Stadspijpers van 's-Hertogenbosch

From the Festival Workgroup

Welcome!

To all musical and historical friends and members of The International Guild of Town Pipers in
‘s Hertogenbosch.
In 1985 the city of ’s-Hertogenbosch celebrated its 800th anniversary.
As one of the most important cities in the south of the Low (Nether)Lands in the late Medieval period, the town had all good things a city should have in those days: a beautiful and very rich decorated Cathedral, a famous painter Jheronimus Bosch, a well developed economical and cultural life and of course Town Pipers.
’s-Hertogenbosch is still promoting its historical and cultural background and that is why Marcel Ploegmakers started in 1985 the Stadspijpers van ‘s Hertogenbosch. Now, 25 years later, we still exist and we welcome you to celebrate with us and our historical friends in ’s-Hertogenbosch this 25th anniversary.
We remember the first three International festivals as top events and know for sure that this 4th version will stay in our memory also for a long time. Having eleven Renaissance groups together in the historical context of Town Pipers is unique. The friendship and international contacts will grow because the Festival is extended to the USA (North Carolina), Spain and also new are the Dresdner Stadtpfeifer from Germany. We welcome you all and hope you will have a good time here in our city. May musical friendship grow in a way that we can go on for many, many years meeting each other frequently and keeping the Town Pipers alive for ages.

It is my great pleasure to welcome the eleven groups of participants from the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain to ’s-Hertogenbosch for the 4th International Town Pipers Festival.
Welcome to capital of the province of Brabant, home of the ’s Hertogenbosch Town Pipers ever since the 14th century.
After your performances together in previous years in The Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Great Brittain, I am very happy that in this anniversary year – the ’s Hertogenbosch Town Pipers were re-established 25 years ago – ’s Hertogenbosch has once more been chosen as the stage for the 4th International Town Pipers Festival with a variety of activities.
For instance, on Saturday 4 September 2010 the Citadel will offer a wonderful stage for a day full of music, magic, cooking, crossbow shooting, parading, etc. Drama Society Moyses Bosch, Shooting Club De Oude Schuts and Shooting Club 1830 will make a valuable contribution to this extraordinary festival. On Sunday 5 September 2010, the so-called ‘Big Blow’, when the groups jointly perform the same piece of music, will bring the days of long ago back to our Market Square for a while.
I would like to wish all participants, the organisation and all visitors a stylish and musically inspiring festival!

Saterday September 4th 2010

Participating groups, Moyses' Bosch, The Old Schuts Archers, The Half Kompagnie Artillery of the Militia Service 's-Hertogenbosch (Militia 1830)

International Guild of Townpipers te United Kingdom
Gemeente ’s-Hertogenbosch
Golden Tulip Hotel Central te ’s-Hertogenbosch
Diezijnzo ontwerp-communicatie te ’s-Hertogenbosch
Stichting Tilmanshof te Vught
Stichting Van der Lindenfonds te Vught
Stichting Leyefonds te Helvoirt
Stichting Zandstaete te ’s-Hertogenbosch
Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds te ’s-Hertogenbosch
Dura Vermeer Bouw te Rosmalen
Accountantskantoor J. van Uden
Chocolaterie Vink te ’s-Hertogenbosch
Zondagskrant De Bossche Omroep te ’s-Hertogenbosch
Kring Vrienden van ’s-Hertogenbosch
Zilversmederij Wim Cordang te Rosmalen
Keser Kantoor Totaal te ’s-Hertogenbosch
Lei Import Maasbracht
MRT Engines Veghel
Hermes Bussiness Netwerk ’s-Hertogenbosch
Drumfanfare Exempel, Empel |
EHBO Rosmalen
Mr.Paul de Gruyter Stichting te 's-Hertogenbosch
Bakkerij A. van Zuijlen te Rosmalen

Thanks to our fellow members:
De Schutterij van ’s-Hertogenbosch,
Schuttersgilde ‘De Oude Schuts’
en Rederijkerskamer Moyses’Bosch,
Their cooperation has made possible this festival.

