Wetten van het departement der muzyk, in de maatschappy, ter spreuke voerende: Felix Meritis (Amsterdam Uylenbroek, 1790)
Title page engraving (seated Apollo with lyre) after Jacques Kuyper (1761-1808), a Dutch printmaker, painter, draftsman, watercolourist, etcher, musician, and composer. Kuyper became a member of the Felix Meritis artist community.
statutes of the music department within the Felix Meritis Society
Felix Meritis ("Happy through Merit") is the name of an intellectual society for Music, Drawing, Physics, Commerce and Literature in Amsterdam, founded in 1776. In 1788 the new building they built for themselves on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam opened its doors. Felix Meritis’ oval concert hall was the main music hall in Amsterdam until late into the 19th century and enjoyed a great international reputation. Many famous musicians performed there, including Robert and Clara Schumann, Camille Saint-Saëns, Johannes Brahms and Julius Röntgen. The orchestra of Felix Meritis was regarded as the best of the Netherlands and accompanied many Dutch premieres, directed by conductors such as Johannes Bernardus van Bree. Thus, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique had their Dutch premiere in the concert hall of Felix Meritis. The small hall of the Concertgebouw is a replica of this concert hall.
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); Music history; Institution; Amsterdam (Netherlands); boeken; concert; publiek; aanwezigheidsplicht; auditie; contributie; lidmaatschap