Joachim van den Hove

Joachim van den Hove was one of the Antwerp lutenists who left the city to seek refuge abroad. He finally ended up in the Dutch Republic where, along with Nicolaes Vallet, he became one of the most important lutenists. He published three handsome volumes of lute music: Florida in 1601, Delitiae musicae in 1612 and Praeludia testudinis in 1616. Some of his music has only been preserved in manuscripts.

Joachim van den Hove was born in 1567 in Antwerp, where he was baptised in the main cathedral on 4 July of that year. He was probably spoon-fed music from day one, because his father, Peeter van den Hove, was a highly regarded musician. He had become a burgher of Antwerp in 1563, and the year after he joined the Players’ Guild. In the same year 1564 he married Catharina van Vosbergen, with whom he had several children. Peeter's career was quite successful. In 1581 he was appointed as a city player, replacing his deceased brother Cornelis, and he ran a dance school besides. His reputation as a musician must have been considerable, because in 1577 he and his ensemble were summoned to Dordrecht to play at a town council banquet in honour of Prince William of Orange, probably on the occasion of the birth of his daughter, Elizabeth.

When Antwerp was taken by the Spanish in August 1585, Peeter van den Hove was among the first to leave the city, so we may conclude that he was a convinced adherent of the Reformed faith. It is not clear where he went. Eventually he turned up in the Northern Netherlands, since he was living in The Hague in 1600. We know nothing about the rest of his life. Two of his children also lived in the Republic, because in Leiden we come across two of his sons, Joachim and Hercules, in the early 1590s.

Both Joachim and his brother Hercules, two years his junior, were lutenists. They would have learnt the rudiments of music from their father, but, as was the custom in those days, they probably went to another musician for lessons when they were about seven.