Rudolf Palm (11 January 1880 in

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

– 11 September 1950 in Curaçao) was a

born

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Biography

Rudolf Theodorus Palm was the grandson of

Jan Gerard Palm Jan Gerard Palm (June 2, 1831 – December 13, 1906) was a composer from Curaçao. Biography Palm was born in Curaçao and directed several music ensembles at a young age. In 1859, he was appointed as music director of the Citizen's Guard Orchest ...

(1831–1906) who is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao classical music". Like his cousin

Jacobo Palm Jacobo Palm (28 November 1887 – 1 July 1982) was a Curaçao-born composer. Biography Jacobo José Maria Palm was the grandson of Jan Gerard Palm (1831-1906) who is often referred to as the "father of Curaçao classical music". At the age of sev ...

and his brother John Palm, at the age of seven Rudolf started to take lessons in music from his grandfather. Rudolf played several musical instruments such as

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

and

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

. At the age of 19 Palm was appointed music director of the citizen’s guard orchestra in

. As an

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

, Palm played for many years in the Jewish synagogue Emanu-El (1911–1950) and Mikvé Israel (1926–1928), the Protestant Fort Church (1902–1946) and the Lodge Igualdad (1903–1950) in

. Rudolf Palm also founded in 1901 his own music ensemble "Los Dispuestos", an orchestra consisting of about 20 musicians and some years later a

sextet A sextet (or hexad) is a formation containing exactly six members. The former term is commonly associated with vocal ensembles (e.g. The King's Singers, Affabre Concinui) or musical instrument groups, but can be applied to any situation where six ...

, called "Los seis". Rudolf Palm also played

in the Curaçao

Philharmonic An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, a ...

Orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

. Numerous students followed lessons in music from Rudolf Palm. His most talented students were his own sons the composers Albert Palm (1903–1958) and Edgar Palm (1905–1998) and his daughter Maria Henskes-Palm (1909–1979).

Compositions

As a

, Rudolf Palm wrote about 90 pieces for piano, consisting of 61

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

es, 8 marches, 5

danza Danza is a musical genre that originated in Ponce, a city in southern Puerto Rico. It is a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century ballroom dance genre slightly similar to the waltz. Both the danza and its cousin the contradanza are sequence danc ...

s, 8 tumbas, 2

mazurka The Mazurka ( Polish: ''mazurek'') is a Polish musical form based on stylised folk dances in triple meter, usually at a lively tempo, with character defined mostly by the prominent mazur's "strong accents unsystematically placed on the seco ...

s, 1

polka Polka is a dance style and genre of dance music in originating in nineteenth-century Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Though generally associated with Czech and Central European culture, polka is popular throughout Europe and the ...

, 4 danzons, 1

paso doble Pasodoble (Spanish language, Spanish: ''double step'') is a fast-paced Spanish military march used by infantry troops. Its speed allowed troops to give 120 steps per minute (double the average of a regular unit, hence its name). This often wa ...

and also the music for some songs. Several of his compositions were recorded on LP and later also on CD.

References

* * * https://web.archive.org/web/20080925183241/http://books.caribseek.com/Curacao/ 1880 births 1950 deaths 20th-century composers Curaçao musicians Dutch Antillean composers Male composers 20th-century Dutch male musicians {{NorthAm-composer-stub