Teun Van de Steeg

Dutch musician and philosopher of music Teun Van de Steeg was born in Denekamp in 1956. He studied at the conservatories in Enschede and Arnhem, and successfully completed his studies in the philosophy of music at Utrecht University in 1997.

In his daily life he is a church musician, an organ and piano teacher and a composer. Occasionally he gives organ recitals and lectures about music.

In 2020 his Requiem for solo soprano, choir and orchestra will receive its first performance.

When he began to give lessons, he became aware that students had no idea as to how they should interpret music, and he gave students directives to make the right kind of musical performance, often playing beforehand.

When students began to question him about particular rules for a musical performance, he became aware that no fixed musical regulations exist, and thought that this was really strange. From that moment on he began to search for a valid foundation for musical performance.

He discovered that movement is a general phenomenon in physical nature. Even in music there is an understanding of ‘high’ and ‘low’ and also tempo, but there is no distance. Although it is quite complicated, no fixed distance exists in our current musical notation. This is described in detail in his book (in Dutch) as well as his article, published in M&V.

His solution is to make a transition towards Isaac Newton's rules on elementary mechanics, enabling the speed of a musical performance to be verified, and allowing a calculation of faster and slower movement in music.

Articles by Teun Van de Steeg

Teun Van de Steeg replies to Keith Bramich

Teun Van de Steeg finds evidence of a missing link in our perception of music

Articles about Teun Van de Steeg

Tempo Set Free - Keith Bramich comments on a recent article by Teun Van de Steeg