Kees Tazelaar (*1962) followed courses in Sonology in Utrecht and The Hague, and later studied composition under Jan Boerman at the Royal Conservatoire. He has been teaching at the Institute of Sonology since 1993 and has been head of the institute since 2006.
His electronic music features a combination of formalisation, richness of sound and a compositional approach to sound spatialisation. Compositions have been commissioned by the Performing Arts Fund NL, Johan Wagenaar Stichting, Festival in de Branding, Hollandia, De Veenfabriek, Festival Relevante Musik Berlin, and Groupe de Recherches Musicales Paris.
As well as a composer, Kees Tazelaar is a historian, who has specialised in the early years of electronic music in the Netherlands and Germany. He has twice been the Edgard Varèse Guest Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin, where he earned his PhD in 2013 with the dissertation On the Threshold of Beauty: Philips and the Origins of Electronic Music in the Netherlands 1925–1965 (Rotterdam: V2_Publishing, 2013).
Kees Tazelaar was awarded a Fellowship Residency from the Bogliasco Foundation in 2017.
Publications:
Tazelaar, Kees. 2024. Variable Functions: Composing with Voltage Control Techniques at the Institute of Sonology. In Proceedings of the Speculative Sound Synthesis Symposium 2024, Institute of Electronic Music and Acoustics, University of Music and Performing Arts Graz.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2024. Einem “Haufen von Künstlern” ausgeliefert – Der Philips-Pavillon auf der Brüsseler Weltausstellung 1958. In Sonic Architectures, Neue Zeitschrift für Musik # 2_2024, 36–38.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2020. Tijd en ruimte in hedendaagse muziek. In Een kleine muziekgeschiedenis van hier en nu, ed. Mark Delaere, 182–194. Leuven: Matrix – Centrum voor nieuwe muziek.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2020. Walter Maas and the Contactorgaan Elektronische Muziek – A Lifeline for Electronic Music in the Netherlands. In 75 Years Gaudeamus: How the Unheard-of Comes to Unpredictable Life, eds. Henk Heuvelmans and Marisa Tempel. Utrecht: Stichting Gaudeamus Muziekweek.
Koenig, Gottfried Michael. 2018. Process and Form – Selected Writings on Music. Ed. Kees Tazelaar. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2017. Roelof Vermeulen at Philips – A Search for Space in Music. In Proceedings of the 51st International Musicological Colloquium. Brno: Masaryk University.
Heer, Jan de and Kees Tazelaar. 2017. From Harmony to Chaos – Le Corbusier, Varèse, Xenakis and Le poème électronique. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Duizend & Een.
Heer, Jan de and Kees Tazelaar. 2017. Van harmonie naar chaos – Le Corbusier, Varèse, Xenakis en Le poème électronique. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Duizend & Een.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2015. Installing a Laboratory for Sonology – Gottfried Michael Koenig’s Pathway to the Netherlands. In A Laboratory for Sonology, ed. Kees Tazelaar, 8–32. The Hague: Royal Conservatoire Publications.
Tazelaar, Kees, ed. 2015. A Laboratory for Sonology. The Hague: Royal Conservatoire Publications.
Boehmer, Konrad. 2015. Nach Köln. Eds. Sander van Maas and Kees Tazelaar. Amsterdam: Konrad Boehmer Foundation.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2013. On the Threshold of Beauty – Philips and the Origins of Electronic Music in the Netherlands 1925–1965. Rotterdam: V2_Instituut voor de instabiele media/NAi Uitgevers.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2013. On the Threshold of Beauty – Philips and the Origins of Electronic Music in the Netherlands 1925–1965. PhD diss., Technische Universität Berlin.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2011. The Loudspeaker Speaks. Trans. Richard Barrett. In Witteveen+Bos-Prijs voor Kunst+Techniek 2011 – Dick Raaijmakers, 11–30. Deventer: Witteveen+Bos.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2011. Zonder schroom – De geschiedvervalsing van de Nederlandse elektronische muziek. www.opusklassiek.nl
Tazelaar, Kees. 2011. Ruimte voor Nederlandse elektronische muziek. In De Gids (5): 636–649.
Valle, Andrea and Tazelaar, Kees and Lombardo, Vincenzo. 2010. In a Concrete Space – Reconstructing the Spatialization of Iannis Xenakis’ Concret PH on a Multichannel Setup. Paper presented at the annual Sound Music Computation Conference. 21–24 July, Barcelona, Spain.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2009. Special Section Introduction – The Institute of Sonology. Leonardo Music Journal 19: 69–70.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2009. Poème électronique. Trans. Jane Bemont. Programme notes for the Varèse Symposium of the Holland Festival, 12 June, Amsterdam.
Lombardo, Vincenzo and Valle, Andrea and Fitch, John and Tazelaar, Kees and Weinzierl, Stefan and Borczyk, Wojciech. 2009. A Virtual-Reality Reconstruction of Poéme Électronique Based on Philological Research. In Computer Music Journal 33 (2): 24–47.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2007. Het Instituut voor Sonologie – Korte geschiedenis van een vreemde eend in de Hofvijver. In En dan nu de polonaise – Muziek in Den Haag en Scheveningen, 233–238. Den Haag: Trespassers W.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2007. Het stuk is grijs. In Dick Raaijmakers – Monografie, eds. Arjen Mulder en Joke Brouwer, 433–446. Rotterdam: V2_Instituut voor de instabiele media/NAi Uitgevers.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2007. Het Poème électronique. In Soundbites, eds. Tim Huisman and Ad Maas, 27–35. Leiden: Museum Boerhaave.
Weinzierl, Stefan and Tazelaar, Kees. 2006. Raumsimulation und Klangkunst – vom künstlichen Nachhall zur virtuellen Akustik. In Sonambiente Berlin 2006 Klang Kunst Sound Art, eds. Helga de la Motte-Haber, Matthias Osterwold and Georg Weckwerth, 350–365. Berlin: Kehrer.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2005. Taperecordermuziek – Notatievormen van elektronische muziek op band. In Muziek Op Schrift – de wereld van de muzieknotatie, ed. Rob van Berkel, 64–67. Tilburg: Scryption Boekenfonds.
Tazelaar, Kees. 2004. Zu Koenigs Terminus. In Gottfried Michael Koenig – Parameter und Protokolle seiner Musik, ed. Stefan Frikke, 56–96. Saarbrücken: Pfau Verlag.
