Henk Temmingh

TEMMINGH, Henk (1939-). South African composer and academic.

Biography

Brother of composer Roelof Temmingh and conductor Lykele Temmingh.

Henk Temmingh was born in Amsterdam to a family of musicians. His first piano lessons were with his father at the age of 6, and at the age of 13 he became an organ pupil of the famous Dutch teacher Simon C. Jansen.

In March 1958, the Temmingh family moved to South Africa, and Henk matriculated from the Griekwastad High School in 1959 after having had to learn both the then official languages of South Africa (Afrikaans and English). In South Africa he continued his organ lessons with his father, Roelof, and also studied piano with Frans ter Haar.

Training

In 1960 he enrolled at the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, completing his BMus degree in 1962. He also obtained a church organist’s diploma and a performer’s licentiate in organ in the same year. He received his BMus (Hons) and MMus degrees in 1963 and 1964 respectively (both from Potchefstroom). In 1964 he married Annatjie du Plessis, a fellow BMus student.

In 1965, Temmingh returned to the Netherlands for two years, during which he studied organ with Adriaan Engels and composition with Kees van Baaren. His overseas studies also included choral and orchestral conducting, and he was later appointed as conductor of various choirs and orchestras, among them the chamber choir of the University of the Witwatersrand and the symphony orchestra of the University of Pretoria. In 1970 he was awarded a doctorate in composition by the University of Pretoria. His early compositional career was marked by an experimental phase. He has recently composed mostly on commission.

Career

His first lectureship was in 1967 at the University of Port Elizabeth, where he was promoted to senior lecturer in 1971. From 1979 he taught at the music department of the University of the Witwatersrand, until he was appointed as head of the music department at Potchefstroom University, where he was also awarded a full professorship. In 1993 he accepted a position as head of the music department at the University of Pretoria, where he remained until his retirement in June 2000 at the age of 61.

Temmingh has served on the boards of a number of music institutions, including the Suid-Afrikaanse Musiekonderwyser, the journal of the South African Society of Music Teachers. He was also a member of the South African Society for Church Organists. He has published more than 25 articles, as well as almost one hundred newspaper reviews. He is active as an external examiner of both undergraduate and postgraduate students, in practical as well as academic subjects. He is also sought after as adjudicator, and often acts as chairman of the panel of adjudicators at music competitions.

Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance

He composed the opera, Die Lyding van Mattewis Viljee, in 1978.

He also composed a number of musical works, including Religious Instrumental Solo Works, Secular Orchestral Works, Religious Choral Music, Secular Vocal Music (solo), Secular Choral Works, Mixed Religious Works, Mixed Secular Works.

Sources

Hilde Roos. 2010. 'Opera Production in the Western Cape: Strategies in Search of Indigenisation'. Unpublished PhD thesis. Stellenbosch University.

https://www.up.ac.za/sacomposers/article/2756861/temmingh-henk

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