Prof. Dr. A.A. Clement

Prof. Dr. A.A. Clement

Professor of Theology en Music Send an e-mail

Short cv

Professor Albert Clement (born in 1962) obtained the diplomas of Teaching and Performing Musician organ at the Conservatory of Brabant under the supervision of Bram Beekman respectively in 1986 and 1988. During his studies, he took master classes from Ton Koopman, Ludger Lohmann and Wolfgang Rübsam. He also studied Musicology at the University of Utrecht and Theology at Leiden University. In 1989 he obtained his doctorate (with the highest distinction) at the University of Utrecht with an interdisciplinary dissertation on Johann Sebastian Bach (supervisor: Willem Elders). In the years 1991-1996, he was a KNAW Fellow; similarly, on the recommendation of the KNAW, he became, in 2004, Academy Professor at the University of Utrecht, where he currently holds a full chair. In 2004, he stood at the founding of the University College Roosevelt in Middelburg, which he helped establish from 2003 and is since head of the music department. Here, he introduced Performing Arts into the Dutch university education system. Clement is an internationally recognised expert on Baroque music. Of his large international group of PhD students, three of them even made it to full professor.

Almost 400 publications have been published under his name, including several books on Bach and on Renaissance music. Since 1992, he has been General Editor of the series Exempla Musica Zelandica, in which the KZGW publishes until then unknown music related to Zeeland. In 2014, he edited the volume Studies in Baroque, dedicated to Ton Koopman, on which a wide range of international specialists collaborated. In 2015, Dr. J. Butz Verlag (Bonn) published the first volume in the series Buxtehude-Studien, for which he and Christoph Wolff (Harvard) contributed the first scholarly articles. Also in 2015, he received Masaaki Suzuki's request to collaborate in his CD project, started at BIS Records (Sweden), with the complete recordings of Bach's organ works, for which he has since provided the explanatory notes.

He is currently preparing books on J.S. Bach and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. He is also leading an international Bach project dedicated to the so-called 'Bach Bible', a commentary by Abraham Calov in which Bach made hundreds of notes. A facsimile edition of this has now appeared, and an accompanying, multilingual volume of scholarly studies by 12 authors will soon be published by Van Wijnen, edited by Clement. 

