De Vrede van Munster

The Peace of Münster (1648) ended the Dutch War of Independence, which had started with the Battle of Heiligerlee (1568), and which formed the foundation for the Dutch state as we know it today. The ‘Geuzenliedboek’ (‘Song Book of The Beggars’, Geuzen was the name assumed by the Dutch nobility who were opposing Spanish rule in the Low Countries) is a narration of that war in song form. This cd carries the three most popular Geuzen songs: ‘Antwerpen rijck’, about the Calvinist martyr Christoffel Fabritius, ‘Maximilianus de Bossu’, a parody about the much hated general of the Spanish armada who had been defeated at the Zuiderzee (a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of The Netherlands) by the Geuzen and lastly the most important Geuzen song of all, the national anthem of The Netherlands, Wilhelmus. This last one was incredibly popular. According to a 17th century comment, ‘Wilhelmus has done more for the motherland than ten thousand soldiers could ever do’.

Oltremontano has collaborated with the Dutch ensemble Camerata Trajectina for this cd.