The Waites of Charlotte, North Carolina were formed in 2006 by the “loud” Musicians of the Central Piedmont Community College early music consort.
The four current members, John and Susan Burns, Don Boekelheide and John Trexler, play
a wide variety of instruments including shawms, curtals, cornetti, sackbut, hurdy gurdy, gaita and a mix of “softer” winds for indoor performances.
The Charlotte Waites have found the city of Charlotte and surrounding Mecklenbug County very receptive to music from before and during the time of the city’s patron, Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg, wife of King George III of England.
The Waites regularly perform at festivals, markets, dances, fund raisers, churches, holiday parties, and wherever early music is appreciated!

The Waites’ motto, “Videri quam esse”,
translates as “To seem, rather than to
be”, reinterpreting North Carolina’s
motto of “Esse quam videri”.

In 1972 revived by Phil Manchester to perform a musical band in old style.
Since 3 years they enlarged with new members in this historical group playing the original wait-instruments such as shawms, sackbuts and other loud instruments.
For more on Waits history see the Waits Website. www.waits.org.uk.

The Doncaster Waites come from a small town in Yorkshire in the north of England now noted mainly for industry. However in earlier times it was famous for its inns and the racecourse, where the oldest flat race in the world is still held each year.
In the past, the town council would hold many entertainments for visitors and built a grand Mansion House for this. One of only three in the country, the Mansion House has three galleries for musicians to play in and these would have been occupied by the Waites or town band. The first record of the Waites is 1457 and they continued until 1832 when they were disbanded.
The present Waites are all volunteers and aim to show the group as it would have looked in 1617. The men wear copies of the red livery coats given then; at that time there would have been no female Waites!
They have been playing together now for over 15 years and before that played in other musical groups. Unusually for waites, they like to sing and some of these simple songs are the ones that might have been heard in the inns of Doncaster.
The Doncaster Waites came to ’s-Hertogenbosch in 2004 and are very much looking forward to their return visit.

In 1420, a wind band consisting of three “stadtpfeifer” (waits) was founded in the city of Dresden, Germany.
Since 2008, the Dresdner Stadtpfeifer play again in authentic performance.
Their repertoire spans the Renaissance, beginning with the invention of the sackbut in the second half of the 15th century, and extends to the early Baroque period.
The Dresdner Stadtpfeifer play on replicas of historical instruments: cornetto, four sackbuts, recorders and theorbo. Three out of the twelve musicians come to ’s-Hertogenbosch.
They play alto-, tenor- and bass-sackbuts.

The Pied Piper of Ely was initially a one-man band! Tony Pearson started a group with Marian, she plays the drum and also sackbut, it was a great enlargement. Together with a new third member they are “Ely Piper’s Noyze”.
Tony plays many times for local charity “first aid by accidents”. The Piper’s are looking forward to meet everyone during “The 4e Festival of International Town Pipers” in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

In 2007 Frederic Santamaria starts the formation of the Group Minstrels. The inspiration to start a group of Chirimia payers and to play with them authentic renaissance music, brought Frederic to other musicians of the Society Dulziameros and Tabaleteros of Safor.
Every start is difficult so they choose to contact builders of middle-age wooden instruments that fit renaissance music.
In the same time they searched for old music and from that time started rehearsing.
The first public concerts of the group were performed by three sopran-chirimias, one alto, one tenor and two drums.
This was in the year in which they played in the Dukes Palace of los Borja, during the ceremony of the literature-price of the city of Gandia.

Durante el ano 2007 y bajo el entusiasmo de Frederic Santamaria empieza a constituire el Grupo de Ministriles.
Este contagio de entusiasmo, por crear un conjunto de Chirimias e interpretar Musica Antigua, y más concretamente Renacentista, io transmite Frederic a otors musicos de la Asociacion de Dulziameros y Tabaleteros de la Safor, de la cual se abastece en su gran mayoria este Ensemble.
A partir de ahí, como todos los comienzos, duros, optan por contactar con constructores y adquirir instrumentos propios de la época renacentista. Instrumenos estos, construidos artesanalmente, en madera.
Realiszado este primer paso, seguidamente, comienzan la búsqueda de músicas propias para estos instrumento y época.
Y un avez conseguidos estos importantes logros, no queda otro camino que los ensayos.
Dispuesto todo, y contando con tres chirimias sopranos, una alto y una tenor más dos persusionistas comienzan las andaduras de este Ensemble y sus primeras interpretaciones en público.
Su primer Concierto, data del mismo ano donde actúan en el Palacio Ducal de los Borja, anunciandos los Premios Literarios de la Ciudad de Gandia.

A band of musicians modeled by the City of Gloucester in the fourteenth an fifteenth centuries. As a loud wind band, the group performs on shawms, bagpipes, curtals and sackbut, but also on quieter instruments what the occasion requires.
They joined the Festival of Town Pipers in York (2006) and in Lincoln in 2008. They practice a lot to make good “early music”.

King’s Lynn Waites are first mentioned in the town’s records for 1362 when 36s 8d was paid tot Johannem de Boys, Wayte, and the last mention, so far discovered, was for 1746. They were provided with scarlet liveries and silver chains with badges bearing the town’s arms during the 16th century.
The entry in de Town Record for 1st October 1593 states the Waites’ duties and lists their instruments: shawms, cornet, lysard and serpent, with percussion, and as, for quieter occasions, recorders, rebec, cittern and hurdy-gurdy.
For further information on King’s Lynn Waites visit www.lynnwaites.co.uk.

The Ludlow Waites was formed in 2009 with the aim of bringing music to the worthy citizens of Ludlow, a small market town in rural Shropshire, England.
References to waits exist in local historical archives but are scarce, suggesting that musicians were tolerated rather than revered, just as they are today.
Ludlow

Nevertheless our embryonic Waites group has been active, inevitably being called upon at Christmas when the temperature is freezing, the carols are ghastly, and performing outdoors is a miserable experience.
We did however get a good reception playing inside the beautiful parish church for its Christmas Fair.
The musicians of the Ludlow Waites include June Emmerson and Steve Heavens, string players who have played for Leeds Baroque Orchestra, the renaissance group Piva, and others. They studied music in England, Germany, Denmark and the Czech Republic with numerous early music specialists. Steve Blyton has had a varied career teaching music and as session pianist for touring productions, doing time in the pit for repertory theatre, and being involved in large scale productions in eastern England. He had a long stint with the BBC Symphony Chorus in the 1990s.

he York Waits were formed in the 1970s, to perform the music of the renaissance and middle ages on the instruments of the period and to do so by recreating the official city band of York as it was during its Tudor heyday. Between them, members of the group play most of the wind and stringedinstruments that a town musician of the 1500s would have been expected to master.
The Waits have performed in concerts and festivals throughout the UK and in many countries overseas, including the Netherlands, Norway, Belgium, Ireland and the USA.
They have also contributed to prestigious ceremonial events in venues such as Hampton Court Palace and in the city of York itself. The group has released nine recordings, the latest being a CD of music from the life and times of Henry VIII. Performances in recent years have included specially devised concerts with narration, on subjects such as the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 and the reign of King Henry VIII.

The Leeds Waits

Leed waits

The Leeds Waits were the official borough musicians for over three centuries until its abolition in 1835. They provided music for official events, were also for hire for social occasions, and toured widely in the north of England.
Our revival dates from 1983, with civic recognition following a few years later. The waits perform in renaissance livery in the Leeds colours, and wear reproductions of the 1626 waits’ badges. The group perform music from mediaeval times to the early nineteenth century, but concentrate on the period from 1550-1650. Instrumentation varies with the period and style of the music; for the renaissance period, in addition to the standard shawms and sackbut line-up, we include renaissance bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, curtal, recorders, fiddle and percussion. This will be the fourth festival that the waits have participated in, having played in ’s-Hertogenbosch in 2004, in York in 2006 and in Lincoln in 2008.

