© DVN, een project van Huygens ING en OGC (UU). Bronvermelding: Helen Metzelaar, en, in: Digitaal Vrouwenlexicon van Nederland. URL: https://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/vrouwenlexicon/lemmata/en [13/01/2014]
BERGH, Anna Gertrude Elizabeth van den (baptised Mülheim a/d Rhein, Germany, 21 January 1793 – died The Hague, 10 September 1840), pianist, music teacher and composer. Daughter of Henderik van den Bergh (1768-1846) and Maria Theresia Leydel. Gertrude van den Bergh never married.
Gertrude van den Bergh was the eldest daughter in a family with a Dutch father and German mother. Her parents were married on 7 May 1792 by a Roman Catholic priest ‘on their house-boat’ on the Rhine near Cologne. Gertrude’s musical talent became evident at a very young age. As early as 1802 the catalogue of music published by the Berlin firm of J.J. and B. Hummel listed a harpsichord sonata by her hand: Gertrude was only nine years old at the time.
At the age of six she received her first piano lessons and began while still a young girl to perform in Germany: ‘the applause from all sides was indescribable’ (Amphion, 46). She later studied composition with Johann Burgmüller and piano with Ferdinand Ries, a pupil of Beethoven and a leading pianist and composer. In July 1809 Gertrude and her younger sister Sophia, about whom little is known, undertook a concert tour through the Netherlands, which their father had organised. In The Hague it was said that ‘nothing of the kind – so beautiful and so rich in detail – has ever been heard in this city before’.
The Hague
The Van den Bergh family probably moved to The Hague some time before 1813, from which time Gertrude seldom played in public, though the reasons for this are not known. She did give informal recitals, however, and was praised for her interpretation of Beethoven. As early as 1818 she was playing pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach, whose music was no longer performed much. She thus anticipated the Bach Renaissance. Despite the infrequency of her performances, she continued to be well known. Important musicians such as Felix Mendelssohn, Louis Spohr, Ignaz Moscheles and Friedrich Kalkbrenner visited her whenever they were in the Netherlands. In 1824 Johann N. Hummel dedicated his Trois amusements en forme des caprices, opus 105 to her.
In 1830 the newly founded Society for the Promotion of Music (Maatschappij tot Bevordering der Toonkunst) invited thirteen leading European musicians, including Van den Bergh, to become honorary members. Women were not officially admitted to this society until 1835, but evidently an exception was made for Van den Bergh. It was not until 1854 that another woman became an honorary member (Clara Schumann-Wieck), and the third female member (Sophia Offermans-ten Hove) joined the society only in 1899. In 1834 this Society held a big two-day festival in The Hague, an event in which The Hague Women’s Choral Society (Haagse dames-Zanggenootschap), presumably founded by Van den Bergh, took part. In addition to this Choral Society she conducted the first mixed choir in The Hague from 1819 to 1821, and later on the Choral Society (Zangvereeniging), from 1837 to 1838.
Van den Bergh, who never married and continued to live with her mother in Wagenstraat in The Hague, had to earn her own living. She thus gave singing and piano lessons ‘from early morning to late afternoon’ to members of the aristocracy, including Anna Pavlovna, the wife of King Willem II. She also gave music theory lessons twice a week to well-to-do young ladies. These lessons, which she called Enseignement mutual, were based on a method she had written around 1830 titled Principes de musique.
Compositions
Van den Bergh’s music is difficult to judge. Many of her compositions (preludes, fugues, fantasias and a string quartet) were probably lost because they were never published. Most of the seven extant works date from her younger years. Two of these were written to celebrate the end of French rule in the Netherlands in 1813. Like most composers of the period, Van den Bergh wrote variations on well-known songs and opera melodies, such as ‘Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen’ from Mozart’s opera Die Zauberflöte (The Magic Flute). Around 1820 she composed a rondo for the pianoforte, a bravura piece typical of the period.
Investigations carried out by the music researcher Willem Noske (1918-1995) yielded an interesting find: an undated ‘Lied für Pianoforte’ in manuscript. This solo work, with an expressive melody in the upper voice and a tranquil bass accompaniment, is a ‘song without words’, a new genre propagated in particular by Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. This must be one of the first Dutch works in this genre. In Van den Bergh’s earlier works for piano, the emphasis lay on virtuosity, but this ‘Song’ is in a lyrical style.
In 1840, at the age of only 47, Gertrude van den Bergh died of breast cancer. ‘If she had performed as a soloist in her prime in the principal European cities, her name would certainly have become better known and she would have been famous throughout the world’ (Kist, 22). She was buried with full honours in The Hague: ‘A large procession of artists, musicians, men of letters and notables escorted her mortal remains to the grave’ (Staats Courant, 14 September 1840). At the graveside a male choir, accompanied by the Royal Court Orchestra (Koninklijke Hofkapel), sang a chorale composed especially for her funeral by her colleague J.H. Lübeck.
Reference work(s)
Van der Aa; Gregoir; Melchior; Viotta.
Works
- Copies of Principes de Musique (s.l., s.a. [c. 1830]) and of the compositions may be found in Nederlands Muziek Instituut, The Hague.
- Discography: Lied für Piano-Forte and Rondeau pour le piano-forte op. 3. Frans van Ruth, pianist. NM Classics 92018.
Bibliography
- Amphion. Een Tijdschrift voor Vrienden en Beoefenaars der Toonkunst (1818) 44-48.
- F.C. Kist, ‘Biographie Mejuffrouw G. van den Bergh’, Nederlandsch Muzykaal Tijdschrift 31 (1841) 21-23.
- H. Metzelaar, ‘Gertrude van den Bergh’, in: Idem ed., Zes vrouwelijke componisten (Zutphen 1991) 21-51.
- H. Metzelaar, From private to public spheres: exploring women’s role in Dutch musical life from c. 1700 to c. 1880 and three case studies (Utrecht 1999).
- H. Metzelaar, ‘Klanken van de zijlijn. De vrouw in het Nederlandse muziekleven in de achttiende en negentiende eeuw’, Jaarboek voor Vrouwengeschiedenis 23 (2003) 108-126.
Illustration
No portrait of Gertrude van den Bergh is extant. Illustration: title page of G. van den Bergh: Toch Oranje, Toch Oranje, Toch Oranje Boven! Thême avec huit variations, pour le pianoforte, composée par M.G. van den Bergh [1814] (Collection Nederlands Muziek Instituut, The Hague).
Author: Helen Metzelaar
last updated: 13/01/2014