RESOUNDING ECHOES: From August 2022, Robert McCarney's regular series features little-known twentieth century classical composers.
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Dutch-German composer Johann Wilhelm Wilms was born in Witzhelden, Germany and was baptised on 30 March 1772. He studied initially with his father and oldest brother - piano and compositiion, and learned to play the flute on his own.
As a young man in 1791 he moved to Amsterdam, where his various jobs included working as a church organist, a solo and orchestral flautist, teaching piano, composing patriotic hymns, writing for the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung and judging composition competitions.
Most famously, he won a competition for the Dutch national anthem with Wien Neêrlands Bloed, which was used between 1815 and 1932.
Wilms died in Amsterdam on 19 July 1847, aged seventy-five.