De Sutter, Jules-Toussaint

Karolien Selhorst after Luc Leytens (translation: Jo Sneppe)

Jules Toussaint De Sutter - Toussaint was his second Christian name - was during his lifetime one of the most respected composers in the country, "one of the great figures of our contemporary national movement in music" (Karel de Schrijver). To Belgian standards his career took a splendid course. He could boast of many successes and was asked for the highest positions.

Already as a student at the Royal Conservatory of Music in his native town of Ghent, De Sutter was generally considered as a very promising talent. He collected quite a few first prizes, for piano amongst others. He was taught composition by the then director Emile Mathieu and by Paul Lebrun, the favourite of the predominantly francophone Ghent bourgeoisie, to which De Sutter himself belonged.

His name was noted for the first time in 1913 when he won a second Prix de Rome with his cantata Les Fiancés de Noël (The Christmas Fiancés). Assumedly he would obtain the first prize at the next session, but then the war broke out. He stayed for a while in England (where he married), and in 1917 found himself as a cannoneer at the Yser front. In 1918 he was appointed as second (and later first) conductor of the Symphonic Orchestra of the Belgian Field Army. This orchestra was disbanded in 1919 and that year De Sutter was able to compete for the Prix de Rome again. He won with flying colours, with the cantata Thyl Ulenspiegel banni (Thyl Ulenspiegel Banned). As a laureate he had the privilege to undertake study trips to Italy, France and Germany. Still the same year he was appointed as director of the Municipal Music Academy of Ostend. In that period he went to Cologne to be trained by Hermann Abendroth with a view to becoming a fully accomplished orchestral conductor.

In Ostend De Sutter developed extraordinarily great activity. He managed to enliven and expand the academy. In 1926 the school was allowed henceforth to bear the title of Municipal Conservatory. He became conductor in the Kursaal, beside his friend François Rasse. There he conducted the Concerts of the Conservatory as well. He was noted for the assiduity with which he included Belgian music in his concerts: oratorios and cantatas of composers such as César Franck, Peter Benoit, Edgar Tinel and Joseph Ryelandt.

Yet De Sutter mostly made a name for himself as a composer, amongst others with a Symphony in D major, op. 28 (1921), the symphonic poem Ivan Tchernovitsch (1922), the symphonic elegy Sur la Mort d'un Enfant (1922), in memory of his little son, the oratorio Vlaanderen (Flanders, 1927) or the lyrical poem Tsilla (1929).

In 1936 his appointment as director of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Ghent ensued, along with the conductorship of the Conservatory concerts, as was customary. In both functions he succeeded Martin Lunssens, whose classical and solid programming policy he carried on, thereby often inviting famous celebrities as soloists. While Lunssens had shown an obvious predilection for Wagner, De Sutter's taste rather went in the direction of the French (like Saint-Saëns and d'Indy) as well as the Russians. Remarkable highlights through the years were also titles such as Le Roi David of Arthur Honegger, Mathis der Maler of Paul Hindemith and even the Ninth Symphony of Dimitri Shostakovich.

Important works from the Ghent period were the symphonic poem Roland (1937), the Symfonische Variaties (Symphonic Variations, 1941), the overture Artevelde (1945) and the symphonic poem Fête (1951). The opera Maya (1950), on a French libretto by the Brussels opera singer Laurent Swolfs was created in the Ghent opera under his personal baton on 19 January 1951, yet it only got three performances.

In 1953 a heart condition forced De Sutter to pass on the baton to guest conductors. The following year he reached retirement age and became honorary director. He completed one more work, the Piano Concerto. In 1959 he was killed in the Fréjus dam breach disaster in France, where he was on holiday.

Very few of De Sutter's compositions have been published. The manuscripts are kept in the library of the Ghent Conservatory. In addition to the above-mentioned major works he also left behind a Lamento for cello and orchestra, stage music, chamber music (amongst others a violin sonata and two string quartets), piano and organ pieces, choral works and plenty of songs, both on Dutch and on French texts.

All of his contemporaries praised his craftsmanship and the delicate care he took of his works. Stylistically his oeuvre is situated on the borderline of late romanticism and impressionism. Some critics thought they detected in him a "Flemish" temperament, as a rule meaning a certain exuberance and sense of colour, yet concurrently they indicated as a characteristic his power of control, not to say stringency. For our judgment, however, we mainly have to rely upon the opinion of his contemporaries, as only extremely rarely do we still hear anything of this composer, and even so mostly old radio recordings at that. If we want a more solid ground for our opinion we should be able to study the scores and above all hear his music repeatedly and ideally in diverse interpretations.

In conclusion: Jules Toussaint de Sutter was undoubtedly an important pedagogue, and not just as director of institutions for music education. Already in his Ostend period he organised concerts for young people, according to some sources even having pioneered such an initiative in Belgium. In Ghent he took over the instructive concerts set up by Martin Lunssens. When Marcel Cuvelier wanted to propagate all over the country the 'Jeunesses Musicales' founded in Brussels in 1940, De Sutter was the first one he contacted to this end. That was in 1942, so in fact still during the war, by this name 'Muzikale Jeugd van Gent' (Musical Youngsters of Ghent) became the first branch to be organised outside the capital. Until 1953 De Sutter conducted all major concerts of 'Jeugd en Muziek' (Youngsters and Music), leading the Conservatory orchestra of Ghent.