Gerard von Brucken Fock

Gerardus Hubertus Galenus von Brucken Fock (28 December 1859 – 15 August 1935) was a nineteenth-century classical Dutch pianist who gave up his career as a performer to compose and paint.

Constantly torn between art and church, he traveled much in Europe, later establishing himself in Amsterdam. He married the daughter of a member of the Zeeland parliament. He joined the Salvation Army and traveled from place to place in France, preaching and playing organ. He was also considered a very good draftsman and watercolorist whose works often inspired his own musical pieces. His orchestral works frequently lean towards French Impressionists like Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.

Life

Family and education

Gerard von Brucken Fock (also known as Geert) was born as Gerardus Hubertus Galenus Fock on Ter Hooge Castle, Koudekerke, in the outskirts of Middelburg where he spent the summers of his early childhood. His father was Henri Dignes von Brucken Fock and his mother Johanna Kuykendall. He had three brothers, one of them being Abraham Emilius von Brucken Fock, a soldier who later acquired fame as a composer as well. Less than four years later his father changed his name to "von Brucken Fock". He grew up in the province of Zeeland as the child of a wealthy family, and although he never had to work he did attend his secondary school in Middelburg. In 1877 he attempted to join the Royal Military Academy in Breda, but failed the entrance exam.

He took piano lessons with professor Theodorus Leonardus van der Wurff (1836–1900) and studied music composition with the famous composer Richard Hol, who taught him the principles of harmony between 1877 and 1879 in Utrecht, played viola in ensembles and maintained contacts with prominent musicians from the Utrechtsch Orchestra with whom he toured in Middelburg. He then decided to continue with his studies in music and moved to Berlin in September 1879 to take lessons with the renowned pedagogue and composer Friedrich Kiel and composition with professors Woldemar Bargiel and Ernst Rudorff. After moving from one place to another from 1883, visiting Dresden, Prague, Vienna and the German island of Borkum, he returned to Middelburg in 1885 and married Maria Johanna Pompe van Meerdervoort, daughter of a member of the Zeeland parliament.

In 1895 Von Brucken Fock took his temporary dismissal from the Salvation Army, picked up the thread of composing again in 1898 and composed Impromptu: Le Gironde for piano, later released as Opus 12. but briefly stayed in Berlin between 1905 and 1906. After having lived in Paris between 1912 and 1913, they moved to Laren and then to Katwijk aan Zee.