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CHAPTER 8 The Choir Scene in Flemish Belgium in the First Half of the Nineteenth Century The Vlaemsch-Duitsch Zangverbond Jan Dewilde Given the paucity of monographs on the Flemish choir scene in the nineteenth century, no general surveys are available as yet. Therefore this contribution will focus on a brief but significant episode in cultural history, namely the activities of the Vlaemsch-Duitsch Zangverbond (1845–47). Although it existed only for barely three years, this supranational choral society played an important role in the development of the choir scene in Flanders. Furthermore, the purpose and the operation of the Vlaemsch-Duitsch Zangverbond illustrate different forms of nationalist mobilization in Flanders, Belgium and Germany. The Choir Scene in the First Half of the 19th Century The choir as an autonomous music organization, independent of musical per- formances at courts, churches or operas, is a phenomenon that developed in our area in the first half of the nineteenth century. The earliest evidence of such choirs dates back to the period of Dutch government (1815–30). One of the first choirs documented was allegedly founded in 1817 in Kortrijk (Courtrai) by the composer and music teacher Pieter Vanderghinste (1789–1861), inspired by the contagious enthusiasm of a company of itinerant singers from Vienna.1 This makes it immediately clear that the choir scene from the German- speaking regions, with their Singakademien, Gesang-Vereine, and Liedertafeln, was a source of inspiration for the budding Flemish choir scene. However, at the crossroads of Germanic and Romance cultures there was also a consider- able influence from the French ‘Orphéon’ movement showing a manifest peda- gogical and social dimension. Both the German and the French choir models would be emulated in Flanders. Among the early choirs were De Zangminnaren van Sinte-Cecilia (Zele, 1823) and Réunion lyrique (Brussels, 1825), but most choirs were founded in the latter half of the 1830s. This was largely due to the emancipation of the bourgeois 1 Thys (1855), 5; see also Dewilde (2012). © Jan Dewilde, 2015 | doi 10.1163/9789004300859_010 Jan Dewilde - 9789004300859 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-NDDownloaded 4.0 from license. Brill.com09/26/2021 12:18:44PM via free access The Vlaemsch-Duitsch Zangverbond 131 and to changes in the management of time. Work was no longer the exclusive focus of attention, so there was more leisure for passive and active cultural activities, in casu choral singing. Autonomous choirs were founded, and extant associations organized choral societies as well: concert and music organiza- tions disposing of their own orchestras started choirs of their own in order to perform the great vocal works. Cultural associations and professional societ- ies also founded their own choral societies. For example, De Keyser’s kunst- en zanggenootschap (Gent, 1846), a fellowship of literary men and printers, had a choral society of its own. Choirs were peer groups, even if the president and the patrons were always prominent citizens. Some choral societies appealed explicitly to workers. In 1849 Charles de Brouckère (1796–1860), the liberal mayor of Brussels, founded an École de Musique vocale pour les Ouvriers to sus- tain the choir Les Artisans réunis. This choir gave concerts in order to finance a health insurance and retirement fund. Other workers’ choirs bore names such as L’Écho des Ouvriers (Brussels, 1850) or De eenvoudige landlieden (Hever, 1853). In addition, there were also student choirs, such as the Société des Choeurs de l’Académie royale d’Anvers (Antwerp, 1846)—novelist Hendrik Conscience was a member of the board—or the Société des Choeurs des Étudiants (Ghent, 1854). Choirs were established even in the army, although they were initially not accessible for the lower ranks. Children’s choirs existed only in the frame- work of schools, although we can assume that children sang together with adults in the Flemish choirs.2 Initially, as in the church, choral singing was preponderantly an all-male department, but not exclusively so. Still more research on membership lists and programmes is in order, but the entry of women and the transition to mixed choirs apparently happened gradually, depending on the needs of the reper- toire to be performed. Societies ambitious enough to tackle oratorios could not do without women’s voices. On 2 December 1837 the Société d’Harmonie d’Anvers organized a performance of Joseph Haydn’s Les Quatre Saisons with “200 male and female voices, and an equal number of instrumentalists.”3 And the Société d’Orphée (Antwerp, 1837) first adopted women into their choir for a performance of Gioacchino Rossini’s Stabat Mater in 1843. It was these women who later, under the guidance of the governor’s daughter Constance Teichmann (1824–96), set up the women’s choir Les Dames de la Charité. Their cooperation 2 In a report on choral singing in the provinces written in 1841 at the government’s behest, Louis Joseph Daussoigne-Méhul (1790–1875) observed with amazement that many Flemish choirs allowed children to participate. 