Thomas Batelaan (b. 1997, Amsterdam) is a musicologist, writer, and reception scholar. His scholarly work deals with the afterlives of canonic Western composers. He is currently pursuing a PhD with Prof Dr Bettina Varwig focused on JS Bach in the twentieth century.
Thomas holds a two-year research MA in Musicology from Utrecht University. Prior to his PhD, he published essays and music criticism in prominent Dutch outlets such as Tirade, one of the Netherlands’ most prestigious literary journals, and NRC, a Dutch newspaper of record. Additionally, he worked at the Netherlands Bach Society as part of the team behind the successful recording project All of Bach.
Thomas’s doctoral work concerns the post-war modernist reception of Johann Sebastian Bach's musical works in West Germany and the United States. His research explores how Bach's music became entangled with high modernist notions of scientific objectivity, science, and technology. Bach's musical ‘universality’ took on new meanings in the era of "Big Science", space exploration and computer technologies. How did Bach's cosmic reputation expand in a world in which boundaries between the human and non-human were rapidly blurring? Thomas's thesis proposes an innovative reception methodology that foregrounds media crucial to musical dissemination — such as printed scores, long-playing records, and digital software. Far from being neutral vessels, the design of these media in fact powerfully co-construct the public image of Bach's music.
Key case studies include the Neue Bach-Ausgabe's engraving practices, the groundbreaking success of Wendy Carlos’s Switched-On Bach (1968), and recent corporate-funded initiatives applying machine learning to Bach's compositions, supported by technology giants like Microsoft, Alphabet Inc. (Google), Yamaha, and Sony.
–––
Thomas’s research is generously supported by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge Doctoral Training Partnership, Corpus Christi College, and the Cambridge Trust. Additionally, his relocation to the UK was made possible through the prestigious Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds scholarship.
