page_title: Jacob Bathen
section_title: Niewe Duytsche Liedekens (The Maastricht Songbook), 1554
hierarchical_section_title: Jacob Bathen / Niewe Duytsche Liedekens (The Maastricht Songbook), 1554
caption_attribution_description: English: Sheet music with the Dutch song "Al hadde wy vijfenueertich beddê" from "Dat ierste boeck vanden Niewe Duytsche Liedekens", printed in Maastricht in 1551 by Jacob Baethen
context_page_description: Jacob Bathen or Jacob Baethen, latinised as Jacobus Bathius, Iacobus Batius and Jacobus Bathenius, was a Flemish bookseller, printer and publisher of the 16th century, mainly known now for music publications. He is sometimes confused with Johannes Baethen, a printer active in Leuven and Cologne between 1552 and 1562, who was likely his brother. Jacob was active in Leuven, Maastricht and Düsseldorf. He is mainly remembered for his publication of the so-called Maastricht songbook of 1554, which is one of only five surviving song books in the Dutch language from the 16th century.
context_section_description: His best-known work is the Niewe Duytsche Liedekens, met III. IIII. V. VI. ende VIII. partyen (New Dutch songs in 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8 parts), printed in 1554.  The publication is also referred to as Dat ierste boeck vanden Niewe Duytsche Liedekens (That first book of New Dutch songs) as well as The Maastricht Songbook, first of all because of the place where it was published.  The title page shows in the background a panorama of some landmarks of Maastricht and includes the city arms with a single star handing from a tree branch.  The publication groups polyphonic Dutch songs by various composers, of whom some were famous in their time such as Jacobus Clemens non Papa and others who were of rather local renown such as Ludovicus Episcopius, Franciscus Florius and Jean de Latre.  When the music printer Petrus Phalesius for whom Bathen had previously printed some publications, published in 1572 in Leuven his collection of Dutch-language songs under the title Een Duytsch musyck boeck (A Dutch music book), no less than half of the songs were copied from The Maastrich Songbook. 
  One of the principal reasons why the publication is relevant for music history is that the songs collected in it were in the Dutch language. The compositions in The Maastricht Songbook used the standard written Dutch that was common at that time. At the time of publication, secular music for the elite was primarily written in the French language.  Even Dutch-language composers tended to use French or even Italian for their songs. The first music publisher in the Dutch (Flemish) speaking world to challenge this dominance of French was Tielman Susato, a music publisher and composer active in Antwerp.  Susato launched an appeal to Flemish and Dutch-speaking composers to create songs in their mother tongue in order to show that native language music was not inferior to that made with French, Latin or Italian lyrics. Susato issued his appeal in his lerste musyck boexken (First music booklet) of 1551.  This publication included four-part vocal music composed in the Dutch language. Susato followed up with a Tweeste musyck boexken (Second music booklet) in the same year, and continued to print Dutch-language songs with the three-part Souterliedekens (Psalter-songs) by Clemens non Papa (1556-57) and the four-part Souterliedekens by Gerardus Mes (1561), both published in four volumes.  Susato's initiative was taken up by other Flemish publishers the first of whom was Jacob Bathen with The Maastricht Songbook of 1554. Phalesius would follow in Leuven in 1572 with Een Duytsch musyck boeck, half of the songs of which were recycled from The Maastricht Songbook.
  The Maastricht Songbook contains music by a number of local composers. Eight compositions are by Ludovicus Episcopius and these are the only ones in five, six and eight parts.  Other composers chose were working in other locations in the Netherlands, including Jacobus Clemens non Papa in Bruges who worked in 's Hertogenbosch and probably Ypres, Jan van Wintelroy who was active in 's-Hertogenbosch and Servaes van der Meulen who worked in Bergen op Zoom. The composers Joannes Zacheus, Claudius Salmier, Theodor Evertz and Pierken Jordain who also had works included in the publication remain fairly unknown otherwise and it is not known where they worked.  The soprano part in the five part books has been lost. It has been possible to recover the soprano part for some songs as they were also included in Phalesius' Een Duytsch musyck boeck and some other documents.
  The Maastricht Songbook was most likely used for entertainment by the upper and middle class of that time. The prevalent theme of the songs is love, and in particular the May songs which describe how the blooming and awakening of spring makes the blood of lovers race. In the song De Iustelijcke mey (The joyful May) (no. 4) a lover presents his sweetheart with a May branch. Some of the love songs are quite suggestive, such as the Een aerdich meysken seer jonck van jaren (A nice girl, very young of age) (no. 28) in which a shepherd lets his 'piglet' root in th
caption: Sheet music for the song "Al hadde wy vijfenveertich bedde" by Jean de Latre from the "Niewe Duytsche Liedekens"
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