Bataviesche liederen voor de vrye Nederlanders, onder de spreuk Uit Vryheid en Vaderlandsliefde (Amsterdam Weege, 1785)
Collection of Dutch patriotic songs
The "Schutterijen" in the cities of the Dutch Republic, were traditionally militias, citizen's rifle companies organised as guilds.Civilian armament was one of the tenets of the Patriot movement of the 1780s, which resulted in either the existing civic militias being put at the service of the Patriot movement or, in addition to the traditional militias, new companies were established under names such as 'exercitiegenootschappen' or 'genootschap tot de wapenhandel' (arms trade). (Arms trade here means the handling of weapons).
The Patriot movement set a lot of songwriters' pens in motion, among others:'Vaderlandsche liederen voor het Genootschap van Wapenhandel' - of which the first volume appeared in 1784 & five sequels appeared in the following years - and 'Batavian songs for the free Dutch' published in Amsterdam for the society 'Tot Nut der Schutterij' (To the benefit of the militia) in 1785.
In the Patriot songs, a number of themes recur regularly: freedom fighters from the classical and recent past, freedom and patriotism, the marching bands, events from the short history of the Patriot movement, the leaders of the Patriot movement, Christian themes of justice, and - in an antagonistic sense - the stadholder and his allies.
Vaderlandsche liederen voor het Genootschap van Wapenhandel
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); Song; Poetry; Netherlands