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Den Besten, Adriaan Cornelis ('Ad'). b. Utrecht, the Netherlands, 11 March 1923; d. Amstelveen, 31 March 2015. He went to primary and secondary school in Utrecht, and after graduating in 1941 he went to Utrecht University to study theology. Two years earlier, he had made his literary debut in Opwaartsche Wegen, a magazine for young protestant poets. In 1943 he was forced to abandon his studies as Utrecht University was closed by order of the German occupying forces. Den Besten and other...
ARNULF von Löwen [Leuven, Louvain, Leeuwen]. b. Louvain, ca.1200; d. ca.1251. He became the Cistercian Abbot of Villers-en-Brabant (1240-1248). Arnulf von Löwen is famous for his long Passion poem 'Ad singula membra Christi patientis rhythmus' which begins 'Salve mundi salutare'. There are seven sections, each beginning 'Salve'. Each section consists of five verses, devoted to Christ's wounds, to (respectively) the feet, the knees, the hands, the side, breast, heart, and the face.
The poem...
HUIJBERS, Bernard . b. Rotterdam, 24 July 1922; d. Espeilhac, France, 15 April 2003. Huijbers studied under Ernest Mulder during his Jesuit course of training, graduating as a schoolmaster in 1960 and serving (in the tradition of many continental liturgical musicians) as school master and master of music at the St Ignatius College, Amsterdam, until 1969. More importantly he became associated with the Dominicuskerk where he collaborated with the librettist Huub Oosterhuis*. He left the Jesuits...
Clichtoveus. b. Nieuwport, Flanders, 1572; d. Chartres, France, 22 September 1543.
During the Renaissance it was common for learned authors to Latinize their names (cf. Andreas Gryphius*, Paul Speratus*). Judocus Clichtoveus Neoportuensis, usually referred to as 'Clichtoveus' was the name for Josse van Clichtove, educated at Leuven (Louvain) and Paris. He became Librarian of the Sorbonne before moving back to Flanders in 1519 with Louis Guillard, Bishop of Tournai. He later moved with Guillard...
The Devotio Moderna (Modern Devotion or New Devotion) was a movement of religious revival that started in what is now the Netherlands in the late 14th century. Its main characteristics were an inward-looking piety, asceticism and the fostering of the virtuous life. Its instigator was Geert Grote (1340-1384). After having started an ecclesiastical career, a period of severe illness led to a process of inner conversion (1372). After several years of retreat he re-entered public life in 1379,...
Pre-Reformation Netherlands hymnody
Apart from a page of 10th century neumatic plainchant notation and the mystical vernacular hymns by the 13th century nun Hadewijch, the earliest written evidence of sacred music in the Netherlands dates from the 15th century.
Two important sources for our knowledge of spiritual songs in the Netherlands are the manuscripts from the Tertiarissenklooster (Cloister of the Tertiaries) of St Margaretha in Amsterdam (ca. 1480: now in the Austrian National Library...
MEHRTENS, Frits (Frederik August). b. 1922; d. 1975. Mehrtens was a Dutch protestant church musician of great influence. Initially he studied medicine, but this was interrupted by the Second World War. He switched to music and studied organ with Jacob Bijster en Anthon van der Horst at the Amsterdam Conservatory. Nevertheless his medical knowledge played an important role in his work as a choir director and leader of congregational singing. He was fascinated by the physical aspect of singing...
GOTTSCHALK of Orbais (Gottschalk der Sachse). b. ca. 803, d. 867 or 869. Born to a Saxon count named Berno, Gottschalk was given to the abbey of Fulda as a child oblate. He later challenged the validity of his oblation and petitioned to be released from his monastic vow. Gottschalk was allowed to leave Fulda by decree of a council at Mainz in 829, but Louis the Pious declared the decision void at the request of Hrabanus Maurus*, abbot of Fulda. Gottschalk was then transferred to the abbey of...
DU FAY, Guillaume. b. ?1397 (perhaps 5 August); d. 24 November 1474. It is not certain where du Fay was born, though he may have come from Bersele near Brussels. By 1409, however, he had become a chorister at Cambrai, the cathedral which formed the focal point for most of his career. In addition, he spent significant periods in Italy, as a member of the Papal Chapel (1428-33 and 1435-37), and at the Savoy court (1433-35, 1437-39 and 1452-58). He also had ties with the Burgundian court,...
OOSTERHUIS, Huub (Hubertus Gerardus Josephus Henricus). b. Amsterdam, 1 November 1933; d. Amsterdam, 9 April 2023. Oosterhuis was educated at the Jesuit Ignatius College and met Bernard Huijbers* in the Liturgical Choir there. He entered the Jesuit Novitiate, singing again under Huijbers in the Gregorian Choir. He studied Philosophy and History, Language and Theatre, and published his first devotional song (to Mary) in 1954. Working with Huijbers he published Fifty Psalms (eventually published...
