Henri Zagwijn

Born in Nieuwer-Amstel, Zagwijn never received a formal musical education, instead being almost completely self-taught in composition.

[1] He was attracted to the style of the Impressionists and began to compose in a manner reflective of trends then current in France.

He gained an appointment to teach at the Rotterdam School of Music in 1916; two years later, with Sem Dresden, he founded the Society of Modern Composers in the Netherlands.

An anthroposophic disciple of Rudolf Steiner, he published De muziek in het licht der anthroposophie in 1935; in 1940 he published a life of Claude Debussy.

[2] His compositional output consists largely of chamber music.