Lodewijk Mortelmans was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 composer and conductor of Flemish

Flanders

Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 ancestry. He was from a family of five children born to Isabella and Charles Mortelmans. Mortelmans' father was a printer, and his elder brother Frans a painter.

Mortelmans studied music at the Royal Flemish Conservatory in Antwerp, where his teachers included Peter Benoit, Joseph Tilborghs, and Jan Blockx

Jan Blockx

Jan Blockx was a Belgian composer, pianist and teacher. He was a leader of the Flemish nationalist school in music.-Biography:...

, as well as Arthur De Greef

Arthur De Greef

Arthur De Greef was a Belgian pianist and composer.Born in Louvain, he won first prize in a local music composition when he was only 11, and subsequently enrolled at the Brussels Conservatoire...

 (piano) and Hubert Ferdinand Kufferath (counterpoint). In 1893, he was a winner of the Belgian Prix de Rome

Prix de Rome (Belgium)

The Belgian Prix de Rome is an award for young artists, created in 1832, following the example of the original French Prix de Rome. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp organised the prize until 1920, when the national government took over. The first prize is also sometimes called the Grand Prix...

 with his cantata Lady Macbeth. Both Mortelmans and his brother were members of the arts group De Scalden. Mortelmans was also affiliated with the arts groups Studie and De Kapel, and the arts journal Van Nu en Straks.

From 1901, Mortelmans taught counterpoint and fugue at the Royal Flemish Conservatory, and became its director on 6 September 1924. He retired from the post in 1933. His students included Lodewijk De Vocht, Marinus De Jong and Flor Peeters

Flor Peeters

Flor Peeters was a Flemish composer, organist and teacher.-Biography:Born and raised in the village of Tielen , he was the youngest child in a family of eleven...

.

In 1903, with financial support from the patron François Franck, Mortelmans founded the Maatschappij der Nieuwe Concerten ("Society of New Concerts") in Antwerp, which attracted notable guest conductors and artists such as Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler

Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...

, Siegfried Wagner

Siegfried Wagner

Siegfried Wagner was a German composer and conductor, the son of Richard Wagner. He was an opera composer and the artistic director of the Bayreuth Festival from 1908 to 1930.-Life:...

, Hans Richter

Hans Richter (conductor)

Hans Richter was an Austrian orchestral and operatic conductor.-Biography:Richter was born in Raab , Kingdom of Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother was opera-singer Jozsefa Csazenszky. He studied at the Vienna Conservatory...

, Richard Strauss

Richard Strauss

Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...

, Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...

, Pablo de Sarasate

Pablo de Sarasate

Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.-Career:Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster...

, Jacques Thibaud

Jacques Thibaud

Jacques Thibaud was a French violinist.Thibaud was born in Bordeaux and studied the violin with his father before entering the Paris Conservatoire at the age of thirteen. In 1896 he jointly won the conservatory's violin prize with Pierre Monteux...

, Pablo Casals

Pablo Casals

Pau Casals i Defilló , known during his professional career as Pablo Casals, was a Spanish Catalan cellist and conductor. He is generally regarded as the pre-eminent cellist of the first half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest cellists of all time...

, and Fritz Kreisler

Fritz Kreisler

Friedrich "Fritz" Kreisler was an Austrian-born violinist and composer. One of the most famous violin masters of his or any other day, he was known for his sweet tone and expressive phrasing. Like many great violinists of his generation, he produced a characteristic sound which was immediately...

. Mortelmans was also a founder of the organisation NAVEA, which is now SABAM (Société d'Auteurs Belge - Belgische Auteurs Maatschappij). He also helped to found the Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe

Eugène Ysaÿe was a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor born in Liège. He was regarded as "The King of the Violin", or, as Nathan Milstein put it, the "tzar"...

 Violin Competition, which later became the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition

Queen Elisabeth Music Competition

The Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, a founding member of the World Federation of International Music Competitions has been, since its foundation, considered the world over to be one of the most prestigious and most difficult. It is devoted to violin , piano , to composition and to singing...

.

Sometimes called de Vlaamse Brahms ("the Flemish Brahms"), Mortelmans composed in a number of forms, including piano music and orchestral works, but he was most celebrated in his day for his art songs. Beginning in 1899, he often set the poetry of the priest Guido Gezelle. His opera De Kinderen van Zee (The Children of the Sea) was first produced in 1920 at the Vlaamse Opera

Vlaamse Opera

The Vlaamse Opera ' is an opera company in Belgium directed by Aviel Cahn which operates in two different opera houses in two Flemish cities, the Vlaamse Opera Antwerpen at Van Ertbornstraat 8 and the Vlaamse Opera Ghent at Schouwburgstraat 3...

.

Mortelmans was married twice. He and his first wife had seven children. His first wife and two of his sons died in 1917. Mortelmans composed In Memoriam in her honour. His second wife was the pianist and teacher Gabriëlle Radoux.

