Van der Straeten, Edmond
Van der Straeten, Edmond
Van der Straeten, Edmond, Belgian music historian; b. Audenarde, Dec. 3, 1826; d. there, Nov. 26, 1895. He studied philosophy in Ghent, then went to Brussels in 1857 as secretary to Fétis, with whom he studied counterpoint. He held a lifelong position at the Royal Library, and rarely left Belgium. He was active as a music critic (1859-72), and also wrote an opera, Le Proscrit. His reputation rests upon his scholarly publications, dealing with music in the Low Countries. He publ. a monumental work of reference, La Musique au Pays-Bas avant le XIXesiècle (8 vols., 1867-88); other writings are Coup d’oeil sur la musique actuelle à Audenarde (1851), Notice sur Charles-Félix de Hollande (1854), Notice sur les carillons d’Audenarde (1855), Recherches sur la musique à Audenarde avant le XIXesiècle (1856), Examen des chants populaires des Flamands de France, publiés par E. de Coussemaker (1858), J.-F.-J. Janssens (1866), Wagner: Verslag aan den heer minister van binnenlandsche Zaaken (1871), Le Théâtre villageois en Flandre (2 vols., 1874,1880), Les Musiciens belges en Italie (1875), Voltaire musicien(1878), Les Ballets des rois en Flandre; Xylographie, musique, coutumes, etc.(1892), Charles V musicien (1894), and Les Willems, luthiers gantois du XVIIesiècle (1896; with C. Snoeck).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire