City in the Netherlands. In about 1400 the city employed a number of pipers and trumpeters to take part in processions. There were three main churches, the Pieterskerk (12th century with 14th-century additions), the Pancraskerk (14th century, now Hooglandse Kerk) and the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (14th century) which has not survived. In the 15th century the municipality repeatedly tried to improve the singing, including the discant, in these churches. A choirbook from the Lopsterklooster near Leiden contains some examples of Christmas songs for two voices. Improvement in church singing was particularly fostered by the colleges of the Getijdenmeesters throughout the country. The St Pieter Getijdencollege acquired an excellent reputation in the 16th century. Its extant choirbooks, dating from 1549 and subsequent years, include masses, motets and Magnificat settings by Clemens non Papa, Josquin Des Prez, Willaert, Crecquillon and others.
In 1572 Leiden accepted the Reformation and consequently secular forms of music-making became more prominent than ecclesiastical. In 1593 Cornelis Schuyt, the most important figure in the city’s musical history, was appointed city organist alongside his father. The terms of his appointment are characteristic of the task of a Protestant organist at that time: to play the organ before and after services and on weekdays. In 1636 it was decided that the organ should be used to accompany psalm-singing during services. From 1639 to 1643 the main organ of the Pieterskerk was enlarged by the organ builders Van Hagerbeer. In 1994 a restoration was begun to bring the instrument back to its 17th-century state, although leaving some later additions intact. The small choir organ of the Pieterskerk, originally built by Jan van Covelens (c1470–c1532), was transferred to the Marekerk in 1733 and enlarged there by Rudolph Garrels. The Hooglandse Kerk has an organ built by Peter Janszoon de Swart around 1565 and later thoroughly changed by the Van Hagerbeers (1637–8).
The first music printed in the northern Netherlands, the Missale Trajectense, was produced in Leiden in 1514 by Jan Seversz. Music printing became important towards the end of the 16th century when the Flemish printer Christoffel Plantin from Antwerp established a branch firm in Leiden, which was managed by his son-in-law Francis Raphelengius. There the vocal and instrumental works of Cornelis Schuyt were printed, as were the Rimes françoises et italiennes (1612) of Sweelinck.
There is evidence of an early kind of collegium musicum, called the Broederschap en Gemeene Vergadering in de Muzyk, active in 1578. In 1611 Cornelis Schuyt dedicated his six-part consort music to five Leiden ‘amatori e fautori della musica’, suggesting the existence of an ensemble in which the composer took part himself. In the second half of the 17th century there was a collegium which assembled weekly. A century later the city had two public concert rooms, one at the Brede Straat, the other at the Papegracht. Incidental opera performances were given in the Schouwburg.
During the 17th century many foreign musicians settled in Leiden, mainly lute and viol teachers, including Joachim van den Hove from Antwerp and Dudley Rosseter, son of Philip Rosseter. Instrument making flourished for some time, the most famous exponent being the violin maker Hendrick Asseling, son of the lute maker Andries Asseling. Leiden University, founded in 1575 as the first university in the northern Netherlands, attracted many foreign musicians. The office of musicus academiae existed from 1686; the first to act as such was J.H. Weyssenbergh (Albicastro) from Vienna. The Album studiosorum of the university mentions such musicians and composers as Albertus Groneman (1732), Anton Wilhelm Solnitz (1743), Johann Christian Schickhardt (1745) and Pieter Hellendaal (1749). C.F. Ruppe, who became kapelmeester in 1790 and a lecturer in music in 1816, was the last official university musician. He composed cantatas and in 1800 founded the first choral society in Leiden.
Musical life flourished in the 19th century through the activities of various music societies. Music Sacrum, the city’s oldest orchestra (founded 1828), gave eight concerts a year. The Maatschappij voor Toonkunst (founded 1834) established a music school which for well over a century has greatly stimulated musical activities and which, in 1961, became the Streekmuziekschool Leiden en Omstreken. Between 1864 and 1879 several music festivals were organized by local choirs.
Leiden has no professional orchestra but several amateur ones, two of which are student societies. The main concert hall is the Stadsgehoorzaal, dating from the late 19th century and modernized in the 1960s and again in 1996. Concerts are given by local amateur groups, professional chamber music ensembles and occasionally by The Hague Residentie Orchestra and the Rotterdam PO.
G.W. Groen: Ons eeuwfeest (1834–1934): Maatschappij voor toonkunst te Leiden (Leiden, 1934)
D.J. Balfoort: Het muziekleven in Nederland in de 17de en 18de eeuw (Amsterdam, 1938, enlarged 2/1981)
C.C. Vlam and T. Dart: ‘Rosseters in Holland’, GSJ, xi (1958), 63–9
E. Pelinck and C.C. Vlam: ‘De ordinaris muzikanten van de Leidse Universiteit’, Leids Jaarboekje (1963), 50–60
Leids Jaarboekje (1968) [devoted entirely to music]
A. Annegarn: Floris en Cornelis Schuyt: muziek in Leiden van de vijftiende tot het begin van de zeventiende eeuw (Utrecht, 1973)
R. Rasch and T. Wind: ‘The Music Library of Cornelis Schuyt’, From Ciconia to Sweelinck: donum natalicum Willem Elders, ed. A. Clement and E. Jas (Amsterdam, 1994), 327–353
J. van Biezen: Het Nederlandse orgel in de renaissance en de barok, in het bijzonder de school van Jan van Covelens (Utrecht, 1995)
JAN VAN DER VEEN/THIEMO WIND