Marthinus Lourens de Villiers

Marthinus Lourens de Villiers was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church from 1912 to 1930, then a full-time musician until his death in 1977 and is especially known for his setting of Die Stem. Biography The son of Dirk de Villiers, organist of the Dutch Reformed Church, and Tina Smith, he was introduced to the piano, organ and violin at a very young age by his parents, owners of a music institute in Wellington. He later took up the clarinet and played in the Wellington brass band. He obtained his baccalaureate in 1904, a year after publishing his first piano composition. From 1905 to 1907, de Villiers taught music in Wepener in the Orange Free State. There he founded a brass band, composed and was organist of the Dutch Reformed Church. He then studied from 1908 to 1911 at the theological seminary in Stellenbosch, during which time he became interested and involved in the defense of the Afrikaans language against English. Of British but also Boer descent, he was also affected by the destruction of the Second Boer War, by the efforts to rebuild the population, by his friendships, notably with the former president Marthinus Steyn. He gradually became a pro-Afrikaner activist. From