Paul Gilson
Paul Gilson ( born June 15, 1865 in Brussels, † April 3, 1942 ) was a Belgian composer.
Life
1866 pulled the parental family from Brussels to Ruisbroeck in Brussels countryside. There he received as a young boy his first music lessons in piano and some harmony from the monastery organist, conductor of the church choir and the local Fanfare Orchestra Auguste Cantillon. Starting around 1880, he wrote also his first works for choir or Concert Band. This proximity to the choir and the band he has subsequently maintained as a composer, and it is also noticeable in his symphonic works. Commonly it is referred to as the father of Belgian brass band music, since he composed sophisticated works for this medium.
He completed his studies at the conservatory in Brussels in François Auguste Gevaert (1828-1908) and composition with Charles Duyck harmony and counterpoint. In 1889 he was winner of the Prix de Rome with his cantata Sinai.
In Brussels concert life he has, on the one know the operas of Richard Wagner and the other is the colorful orchestral playing in the works of composers of the so-called Russian National School ( Nikolai Rimsky -Korsakov, Alexander Glazunov and Alexander Scriabin ) and appreciate. With César Cui (1835-1918) and the music publisher Mitrofan Belyayev (1836-1904) he used an intensive correspondence. The three composers mentioned above he visited all.
From 1899 to 1904 he was professor of harmony at the Conservatory in Brussels and until 1906 at the Conservatory in Antwerp. In 1909 he was appointed by the Ministry of Education inspector for the general music classes in Belgium. He held this position until 1930.
In 1924 he founded together with Marcel Poot ( 1901-1988 ) and Maurice Schoemaker ( 1890-1964 ), the magazine La Revue Musicale Belge. Until the last issue of this magazine in December 1939, he was editor in chief.
He was the spiritual father of the group Les Synthétistes in which he brought together former students, to incorporate with combined strengths of the everyday music sound contemporary works. Even if the individual members of this group ( René Bernier, Francis de Bourguignon, Théo de Joncker, Marcel Poot, Maurice Schoemaker, Jules Strens and Robert Otlet ) each and with different intensity did not reach the big goal, but they were all the rage.
As a composer, he is one of the most famous Belgians. His oeuvre includes more than 100 symphonic works. Among connoisseurs, he is considered the heart of the romantic symphonic music tradition in Belgium. Width poetry, thematic thinking and, above all, a remarkable mastery of orchestral hues characterize his oeuvre.