City in the Netherlands. The earliest musical records concern church music. Before the Reformation, which was completed in 1580, there were five minsters or collegiate churches (the cathedral of St Maarten or Domkerk, St Salvator or the Oud Munster, St Pieter, St Jan and the Mariakerk), four parish churches (the Buurkerk, Jacobikerk, Nicolaikerk and Geertekerk) and several monastic churches and chapels. In the 11th and 12th centuries each of the minsters had a cantor, who led the choristers in singing plainchant. In 1342 the cathedral founded a house for its choristers, the ‘koraalhuis’; to assist the rector scolarum in the performance of polyphonic music, the first succentor was appointed there in 1415. The religious life of the citizens was focussed on the parish churches. Little is known about music in the monasteries and convents: only one manuscript of songs (c1500), probably from the St Agnes convent, has survived (MMN, vii). During the 15th and 16th centuries the prince-bishop of Utrecht had a court ensemble; in the second half of the 15th century David of Burgundy employed eight instrumentalists and about 20 singers.
The presence of minsters and parish churches stimulated bell casting and organ building. By the 14th century all the churches had organs. In addition to native builders such as the Talp family, builders from elsewhere worked in the city. Anthonie van Elen from Maastricht built a new organ for the Domkerk in 1434, and Peter Gerritsz of Hoorn arrived in about 1455; his son and grandson built many organs in and around Utrecht. From the mid-18th century to the early 20th the main organ builders were the Bätz and Witte families (1740–1902), Abraham Meere (1785–1840) and the Maarschalkerweerd family (1850–1920). Among the surviving historic organs are those of the Domkerk (1831, Bätz), Jacobikerk and Geertekerk, and the auditorium of the university.
Bell casting, important in the city since the 14th century, was stimulated by the appointment of Jacob van Eyck as carillonneur in 1625; three years later he became director of the Utrecht bell works. It was he who discovered a connection between a bell's shape and its overtone structure, and consequently found how to tune a bell. This he brought into practice in cooperation with the great bellfounders François and Pieter Hemony. As a recorder player he gave public performances on the Janskerkhof during summer evenings, for which his salary was raised in 1649.
Music in the open air was further performed by the city musicians. The earliest Utrecht city records (1380) refer to four of them, and from 1597 until about 1650 there were six. In 1631 the instrumental Collegium Musicum Ultrajectinum was founded as an organization of musical amateurs from the upper circles using the city musicians as a professional core. In the 17th century the collegium's repertory included English and German consort music as well as canzonas and sonatas by Italian composers such as Uccellini, Merula, Buonamente and Legrenzi.
From 1738 onwards the collegium had the use of a music room on the Vredenburg square. Among the last musicians known to have performed there were Leopold, Wolfgang and Nannerl Mozart, who gave a concert on 21 April 1766. Later in the same year the collegium moved to the choir of the Mariakerk, which was fitted up as a concert hall. In 1844 it was replaced by the Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen. This symphonic hall, the oldest in the Netherlands, was taken over by the conservatory in 1974, burnt down in 1988 and was rebuilt with a modern interior, leaving the size of the original main hall intact. A second orchestra formed of university students, the Utrechtsch Studenten Concert, was founded in 1823 and remains in existence. Among the 19th-century musicians who performed in Utrecht under the auspices of either the collegium or the Studenten Concert were the Schumanns, Vieuxtemps, Wieniawski, Joachim, von Bülow and Brahms. The Utrecht SO was formed at the end of the 19th century through the amalgamation of the collegium with the band of the civic militia, and was first directed by J.H. Kufferath and Richard Hol, Kufferath being also director of the Utrecht section of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst. Wouter Hutschenruyter, Jan van Gilse, Carl Schuricht, Willem van Otterloo, Paul Hupperts, Corneliu Dumbraveanu and Hubert Soudant were among the later chief conductors. The orchestra's history came to an end in 1985, when it merged into the newly established Netherlands PO, which has Amsterdam as its home.
Utrecht takes second place in Dutch musical life after Amsterdam. Concert life was invigorated in 1979 by the building of the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, designed by Herman Hertzberger. The complex, comprising a large concert hall and a small recital room, is visited by the leading Dutch orchestras. The radio orchestras from Hilversum have it as a second home, for live concerts. In 1982 the Holland Festival of Early Music was instituted in Utrecht, taking place at the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg and several historical locations. It is one of the world's leading festivals focussing on historically informed performance practice.
J.J. Dodt van Flensburg, ed.: Archief voor kerkelijke en wereldlijke geschiedenissen, inzonderheid van Utrecht [Archive for sacred and secular history, particularly of Utrecht] (Utrecht, 1838–48)
J.J. Dodt van Flensburg and F.C. Kist: ‘De geschiedenis der muzijk te Utrecht van 1400 tot op onzen tijd’ [The history of music in Utrecht from 1400 to our own time], Caecilia: Algemeen muzikaal tijdschrift van Nederland, iii–xiii (Utrecht, 1846–56)
J.C.M. van Riemsdijk: Het Stads-muziekcollegie te Utrecht (Collegium Musicum Ultrajectinum), 1631–1881 (Utrecht, 1881)
M.A. Vente: Die Brabanter Orgel: zur Geschichte der Orgelkunst in Belgien und Holland im Zeitalter der Gotik und der Renaissance (Amsterdam, 1958, enlarged 2/1963)
W. Noske and W. Paap: Geschiedenis Utrechts Symfonie Orkest (Utrecht, 1964)
M.A. Vente: Ommegang door Utrechts muzikaal verleden [Tour of Utrecht’s musical past] (Utrecht, 1965)
C.C. Vlam and M.A. Vente, eds.: Bouwstenen voor een geschiedenis der toonkunst in de Nederlanden (Amsterdam, 1965–71)
F. Peeters and M.A. Vente: De orgelkunst in de Nederlanden van de 16de tot de 18de eeuw [The art of the organ in the Netherlands from the 16th century to the 18th] (Antwerp, 1971; Eng. trans., 1971)
W. Paap: Muziekleven in Utrecht tussen de beide wereldoorlogen [Musical life in Utrecht between the two world wars] (Utrecht, 1972)
G. Oost: De orgelmakers Bätz (1739–1849): een eeuw orgelbouw in Nederland (Alphen aan den Rijn, 1981)
W. Dijkstra and S. Westra, eds.: Het Utrechtsch Studenten Concert 1823–1993 (Utrecht, 1993)
THIEMO WIND