Van Dieren was the last of five children of a Dutch
Rotterdam wine merchant, Bernard Joseph van Dieren, and his
French second wife, Julie Françoise Adelle Labbé. Details of his education are unknown but it seems that his early training was as a scientist, as a research assistant in a laboratory. Gifted in science, extremely intelligent and with a phenomenal memory, he was also well-versed in literature as well as an able violinist and amateur artist. His career as composer began when he was twenty when some of his early works were published in the Netherlands. In 1909 he relocated to London as a correspondent for the
Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant with his wife-to-be,
Frida Kindler (1879–1964), a very gifted concert pianist whom he married on 1 January 1910. By this time he had decided to study music seriously. A son, Hans Jean Jules Maximilian Navarre Benvenuto Bernard van Dieren (1910–74), was born the same year, during which he took British nationality. They settled at 35A St George's Road, West Hampstead in the 1920s, and later at 68, Clifton Hill, St John's Wood. He was largely self-taught, though he spent 1912 in Europe where he met the composers
Busoni and
Schoenberg. His early contact with the music world was as a musical correspondent for several European newspapers and periodicals. During the First World War he was for a short time involved in secret service in the Netherlands, as a cypher expert in the Intelligence Department. He suffered most of his life from ill health and had numerous operations for kidney-related complaints. To relieve the recurring pain, morphine was prescribed, and it is thought that in later life he became addicted to the drug. Because of these frequent bouts of illness, his wife, a former pupil of Busoni, supported the family by teaching the piano and by giving recitals. They also relied on financial support from a group of admirers and friends, which included notable personalities such as
Jacob Epstein,
Osbert and
Sacheverell Sitwell,
Augustus John,
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji,
Philip Heseltine (the composer Peter Warlock) and
Cecil Gray. The latter two were especially drawn by his charismatic and powerful personality and gave untiring support for his cause by prompting performances and publication of his works. However, this sometimes over enthusiastic support generated a backlash from non-believers.
Eric Coates, who played viola in the under-rehearsed premiere of
Diaphony (1916), witnessed the contempt of the musical establishment –
Parry,
Stanford and others – towards van Dieren. Heseltine made van Dieren his heir in his will, inspiring claims by Heseltine's son
Nigel that van Dieren had murdered Heseltine. In 1925 van Dieren worked for the
Philips electrical company but recurring illness forced him to resign the following year. Some of his works were published in 1927 and in the same year his Fourth String Quartet was performed at the Frankfurt Festival. In 1930 he completed his comic opera
The Tailor (begun in 1916 at Heseltine and Gray's request). He also wrote a book on Epstein (1920) and published a collection of controversial essays entitled
Down Among the Dead Men (1935). In his writings van Dieren championed composers such as
Alkan,
Bellini, Busoni,
Liszt and
Meyerbeer. Eventually two of his more important works were broadcast by the BBC:
Diaphony in 1934 and the
Chinese Symphony in 1935. He died on 24 April 1936 in London, and is buried on the edge of the graveyard of St Lawrence's Church,
West Wycombe.
Constant Lambert, who conducted the first public performance of the
Chinese Symphony from BBC
Broadcasting House on 15 March 1935, claimed that the theme for the opening movement, "Palindromic Prelude", from his 1938 ballet
Horoscope, was dictated from beyond the grave by van Dieren. ==Musical style==