François-Auguste Gevaert

François- Auguste Gevaert ( born July 30, 1828 in Huise, † December 24, 1908 in Brussels) was a Belgian composer and writer on music.

Life

Gevaert, son of a baker, studied at Martin -Joseph Mengal the director of the Conservatory of Ghent, harmony and counterpoint. 1847 awarded him the Royal Conservatory of Brussels 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, his career as a composer in preparation, the works of Mozart and Gluck.

After he had previously been placed in the three-act opera Ghent Hugues de Zonnerghem and the one-act comic opera Comédie à la Ville for Performance, in 1849, he joined a trip, which took him from Paris to Italy, France, Spain and Germany, which he 1853 settled in Paris. Here he first brought the comic operetta Georgette, then 1854, the three-act, through excellent wealth of melody and solid work opera Le Billet de Marguerite with great applause on the stage. Later followed 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 in 1867 appointed music director of the Paris Opera, a post that had been vacant for years. Due to the turmoil of the Franco-German War of 1870 he left Paris, but return with the intention after the end of hostilities.

In the meantime died François -Joseph Fétis and Gevaert was director of the Conservatory in Brussels. Here he expanded the subjects offered and was famous musicians such as Henri Vieuxtemps, Eugène Ysaÿe, Edgar Tinel, Paul Gilson and Arthur De Greef involved. Through his energetic action, he managed to increase the educational level significantly. He founded, which consists of teachers and the best students " Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire " with which he. Works by Bach and Handel, that were at this time in Belgium still completely unknown, but aufführte works by Gluck, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven Works by well-known contemporary composers such as Wagner, Franck, Grieg and Brahms came only gradually, after their death to the performance.

As a music theorist wrote a Traité général d' instrumentation Gevaert (1864 ), which was translated into Russian into German by Tchaikovsky by Hugo Riemann. He also published the rate d'harmonie, théorique et pratique (1907 ) and in addition to some smaller fonts a Histoire et Théorie de la Musique de l' Antiquité.

Towards the end of his life, the Belgian King appointed him Baron. On this occasion, the king ordered him the Congolese national song " Vers l' avenir ". For Christmas 1908 Gevaert composed a Great Christmas fair, but he died on Christmas Eve, the day before the performance.

Works (selection)

• Te Deum (1843 )
• Fantasia sobre motivos españoles ( 1850)
• Requiem (1853 )
• Quartet for clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano

Secular cantatas

• België ( 1847)
• Le roi Lear (1847 )
• Évocation patriotique (1856 )
• De nationale verjaerdag ( 1857)
• Le retour de l' armée (1859 )
• Jacob van Arte Velde (1864 )