Inspired by French orphéons and military bands and by German male choirs, 19th-century Flanders witnessed a rapid growth scene of musical associations, symphonic wind orchestras, brass bands, choirs, concert societies and societies for music theatre.

The earliest symphonic wind bands were founded from the 1770s on in the area of the Rivers Scheldt and Dender. They were offshoots of the chambers of rhetoric, of guilds or of church orchestras which were dedicated to public festivities such as religious processions, parades and fairs, and whose function, after their disbanding in the era of the French Revolution, was taken over by symphonic wind bands (and later also by brass bands). Military bands provided inspiration too.

From 1830 until 1914 the number of wind and brass bands, both exclusively male affairs, grew dramatically, with an explosive acceleration between 1860 and 1880. The movement penetrated the countryside at the level of individual villages, and the proliferation of musical associations also mirrored the societal differentiation between Catholics, Liberals and Socialists. Trade associations (workers’ trade unions, entrepreneurial associations, associations of printers, policemen, postal employees, etc.) also founded their own wind band, the result being a continuum of musical involvement across the social spectrum.

Besides providing leisure entertainment and adding lustre to civil and ecclesiastical celebrations, these amateur orchestras also had a philanthropic and civilizing role: they played benefit concerts for the poor and for victims of disasters, and the music was supposed to elevate moral standing as well as enhancing national feelings (Belgian and Flemish).

Choral life went through the same development after the first civil choirs were formed (c.1815). Unlike the wind orchestras, they admitted women early on, and their organization along ideological axes was less pronounced. We may assume the existence of c.60 choirs in Belgium in 1841, 43 of which were based in the Flemish-speaking half, with a composition ranging from eight singers (the Société Haydn in Gent) to 44 (Les Chanteurs-Campagnards in Torhout). Ten years later, 258 choirs were registered, 142 of which were based in Flanders, with the most powerful concentration in the Scheldt and Dender region. This expansion pattern, like that of the wind bands, continued until the First World War. In Antwerp the German mercantile community loomed large, and provided to other localities the models of the German Liedertafel and Männer-Gesangverein and the big oratorio choir. Some concert societies boasted a choir and orchestra of their own, enabling them to perform the great national and international choral works.

Very typical, both of the wind bands and of the choirs, were the festivals and the competitions that in most cases were organized or supported by the local, provincial or national authorities. After gaining independence in 1830, the young Belgian state was eager to create a cultural identity of its own in one single, sweeping patriotic move, positioning the country between France and the Netherlands. Music was a powerful medium and platform for that purpose; choirs and wind bands were encouraged to participate in festivals and competitions with incentives and free train transport. While these competitions served a nationalist purpose, they also created a community spirit and, with their lively competitive edge, helped to raise artistic standards.

Flemish choirs during the 1840s briefly entered into close collaboration with the German male-choir movement, especially in the Rhineland. There were exchange visits in both directions along the axis Gent-Cologne, with proclamations (spearheaded by the poet Prudens Van Duyse) of German-Flemish brotherhood. While these exchanges dwindled after 1848, they marked an important step in the enmeshment between the Flemish Movement and German Vormärz nationalism (present also in the Flemish networking activities of Hoffmann von Fallersleben).

A special category within the music societies consisted of those theatre societies that produced, alongside comedies and tragedies, also opéra-comiques, variety shows and lyrical dramas. Initially their repertoire was mainly French, both in the original and in translation; August von Kotzebue was also popular. Gradually the variety shows included more original music by Flemish composers, as a transition to the lyrical drama and the opera. These white-collar and middle-class amateur companies prepared the ground for a professional theatre and opera scene in Flemish.