Maastricht.

City in the Netherlands. From the Middle Ages it had close connections with Lige
and Aachen, and held cultural importance on account of its two main churches: the
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk and St Servaas. The Maastricht Easter Play (c1200) is
preserved in the Meermannianum Museum in The Hague, and there is a Legend of
St Servatius (c1170) by the trouvre Hendrik van Veldeke. Franco of Cologne, who
was to lecture in Paris, studied in the city between 1215 and 1223; humanist
Matthias Herbenus (14451538) was a later resident. The earliest source of
secular music is a manuscript from the last quarter of the 15th century containing
some melodies by Maastricht joculatores and now contained in the Rijksarchief
Limburg in the city. Around 1490 the composer Marbriano de Orto was a
prebendary of St Servaas, but there is no evidence of his presence. Ludovicus
Episcopus (c152595), however, was there, and some of his chansons were
printed by Jacob Baethen of Maastricht in his Dat ierste boeck van den niewe
duytsche liedekens (1554). Henri Dumont (161084) studied here and was
probably a native.
Musical life is better documented from the early 18th century onwards. The large
music collection of the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk, now in the municipal records,
includes works by the Maastricht composers Marcus Teller (c16681728), Simon
Trico (16781757), Hubertus Renotte (c16901745), Franois Rouwijzer (1737
1827), Jean-Jacques Renier (17471815) and Franois Rutten (17631840). The
second quarter of the 19th century was a palmy era for music at both principal
churches, which had their own forces and performed large-scale works, including
those of the local composers Joannes F.H. Frre (180935) and Jan Nicolaas
Bartholomeus (181273). Other natives of the city included the cellists Alexander
Batta (18161902) and Joseph Hollman (18521926).
Military band music became a favourite civilian pastime during the 19th century,
culminating in the work of Guustaaf Francies de Pauw (18671943), a prolific
composer for brass band and an excellent conductor. His near contemporaries, the
Olterdissen brothers Alphons (18651923) and Guustaaf (18601942), compiled
operas in the Maastricht dialect using the music of other composers: De kaptein
van Kpenick (1907) and Trijn de begijn (Kate the Nun, 1912) are still performed.
Guustaaf also wrote a lot of music for children, including four operettas. Charles
Smulders (18631934), who became a professor at the Lige Conservatoire,
produced remarkable works for the male-voice choir Mastreechter Staar.
In 1883 the Maastricht council founded a music school and an orchestra, the
Maastrichts Stedelijk Orkest (renamed the Limburg SO in 1955). The composerconductor Otto Wolf (18491917) directed the orchestra until he was succeeded by
Henri Hermans (18831947), under whose rule (191647) it became fully
professional and gained a national reputation. Besides being an excellent
orchestral trainer, Hermans did much for new music, and introduced his audiences
to works by Stravinsky, Hindemith, Szymanowski, Meulemans and Messiaen. He
was also head of the municipal music school, which had a professional department
from 1924 onwards; his pupils there included the composers Andre Bonhomme
(190582) and Matti Nil (191889), who went on to study with Milhaud and
Webern respectively. Nil in turn stimulated a new generation of Maastricht
composers, including Henri Delnooz (b 1942).Subsequent conductors of the orchestra included
Andr Rieu (194979), Ed
Spanjaard (19818) and Shlomo Mintz (from 1994). Maastricht is also the home of
the Zuid-Nederlandse Opera, which was founded in 1949 as Operagezelschap
Verdi and became fully professional in 1952 under the name Operagezelschap De
Zuid-Nederlandse Opera, and which tours nationwide.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Smits van Waesberghe: Een 15e eeuws muziekboek van de
stadsminstrelen van Maastricht?, Renaissance-muziek 14001600: donum
natalicum Ren Bernard Lenaerts, ed. J. Robijns (Leuven, 1969), 24773
H. van Dijk: Ik heb het altijd zelf weten op te knappen: de Limburgse
componiste Andre Bonhomme, Harmonie en perspectief: zevenendertig
bijdragen van Utrechtse musicologen voor Eduard Reeser, ed. A. Annegarn,
L.P. Grijp and P. Op de Coul (Deventer, 1988), 8596
H. van Dijk: Panorama van drie eeuwen in Limburg (Leeuwarden, 1991)
H. van Dijk: De koorbibliotheek van de Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk te Maastricht
(Maastricht, 1996)
HANS VAN DIJK