Records of the Town Pipers of ’s-Hertogenbosch can be found from the late fourteenth century up to around 1600. Most certain they disappeared from public life around 1629 when the Catholic city was taken over from the Spanish King by the troops of the protestant House of Orange. ’s-Hertogenbosch is the only city in the Netherlands, and one of the few cities on the European mainland, where in 1985, a group of Town Pipers (Stads-pijpers) was re-established. Because of new insights in the history of the Town Pipers, this group of musicians has undergone a real metamorphosis in 2002. The original uniforms, instruments and badges have been accurately copied according to the traditional methods of 1530.

The City of ’s-Hertogenbosch has a rich history and equal rich culture. This leads to the City and its inhabitants, because history and culture make who we are:

It is important to hold and love the present culture with the richness of the tangible hereditary of our past, so that our children and grandchildren can take knowledge of it. Tangible and visible hereditary. Grown from de mediaeval guilds, the four historical groups in ’s Hertogenbosch are not only alive but also very active on all fronts.

The oldest reports of the Town Pipers were found in the account of 1399-1400. The Town Pipers made an important contribution to the cultural and religious life in town. They served the city and gave a contribution to the cultural life in town.

In the 14th century the first marksmen demonstrated next to the craft guilds. The marksmen’s duty was defending the city. In the early part of the 20th century the marksmen were disbanded.
In 1991 the Guild “De Oude Schuts” got new life because of some enthusiastic people. From that point they revived the historical view of our city.

The roots of Moyses’ Bosch are in the late middle ages; the first half of the 16th century. The most important achievement of the chamber of rhetoric was during the “countryday” in Antwerp in 1561 being the best of 15 chambers of rhetoric – about 1200 peoplein the production of a play.. The players of Moyses’ Bosch got a grandiose reception when they came back in ’s-Hertogenbosch. In the 18th century it looked like the end of activities. In 1951 the Roman Play started again within the same name. Nowadays Moyses’ Bosch play also scenes of today in their own historical Jan Ehrentheater.

The official name of the group: Half the company of Artillery of the Riffle Club of ’s-Hertogenbosch 1813-1907. The most important part of the group depends on 1830-1831; the time of the Belgium Rebellion and the Ten Days Campaign. The club shows how life in the garrison looked like in the fortification in our city. You can see them frequently on the “Citadel”, there homebase, the ramparts and in the “Uilenburg”, a part of our city.

Four important, historical groups; Being considered that history and culture are of paramount importance and so they contribute the cultural hereditary of our City ’s-Hertogenbosch. On 3 September 2010 they official present their platform in the Town hall of ’s-Hertogenbosch.

3th International Guild of Town Pipers Festival LINCOLN 27th, 28th& 29th June 2008

performances are all free for audiences enjoyment

DRAFT TIMETABLE

FRIDAY 27th
Bands meet for lunch, then retire to the hall
14.30: Leave hall for Castle Square
15.00: Procession starts from Castle Square to Stone Bow
15.30: Civic Reception with Mr Mayor
16.30: Return to hall
Evening: Social
SATURDAY 28th
09.45: Musicians meet at hall
10.30: Performances commence at: Castle Square, Steep Hill, St Martins Square, Stonebow, St Benedict’s Square, The Collection, & Castle Grounds
13.00-14.30: Lunch
14.30: Performances resume
16.00: Performances end
Evening: Social
SUNDAY 29th
10.00-16.00: Sounding the Hours
On each hour from 10.00 until 16.00, a different Band will perform from the walls/tower of Lincoln Castle.
12.15-12.45: The BIG BLOW - the biggest ensemble of Waits in the world!
16.00: All bands return to the hall before departing

Festival Sponsors:

The Festival is organised by The International Guild of Town Pipers (registered in the UK as a Limited Company). The four Directors are: Allister Garrod (of the City of Lincoln Waites), Chris Gutteridge (of King's Lynn Waites), Roger Offord (of Doncaster Waites), Alan Radford (of Leeds Waits).

