Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens

Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens , ndl. also Jaak Nikolaas Lemmens , (born January 3, 1823 in Zoerle-Parwijs near Westerlo ; † January 30, 1881 in Zemst near Mechelen ) was a Belgian organist and composer .

Life

Lemmens received his first organ lessons from his father, a village organist, and from Diest's organist , van den Broeck. From 1839 he attended the Conservatory in Brussels , where he was taught by its first director, François-Joseph Fétis . Fétis also sent Lemmens to Breslau so that he could familiarize himself with Bach's organ tradition with Adolf Friedrich Hesse .

After winning several prizes for composition, organ and piano playing (including the second prize at the prestigious Prix de Rome belge in 1847 for his composition Le roi Lear ), Lemmens was organ teacher at the Brussels Conservatory from 1849 to 1869.

In 1852 Lemmens went on a concert tour to Paris, where he astonished the audience with his organ lectures in the churches of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, La Madeleine and Saint-Eustache .

As a result, many aspiring organists traveled, e. Partly supported by Aristide Cavaillé-Coll , who was a great admirer of Lemmens, went to Brussels to get an education. Lemmens' students included Joseph Callaerts , Joseph Tilborghs , Clément Loret , Alphonse Mailly ; later also Alexandre Guilmant and Charles-Marie Widor as private students.

The latter later reported on Lemmens' game:

"Nobody who has heard Lemmens can forget the clarity, the power, the greatness of his playing - he gave weight to the smallest details, but without ever losing sight of the piece as a whole."

- Charles-Marie Widor

In 1857 Lemmens married the English soprano Helen Sherrington (1834–1906) and, after the extremely successful concert tours of previous years on the continent, shifted his sphere of activity more and more to Great Britain. In 1869 he resigned his professorship at the Brussels Conservatory for financial reasons and moved to London. At the request of the Belgian episcopate, he returned to Belgium in 1878, where he founded a school for church music in Mechelen , the Lemmens Institute , which was later named after him .

He had previously campaigned for the restoration of church music. In 1862, for example, he published his École d'Orgue basée sur le Plain-Chant Romain , an organ school that placed particular emphasis on the treatment of Gregorian chant . He was also one of the most prominent members of the association for the restoration of Gregorian chant, founded by the important Trier chorale researcher Michael Hermesdorff , to which Joseph Pothier from the French Abbaye Saint-Pierre de Solesmes belonged.

The musical branch of the Belgian LUCA School of Arts , the former Hogeschool voor Wetenschap & Kunst ( WENK or W&K ), is called Lemmensinstituut after him and is located in Leuven .

Works

Organ compositions

Dix Improvisations dans le style sévère et chantant (1848)
École d'Orgue, basée sur le plain-chant romain (organ school, 1862), including:

Prelude to 5 parts (Grave) in E flat major
Prière (Moderato cantabile) in E major
Fanfare (Allegro non troppo) in D major
Cantabile (Allegretto) in B minor
Finale (Allegro) in D major

Trois Sonatas (1874):

Sonata No. 1 "Pontificale" in D minor

1. Allegro moderato

2. Adagio

3. Marche Pontificale (Maestoso)

4. Fuga (fanfare)

Sonata No. 2 " O Filii " in E minor

1. Prelude (Allegro non troppo)

2. Cantabile (Andante)

3. Fuga (Allegro con fuoco)

Sonata No. 3 "Pascale" in A minor

1. Allegro

2. Adoration (Andante sostenuto)

3. Finale "Alleluia" (Maestoso recitando - Allegro)

Harmonium compositions

Morceaux pour orgue melodium

literature

Annelies Focquaert: Lemmens, Jacques-Nicolas , bio- and bibliography. In: Study Center Vlaamse Muziek (SVM, English)

Web links

Works by and about Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens in the catalog of the German National Library
Sheet music and audio files by Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens in the International Music Score Library Project

Individual evidence

^ François Sabatier: Lemmens, Jacques-Nicolas [Jaak Nikolaas]. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).
↑ quoted from: Michael Murray: French Masters of the Organ . Yale University, New Haven, London 1998, ISBN 0-300-07291-0 , pp. 95 (English, 219 pages, full text in the Google Book Search [accessed on January 21, 2020]).

personal data
SURNAME	Lemmens, Jacques-Nicolas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Belgian organist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH	January 3, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH	Zoerle-Parwijs , Westerlo
DATE OF DEATH	January 30, 1881
Place of death	Zemst , Mechelen

[ng-1] François Sabatier: Lemmens, Jacques-Nicolas [Jaak Nikolaas]. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).

[mm-2] quoted from: Michael Murray: French Masters of the Organ . Yale University, New Haven, London 1998, ISBN 0-300-07291-0 , pp. 95 (English, 219 pages, full text in the Google Book Search [accessed on January 21, 2020]).