Leidsch Dagblad
- Rome and Protestantism
- Residentie Orchestra
- Radio by Telephone
This front page of the Leidsch Dagblad set local church life beside music criticism and a new technology. It reported that Dr. J. Riemens, a Dutch Reformed minister in Leiden, had opened a three-lecture series in the Hooglandsche Kerk on Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Protestant conception of the church, with the evening opened by prayer. A review of a Residentie-Orkest concert faulted the "Salzburg master" for tuning the viola a semitone higher and writing its part in D, calling this scordatura a bad and unmusical habit of his time. The paper also announced that radio by telephone had started in The Hague the day before: the municipal telephone service had agreements with Hilversum, Daventry and Paris, and 900 subscribers were waiting to be connected.
Translation
ROME AND PROTESTANTISM.
Last night Dr. J. Riemens, Dutch Reformed minister in this town, gave in the Hooglandsche Kerk the first of a series of three lectures, this time on "Roman Catholic Hierarchy and the Protestant Conception of the Church". The meeting was opened with prayer.
RESIDENTIE ORCHESTRA.
As far as the viola part is concerned, the Salzburg master followed a (bad) habit of his time by applying the so-called scordatura. The word means: altered tuning. The viola was tuned a semitone higher and the part for that instrument written in D. The aim was to make the sound brighter. This unmusical practice has had its day nowadays.
RADIO BY TELEPHONE.
Yesterday radio by telephone came into operation in The Hague. The start was a good one. For the time being the Hague Municipal Telephone has concluded agreements with Hilversum, Daventry and Paris. The 900 subscribers who signed up will be connected as quickly as possible.
Context
A Reformed minister on Catholic hierarchy in a pillarised society
The paper reports only the opening of Dr. J. Riemens's series: a Dutch Reformed (Hervormd) minister in Leiden gave the first of three lectures in the Hooglandsche Kerk on Roman Catholic hierarchy and the Protestant conception of the church, and the meeting opened with prayer. The subject came up in a society organised along confessional lines. Dutch society was historically divided into four main pillars, Catholic, Protestant, socialist and liberal, each with its own institutions. Riemens's Hervormd church was linked politically to the Christian Historical Union, founded in 1908. The Catholic pillar was the most tightly organised, because its clergy encouraged collective organisation within confessional institutions. In that setting, a Protestant lecture comparing the two churches' structures dealt with a real difference between neighbouring communities. The selected passage, however, gives neither Riemens's motive for the series nor his arguments.
The Residentie-Orkest in the van Anrooy years
Henri Viotta founded the Residentie-Orkest in 1904, and its early home was the Gebouw voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen. Its second chief conductor, the composer and conductor Peter van Anrooy, held the post from 1917 until he resigned in 1935, so this November 1926 review appeared during his tenure; the selected passage does not name the evening's conductor. Van Anrooy had studied conducting for two years in Dresden and Moscow, where he also took counterpoint lessons from Sergei Taneyev. The reviewer's paragraph is a matter of taste rather than of reporting. He presents the Salzburg master's scordatura, tuning the viola a semitone higher and writing its part in D to brighten the sound, as a bad habit of that era, and calls the practice unmusical and obsolete. The remark shows how a 1920s Dutch critic judged the performance conventions of an earlier era.
How The Hague's 1926 radio by telephone worked
According to the paper, the Hague service began the day before publication, that is, on 1 November 1926. A history of Dutch communications technology confirms that from 1926 Hague telephone subscribers could receive radio through their telephone connection, using a small switch box and a loudspeaker to choose among four domestic and foreign stations; Rotterdam subscribers gained the same option in 1931. Listeners therefore did not need their own wireless receiver. The municipal telephone service picked up the programmes and sent them over its lines. The article names three sources secured "for the time being", Hilversum, Daventry and Paris, which is fewer than the four stations the later account describes. It also reports 900 subscribers who had signed up and were to be connected as quickly as possible. The fetched material does not give the fees or say how long the service lasted.
Why The Hague ran its own telephone service
The radio relay was possible because The Hague's telephone was a municipal enterprise, not a state one. The city launched its municipal telephone service in 1903, keeping the exchange open day and night. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague invested heavily in new, modern exchanges and switching equipment. The municipalities saw innovation as the best guarantee against a future takeover by the state. That threat was real, because from the start of the twentieth century the state gradually became an operator of local telephone networks as well. The three big-city networks nevertheless stayed municipal until 1940, when the German occupier ordered their transfer to the PTT. Radio by telephone thus began in 1926 while The Hague's telephone was still a city service.
Original
ROME EN HET PROTESTANTISME.
Gisteravond hield dr. J. Riemens, Hervormd predikant alhier, in de Hooglandsche Kerk de eerste van een drietal lezingen, ditmaal over " Roomsch-Katholieke hiërarchie en Protestantsche Kerkopvatting ". De bijeenkomst werd met gebed geopend.
RESIDENTIE-ORKEST.
Voor wat de altpartij betreft heeft de Salzburgsche meester een (kwade) gewoonte van zijn tijd gevolgd, door toepassing der zoogenaamde scordatura. Het woord beteekent: afwijkende stemming. De alt werd een halve toon hooger gestemd en de partij voor dat instrument in D geschreven. De bedoeling daarmee was, den klank helderder te maken. Dit onmuzikale gebruik heeft tegenwoordig afgedaan.
RADIO LANGS DE TELEPOON.
In Den Haag is gisteren de Radio langs de telefoon in werking getreden. De inzet is goed geweest. Voorloopig heeft de Haagsche Gemeentetelefoon overeenkomsten afgesloten met Hilversum, Daventry en Parijs. De 900 abonnés, die zich opgaven, worden zoo vlug mogelijk aangesloten.
Source: Source: Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken (leiden.courant.nu)