Selected compositions

Opera

• De Kinderen van Zee (The Children of the Sea); libretto by Raphaël Verhulst

Orchestra

• Boertige optocht (1889)
• Lyrisch Gedicht, Symphonic Poem for chamber orchestra or string orchestra with harp (1893)
• Helios, Symphonic Poem (1894)
• Lente-Idylle (Spring Idyll), Symphonic Poem (1894)
• Mythe der Lente (Myth of Spring), Symphonic Poem (1895)
• Homerische Symphonie (Homeric Symphony) (1896)
• Hulde aan Peter Benoit (1897)
• De kinderen der zee (1901)
• Twee Landelijke Stukjes (1912)
• Bruiloftsmarsch (1917)
• Herdenking (In memoriam)
• Idyllische Naklank (Idyllic Reminiscence) for chamber orchestra (1919)
• Morgenstemming (Morning Mood), Symphonic Poem (1922)
• Treurdicht (1925)
• Avondlied for chamber orchestra (1928); also for piano
• Kindersuite (1928)
• Jubelmarsch (1930); also for band
• Evangelisch diptiek (1933)
• Mei (May), Symphonic Poem

Band

• Jubelmarsch (1930); also for orchestra

Concertante

• Lyrische Pastorale for horn and chamber orchestra (1910)
• Romanza for violin and orchestra (1935); original for violin and piano
• Gewijde Zang for violin and string orchestra (1943); also for violin and piano or organ

Chamber music

• Eenzame Herder (Berger solitaire) for woodwind quintet or septet (1920); also for piano
• Romanza for violin (or viola) and piano (1935); also for violin and orchestra
• Gewijde Zang for violin and piano or organ (1943); also for violin and string orchestra

Piano

• Primula veris (1891)
• Minuet varié (1916)
• 3 Elegies

1. In memoriam (1917)
2. Exaltation (1917)
3. Solitude (1919)
   • Marche Nuptiale (1917)
   • Lyrical Pieces
4. Idyllic Echoes (1919)
5. Two Little Pastorals (1912)
   • Impromptu (1918)
   • Melancholia (1919)
   • Memories (1919)
   • Opwelling (Élan) (1919)
   • Pastorale (1919)
   • Wals (Valse; Waltz) (1919)
   • Eenzame Herder (Berger solitaire) (1920); also for woodwind quintet
   • Stemmingsbeeld (Mood Picture) (1920)
   • Het wielewaalt en leeuwerkt (1921)
   • Drie kleine elegiën (Trois petites élégies) (1923)
   • Gemoedelijkheid (Pensée intime) (1923)
   • Avondlied (Chant du soir) (1928); also for chamber orchestra
   • Humoresk (Humoresque) (1928)
   • Kindersuite (Suite enfantine) (1928)
   • Impromptu (1929)
   • Intermezzo (1929)
   • Mazurka (1929)
   • Saïdjah's Lied (1929)
   • Miniaturen voor Klavier – deel I (1929)
   • Kinderwalsje (Valse enfantine) (1939)
   • Miniaturen voor Klavier – deel II (1942)
   • Miniaturen voor Klavier – deel III (1944)
   • Zevenentwintig oud-vlaamsche Volksliederen (27 Old Flemish Folk Songs)

Choral

• Ave Verum for mixed chorus a cappella (1901)
• Blijdschap (Joie) for female chorus and piano or orchestra (1926)
• Caecilia for mixed chorus a cappella (1921)
• De bloemen en de sterren for girls' chorus and orchestra (1887)
• De Merode cantate for mixed chorus, children's chorus and orchestra (1905)
• De Vlaamsche tale for chorus and orchestra (1900)
• Geeft mij eens dien dag for mixed chorus a cappella (1938)
• Gekwetst ben ik van binnen for male chorus a cappella (1921)
• Heer, mijn hert is boos en schuldig for mixed chorus a cappella (1938)
• Hendrik Conscience herdacht for mixed chorus and orchestra
• Het was een Maghet for mixed chorus a cappella
• Hoger als mijn oogen dragen for mixed chorus a cappella (1938)
• Houdt U fier for unison chorus and orchestra (or brass and percussion, or string orchestra with piano) (1889); also for voice and piano
• In Jesus' Name for mixed chorus a cappella
• Jagerskoor for male voices
• Jesu, wijs en wondermachtig for mixed chorus a cappella (1938)
• Jong Vlaanderen for children's chorus and orchestra (1907)
• Kindje, wat ben je toch zacht for girls' chorus and orchestra (1910)
• Klaar bloed en louter wonden for mixed chorus a cappella (1938)
• Koekoek for mixed chorus a cappella (1901); also for soprano and piano or orchestra
• Licht zij uw geest for male chorus a cappella (1890)
• Lofzang aan het vaderland for children's chorus and piano or orchestra (1901)
• Niet gedenken for mixed chorus a cappella (1938)
• Salve Regina for mixed chorus and orchestra (1895)
• Twee Coninckskinderen for male chorus a cappella (1921)
• Wierook for mixed chorus and piano (1900)

Selected songs

"Meisje met Uw Rozenmondje" ("Maiden with the Rosebud Mouth"; after Heine) "L'Ennemi" (after Baudelaire) "'t Is de Mandel" ("'Tis the Mandle", after Guido Gezelle) "'t Avondt" ("'Tis evening") "'t Groeit een blomken” (“A little flower grows”)

"'t Pardoent" ("The Angelus") "'k Hoore tuitend hoornen" ("I hear the horns blowing") "O mocht ik" ("O might I") "Hoe lentig" ("How merry") "Meidag" ("May day")

Sources

• Broeckx, Jan L., Lodewijk Mortelmans, een Van-Nu-en-Strakser der Muziek. Uitg. Standaard-Boekhandel, Antwerpen, 1945.

External links

• Lodewijk Mortelmans Flemish-language page
• English language page on Mortelmans (translated from the Flemish page)
• Muziekcentrum Vlaanderen Flemish-language page on Mortelmans
• Hyperion Records page on CDA67766