For more informationfollow this link.

Door Damen Communicatie

On Monday 11 November a gathering was organised in the town hall of ’s-Hertogenbosch on the occasion of the complete “metamorphosis” of the City Pipers. Sponsors and benefactors and other friends of the City Pipers made this metamorphosis possible
De genodigden zijn in stijl ontvangen in de Oranjegalerij van het Stadhuis. In de hal van The guests were received in style in the Orange room of the town hall. The City pipers were lined up in full regalia in the corridor of the town hall, dressed in their new outfit. It was quite a sight! However, this was not the case in the past: in former days, when there was an official reception, they were standing in front of the town hall or on the steps.

The mayor as host
Conducted by Mr Willem Gerritsen, the "Suzato Trombone Consort" performed at the gathering. The programme was presented by Mr Jan Pieter van Lieshout and host was Mr A.G.J.M. Rombouts, mayor of 's-Hertogenbosch. Mr Rombouts is also chairman of the Recommending Committee of the City Pipers.

Les amis de mes amis…
The mayor welcomed his guests in the council chamber, with the words: "Les amis de mes amis sont mes amis". Translated: the friends of my friends are also my friends. Mr Rombouts extended a word of thanks to the friends of the City Pipers for their contribution to the metamorphosis. He related the story of the City Pipers, starting with the free musicians of the Middle Ages and ending with what the eleven are now today

Extra subsidie
The mayor realises the importance of the City Pipers: they are not only the 's-Hertogenbosch business cards, but they also play an important part in the city's cultural history. The City Pipers will give more concerts in future and perform at receptions of the city council. Moreover, the mayor and alderman are thinking of granting them extra subsidies.

Renaissance trombones
F. van Lanschot Bankiers and Heymans NV presented the City Pipers with a tenor trombone and a bass trombone. The companies of Microway Automatisering BV and SNS Reaal Fonds gave a tenor trombone and an alto trombone respectively. They are exact replicas of the original trombones from the Renaissance. The "Suzato Trombone Consort" was allowed to test them at once: an enormous, historical sound resounded in the council chamber. The City Pipers are going to be trained to play these special instruments.

Gowns
The ING bank gave new gowns (see also "outfit" on this website). These dark red, stylish robes keep the City Pipers warm in cold days and in the chilly Saint John's cathedral!

The Metamorphosis website
Mr Jan Jaap Zwitser held a lecture on cultural life in Den Bosch in the sixteenth century. This was a striking contrast to 21st-century communication. The City Pipers website has undergone a metamorphosis as well. The Royal Commissioner, Mr Houben, officially introduced it. With roll of drums he showed his guests the City Pipers going digital. Microway Automatisering BV, Damen Communicatie, Interconnect, Studio 7 and Ton Van de Vorst Fotografie made this new website possible.

To conclude
In his closing words, Mr Wil Zetz, chairman of the City Pipers, addressed himself to the sponsors and Mr Marcel Ploegmakers. He called Mr Ploegmakers the driving force behind the regeneration of the medieval musicians. 800 years from date the City Pipers are alive and kicking again, thanks to the efforts of Mr Marcel Ploegmakers and the sponsors who became enthusiastic through him.

Grand finale
On behalf of the musicians, Mr Lado Strijbosch thanked the sponsors and Mr Marcel Ploegmakers. Mr Ploegmakers was offered a badge in the shape of a shield, especially made for him. It was pinned on his costume to remember this day: the grand final of the City Pipers' metamorphosis...

The 4th Festival of the International Guild of Town Pipers

Saterday September 4th 2010

DRAFT TIMETABLE