The Armand Preud'homme Museum was a museum in Peer,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, that was dedicated to the Belgian composer

Armand Preud'homme Armand Preud'homme (21 February 1904, in Peer, Belgium, Peer – 7 February 1986, in Brasschaat) was a Belgian componist and organist. Biography Preud'homme studied at the Limburg Organ and Singing School in Hasselt with Arthur Meulemans and at ...

(1904-1986). From 1990 to 2018 the museum formed a combination with the Heemkundig Museum (

local museum A local museum or local history museum is a type of museum that shows the historical development of a place/region (local history) using exhibits. These museums usually maintain a collection of historic three-dimensional objects which are exh ...

) upstairs, called the Dulle Griet Museum.Geert Van Baelen
‘Ooit kwamen hier achthonderd groepen per jaar, nu nog twee’
7 April 2018, De Standaard Preud'homme was born in this house, when his father was a teacher and head of the municipal boys school. The land of the house and the school was acquired by the municipality on 3 April 1859. It was developed by the provincial underarchitect and built from 1860 to 1861. Preud'homme was an organist and composed hundreds of songs and

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

s on themes like connectivity of people and the nostalgia for his birth region. His most popular operetta was ''Op de purp'ren hei'' and his most popular song ''Kempenland''; the latter one was popular during the occupation of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as march music for paramilitary groups. The museum was founded by Jaak Geuns and was largely run by volunteers. It showed belongings of the musician, like his

grand piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, news paper articles, photographs, and

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...

of his most famous songs and operettas. The number of groups visiting the museum went down from eight hundred per year at the beginning to just a couple in 2018. In this year the municipality of Peer decided to close both museums. On this site it planned apartments and a service center.Internet Gazet
Openbaar park op oude schoolsite
6 november 2016

References

{{authority control Music museums in Belgium Museums in Limburg (Belgium) Defunct museums Biographical museums in Belgium Museums established in 1990 1990 establishments in Belgium 2018 disestablishments in Belgium Museums disestablished in 2018 Birthplaces of individual people

See also

References