History

1858 – 1885

Mathieu Kessels, born in 1858, comes from a family of six children, of whom only the middle two have survived, he and his brother Jos. Both are musically gifted and have had music lessons from an early age. After a childhood in which playing instruments, conducting and composing played a prominent role, brothers Jos and Mathieu Kessels started trading in sheet music. Due to a lack of easy-to-play musical pieces, both brothers start a music publishing business in their hometown Heerlen in 1880.

When Jos Kessels left for Tilburg in 1884 to become conductor of the New Royal Wind Band, Mathieu Kessels continued with the business alone. Later in the course of 1886, Mathieu also moved his business to Tilburg because of its central location and lack of competition. At this time, he also starts publishing a music magazine: De Muziekbode.

Mathieu married Maria Crijns; together they had 9 children (6 daughters and 3 sons). In 1900, his second-oldest daughter Marietje Kessels was murdered.

Music is seen as 'the pioneer of civilisation, of the promotion of morality. It brings the working class into contact with the higher classes, thus improving their intellectual development in all respects. When Kessels starts production, there are about two hundred corps in our country. In the years of his enterprise, a few thousand were added, all of which he recalls having equipped with instruments.

1886 – 1898

After first trading in musical instruments from renowned factories in Germany, Mathieu Kessels started his own factory and founded the (Royal) Nederlandsche Fabriek van Muziekinstrumenten in Tilburg. In 1887, two Saxon workmen came to Mathieu's door asking for work. Mathieu offers them shelter and, to earn the railway ticket back to Germany, lets them repair some instruments he wanted to send to Paris, where he usually has his repairs done. The two Saxon workers start working in a laundry kitchen. They do the repairs to everyone's satisfaction and so the repair facility is born.

Mathieu Kessels becomes the initiator of the first music competitions. He also publishes the music calendar, which is distributed free of charge to the regular clientele. What Mathieu does not produce himself, he buys from others, but he sells everything: from caps to medals and trophies, from ink and paper to brass polish, from teaching methods to all kinds of instruments, from police whistles to music machines and gag items. Besides all kinds of instruments and accessories, the 1897 Music Calendar stated that all brass instruments were available in sometimes as many as eight or nine models and in different qualities. His company became purveyor to the court of Queen Regent Emma and, a few years later, Queen Wilhelmina. Mathieu wrote and composed four operettas during this time: The May Queen of Geleen, The Cossacks in Oosterhout, The Bokkenrijders and Walram of Valkenburg. De Bokkenrijders is probably the oldest; it was first performed in Heerlen in 1898.

Many factory managers saw company harmony as a way to civilise and discipline their workers. It provided opportunities for relaxation and practice in working together, submitting to leadership, giving oneself away for the sake of the overall result, but also very practical matters such as arriving on time, fulfilling commitments made, etc. It also countered alcohol abuse, because at least during the time spent rehearsing, one could not drink.

1900 – 1920

Mathieu Kessels founded a company brass band with which he attended competitions and performed all over the country. As usual in those days, these were all charity concerts. Mathieu was a major driving force behind several grand competitions, such as the Grand National Competition in Tilburg and the major military music festivals in which all Dutch military marching bands took part.

Business continued to flourish and in 1902, Mathieu Kessels applied to the municipality of Tilburg to expand his factory with two rooms that could accommodate 50 people. In 1903, a private deed establishes the partnership with partner Hoosemans and M.J.H. Kessels, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Fabriek van Muziekinstrumenten, to make the new factory financially possible. With finances settled, the new building is completed and the factory building reaches its final size. The number of employees now grows sharply to 218. Hoosemans is younger, they differ in business acumen and, moreover, the partner knows nothing about music. An unforgivable flaw in Mathieu Kessels' eyes.

New partner Hoosemans favours the idea of increasing piano exports to England by partnering with an agent locally. The unreliability of the English partners means that this whole operation remains a block for the firm for years to come. This business failure does not benefit the relationship between the two partners. In addition, Mathieu Kessels is increasingly irritated that Hoosemans knows nothing about music. In 1907, the English agent placed an order for 900 pianos, which ultimately were not purchased. The thriving business runs into liquidity problems.

