Youth Escher was born the son of the geologist and
mineralogist Berend George Escher and the Swiss Emma Brosy. His father was a son of the engineer
George Arnold Escher and half-brother of the
graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher. At the age of four, Escher moved with his family to
Batavia, Dutch East Indies, where his father worked as a geologist for the Batavian Petroleum Company. His father was a good pianist and he gave the young Escher piano lessons.
Study In 1922, five years later, they were back in the
Netherlands, now in
Leiden. Escher went to the
Stedelijk Gymnasium Leiden and continued his piano lessons, now with Bé Hartz. He also played the violin and got harmony lessons. After four years he quit school. At first he could not choose between music,
visual arts and letters but in 1929 he decided to become a composer. Next he wanted to go to the conservatoire in
Cologne. The Dutch composer
Peter van Anrooy advised him to study piano. On second thoughts Escher went to the Toonkunst Conservatoire in
Rotterdam in 1931. Until 1937 he studied the piano as major with the
cello as minor. From 1934 to 1937 he also studied composition with
Willem Pijper as his teacher. Escher's debut was in 1935 with his
First piano sonata. He also attracted attention in 1938 with an important essay:
Toscanini and Debussy, magic of reality. In this essay his views towards composing are evident. He also wrote a few poems, which were published in
Forum. Soon after the war Escher was a contributor about visual arts and music for the weekly
Groene Amsterdammer. He turned out to be a talented poet, publishing poetry in literary magazines into the 1950s. Socially he had little to complain about; he was offered several administrative functions, his compositions were successfully performed, and his publications were followed with interest. Thus Escher began experimenting with
electronic music and
serialism in the 1960s. He took lessons in the technique of electronic music with lectures in elementary sound mechanics, electro-physics and sound technology in
Delft. Afterwards he experimented in the Studio for Electronic Music in Delft and then at the
Institute of Sonology in
Utrecht. He decided to ask for analysis classes with Boulez, with reference to the piece he heard in
Cologne. From 3 to 7 November 1960 he visited Boulez in
Baden-Baden. Those days were spent on analyzing
Improvisations sur Mallarmé I & II of Boulez. In 1960–61 Escher gave lessons at the
Conservatoire of Amsterdam. He used his experience with Boulez to give a lecture on "the meaning of structure and form by Debussy with reference to recent serial composition techniques by Boulez." He became Scientific Senior Lecturer at the Institute for
Musicology at the University of Utrecht from 1964 to 1977. His specialization was 'Aspects of the twentieth century'. He gave a lecture "characteristic structure- and form criteria in the music of the twentieth century." Besides music theory he also explored the world of music as a
semantic sign system and
Audiology. In the year of the publication of the correspondence Peter Schat published a letter to the dead Escher. In the letter Schat described the process of change that was happening in that time. He also notified Escher about the existing state of affairs in the Netherlands. In 1999 David Moore wrote that Escher is one of the most prominent Dutch composers of the previous generation.
Leo Samama was also laudatory when we mentioned Escher's work: "Together with the 'Sinfonia per dieci strumenti' (1973/75), the 'Flute sonata' (1976/79) and the 'Trio for clarinet, viola and piano' (1978/79), the 'Wind Quintet' belongs to the works of a master – one of the few our country has known - of an artist that has developed such a personal language, a personal grammar, a personal sound, that every statement about French or German influences, about old or new music, about place and time are futile and meaningless."
Prizes Escher received several prizes for his compositions during his live. In 1946 he got the Music prize of the city of
Amsterdam for his orchestral work ''Musique pour l'esprit en deuil
, yet before the first performance sounded. One year later he received the Dutch Government Prize for the suite for piano Arcana
. He also received the Music price of the city of Amsterdam for Le vrai visage de la paix
for choir a cappella. For Le tombeau de Ravel
he got the Prof. Van der Leeuw Prize in 1959. Twice he could receive the Visser-Neerlandia Prize, for Nostalgies
(1961) and the Wind Quintet
(1968). Between these prizes he got the Willem Pijper Prize in 1966 for the Sonata concertante'' for cello and piano. Eventually Escher received the Johan Wagenaar Prize in 1977 for all his works. == Works ==