Bernard Zweers, full name Bernardus Josephus Wilhelmus Zweers, was a Dutch composer and conductor. He was born in Amsterdam on 18 May 1854 and died there on 9 December 1924.
The son of a music dealer, Zweers was initially self-taught. He suffered from tinnitus from an early age, yet began composing chamber music when he was fourteen. A decisive experience in his musical development was attending the Berlin premiere of Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen in 1881. After completing his First Symphony, he studied counterpoint with Salomon Jadassohn in Leipzig.
After returning to Amsterdam, Zweers taught harmony and composition at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Toonkunst Music School from 1885 to 1922. His many pupils included Hendrik Andriessen, Sem Dresden, Bernhard van den Sigtenhorst Meyer, Willem Landré, Rosy Wertheim, Leo Smit, Evert Cornelis, Daniël Ruyneman, and John Brookhouse McCarthy. He also conducted several choirs, although increasing deafness allowed him to continue this work for only a few years.
Zweers sought to create a national Dutch art music. In his vocal works he used exclusively Dutch texts, including texts by Nicolaas Beets and J. J. L. ten Kate; later he particularly favored poetry by P. C. Boutens. His wife was the singer Dora de Louw, for whom he wrote numerous songs. Several of his songs, including a dance song and two Saint Nicholas songs, appeared in the 1906 songbook If You Can Still Sing, Sing Along, and remained widely known for decades through the book's enduring popularity.
His Third Symphony in B-flat major, To My Fatherland (1888–1890), was an epic work and is regarded as his finest composition. The first three movements were premiered under his direction at Amsterdam's City Theatre on 23 March 1888. In 1890, Willem Kes conducted the completed four-movement symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra; it subsequently became a regular part of that orchestra's repertoire under Willem Mengelberg.
Zweers's other orchestral works include the First Symphony in D major (1881), Second Symphony in E-flat major (1882–1883), incidental music for Vondel's Gysbrecht van Aemstel (1892), and the Saskia Overture (1906), written for a Rembrandt exhibition. His vocal compositions include the Missa quatuor vocibus (1877), The Cosmos cantata (1883), Saint Nicholas Festival (1890), the Coronation Cantatas (1897–1898), Leo Cantata (1902), To Beauty (1909), Hymns (1914), and Heart and Land (1924). His music was published, among others, by A. A. Noske Music Publishers. It was quickly forgotten after his death, though recordings have been made of all three symphonies.