D'Hooghe, Bernardinus

Annelies Focquaert (translation: Jo Sneppe)

Scion of a musical family from the East-Flemish Waas region, Eduard Clemens (not to be confused with his nephew Clément) received his first solfège and clavier lessons from his father Frans, who was sexton-organist in Temse for 50 years and conductor of a church orchestra. D’Hooghe opted for the priesthood as a seminary student of the Franciscans in Tielt, assuming the name Bernardinus, and was ordained in 1885, upon which he carried out assignments in Tielt, Lokeren, Mechelen and Port-Saïd (Egypt). Returning from Egypt in 1916 his time management allowed him to devote himself more often to music. Thus in 1919 he made an appeal in journals like De Standaard under the heading Tot heropbloei van het liturgisch leven in onze verwoeste kerken (For the Revival of Liturgical Life in our Destroyed Churches) to purchase songbooks for the churches ruined during the war. As a musician he was an autodidact, but he was able to further develop his skills thanks to contacts with professional musicians such as Oscar Depuydt, Louis De Bondt, Jaak Opsomer, Arthur De Hovre, as well as his own family members and Father Didacus Van Geyseghem, also a Grey Friar. As a priest, however, his musical freedom of action was limited: no scope for attending concerts, let alone operas - though according to Lambrecht Lambrechts the musical performances he could experience during his stay in Manchester in the war years meant a “blessed manna rain on his rigid paths”. He was renowned as an excellent liturgical organ accompanist, three of his motets (O Sanctissima, Voce mea, Salve S. Pater) being selected for performance in Rome at the centenary celebration of St Francis in 1924. His compositional style, traditional and melodious, is a good match for the distinguished simplicity and accessibility cherished by the monastic order and labelled by the same Lambrechts as “seraphic and graceful in line and bloom”.

His unpublished works include Gezangen voor het H. Uur (Hymns for the Holy Hour); Cantuarium voor het Lof (Cantuarium for Benediction); Hymnarium Vespertinum; Kerstliederen (Christmas Carols, among them: In harde krib…/In a Hard Manger); Missa Carmelitana; Missa Christi Regis; Zeventig nieuwe Geestelijke Liederen (Seventy New Sacred Songs, with Father Didacus); Twaalf Volksliederen ter eere van den Heiligen Antonius van Padua (Twelve Popular Songs in Honour of Saint Anthony of Padua, 1912); contributions to the organ albums of Alfons Moortgat; the song anthology Heure Sainte; Franciscuslied and Schoon Vlaanderen (Lovely Flanders). Under the pseudonym Clemens Dehaut he also published a Zilveren bruiloft (Silver Wedding) introductory hymn and piano; as Nardicus several other sacred songs. In addition some sacred exercises were published, for example Het eucharistisch uur: twintig overwegingen en oefeningen voor het aanbiddingsuur (The Eucharistic Hour: Twenty Contemplations and Exercises for the Adoration Hour, 1924). A major part of his music has been preserved in the archives of the Friar Minor Order in Sint-Truiden.