Information about the History and Factory of M.J.H.Kessels

M.J.H.Kessels was born in Heerlen in 1858. He began playing the violin at the age of three and, at seven,the piano. When he was 15 he became conductor of The Harmony St. Cecilia,, in Heerlen.

He and his elder brother, Jos, (born in 1856), worked as agents for German and French musical instrument factories and also had a publishing company. In 1886 Matthieu came to Tilburg. Jos, by then conductor of The Koninklijke Harmonie of Tilburg, (the new Royal Harmony of Tilburg), had suggested to him: "Matthieu, why don't you come to Tilburg? It's very industrialised and right in the heart of the three main music-making provinces of the Netherlands." At that time, Tilburg had 40,000 inhabitants and was indeed very industrialised (metal and textile industry).

The Beginning

Mathieu lived in a small house near the centre of Tilburg. On the evening of December 8^th, 1887, he was visited by two men from Czechoslovakia. They had worked for Besson, a brass instrument factory in London, but were homesick and wanted to earn enough money to go back to Czechoslovakia. Having taken the train to Antwerp, there they heard about Kessels and were told he made musical instruments. They asked him if this was correct. "No", he replied, "but I have some instruments for repair. I usually take them to Paris to get them mended." His visitors happened to own tools for repairing brass instruments and so Kessels employed them. They proved to be master craftsmen.

The two Czechs knew other craftsmen from Czechoslovakia and they, too, joined Kessels. He also put advertisements in the local paper because of the shortage of craftsmen and he needed people with knowledge of raw materials like wood and brass, such as furniture makers or coppersmiths. Within a few years he had 58 people working for him.

Many of Kessels' employees came from Czechoslovakia, Bohemia and Austria and as a result his instruments followed Czech designs of the very highest standard. He named some of his models after famous violin-makers such as Antonio Stradivari, Guarneri and Nicolo Amati.

Ten years later, in 1897, Kessels moved into a large factory which he'd had built near the Tilburg-Breda railway line. He manufactured brass instruments and within a few years he was also making woodwind and stringed instruments, pianos, pianolas, harmoniums and drums.

In 1903, the factory was re-built with three floors. It was 130 metres long, had 360 employees and, at that time, it was the largest factory in Europe.

In 1914,  the Kessels shareholders  had an argument which led to the suspension of Mathieu Kessels. He was bitterly disappointed but refused to give up. Instead, he started again  and had a new factory built on the opposite side of the street. There he worked until his death on December 21st, 1932.

Other Activities

Kessels wasn't only the director of a factory making musical instruments: he was also the conductor of his own orchestra,a composer and arranger.  His works included his best-known work "Memories of the Battle of Waterloo",written in 1911 ; exhibition marches; polkas; mazurkas and  many plays, eg "de Meikoningi n van Geleen," "de Bokkenrijders", "de Koeph van Heerle " etc . He composed music for piano and orchestra, wrote exercises and lessons for beginners and created courses for conductors.

In 1900 ,he founded the Tilburg Music School; in 1910 he established the KNF, Koninklijke Nederlandse Federatie van Harmonie en Fanfaregezelschappen, (the Royal Federation of Harmony and Brassbands),  and he was conductor of his own Kessels Harmony. This last was of superlative quality and with it Kessels won a large number of gold medals, (medaille d'or). These medals were then put on to the instruments.

He was also purveyor to her Majesty Queen Emma and also to Queen Wilhelmina.

His Sons

Kessels had 9 children: 6 daughters and 3 sons. After his death in 1932, his sons Henry, Paul and Mathieu Jr. took over the business. Henry went to the Hague to make brass instruments but he wasn't a successful businessman. You can find a few Kessels instruments such as trumpets and trombones, however, in the Het Haags Gemeentemuseum, (the Museum of the Hague). Paul took over the publishing side of the company, where he worked until 1956, when he returned to his original occupation of accountancy. Mathieu Jr. moved to Grathem, taking some instruments with him. He lived there in a small castle until 1970. 

The Tragedy of Mary Kessels  

Mary was one of Kessels' daughters. At the age of eleven she was raped and murdered in the church. The story of this shocking event was written down by Ed. Schilders in his book,"Moordhoek", and more recently in " Mysteries in Noord-Brabant", a book by M.J.Adelmund. (ISBN: 90-229-9200-4).

The Closure and Demolition of the Factory

Kessels was important for Tilburg. The music industry was second in importance there only to the textile industry and his factory made more than 500,000 musical instruments, supplying many throughout Europe and to the armies of Portugal, Turkey, Mexico and Romania. However in 1956 the factory closed and both it, and Kessels' house. The "Villa Cecilia", were demolished.

The collection from the factory was not lost, however. It was acquired by my father, Mr. L.F.J. Passier, (1937 - 2001) and he created the Museum of Musical Instruments, (Muzima).

The Relationship Between Kessels and the Passier Family

My great-grandfather, Stan Passier worked at Kessels, making musical instruments.    

My grandfather, Jan Passier also worked there from 1914 to 1939  but because of World War 11 and the consequent shortage of raw materials to make musical instruments the factory was bankrupt. My grandfather established his own music business . He bought instruments, tools, products and raw materials from Kessels and made brass and woodwind instruments and drums.

