Flor Peeters

Flor Peeters (born July 4, 1903 in Tielen (Belgium) , † July 4, 1986 in Antwerp ) was a Belgian composer , organist and music teacher.

Life

St. Romuald in Mechelen, here Peeters was organist for 60 years

Peeters came from a modest background; his father was a postman, but also a sexton and organist in his home parish. Flor Peeters was familiar with church music from an early age. At the age of eight, he was able to replace his father occasionally. During this time he also received violin lessons. Peeters attended high school in Herentals, he also received piano and organ lessons during this time, as well as solfège lessons from the organist of the college. Peeters studied from 1916 at the Institut Saint-Victor de Turnhout with Jozef Brandt, where he also studied harmony. His first compositions date from this time. In 1919 he began studying organ at the Lemmens Institute with Oscar Depuydt. He received his diploma in 1921, the Excellence Prize in 1922 and in 1923 at the age of 20 he was awarded the “Prix Lemmens-Tinel”. He became vice organist at St. Romuald's Cathedral ( Sint Rombout ) in Mechelen and gave his first concerts in Brussels. After the death of his teacher Depuydt, Peeters became titular organist at St. Rombout. Striving to improve, he completed his studies in Paris with Marcel Dupré and Charles Tournemire .

Peeters gave several concerts in Italy in 1934 and in Paris in 1936. Having remained connected to the Lemmensinstitut, he expanded his educational field of activity and became an organ professor at the Royal Conservatory (KC) in Ghent in 1931 and at the Tilburg Conservatory (NL) in 1935 . After the death of his French teacher Tournemire, Peeters bequeathed the old console to the organ of the Ste-Clotilde church in Paris, where his compatriot César Franck had already played. In 1948 Peeters became an organ professor at the Antwerp Conservatory and only in 1952, when he was also appointed director of the Conservatory, did he leave the Lemmens Institute.

In 1946 he undertook a successful concert tour through the United States of America (he returned there nine times), and in 1962 Peeters received an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of America in Washington. In 1955 he visited the Philippines, 1963 the USSR, Australia and New Zealand. During his entire career, Peeters gave more than 3000 concerts in all five continents.

In 1971 the Belgian king awarded him the honorary title of baron and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven an honorary doctorate. After his retirement in 1968 he remained organist in Mechelen and took on organ courses for foreign students, called “Master Class Flor Peeters”, on behalf of the Ministry of Flemish Cultural Affairs, which were held every two years.

Flor Peeters fled to France after the occupation of Belgium by the Germans, but returned to Antwerp a few months later, where he was arrested in September 1941 for writing anti-Nazi writings and finally transferred to the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg concentration camp . He spent a total of 40 months in the concentration camp and also survived a death march in 1945. Immediately after his return to Belgium, he recorded his memories of the concentration camp in book form ("40 maanden Oraniënburg"). In 2020 the journalist Lukas de Vos published a new edition of the Flemish-Dutch text with commentary.

Offices

• 1923–1952 organ professor at the Lemmens Institute
• 1931–1948 organ professorship at the Ghent Conservatory.
• 1935–1948 professor of organ in Tilburg
• 1948–1968 professor of organ in Antwerp
• 1952–1968 director of the Antwerp Conservatory
  • 1923–1983 organist at Mechelen Cathedral
  • 1939 titular organist at Ste. Clotilde in Paris

Compositions (selection)

His complete works include more than 130 opus numbers for organ alone, including large concert pieces , church music that is often based on Gregorian chant , and numerous works with an educational character. He has also composed works for piano, chamber music, masses, cantatas, motets, a concerto for organ and orchestra, and choral works.

• Sinfonia pro organo op.48
• Concerto for Organ and Orchestra op.52
• Concert piece op.52a
• 3 Preludes and Fugues, Op. 72
• Suite with four trombone quartets op.82
• "Entrata Festiva, processional and recessional" for organ, 2 trumpets and 2 trombones; Timpani and choir in unison ad lib. op. 93
• "30 short Preludes on well-known hymns" for organ op. 95
• Prelude, Canzona and Ciacona
• 60 chorale preludes
• Little Organbook

Fonts

• with Maarten Albert Vente : Dutch organ art from the 16th to the 18th century. Mercator Fund, Antwerp 1971.
• "Ars organi": Theoretical and practical organ method in thirds.

Editions of early music

• Les maîtres anciens néerlandais pour grand orgue (1938–1945)
• Opera selecta pro organo Johannis Cabanilles (1948)
• 3 chorale variations based on Pieter Sweelinck (1956)
• Old organ music from England and France (1957)
• Old Dutch masters for organ and harmonium (1957)

literature

• Mohrs, Rainer: A Belgian-German friendship, Flor Peeters and Hermann Schroeder, in: Musica sacra 123, 2003, 165–175 .
• Alfred Baumgartner: Propylaea World of Music - The Composers - A lexicon in five volumes . tape 4 . Propylaen Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-549-07830-7 , pp. 281 .

Web links

• Works by and about Flor Peeters in the catalog of the German National Library
• www.florpeeters.be

Individual evidence

1. ^ Dictionnaire des Compositeurs de Belgique, pp. 479–482
2. ↑ https://www.lannoo.be/nl/mijn-triomf-van-de-wil