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IN MEMORIAM
JACOB BAREND (JAAP) VAN BENTHEM
(23 December 1937 – 9 January 2023)*
On 9 January 2023, Jaap van Benthem died at the age of 85. He was known
internationally as a specialist on f ifteenth- and early-sixteenth-century
music. Closer to home, many also knew him as an inspired music theory
teacher and advocate of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Dutch music.
Jaap was born in Rotterdam. Being the eldest child in a teaching family,
it was a matter of course that Jaap would also be trained as a secondary
school teacher (1956-60). By the age of twelve he had taken up the study of
piano at the conservatory of Rotterdam. After completing his piano studies
under Jaap Callenbach in 1959 and obtaining his teaching qualif ication one
year later, Jaap opted for a career in music and began studying music theory
with Herman Strategier and Ton de Leeuw at the conservatory of Utrecht
(1962-65). His employment in music started with teaching positions in music
theory at the conservatories of Utrecht (1963-66), Rotterdam (1965-74) and
Amsterdam (1972-74).
By the time he had begun to teach music theory at the institute of musicol-
ogy at Utrecht University (in 1972), Jaap had already become fascinated by
Josquin. He was primarily interested in the relationship between texts and
music, a fascination he shared with his wife, the soprano Loes de Koning.
This specif ic interest resulted not only in articles and editions but also in the
composition of several Lieder. As a musicologist, Jaap was self-taught, although
he picked up many skills of the profession from Willem Elders with whom he
worked for a long period. Jaap became a vital contributor to the Tijdschrift
van de Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis, publishing a series
of articles between 1970 and 1989 on topics such as authenticity in Josquin
chansons, the transmission of fifteenth-century music, and musica f icta.
1
* I would like to thank Fabrice Fitch and Willem Elders for the improvements they have
suggested and Loes de Koning for checking the factual content of the text.
1 An almost complete survey of Van Benthem’s scholarly work may be found in Eric Jas,
‘Jacob Barend (Jaap) van Benthem (23-12-1937): List of publications’, TVNM 67 (2017), 5-9. Most
TVNM 73.1 (2023) 2-5
HTTPS://DOI.ORG/10.5117/TVNM2023.1.002.JAS
© Eric Jas