Willem van Warmelo
Willem Lambertus van Warmelo (12 March 1894 – 22 February 1976) was a Dutch musicologist, music educator. He was born in Roermond to Maria Augusta Landberg and the military officer Willem Lambertus van Warmelo. He grew up in the Dutch East Indies, where his father had been born and served.
After returning to the Netherlands, van Warmelo studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, without completing a career in that field. He then turned to music, studying with Jean-Baptiste de Pauw and Sem Dresden. In the Gooi region he founded one of its first chamber orchestras, the Klein Orkest. The ensemble gave many premieres, including works by Dutch composers Henk Badings and Ary Verhaar.
Van Warmelo worked for broadcasting and directed the University of Amsterdam Orchestra J. Pzn Sweelinck from 1925 to 1939, combining early and contemporary music in its programmes. He also led the Toonkunst Choir of Laren and conducted the Haarlem Orchestral Society and the Utrecht Municipal Orchestra. He contributed to the revival of recorder music through his instructional manual. His nephew, Kees Otten, received his first lessons from him and later followed his path.
Van Warmelo moved to South Africa in 1939. There he studied the indigenous music of different communities through ethnomusicology, taught in Pretoria, and continued this research with grant support. He also promoted recorder playing and Dutch music. His publications included Folk Music in South Africa (1941), Song Tunes (1948), Human and Melody: In Search of Folk Songs in South Africa (1954), Recorder School: Manual for the School Recorder in C (1954), Afrikaans Folk Songs (1957), and an expanded edition of Song Tunes (1958).
He later taught in Cape Town, including at Battswood Training College. He returned to the Gooi region in the Netherlands with his wife, Sybil Gertrude Carolus, became a Dutch citizen again, and taught at the Bussum Music School. He died of heart disease at the Rosa Spier House in Laren. His archive was transferred to the Meertens Institute.