[KVNM; Royal Society for the History of Netherlands Music]. Dutch musicological society. It is the oldest surviving musicological society, founded in 1868 on the initiative of Jan Pieter Heije as a section of the Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst; it became independent in 1889. From 1873 to 1911 its name was Vereeniging voor Noord Nederlands Muziekgeschiedenis. At first the society was principally concerned with the publication of music and documents of Dutch music from the 15th century to the 17th; in 1909 the ‘Noord’ was dropped from its title and by 1959 the scope of the society’s activities had broadened to include all periods of music history. In 1993 the society was awarded the epithet ‘Koninklijke’.
The society published a yearbook, Bouwsteenen, from 1872; it was superseded in 1882 by the periodical Tijdschrift der Vereeniging voor Noord-Nederlands Muziekgeschiedenis, now known as the Tijdschrift van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis. The society’s first music publication appeared in 1869 (Sweelinck’s Regina coeli, ed. H.A. Viotta). The society undertook the publication (1894–1901) of the complete works of Sweelinck in nine volumes, edited by Max Seiffert, followed by the complete works (1908–21) of Obrecht, edited by Johannes Wolf. In 1921 Albert Smijers started to edit the complete works of Josquin, which were completed after Smijers’s death (1957) by Mirosław Antonowycz and Willem Elders.
After the presidencies of D.F. Scheurleer (1885–1927) and Albert Smijers (1934–57), Eduard Reeser was elected; the scope of the society continued to expand. New series of publications were created: Monumenta musica neerlandica (MMN), Exempla musica neerlandica (EMN) and Muziekhistorische Monografieën. For the centenary of Alphons Diepenbrock, Reeser published the first volume of his Brieven en documenten (1962). A few years later the society took in hand a second edition of the complete works of Sweelinck. The 1980s saw the start of large new projects: the New Obrecht Edition (general editor Chris Maas) and the New Josquin Edition, in cooperation with the AMS. The society also functions as a meeting-place for Dutch musicologists.
S. Bottenheim: Catalogus van de bibliotheek der Vereeniging voor Nederlandsche muziekgeschiedenis (Amsterdam, 1919)
E. Reeser, ed.: De Vereeniging voor Nederlandsche muziekgeschiedenis 1868–1943: gedenkboek (Amsterdam, 1943)
De Vereeniging voor Nederlandsche muziekgeschiedenis 1868–1968: Chronologie (Amsterdam, 1968) [incl. list of all the pubns of the society]
100 jaar muziek en wetenschap in Nederland, Gemeente museum, 28 Nov 1968 – 13 Jan 1969 (The Hague, 1968) [exhibition catalogue]
C. von Gleich: ‘The Society for Dutch Music History’, FAM, xxi (1974), 134–6
P. van Reijen: ‘De Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis Chronologie 1968–1993’, TVNM, xliii (1993), 141–83
CLEMENS VON GLEICH