Publications

• “O Jesu, du edle Gabe”. Studien zum Verhältnis von Text und Musik in den Choralpartiten und den Kanonischen Veränderungen von Johann Sebastian Bach (Ph.D. Disserta­tion, Utrecht 1989) [282 pp.]
• Exempla Musica Zelandica. Music series of the Royal Zeeland Society of Sciences (1992-present; VIII Vols. appeared, each with an Introduction in English) (general editor).
• “A Case of Liturgical Practice in Johann Sebastian Bach’s Home? – The four Duets BWV 802-805”, Ars et Musica in Liturgia. Essays presented to Casper Honders on His Seventieth Birthday, eds. Frans Brouwer & Robin A. Leaver (Metuchen NJ & London 1994), pp. 32-55.
• Met Eric Jas, eds.: From Ciconia to Sweelinck. Donum natalicium Willem Elders (Amsterdam / Atlanta 1994) [XIII+391 pp.]
• Ed.: Das Blut Jesu und die Lehre von der Versöhnung im Werk Johann Sebastian Bachs / The Blood of Jesus and the Doctrine of Reconciliation in the Works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Proceedings of the International Colloquium, Amsterdam, 14-17 September 1993 [Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen – Verhandelin­gen, Afd. Letterkunde, Nieuwe reeks, deel 164] (Amsterdam / Oxford / New York / Tokyo 1995) [XII & 304 pp.]
• Met Arno Forchert, Martin Petzoldt: Wege Zu Bach. II. Folge – Drei Aufsätze [= Societas Bach Internationalis, Jahresgabe 1995] (Stuttgart 1995).
• Der dritte Teil der Clavierübung von Johann Sebastian Bach. Musik – Text – Theolo­gie (Middelburg 1999; Bonn 22017) [xii & 450 pp.]
• ‘Bach en de theologie’, R. Nauta (ed.), Bach en de theologie. Een verkenning van geloof en gevoel (Nijmegen 2001), pp. 74-115.
• ‘Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: een stadsorganist van wereldfaam tussen calvinisme en ka­tho­li­cis­me’, Louis Peter Grijp (ed.), Een muziekgeschiedenis der Nederlanden (Amsterdam 2001), pp. 182-190.
• “On the Inner Correlation of BWV 645-650 and its Significance”, BACH. Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, Vol. 34/2 (2003), pp. 1-62.
• Over Bach, Boeken en Barbaren [Inaugural lecture Utrecht, 21 March 2005] Amsterdam 2005 (26 pp.).
• ‘Johann Sebastian Bach and the Praise of God: Some Thoughts on the Canon Triplex BWV 1076’, Dan Zager (ed.), Music and Theology. Essays in Honor of Robin A. Leaver (Lanham, Maryland / Toronto / Plymouth 2007), pp. 147-168.
• ‘Mendelssohn and Bach’s Matthew Passion. Its Performance, Reception, and the Presence of 70 original Choral Parts in the Netherlands’,Tijdschrift van de Koninklijke VNM 59/2 (2009), pp. 141-155.
• ‘Music as a Liberal Art and the Invention of the Telescope’,  A. van Helden, S. Dupré, R. van Gent, H. Zuidervaart (eds.), The Origins of the Telescope [= History of Science and Scholarship in the Netherlands Series, Vol. 12] (KNAW Press, Amsterdam 2010), pp. 321-340.
• Met Eric Jas, eds., Josquin and the Sublime. Proceedings of the International Symposium at Roosevelt Academy, Middelburg, 12-15 July 2009. [Centre d’études supérieures de la renaissance. Collection ‘épitome musical’] (Turnhout, Brepols 2011).
• ‘Gradus ad Lipsias: Zum Fux-Verständnis in Bachs Kreisen’. In: T. Erhardt (Hrsg.), Sakralmusik im Habsburgerreich 1570-1770 [Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien 2013), pp. 53-68.
• Studies in Baroque. Festschrift Ton Koopman (Dr. J. Butz Verlag, Bonn, 2014). [392 pp.] (ed.)
• ‘An Ingenious Father Figure to Bach: Buxtehude and his Chorale Fantasia Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein.’ In: Albert Clement, ed., Studies in Baroque. Festschrift Ton Koopman (Bonn, 2014), pp. 137-159.
• Eine geniale Vaterfigur für Bach: Buxtehude und seine Choralfantasie Nun freut euch, lieben Christen gmein. In: Buxtehude-Studien I [Internationale Buxtehude-Gesellschaft] (2015), pp. 107-130.
• Exempla Musica Zelandica IX: Lupus Hellinck, Three four-part Masses, ed. Bonnie Blackburn (Oxford) [Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen] (Middelburg 2016) [xvi & 116 pp.] (general editor)
• 'Jacob Jehuda Leon en de tempel van Salomo'. In: Middelburg en de Mediene. Joods leven in Zeeland door de eeuwen heen (Antwerpen / Apeldoorn 2017), p. 171-180.
• 'Het muziekleven in Middelburg ten tijde van de oprichting van het Zeeuws Genootschap: een nadere verkenning'. In: Een hoger streven. Bouwstenen voor een geschiedenis van het Zeeuws Genootschap, 1769-2019 [= Archief 2019. Mededelingen van het Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen], p. 241-264.
• ‘Musical Culture in Middelburg in the Times of Isaac Beeckman’. In: Knowledge and Culture in the Early Dutch Republic: Isaac Beeckman in Context, eds. Albert Clement, Arjan van Dixhoorn, Klaas van Berkel (AUP: Amsterdam 2022), p. 317-338.
• ​[articles on a number of composers in:] The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005-)
• [articles on a number of composers in:] Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart (Bärenreiter, Kassel etc. 1994-)​

Functions en positions

• 1980-: Royal Dutch Organists' Association (Chairman Dpt. Zeeland 1990-1994)
• 1981-: Royal Zeeland Society of Sciences (Koninklijk Zeeuwsch Genootschap der Wetenschappen (KZGW)) (Board member 1993-1999)
• 1981-2014: Music Department (Werkgroep Muziek) of the KZGW (Chairman 1991-2003)
• 1984-: Royal Society for Dutch Music History (Koninklijke Vereniging voor Nederlandse Muziekgeschiedenis (KVNM)); from 2021 member of the board
• 1986-: Neue Bach Gesellschaft
• 1991-2003: International Society for Theological Bach Research [Internationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft für theologische Bachforschung e.V.] (President 1999-2003)
• 1992-: General editor of the Exempla Musica Zelandica series of the Royal Zeeland Society of Arts and Sciences
• 1995-: Editorial Board member (period 1600-1800) of the Journal of the Royal VNM
• 2000-: American Bach Society
• 2004-: Society of Dutch Literature (Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde)
• 2004-2012: Foundation Friends of the Zeeland Library (Stichting Vrienden van de Zeeuwse Bibliotheek) (Chairman)
• 2005: Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck Award Foundation (Stichting Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinckprijs) (Artistic Comittee member)
• 2006-2012: Josquin des Prez Foundation (Stichting Josquin des Prez) (Board member)
• 2008-: Studium Chorale (member 'Artistieke Adviesraad')
• 2009-2012 Foundation for the Promotion of Choral Culture Southwest Netherlands (Stichting Promotie Koorcultuur Zuidwest Nederland) [Koorplein Zeeland] (Founder and Chairman)
• 2016-2019: Etty Hillesum Research Centre [Middelburg] (Vice-chairman of the Board of Trustees)
• 2018-: Isaac Beeckman Foundation (Isaac Beeckman Stichting) (Board member)
• 2018-: Dutch Baroque (Member 'Comite van Aanbeveling')
• 2018-: Member of the Board of Governors of La Bourse des Pauvres Honteux
• 2021-present: Member of the Board of the Royal Society for Music History of the Netherlands
• 2022-present: Senior Member of NOSTER (Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion)