Figure 1.-- I loved music s a boy, something that has accompnied me throughout my life. Here I am with the Jacobikerk Boys Choir in Utrecht before the War.

By Harty van Engelen

I was just a little boy, born in the big city of Utrecht, growing up as any other enterprising youngster, discovering what it felt growing up as my parents’ only child. They had a big store selling all sort of vegetables, pickled vegetables, potatoes, fruits and soft drinks, looked after by my mother, while my father operated a mobile horse-drawn store, both rather very busy during the time of the Great Depression and the looking after of their son was put in the hands of two young aunts, Betsie and Riek Spans, who at their young age exposed the cultural world to him, including the many concerts, opera, and Walt Disney movies. Enjoying the musical world, he enrolled as a boy soprano in one of the local church choirs. 1937 saw me getting enrolled in the Jacobikerk Boys Choir with the advantage of being able to read music, I loved music at that time, had been taking recorder lessons with an uncle of mine. I already had a nice soprano voice, according to family members for whom I had been requested to sing several times. This was also at the time when that the Hervormde Kerk were trying to introduce a new hymnal for the church. The major task for this introduction befell to our boys choir. Our boys choir had a very good choir director, Mijnheer van der Meijden. He was a very patient man and leader of our 50 boys choir that was also supplemented with 3 male singers as well. There was also a different type of singing for some of the psalms -- in the Gregorian style of singing. Some people found it funny as it sounded more in the style of the Roman Catholic Church than our own. But then also our repertoire started to include compositions by the great composers Bach, Handel and Mendelssohn. Once in a while we contributed our singing in a Domkerk choir festival.

Utrecht

I was just a little boy, born in the big city of Utrecht, growing up as any other enterprising youngster, discovering what it felt growing up as my parents’ only child. They had a big store selling all sort of vegetables, pickled vegetables, potatoes, fruits and soft drinks, looked after by my mother, while my father operated a mobile horse-drawn store, both rather very busy during the time of the Great Depression and the looking after of their son was put in the hands of two young aunts, Betsie and Riek Spans, who at their young age exposed the cultural world to him, including the many concerts, opera, and Walt Disney movies. Enjoying the musical world, he enrolled as a boy soprano in one of the local church choirs.

School

I was a good student and enjoyed school As with everything else, the War affected my schooling. As the occupation continued, the Germans started to occupy more schools, including my own school and our classes were now located in the basement of the rectory of the nearby church, with once a week the accompaniment of organ music from the church above us, performed by a well-known local organist and piano teacher. One really had to have an well-tuned ear to listen to Widor’s Toccata from his Fifth Symphony or other compositions. This was our final year in the elementary school and with five other students, I was being prepared for entrance examinations to a lyceum or gymnasium. I had selected the Christian Lyceum in Hilversum for my further education. As I had passed successfully, I started in the new school on 1 September 1944, unfortunately it only lasted fourteen days, just because of another hopeful sign of our liberation -- Market Garden

Choir

1937 saw me getting enrolled in the Jacobikerk Boys Choir with the advantage of being able to read music, I loved music at that time, had been taking recorder lessons with an uncle of mine. I already had a nice soprano voice, according to family members for whom I had been requested to sing several times. This was also at the time when that the Hervormde Kerk were trying to introduce a new hymnal for the church. The major task for this introduction befell to our boys choir. Our boys choir had a very good choir director, Mijnheer van der Meijden. He was a very patient man and leader of our 50 boys choir that was also supplemented with 3 male singers as well. There was also a different type of singing for some of the psalms -- in the Gregorian style of singing. Some people found it funny as it sounded more in the style of the Roman Catholic Church than our own. But then also our repertoire started to include compositions by the great composers Bach, Handel and Mendelssohn. Once in a while we contributed our singing in a Domkerk choir festival.


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Created: 12:02 PM 12/23/2017
Spell checked: 9:41 PM 1/5/2018
Last updated: 9:41 PM 1/5/2018