KERLE, Jacobus de. b. Ypres, the Netherlands, 1531 or 1532; d. Prague, 7 January 1591. Kerle was a singer at Cambrai Cathedral from 1548 to ca.1550. From ca.1550 to 1562 he was in Italy as director of the boys' choir and organist at Orvieto cathedral. In 1562 he went to Rome as director of the private chapel of Cardinal Otto Truchsess von Waldburg, Bishop of Augsburg, whom he served until May 1565 when the Cardinal was forced to disband his chapel. By the end of that year Kerle was back in...
UTENHOVE, Jan. b. the Netherlands, ca. 1520; d. London, 6 January 1566. Utenhove was a leading lay Reformer in the Calvinist tradition, born into a Flemish aristocratic family with strong connections with Erasmus. He was obliged to leave Ghent in 1544, almost certainly because of adverse reaction to a play he had written and performed. Thereafter he travelled widely in Europe, staying in Heinrich Bullinger's Zürich, Martin Bucer*'s and Peter Martyr's Strassburg, Thomas Cranmer's London, and...
MAUBURN, Jean. b. Brussels, ca. 1460; d. Paris, 1503. According to Frost (1962, p. 561), he studied music at Utrecht, and was an Augustinian canon of various French abbeys (in The Voice of Christian Life in Song, 1858, Elizabeth Rundle Charles* described him as Abbot of Livry).
In 1491 Mauburn published Rosetum exercitiorum spiritualium ('Spiritual Exercises for the Confraternity of the Rosary'). According to The Hymnal 1982 Companion, these were spiritual exercises for the laity. From this...
OUDAAN (OUDAEN), Joachim Fransz. b. Rijnsburg, the Netherlands, 7 October 1628; d. Rotterdam, 26 April 1692. Oudaan was a tile-maker in Rotterdam. As an enthusiastic young man he was attracted to millenarian sects; he later became associated with the Anabaptists, who were strong in the Netherlands at the time, developing into the Mennonites. Oudaan became a member of the Mennonite community, and a deacon of it. He translated the psalms into Dutch in Davids Psalmen Nieuwelkx op Rym-maat gestelt...
BRUGMAN, Johannes (Jan). b. Kempen, the Netherlands, ca. 1400; d. Nijmegen, June 1473. Brugman joined the Order of Friars Minor-Conventual in 's-Hertogenbosch some time between 1420 and 1425, and shortly afterwards entered the studium generale in Paris. He became swept up in the controversy over the interpretation of the rule of St Francis between the Conventual and Observant branches of the Franciscan Order (see Franciscan hymns and hymnals*) in the 1440s. Following the reformation of the...
Liedboek – zingen en bidden in huis en kerk
In May 2013, exactly 40 years after the publication of the Dutch hymnal Liedboek voor de kerken, (see Dutch hymnody*) the 'Interkerkelijke Stichting voor het Kerklied' ('Interdenominational Foundation for the Hymn') published the hymnal Liedboek – zingen en bidden in huis en kerk ('Songbook – Singing and Praying in Home and Church').
Eight denominations from Holland and Belgium participated in this foundation, which – after many delays – was given the...
LASSUS, Orlando de. b. Mons, the Netherlands, 1530 or 1532; d. Munich, 14 June 1594. Born at Mons (in present-day Belgium), Lassus was one of the most prolific and cosmopolitan of 16th-century composers, writing sacred and secular works in the predominant Latin, Italian, French, and German genres of his day. The earliest biographical details come from the Munich humanist Samuel Quickelberg's (1529–1567) entry on Lassus in a 1566 biographical directory. Quickelberg noted that aged about 12...
DATHEEN, Peter (Petrus). b. Cassell, Nord, Belgium, c. 1531; d. Elbing, Germany, 17 March 1588. Datheen's parentage is unknown. At an early age he was placed in a Carmelite monastery at Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium, where he was schooled in medicine and theology by monks who were sympathetic to Reformation ideals. At about 18, when the monastery at Ypres was, along with many in the region, threatened with dissolution by agents of the Inquisition, Datheen fled to London, where he was part of...
Salve caput cruentatum. Latin, probably by Arnulf von Löwen* (ca. 1200- ca. 1251). This is the final hymn in a series of seven Passion-tide hymns, 'Ad singula membra Christi patientis rhythmus', addressed to the body of Christ hanging on the Cross, as follows:
Salve mundi salutare (to the feet)
Salve Jesu, Rex sanctorum (to the knees)
Salve Jesu, pastor bone (to the hands)
Salve Jesus, summe bonus (to the side)
Salve salus mea, Deus (to the breast)
Summi Regis cor aveto (to the heart)
Salve...
BARNARD, Willem (Wilhelmus). b. Rotterdam, 15 August 1920; d. Utrecht, 21 November 2010. Barnard was a Dutch protestant (Netherlands Reformed) theologian, pastor, writer and poet. He published about twenty volumes of poetry under the pseudonym Guillaume van der Graft. As a poet he was strongly influenced by Martinus Nijhoff.
After graduating from the Grammar School he studied Dutch Language and Literature at Leiden. However, he stated that 'I read more contemporary literature than Gothic...