Gevaert, François Auguste
Gevaert, François Auguste
Gevaert, François Auguste, eminent Belgian musicologist and composer; b. Huysse, near Audenarde, July 31, 1828; d. Brussels, Dec. 24, 1908. He was a pupil of De Somere (piano) and Mengal (composition) at the Ghent Cons. (1841-47), taking the Grand Prix de Rome for composition; from 1843 he was also organist at the Jesuit church. He lived in Paris (1849-50), and was commissioned to write an opera for the TheatreLyrique. He then spent a year in Spain, his Fantasia sobre motives espanoles winning him the Order of Isabella la Catolica. After visits to Italy and Germany, he returned to Ghent in 1852 and brought out 9 operas in quick succession. In 1857 his festival cantata De nationale verjaerdag won him the Order of Leopold. From 1867 to 1870 he was music director at the Paris Opera, and from 1871 director of the Brussels Cons., succeeding Fetis. As conductor of the “Concerts du Conservatoire,” he exerted a far-reaching influence through his historical concerts, producing works of all nations and periods. In 1873 he was elected a member of the Academy, succeeding Mercadante. In 1907 he was made a baron. In addition to his books, he ed. Les Gloires de I’ltalie (a collection of vocal numbers from operas, oratorios, cantatas, etc., of the 17th and 18th centuries), Recueil de chansons du XVe siecle (transcribed in modern notation), and Vademecum de I’organiste (classic transcriptions).
Works
12 operas; 8 cantatas; a Missa pro defunctis and Super flumina Babylonis (both for Men’s Chorus and Orch.); overture, Flandre au lion; ballads (Philipp van Artevelde, etc.); songs (many in the collection Nederlandsche Zangstukken).
Writings
Leerboek van den Gregoriaenschen Zang (1856); Traité d’instrumentation (1863; rev. and enl. as Nouveau traité de I’instrumentation, 1885; Ger. tr. By Riemann, 1887; Span. tr. by Neuparth, 1896; Russ. tr. by Rebikov, 1899); Histoire et théorie de la musicjue de I’antiquité (2 vols., 1875,1881); Les Origines du chant liturgique de I’église latine (1890; Ger. tr. by Riemann); Cours methodique d’orchestration (2 vols., 1890; complement of Nouveau traite); La Melopee antique dans I’eglise latine (1895); Les Problemes musicaux d’Aristote (3 vols., 1899-1902); Traite d’harmonie theorique et pratique (2 vols., 1905, 1907).
Bibliography
F. Dufour, Le Baron F.A. G. (Brussels, 1909); E. Closson, G. (Brussels, 1928).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire