François-Auguste Gevaert
François-Auguste Gevaert (born July 30, 1828 in Huise , † December 24, 1908 in Brussels ) was a Belgian composer and music writer.
Life
Gevaert, son of a baker, studied harmony and counterpoint with Martin-Joseph Mengal, the director of the Ghent Conservatory . In 1847 the Brussels Conservatory awarded him the Belgian Prix de Rome for his cantata Le roi Lear . His first job was as a music teacher at a Jesuit high school. Here he studied the works of Mozart and Gluck in preparation for his career as a composer.
After staging the three-act opera Hugues de Zonnerghem and the one-act comic opera Comédie à la Ville in Ghent, he embarked on a journey in 1849 that took him via Paris to Italy, France, Spain and Germany, whereupon he settled in 1853 settled in Paris. Here he first brought the comic operetta Georgette , then in 1854 the three-act opera Le Billet de Marguerite , which was distinguished by its wealth of melodies and solid work, to great acclaim. This was later followed by Les Lavandières de Santarem (1856), Quentin Durward (1857), Le Diable au Moulin (1859), Château-Trompette (1860) and Capitaine Henriot (1864).
Due to the success of his stage works, he was appointed music director of the Paris Opera in 1867 , a position that had been vacant for years. In the turmoil of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, he left Paris, but with the intention of returning after the end of hostilities. In 1873 he was accepted as a foreign member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts .
In the meantime, François-Joseph Fétis died and Gevaert became director of the Brussels Conservatory. Here he expanded the subjects offered and was able to hire famous musicians such as Henri Vieuxtemps , Eugène Ysaÿe , Edgar Tinel , Paul Gilson and Arthur De Greef . Through his energetic approach, he managed to increase the level of teaching considerably. He founded the “Sociéte des Concerts du Conservatoire” consisting of teachers and the best students, with which he performed works by Bach and Handel, which at that time were still completely unknown in Belgium, but also works by Gluck, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven. Works by well-known contemporary composers such as Wagner, Franck, Grieg and Brahms were only performed gradually after their deaths.
As a music theorist, Gevaert wrote a Traité général d'Instrumentation (1864), which Tchaikovsky translated into Russian and its new version Nouveau traité d'instrumentation (1885) into German by Hugo Riemann . He also published a Cours méthodique d'orchestration (1890), the Traité d'harmonie, théorique et pratique (1907) and, in addition to several smaller writings, a Histoire et Théorie de la Musique de l'Antiquité . In addition to Raymund Schlecht and Peter Bohn, he was a founding member of the Association for the Research of Old Choral Manuscripts for the purpose of restoring the cantus S. Gregorii of the Trier Cathedral Music Director Michael Hermesdorff , which was also joined by other important researchers such as Anselm Schubiger , Joseph Pothier and Robert Eitner and who in German-speaking countries probably most important preparatory work for the restoration of the Gregorian chant .
Towards the end of his life, the Belgian king made him a baron. On this occasion the king ordered the Congolese national song Vers l'avenir from him . In 1904 he was awarded the Order of Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts . Gevaert composed a large Christmas mass for Christmas in 1908, but he died on Christmas Eve, the day before the performance.
Works (selection)
- Te Deum (1843)
- Overture Flandre au lion (1848)
- Fantasía sobre motivos españoles (1850)
- Requiem (1853)
- Quartet for clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano
Secular cantatas
- België (1847)
- Le roi Léar (1847)
- Evocation patriotique (1856)
- De national verjaerdag (1857)
- Le retour de l'armée (1859)
- Jacob van Artevelde (1864)
Web links
- Works by and about François-Auguste Gevaert in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about François-Auguste Gevaert in the German Digital Library
- Sheet music and audio files from Gevaert in the International Music Score Library Project
- Sheet music in the public domain by François-Auguste Gevaert in the Choral Public Domain Library - ChoralWiki (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ Cäcilia , Organ for Catholic Church Music, Ed. Michael Hermesdorf, F. Lintz'sche Buchhandlung Trier, XI. Born 1872, No. 5, p. 33 f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gevaert, François-Auguste |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Belgian composer and music writer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 30, 1828 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Huise , Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 24, 1908 |
| Place of death | Brussels , Belgium |