A student of the organ, viola da gamba, and lute Hacquart probably learned in his home town of Bruges. He moved to Amsterdam as he was attracted to the growth of music there. The music for a play by Dirk Buysero, "De triomfeerende min," was composed by Hacquart and is considered the first Dutch opera. It combined folk melodies and conventional pastoral strains. The greatest contribution he made to music was his "Harmonia parnassia" which included a collection of ten sonatas similar to Purcell and Corelli. He conjoined the forms of the church sonata and the chamber sonata. His melodies also consist of a combination: again folksongs but with Italian strains. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi