THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JAN COETZEE (1912-1999), a critical edition

85pp., 4to., paperback, Sun Press, Stellenbosch, 2025

ISBN: 9781991260987

The first-ever performable collection of compositions by modernist South African composer Jan Coetzee.

This edition brings together all known surviving works, including:
• Klaviersonate (1969–1970)
• Two Songs (London, 1969): The Bereaved Swan and Die reën
• Two Pieces for Cello and Pianoforte (1971): Elegie and Allegretto
• Geen troos (1983) and Twee herfsliedere (1985)

Each score has been carefully engraved from rare manuscript photocopies, most of which were salvaged from personal collections. In the absence of any original autographs, this edition offers a rigorously annotated, performable and authoritative version of the composer’s legacy.

An extensive critical report documents the editorial decisions taken to resolve the numerous ambiguities found in Coetzee’s original manuscripts, providing performers and researchers with valuable insight into his compositional process. 

Jan Christoffel Coetzee (b.1912 Steynsburg) is one of the most enigmatic figures in South African art music. Despite formal training under the likes of Horace Barton, Lorenzo Danza, and Nadia Boulanger, Coetzee’s musical output has remained in obscurity. He acknowledged only a small body of work, all composed after the age of fifty. The pieces are austere, atonal, and highly refined works that invite comparison to Webern, Messiaen, and Boulez.

Winfried Lüdemann is Emeritus Professor of Musicology, former Chair of the Music Department and former Vice-Dean of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. He is also active as a composer.