A prolific composer of more than 600 works, Henk Badings (1907-1987) is one of the best known figures in twentieth-century Dutch music. A favorite of critics and avant garde theorists, Badings wrote many works in the traditional diatonic scale but is most famous for his electronic and microtonal music. The Russian composer, conductor, and pianist Nicolas Slominsky described Badings's musical style in David Ewen's book Composers Since 1900: A Biographical and Critical Guide as "romantic modernism ... in his melodic material he often uses a scale of alternating whole tones and semitones."

Hendrik Herman Badings was born on January 17, 1907, in Bandung, Java, Indonesia, to Dutch parents. His mother and father died when he was eight years old, and he was sent back to the Netherlands to live with a guardian. Although he studied violin and exhibited obvious talent, he was forbidden to pursue a career in music. Instead, Badings studied geology...