In Flanders' Fields Vol. 47 - Ernest van der Eyken

The oeuvre of Ernest van der Eyken, which is characterized by a distinct preference for strings and chamber music ensembles, is not exuberantly large: a hundred and twenty compositions, more or less, including smaller youthful works. Van der Eyken owes his style to the two diametrically opposed movements that he was introduced to as a young man: Flemish post-romanticism and the first wave of modernism of the 20th century. From the one group, he inherited an unremitting attention to lyricism, from the other group, an accurate ear for new, often wry harmonies. The first ones tempered a far too suffocating influence of a number of Benoit adherents in some of his generations Flemish composers. The melody is and remains, in every way, the most important building block of Van der Eyken's compositions. Illustrative examples of this are the Two melodies for viola and piano (1942), characterized by a supple, almost never-ending melody, as well as a number of solo passages from the Octet for winds (1999). In the Second String Quartet, more precisely in the Allegro fugato and many other fugal passages, he clearly demonstrates his attachment to traditional composition techniques. Van der Eyken is a bridge builder between the past and the present.