Vandenheede, Jan

Jan Vandenheede is a composer and researcher with a particular interest in electronic music and the relationship between musical structure and the resulting sound. He studied musicology and computer science in Ghent and continued his studies in Paris and at Stanford. In Paris, he worked with Iannis Xenakis, among others, and later spent many years at I.R.C.A.M., the research centre for acoustics and music founded at the initiative of Pierre Boulez.

His work draws on the modernist tradition of composers such as Ligeti, Stockhausen, Berio and Xenakis, but Vandenheede places greater emphasis on the sensory experience: a composition must not only be technically well conceived, but also musically convincing. In his view, experimentation belongs in the studio, not on stage.

His output is small but meticulously crafted. Some works take strict structural principles as their starting point, including serialism, stochastic processes and alternative rhythmic notation. Others, such as Wendung, emerge more intuitively, although even there he suspects an underlying structure. Major works include Struktur I, 4 für 4, Phantasy and Petit Livre magique pour harpe bleue et électronique.