Jos Smits van Waesberghe

Jos Smits van Waesberghe (Breda, 1901 – Amsterdam, 1986) was a Dutch musicologist specialising in music theory and the music of the Middle Ages. Trained in Jesuit seminaries, he was ordained a priest, and his academic career unfolded almost entirely in the Netherlands, where his work as a researcher and historian made him one of the leading references in medieval studies in the country.

During his studies in philosophy (1922–1926) and theology (1930–1935) he received lessons from Louis van Tulder, Marius Monnikendam and Johan Winnubst. He taught at the Canisius College in Nijmegen (1935–1937) and at the Ignatius College in Amsterdam (1937–1943), and at the same time lectured at the conservatoires of Rotterdam (1939–1943) and Amsterdam (1944–1966). In 1947 he joined the University of Amsterdam as an external lecturer, in the field of medieval music and music theory, and in 1957 he was appointed professor at that institution. The Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music in Rome awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1953.

His output covers numerous aspects of medieval music theory and the editing of treatises from the period, among them the RISM volume The Theory of Music from the Carolingian Era up to 1400 (1961). He also dealt with the so-called "biological rhythm" of the musical human being. In De muzische mens: zijn motoriek (1971) he argued that, throughout history, humans have unconsciously listened to their own "inner clock", so that the tempo of relaxed walking and that of military marching, with their internal gradations, would reappear in speech and song. In his Melodieleer (1950) he developed a theory of melody based on people's responses to it, above all those of children.

Beyond his academic work, he was a prominent cultural administrator. He served as general secretary of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Toonkunstenaars Vereniging (1945–1958), founded the Nederlandse Toonkunstenaars Raad in 1948, of which he was secretary, and presided over the Nederlandse Sint-Gregoriusvereniging (1958–1967). He also directed several Dutch music journals and sat on government commissions on arts policy.

His legacy lies in the editing of medieval sources, such as the series Divitiae musicae artis and Corpus Scriptorum de Musica, and in his insistence on linking historical theory with the perceptual experience of music.