Music from Belgium

[Roy Bland]

TNX Merry Holidays but if he is from holland i should move from here

[pjme]

Indeed, we have already a Dutch composers topic:

https://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,2630.msg1577501.html#msg1577501

On the Internet archive i found this historical mono (ca 1955-1965) recording of Lieven Duvosel's "Leie cycle" - a combination of short symphonic poems and short cantatas. It is not clear to me if this a complete performance of all works written between 1902 and 1923....

https://archive.org/details/cd_duvosel-legley-compositions_lieven-duvosel-victor-legley/disc1/01.+Lieven+Duvosel+-+Leie+-+cycle+-+De+morgen+-+Morning%2C+symphonic+poem.flac

I definitely would like to hear more of his music which is highly late -romantic with an impressionistic touch.
Born in Ghent, he studied in Paris with Caussade, Widor, Fauré and Lenepveu.
Unfortunately his sympathy for Germany has tainted his reputation :

read more at https://www.svm.be/componisten/duvosel-lieven?language=en

Anyway, inspite of the aural limitations of that radio recording of the (river) Leie - cycle, Duvosel seems to have had a quite large, eloquent (symphonic) voice ....

The Leie inspired many artists:

https://www.euroart.eu/colonies/sint-martens-latem/

The Leie meanders through the flat countryside outside Ghent, passing through villages where once painters found plein air inspiration. locals called the Leie "the golden river" as it flows through the flax fieldds that made the province of West Flanders rich....

[pjme]

A real rarity (mono) from the VRT (formerly BRT/RTB) archives : Monsignor Jules Vyverman's  oratorio Pastor bonus . 

"Vyverman, who studied with eminent composers such as Jules Van Nuffel, Lodewijk Mortelmans, Flor Peeters and Marinus de Jong, was associated with the Lemmens Institute for almost his entire career, where he succeeded Van Nuffel as director in 1952. As a composer, Vyverman is best known as a composer of liturgical works, but this rediscovery of his oratorio Pastor bonus shows that he had much more to offer. This three-part oratorio shows Vyvermans' powerful inspiration and craftsmanship, which can also be heard in his psalms, and features a surprisingly opulent orchestration. In any case, this important historical document corrects the image of Vyvermans as a composer. An important find!
The performance by the Omroepsensembles of the INR conducted by Léonce Gras and the recording also sound surprisingly good! The work was broadcast on the radio in April 1960 - almost thirty years after it was composed - and was broadcast again on 23 May 1963. This historical recording (on lacquer plates) had ended up in the Archive and Museum for Flemish Cultural Life (the forerunner of the Letterenhuis in Antwerp) and then via various channels ended up again at the Omroep, where the recording was now retrieved and valued: an important piece of musical heritage!"

Music from a time when catholicism still stood central in the lives of most Belgo/flemish people....

Part 1

Part 2

[pjme]

The other composing Belgian monsignor....

[Roy Bland]

some unknown

[pjme]

Rhapsody for trumpet, trombone, brass and percussion.

Symphony nr 5

and much more here:

https://www.youtube.com/@Peter-Cabus

"Peter Cabus's personal style can be contextualized in the framework of twentieth-century modernism. He is a typical representative of neo-classicism, albeit with an eclectic style. Most of his works have been conceived with a sense of a balanced shape. In his symphonies and other big orchestral works he often falls back on the traditional forms of the sonata and the rondo. Also the many repetitions of themes and motifs in his work reveal his admiration for the great classics such as Beethoven and Mozart. His cherishing of stable values and his great respect for his predecessors is, according to his own views, connected to his Christian education. However, on the other hand Peter Cabus also shows a certain curiosity for the innovations of the twentieth century. Even though his music is fundamentally tonal, there are several passages in his work that have been developed in an atonal or dodecaphonic way."

[pjme]

A young(ish) and daring ensemble from Belgium:

https://terranovacollective.com/recordings-opnames

The Terra Nova Collective, with artistic director Vlad Weverbergh at the helm, was launched in Antwerp in 2012. The object of the new initiative was to generate interest in the many musical gems created by the composers of the Austrian Netherlands with particular attention for the repertoire of the classical and early romantic periods.

The intrinsic quality of these rediscovered works is revealed when they are performed in the context of more canonical pieces of the Western classical repertoire and gives audiences a chance to enjoy the remarkable diversity of European classical music in the second half of the 18 th and the early 19 th centuries.

[Brian]

Thread title has been altered to include more good music. 

[Roy Bland]

https://matrix-new-music.be/wp-content/uploads/Flemish_Symphonic_Music_since_1950_0-2.pdf

[pjme]

Lodewijk De Vocht: In exile - symphonic poem (1915)

De Vocht was one of the many Belgians who fled to the Netherlands at the start of WWI.

" Near the border the situation was chaotic.
The towns Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom, with populations of 16,700 and 15,500 respectively, each sought to accommodate 50,000 refugees. Dutch authorities tried to move the refugees away from border areas as quickly as possible. Throughout the Netherlands, hundreds of people – driven by voyeuristic curiosity and empathy – came to watch the refugees arrive.16 Rich refugees stayed in hotels and guesthouses, or rented rooms from private citizens, while poor refugees were housed in churches, army barracks, factories, monasteries, railway stations, and tents. On 10 October 1914, the Catholic national newspaperDe Tijd printed about thirty short articles, summing up heroic deeds and voicing support. Dutch people had, for instance, driven their carriages to the border to meet refugees – who had fallen by the wayside because of fatigue – and collected women and children. In Roosendaal, there was no more food by the end of the first day. Local authorities wired for help, whereupon the military provided bread. "

https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/article/exile-and-migration-the-netherlands/

[pjme]

[pjme]

A similar fluid, rhythmic quality can be recognised in his symphony (1958), in which the strings give the score a rhythmic dynamism, mostly through fugal entrances. This rhythmic continuity is also attained through a balanced concertante complementarity. The various voices pass rhythmic and melodic figures to each other effortlessly. In the Concerto for violin and 12 instruments (1945), Van de Woestijne organises almost the whole of the first movement, in sonata form, to the bourrée rhythm of a crotchet plus two quavers. The use of the harpsichord in this piece also stands out as a Baroque element (also used in Variations on a theme by L.B. Lataste, 1955, and of course in the Hommage à Purcell, 1974). With Van de Woestijne's fugal contrapuntal treatment, this harpsichord part could have been taken straight from the Well-tempered Clavier.

in 2014: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-26648316

https://matrix-new-music.be/en/publications/flemish-composers-database/van-de-woestijne-david/

[pjme]

[pjme]

https://www.musiwall.uliege.be/product/georges-antoine/

"How to compose in turmoil? What to write at the front or on the roads to exile? Why dance when so many others are suffering? The 14-18 collection offers a musical portrait of the years of the Great War by recording the "artistic" and "popular" music that emerged when all art seemed futile, but which, for the duration of a concert or an evening, could serve as a comfort to civilians and soldiers in Belgium and elsewhere.
The first volume of this new collection is devoted to the chamber music of Georges Antoine. The young and promising composer from Liège enlisted as a volunteer in August 1914. Sent to the front, his health deteriorated rapidly, and he was discharged in May 1915. He settled in Brittany, where he composed and organized concerts to benefit wounded soldiers and to aid the poor. In September 1918, still ill, he voluntarily returned to the front. Transferred to La Panne, his health deteriorated and he died in Bruges on November 15, 1918."

[Roy Bland]

[Roy Bland]

Perhaps i've asked previously:cd physical by Ostyn are available now?

https://matrix-new-music.be/en/publications/flemish-composers-database/ostyn-willy/