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Matthijssens, Maria

° Antwerpen, 20/04/1861 — † Kingston-Hampton (GB), 31/07/1916

Jan Dewilde (translation: Jo Sneppe)

Maria Matthijssens was undoubtedly the most popular Flemish female composer at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. However, much about her life is shrouded in mystery. According to a letter from 1914 addressed to the lyricist Lambrecht Lambrechts she had already been a good piano player since early childhood and was gifted with a beautiful soprano voice. As a composer she apprenticed herself to some of the great names in Antwerp musical life: Jan Blockx, Emile Ergo, Emile Wambach en Flor Alpaerts. Matthijssens actually did compose quite a lot, yet she did not consider herself to be a professional musician.

Nevertheless she composed orchestral works, with titles such as Feestgalm (Sounds of Revelry), Suite de ballet, Impromptu, Souvenir de village, piano pieces like the unpretentious gavotte Marquisette, and lyrical dramas such as Le sire du coucou and Reine de Mai.

However, she made her mark above all as a composer of popular songs, which would outshine the rest of her oeuvre. Entirely in keeping with the many well-attended evening singing sessions that used to be organised in the early 20th century, she wrote a number of "songs in the popular manner". Her most popular song was the merry Schoentje lap! (Little Shoemaker!), which in 1909 was awarded with the first prize of the city of Antwerp song contest. But Matthijssens most of all lived on in memory with her song Omdat ik Vlaming ben (Because I am a Fleming), with lyrics by Lambrechts. This song was a stock piece in the singing repertoire of many Flemish gatherings up to the end of the 20th century.

Her Flemish popular and militant songs did not keep Matthijssens from also writing plenty of French drawing-room songs. Diverse publishing companies such as Schott, Katto, Breitkopf & Härtel, Janssens, Faes, De Vlaamsche Muziekhandel and the Paris publishers Pitault en Colombier published her works.

Matthijssens fled to England for the First World War. On 31 July 1916 she died in Kingston-Hampton in mysterious circumstances. Allegedly she became the victim of a hold-up.

Bibliografie

Anderen over deze componist

  • Dewilde, J.: Guilhelmine, Thérèse, Marguerite en Maria: toonkunstenaressen en musiciennes uit de 19de eeuw, in: Forum, september-oktober 2002, p. 13-17.

Artikels

Höflich-uitgave: Choses d'âme van Maria Matthijssens

Jan Dewilde en Hannah Aelvoet

Nederlandse inleiding bij Höflich-cataloognummer 2557

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