Anna Cramer
(b. Amsterdam, Jul 15, 1873; d. Blaricum, Jun 4, 1968)
Cramer went to study composition in Berlin with Wilhelm Berger in 1897 and later in Munich 1907–8. She often wrote songs and that gave her the possibility to work closely with famous singers of the time, Ludwig Wüllner, Gerard Zalsman, Jeanne Broek-Landré and
Walter Simlinger. In 1958 she was forcibly moved to a psychiatric nursing home in Blaricum where she later died in 1968.
Works:
Anna Cramer composed about fifty songs, two operas and a work for orchestra, for mixed chorus, solo violin and tenor, all of which are in German. Her larger works were composed in the second part of 1920’s. In 1958 she deposited most of her manuscripts in a bank safe, today you can find her music at the municipal museum of The Hague as well as Nederlands Muziek Instituut and Atria.
Domemus
Further reading:
J. Landheer: ‘Anna Cramer’ Oosterzee’ The Essential Guide to Dutch Music, ed. J. van der Klis (Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2000).
J. Landheer: Anna Cramer, mythe en werkelijkheid (Utrecht, 1999) [incl. Eng. summary]
Recordings: