Music

The Allard Pierson's music collection has historically been shaped by several music collections. The Toonkunst collection, from the Maatschappij tot Bevordering van de Toonkunst, is the oldest collection (from 1829) and contains a lot of historical sheet music and music literature. The Donemus and Gaudeamus collections were originally part of the Muziek Centrum Nederland and have been housed at the University of Amsterdam since 2013. Both contain mainly contemporary composed music from 1945 to the present. Both sheet music, music documentation and audio in multiple formats. 
The collection of the former Nationaal Pop Instituut contains a lot of documentation, some smaller archives and a cassette and cdr demo collection.

The collection of the Dutch Jazz Archive is the national heritage collection on Dutch jazz. It contains archives, documentation, photos and, of course, audio in various formats from 78rpm to digital audio files. The collections of Gaudeamus and the NJA are on loan. In addition, the Allard Pierson recently acquired the John Helstone collection, with a focus on Surinamese classical music. This collection builds a bridge to the Surinamica collection.

• Jacques Waisvisz collection: archive and recordings of this chronicler of Dutch improvised music who recorded many concerts with his cassette recorder. 
• Paul Acket collection: archive of impresario Paul Acket, who from the 1940s organised concerts (Kurhaus Rolling Stones), published illustrious magazines (muziekexpress) and from 1974 organised the North Sea Jazz Festival. 
• Nieuw Ensemble Collection: one of the examples of Ensemble culture (for contemporary composed music) for which the Netherlands is famous. Contains over 1,000 signed scores, company and production archives, and large collection of recordings.
• John Helstone Collection: Collection of violinist John Helstone who was second concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 1974. and who actively collected music from his native Suriname. Heart of his collection is the unique collection of his great uncle Johannes Nicolaast Helstone, pioneer of Surinamese classical music. 

Search the music collection via the online Catalogue. A separate filter has been created on the catalogue for the collections of the former Muziek Centrum Nederland (Donemus, Gaudeamus, Popinstituut and Jazzarchief: MCN collections.

More details on the content, acquisition and provenance of some music archives can be found in Archive Space. If you cannot request materials or have another question, please use the contact form.

• Ditmer Weertman
  Curator of Music
  Send an e-mail: d.weertman@uva.nl
• Maurits Reijnen
  Staff member Music (Contemporary)
  Send an e-mail: j.a.reijnen@uva.nl