My father, Mr. L.F.J.Passier, (1937 - 2001), took over the business in 1966. He developed it into a large music shop which he moved to Veldhovenring in 1979. He had two shops: one for brass and woodwind instruments, the other for drums. In 1986 my father established the Museum of Musical Instruments because he had all the workbenches, tools and musical instruments from the Kessels factory. The day before he died, he asked me to continue his work for the Museum.

I, myself, did a lot of work for the Museum of Musical Instruments as a volunteer together with five other people, also volunteers.

Contents of the Museum

There are 2000 objects in the collection and the Museum consisted of five sections. In the factory section you could see the process of manufacturing musical instruments: from brass to trumpet, from piece of wood to clarinet, and other instruments. In other sections could be seen old instruments; instruments from all kinds of countries; a great many pictures; music calendars; photographs; music; books and catalogues, as well as tools, workbenches, videos etc.  

The collection is still growing as new instruments continue to come to the Museum every month.

Kessels Saxophone Quartet.

In 2002, the Kessels Saxophone Quartet was established. This Quartet consists of four music teachers from the Tilburg Music School, (Factorium), playing on original Kessels instruments.

Books, Concerts and a New Public

From June 12^th to September 5^th, 2004, a book was produced ,along with an exhibition in Tilburg City Museum, (www.stadsmuseumtilburg.nl). The book was called "Tilburg Verzamelt", (the Tilburg Collection), and in it was the story of the Museum of Musical Instruments, "The Passion of Mr. Passier". Then, last year, the Museum was mentioned in a book called "Go Travel", ("Er op Uit").

About 700  people from Holland and Belgium visited the Museum of Musical Instruments, in spite of restricted opening hours. A new public was attracted to the museum because of the concerts which it organised featuring a string quartet, (Bass Saxophone duo, Alto Oboe), and the Barocensemble Le Cercle Musical.

Mr. M. Latcham, head of the musical department of the Museum in The Hague, visited our museum in June, 2005. He was surprised by the large collection it contained and commented that "the collection is valuable."

DVD Kessels, Tilburg

In November 2005, a DVD about the history  of Kessels went on sale. It is called "Kessels, Tilbourg" and is in Dutch. Its cost is 10 euros, exclusive of postage.

Projects

Muzima has participated in a lot of projects, for instance the Traces Festival; exhibitions in the Grand Library of Tilburg; National History Week; Literature Week; Week of Literature for Children, and National Museum Weekend.

On August 27^th, 2006,we had a stand at the Factorium Festival, (Tilburg Music School Festival).

The following month, September 2006, top saxophone player, Andreas van Zoelen, (http://www.vanzoelen.eu/), went on tour giving concerts and taking with him an exhibition called "L'Histoire du Sax." (The History of the Saxophone). He visited Geldrop, The Hague and Maastricht with a beautiful collection of saxophones.

In the Museum of Nature, (Naturemuseum Brabant), you could find an exhibition called "Does he bite when I stroke?", about people and their pets. We have  a showcase in it with musical instruments made of animal skin or animal products. You could visit the exhibition  from September 24^th, 2006 until January, 2008.

Museum Weekend.

Last National Museum Weekend, in April, the Museum of Musical Instruments got 160 visitors. It staged a combination of live music, art and a demonstration of the old craft of brass-instrument making. Some local government officials visited the Museum and seemed to be very enthusiastic about the collection.

Last Guided Tour.

On May 21^st, we had our last guided tour and some fifty people visited the Museum. Many have said they find it incomprehensible that there is now no home for the collection.

We spoke to Mr. H. Backx, alderman of the Culture of Tilburg, about finding suitable accommodation for the collection. The Local Government wants to show a small part of it in showcases in the City Museum but we want to display the entire collection of the Museum to tell its history and to give guided tours.

Collection in Storage

The whole collection of the Museum of Musical Instruments had been in storage since September 1^st, 2006. The accommodation was old, the air humid and not good for the instruments but the present depository has no air-conditioning  and this,  too, is not good for musical instruments. We hope to find new accommodation in which to display them. Hundreds of tourists and other people have been disappointed during the past months because the Museum is closed. Every week I received e-mails and telephone calls from people who wanted to visit our museum.

Vision for the Future

The Museum's management and volunteers are looking for accommodation of 300 to 400 square metres, so we can display the collection of musical instruments, workbenches, manufactory and documentation, pictures, catalogues, sheet music and so on. We want to provide education rooms for children, a room for films and videos, space for changing exhibitions etc.

The Museum has display boards, where we show the production process of musical instruments such as flutes, bassoons, clarinets, saxophones trumpets and violins. Schools can hire these boards for music lessons and other educational purposes. We want to bring the history of Music and musical instruments to young people and to the public as a whole : to tell them about Music's past and its future, about classical and contemporary composers and about musicians and musical instruments.

New Accommodation

Our attitude is a positive one, because of the enthusiastic reaction of so many people.  I take my responsibility seriously, because of my promise to my father to take care of this collection of instruments. We intend to set up some temporary projects until we have a definitive solution to the accommodation problem.

Since september 2007, we have a temporary location. Here you can see some 50 instruments of our collection, and some workbenches where you can see a little part of the factory. I hope you will support our plan to obtain new accommodation for this unique collection of musical instruments and I hope we may be able to continue negations with local government to this end. This Province, Noord Brabant, was the cradle of the music industry in the twentieth century and we hope the collection will be conserved for countless musicians and tourists of the future.

Eveline Passier

conservator Muzima Tilburg