The Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek (Study Centre for Flemish Music) is a study and documentation centre, founded in 1998 and located in Antwerp, that aims at safeguarding as well as making public the Flemish musical patrimony of the 19th and 20th century.
The activities of the Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek include:
- Tracing and disclosing threatened or forgotten legacies
- Scientific research of scores, letters and other sources
- Stimulating performances and recordings
- Publishing general catalogues, inventories, monographs and comprehensive studies
In practice, the Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek is committed to music from about 1800 to about 1950, the time period between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ music, which is often neglected in terms of both performances and scientific research.
Mission
The Study Centre remarks that fundamental research on Flemish music from this period is rather limited and a look at concert programs reveals that Flemish scores need to be better propagated. What makes the research on Flemish music especially challenging is the fact that usually a composer’s oeuvre is located in diaspora scattered across various repositories (conservatory libraries, city archives, the library of the broadcaster, the Archives and Museum of Flemish Cultural Life in Antwerpen, the Flanders Arts Institute – Kunstenpunt, in private archives…). Therefore, the Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek aims at exploring this music as systematically as possible, by locating and opening up music archives, creating scientific Catalogues raisonnés, publishing biographical and music-historical studies, and creating a database as well as a website. After all, the ultimate ambition is to perform these valuable Flemish scores.
Services
The Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek provides general information on Flemish music, a bibliographical overview of specific musical domains such as conservatories, cities or associations and a Dutch timeline illustrates a historical survey of Belgian and European politics, together with Flemish and European music. Furthermore, the Study Centre provides English translations of the original composer biographies in Flemish/Dutch as well as a corresponding bibliography and historical texts in Flemish, French or English.
The calendar component on their website directs visitors to where they can hear music by Flemish composers.
Location and Cooperation
Thanks to a collaboration agreement with the Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool Antwerp (Department of Dramatic Art, Dance and Music), the Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek is located in the buildings of the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp.
The Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek works together with Resonant – Vlaams Muzikaal Erfgoed (the Centre for Musical Heritage), the Peter Benoitfonds, the Robert Herberigs Foundation, the Mortelmans Foundation, the Lodewijk De Vochtfonds and the Arthur Meulemansfonds.