3 Thys (1855), 111. On the occasion of such a grand musical event, the press referred explicitly to “the example of the large cities of Germany and England” (Journal d’Anvers, 4–5 December 1837). Unless otherwise noted, all translations are by the author. Jan Dewilde - 9789004300859 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:18:44PM via free access 132 Dewilde enabled the Société d’Orphée to combine forty-three female voices, fifty male voices, and an orchestra with sixty members.4 Already in its founding year 1841, the choir Jong en leerzuchtig from Vilvoorde raised its visibility on the occasion of a choir competition in Aalst with “young girls in their ranks . [who] sang the upper parts).”5 The rapid growth of choirs drew the attention of the public authorities, and in 1841 the Minister of the Interior decided to start keeping numerical data. On this basis we know that Belgium then counted sixty choirs, forty-three of them in Flemish Belgium. The strength of the choirs varied from eight sing- ers (the Société Haydn in Ghent) to forty-four (Les Chanteurs-Campagnards in Torhout). At the next count, ten years later, 258 choirs were already registered. For the Flemish provinces this breaks down to three in Limburg, sixteen in Antwerp, seventeen in West-Flanders, forty-two in Brabant, and sixty-four in East Flanders. The district of Ghent surpasses them all with thirty-one choirs comprising 1,022 singers.6 In addition to the urge to measure and to know, as well as the need for sur- veillance of the new movement (who sings what?), the special interest of the young Belgian state can also be explained in terms of the awareness that cho- ral singing could produce a positive effect, both morally and pedagogically.7 Many people shared the conviction that singing (together) improved morals: “Criminals don’t have songs,” as Johann Gottfried Seume (1763–1810) put it.8 As the philosopher David Hume (1711–76) argued, aesthetics and ethics were inextricably interconnected, and refinement and taste can be acquired. This idea is also present in La Musique mise à la portée de tout le monde (1830), the 4 Thys (1855), 11. 5 Ibid., 21. 6 Reliable figures are not available for all periods, but later figures mention 529 choirs just before the turn of the century, and 493 choirs in 1926. According to estimates by the choral association Koor & Stem, about 1,250 choirs are active in Flanders today. The discrepancy between these numbers and those of 1926 has to be nuanced to a certain extent; at that time there were more large oratorio choirs, whereas today chamber choirs are prevalent. Even so, the figures prove the great success of the choir as a cultural organization throughout the years. 7 The early interest of the authorities in figures about the budding choir life was not a matter of chance. Ever since the French Revolution, statistics were compiled by civil servants. In 1841 these official statistics were institutionalized in the Commission centrale de la Statistique, chaired by the mathematician and statistician Adolphe Quetelet (1796–1874). 8 Seume (1810), 271. The first stanza goes: “Wo man singet, laß dich ruhig nieder, / Ohne Furcht, was man im Lande glaubt, / Wo man singet, wird kein Mensch beraubt; / Bösewichter haben keine Lieder.” There were many similar texts in those days. Jan Dewilde - 9789004300859 Downloaded from Brill.com09/26/2021 12:18:44PM via free access The Vlaemsch-Duitsch Zangverbond 133 popular handbook by François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871), who, as director of the Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles and music director of the king, had been com- missioned by the authorities to develop a comprehensive plan for the organi- zation of Belgian music life. Education—music education in this case—was very highly regarded. Furthermore, choirs could fulfill an important social and philanthropic role; music societies traditionally organized concerts for fund- raising purposes, for the benefit of the poor, the sick, and victims of calamities.9 And last but not least, the young Belgian state wanted to create a cultural iden- tity of its own in a patriotic move that was both anti-French and anti-Dutch: music was an eminently suitable medium to make Belgium more Belgian.10 For all these reasons, choirs were supported by the authorities with incentives and free train tickets for trips to competitions and festivals. Competitions were already popular by the 1840s; almost every city or town organized its own competition or festival.11 Each festive occasion was used as 9 For example: the Brussels choir Réunion lyrique (1825–47) managed to raise 4,000 Belgian francs with one single concert in order to provide a bed for an old musician in a Brussels home for the elderly.

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