In 1908, the general partnership between Kessels and Hoosemans is dissolved. Mathieu was forced to convert his company into a public limited company. Which meant he had to look for new financiers and get a shareholder who could have a say in the company. Mathieu found a new financier in the bank Marx & Co. in Rotterdam. In the following years, the thriving Tilburg company did not make enough profit to absorb the losses from England. The lack of financial leeway meant the company's hands were tied to the Marx & Co. bank and its managing director, Van Ommeren, who also became the N.V.'s chief executive officer. Although things are not going well for N.V. Kessels' Nederlandsche Fabriek van Muziekinstrumenten at the beginning of this century, we also hear positive noises. In 1912, the Chamber of Commerce visits the factory and they write laudatory words about this 'important industrial establishment' in its annual report. In 1913, Mathieu Kessels obtains the predicate 'royal' in a personal capacity. In 1914, the name is changed to: N.V. Koninklijke Nederlandsche Fabriek van Muziekinstrumenten, formerly M.J.H. Kessels.

The bad relationship between Mathieu Kessels and Van Ommeren culminates in a power play in which Van Ommeren eventually wins. After mobilisation is declared in 1914, demand for musical instruments collapses. Van Ommeren refuses to provide support through the bank and wants to close the factory. Mathieu wants nothing to do with this and persuades his workers to accept a 30% pay cut. This stretches the case. When Van Ommeren wants to appoint a stooge, Willem König, as second director, the bomb bursts. Mathieu is then dismissed from his own company at the shareholders' meeting. The factory continues under König's leadership, the 'Koninklijke Nederlandsche Fabriek van Muziekinstrumenten'. At that point, the company still has 58 employees compared to over 200 years earlier. The loss of Mathieu's expertise and his personal connection with many customers does his former factory no favours.

Mathieu Kessels did not leave it at that, however, and opened a new factory opposite his old one under the name 'Nederlandsche Fabriek vanMuziekinstrumenten'. Mathieu also started a new magazine in 1915: 'De Nieuwe Muziekbode'. In it, he spews his bile about the injustice done to him. There is not an issue where one or more articles do not discuss the demise of the old factory, especially the role played in it by Van Ommeren and König. Of course, these two do not leave themselves out either, publishing articles against Mathieu Kessels in their magazine De Muziekbode. This feud continues until his death.

After the First World War, musical society had to be rebuilt. New types of music and new dances blew in from America. Interest in wind band and fanfare temporarily declined slightly around the 1920s; the level at competitions dropped and the appreciation of wind music declined.

1920 – 1955

In 1920, Mathieu Kessels gradually managed to win back some employees; he re-established a factory brass band, in which his three sons played alongside retired staff musicians. He made substantial tours of the Netherlands with it.

On 21 December 1932, Kessels died of rheumatism. The newspapers report: '... during his long illness, he always remained interested in the musical life of our country, to whose prosperity he contributed so much as director of the Royal Dutch Factory of Musical Instruments, but especially as a great music publisher and composer'.

His own business passed into the hands of his three sons after his death. But whether ambitions fell short or the necessary business and musical talent was lacking, the momentum was out. Mathieu jr. and Hendrik split the technical and financial side of the factory and Paul took over the publishing business. Mathieu Kessels ' sons were much less involved in the business than their father and their interests were rather in other areas. But mainly because the brothers worked against each other rather than together, business ran so badly that the company had to be closed down. KONEFA's bankruptcy also came in 1939; at that time, the Passier family took over part of the contents and 120 Kessels instruments. In 1986, the family opened the Musical Instrument Making Museum in Tilburg. In 2010, the Passier family donated the Kessels company collection (over 2,000 objects) to the Musical Instrument Makers Museum Foundation (now the Kessels Foundation). Now this collection is on display again at the Huis van Muziek.