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De Volder, Pieter Jan

° Antwerpen, 27/07/1767 — † Brussel, 27/06/1841

Jan Dewilde (translation: Jo Sneppe)

Pieter Jan De Volder is likely to have received his first music lessons from his father Pieter Jan De Volder Sr. (1737-1797). He studied the violin with the Antwerp violinist Jean-François Red(e)in (1748-1802) and already at age sixteen De Volder was violin soloist at Saint-James' Church in his native town. Later he succeeded his master Redin as the leader of the Antwerp French theatre orchestra. After his moving to Ghent (in 1794 or 1797) he held the same position there as well.

In December 1805 he started his own music school in Ghent. Seven years later he became the director of the music section of the 'Société des Beaux-Arts'. Even that same year, this art society founded an 'Académie de musique'. At the academy's opening concert on 26 October 1812 De Volder's Violin Concerto was performed along with a symphony of the Kortrijk (Courtrai) composer Caluwaert, a march of the Ghent composer Mengal and works of Mozart, Haydn and Sacchini. In 1816 he wrote the cantata Le triomphe des arts (on a text by P. Lebrocquy) for the prize-giving ceremony of the 'Société des Beaux-Arts'.

In London on 22 April 1825 the Italian violinist and conductor Paolo Spagnoletti conducted an orchestra of 180 musicians in a symphony by De Volder. In the same year another of his symphonies was performed at a concert of the 'Société de la Loyauté' in Brussels, with great success according to the Journal de Bruxelles: "It caused the most vivid sensation. I dare say indeed this symphony stands up to anything best we know in this genre. A year later, on 29 March 1826, his opera Le château de Lochleven had its premiere in Ghent.

De Volder's compositions include three symphonies (among them the programmatic symphonies La bataille d'Jena and La bataille de Waterloo), two violin concertos, a horn concerto, two concertant symphonies, fantasies for two orchestras, nine string quartets, sacred music (five choral Masses for four voices, hymns, motets and litanies) and the operas La jeunesse d'Henri IV and Le château de Lochleven.

Next to being a composer, a violinist and a music teacher, De Volder was an important organ builder as well. Presumably he had learned the craft from a Dutch organ manufacturer working in Antwerp. He invented a crescendo-decrescendo system of his own, on which he took out a patent. By means of a forte-piano step the organist was able to develop romantic crescendos and decrescendos. His system met with the approval of the professors of the Paris conservatory and at the 'Exposition d'industrie' in Ghent in 1820 he won a gold medal for this technique. De Volder built and restored some 150 organs in Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp amongst other cities.

He was also quite a good organ player himself. After having played the Saint-Gudule organ on 27 March 1817 on the occasion of the Prince of Orange's baptism, the Gazette des Pays-Bas wrote: "Mr De Volder of Ghent, member of the Royal Institute, has touched the organ as an accomplished artist.”

On 28 May 1816 he became a member of the Royal Academy of the Netherlands and in March 1822 King William appointed him as bandmaster of the Ghent University. Furthermore he was a member of several Dutch and Belgian societies.

Pieter Jan De Volder died in Brussels, where he had been living since 1831 or 1832, probably suffering from a heart disease. He left a son, Henri (1794-1864), who was also an organ builder. The latter's sons, Charles and Léon, in turn remained active as organ manufacturers.

Bibliografie

Anderen over deze componist

  • Fétis, F.: Volder (Pierre Jean de), in: Biographie universelle des musiciens, Parijs,1865, p. 383-384.
  • Gregoir, E.: De Volder (Pierre-Jean), in: Galerie biographique des artistes-musiciens belges du XVIIIme et du XIXme siècle, Brussel, 1862, p. 56.
  • Gregoir, E.: De Volder (Pierre-Jean), in: Les artistes-musiciens belges au XVIIIme et au XIXme siècle, Brussel, 1885, p. 142-143.
  • Gregoir, E.: Historique de la facture et des facteurs d’orgues, Antwerpen, 1865, p. 92-99.
  • Thys, A.: Pierre-Jean De Volder, in: Historique des Sociétés Chorales de Belgique, Gent, 1855, p. 155.

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