6) Prelude, Romance et Fugue

7) Arcadia

8) Dormi

In addition to these works in manuscript I also own the published scores of "Triptiek" and "Les vacances du Pantin", both published by De Gemeenschap in Utrecht in 1925.

1) oratorio 'Cancio mistica'

In my possession is the autograph full score of the oratorio "Cancio mistica" by Lou Lichtveld. According to the score it was composed in 1929 and finished on 23 July 1929. It is scored for soprano, bariton, mixed choir and large orchestra. The text is by Juan de Yepes, better known as John of the Cross (1542-1591) in a French translation by Rene-Louis Doyon. This translation was published under the title "Canciones" by the publishing house "La Connaissance" in 1920.

For many years the score was believed to be lost in the Spanish Civil War, but was in the possession of French conductor Walther Straram, and later by his family. But Straram and his orchestra never performed the oratorio and so it still awaits its world premiere.

2) Songs of Kalua

In 1925 Lou Lichtveld became part of the editorial staff of "De Gemeenschap", a newly founded Catholic publishing house. One of his colleagues there was the poet and writer Albert Kuyle (1904-1958, pen name of Albertus Kuitenbrouwer). The two became friends and so it is no surprise that Lou Lichtveld set some of the poems by Albert Kuyle into music.

For his composition Lou Lichtveld chose three poems (titled I - II - III) which were published under the name "Songs of Kalua" in 1927. But according to the manuscripts Lou Lichtveld already composed the works in 1925 and that means he received the poems from Albert Kuyle before publication. That is of importance because the text used in the manuscript differs slightly to the published poems. Also the order of the poems differs to the published one (in the composition the order is II - III - I in comparision to the published order).

Lou Lichtveld originally titled the songs "Liedjes voor de Banjo", but that was later crossed out and retitled "Songs of Kalua". As the author of music and words Lou Lichtveld wrote "music by Lewis Lightfield" and "words by Abby Kule", obviously two pen names.

The "Songs for Kalua" are scored for voice and piano and were never published before.

3) Dismal Sam

This piano composition is titled "Dismal Sam (Jazz)" and was composed in 1927.

4) Quatre morceaux romantiques

The Quatre morceaux romantiques are scored for piano and consist of the four movements 1. Le Caraibe dans sa cage, II. Amsterdam, III. Dialogue and IV. Restaurant. In my manuscript the third movement Dialogue is missing. Only the title was written down but the rest of the page was left blank. Curiously the movements 1, 2 and 4 are nicely penned down. I have no idea why this 3rd movement is missing.

On the first page of the manuscript the main title is "Encore le cabanon". The words "Quatre morceaux romantiques" are written in top corner and circled. I assume that "Encore le cabanon" was an early title.

The manuscript is not dated, but the work was composed very likely around 1925.

5) I want to be ready

The song "I want to be ready (Negro song)" is scored for voice and piano and was composed in 1926. It uses a popular text from Louisiana which was set to music also by other composers. Lou Lichtveld dedicated the manuscript in my possession "to Helen / 4 XI 26" (very likely his future wife Helena Mengelberg). The score of the song was published in an issue of "De Gemeenschap" in 1927.

6) Prelude, Romance et Fugue

The "Prelude, Romance et Fugue" is a piano composition. The manuscript is undated, but the work very likely dates from around 1925.

7) Arcadia

The work "Arcadia - 5 Pastorales" is scored for piano and was published by De Gemeenschap in 1927. But this publication - like all published music scores by Lou Lichtveld - are virtually impossible to find nowadays. Therefore I decided to create a new edition from the autograph manuscript.

8) Dormi

The composition "Dormi" for voice and piano was composed in 1930 and sets the famous text of the Virgin's Cradle Hymn into music. The composition was never published before.