Loockx, Philemon

Annelies Focquaert (translation: Joris Duytschaever)

Philemon(d) Loockx was a pianist, a composer, a conductor and a pedagogue. Despite his fertile career his name has become almost completely obsolete today. Due to his second cousin Marc Loockx, who compiled an extensive compendium of sources about him, and a biographical article by Guido De Bruyker, we are now in a position to put this composer more adequately into perspective.

Loockx was born in a simple and large family in Ledeberg (greater Ghent area). He was initiated into music by his father Victor, a mechanic who also played the piano. At age eleven Philemon enrolled at the music school in Ledeberg, where he was taught by composer and conductor Edward Blaes. From 1881 on he studied at the Conservatory in Ghent, earning a first prize of piano eight years later in the class of Max Heynderickx. Immediately after graduation he was appointed as monitor of the preparatory piano classes, keeping this position until 1894. In this period he taught young Lieven Duvosel. Concurrently he pursued advanced studies, earning first prizes of harmony (1891) and counterpoint (1892) in the class of Adolphe Samuel. Ernest Brengier was his fellow student. At age nineteen he was appointed as teacher at the music school of Ledeberg (1888-1898).

From the end of the 1890s he expanded his sphere of activity to Aalst, where he was mostly involved in private teaching (for example for pupils of the Jesuit secondary school, 1898-1913), combined with a job as a teacher of piano and of singing at the music school in Aalst from 1898 on. In this period he also took care of two Ledeberg-based choirs, ‘De Eendracht’ (1889-1894) and the Circle of Alumni (1896-1900); from 1901 on he conducted the choral society St Cecilia in Aalst. In 1908 he offered his services as a coach for the well-known male choir ‘Les Mélomanes’ in Gent, an offer that was eagerly accepted. When conductor Franz Uyttenhove resigned in 1909 Loockx became the first conductor. However, after barely one month Loockx himself resigned and was succeeded by his pupil Lieven Duvosel.

In 1908 Loockx became conductor of the choral division of the drama society ‘De Catharinisten’ in Aalst, working closely with associate conductors Gustaaf Pape and Karel De Mette, until Pape became his successor in 1912. With the different choirs that Loockx conducted he programmed not only work of his own (such as the cantatas Vlaanderen and Aan Aalst), but also performed Benoit’s De Leie (The Lys River) in 1912.

It was not until the end of the First World War that he managed to secure a niche that conveyed him more prestige and a better income: when in 1918 the music school of Gentbrugge and Ledeberg was founded, Loockx became its first director and taught piano there. His upward mobility was confirmed in 1920 when he became director of the music school in Aalst. He retired from both positions in 1934.

As a composer, too, he got more pride of place after the Great War, his great talent for the writing of songs and choral works being one of the decisive factors contributing to his increasing success. In 1924 his folksong De taal der Minne (The Language of Love) earned the first prize in a competition organized by the society ‘De Kunstvrienden’ (The Art Lovers) in Brussels, with a jury consisting of Lunssens, Van Nieuwenhove and Wilford.

Lambrecht Lambrechts took advantage of this opportunity to devote a leading article to this "meritorious, but all too modest musician" in the May 1925 issue of Muziek-Warande. Lambrechts, who knew Loockx intimately, writes: "Loockx has a reputation for being an artist right down to his finger tips, his impeccable work habits are a claim to fame as well, he is an epitome of vigorous health and enjoys the esteem of all his colleagues, who often show up in crowds for his recitals as a piano virtuoso." But on the other hand: "Unfortunately, private tutoring, also at home, has been draining for years Loockx’s energy, leaving him no choice but to burn his midnight oil for the purposes of composing and of maintaining his skills as a piano virtuoso. This dilemma is one of the greatest grieves in his life."

Lambrechts complained about the fact that so few of Loockx’s works were published, and this paucity has of course not been remedied so many years after his death. Probably Loockx composed about 70 works, but the published scores are very few and far between. In 1922 he published Grondbeginselen der Toonkunst (Basics of Music) and some methodological introductions to solfège and piano playing. But apart from that only a few songs were published. What’s more, his children’s cantata De Macht van ’t Lied (The Power of Song), performed on 3 July 1921 in Aalst, his successful ‘art song’ Aan Zee (At the Beach), his Allegro for string quartet, his sonata for violin and piano or his cantatas: all of them were lost or have failed to surface again. Therefore it is difficult to take stock of his merits as a composer.

Lambrechts concluded his article in 1925 with a hopeful note: "He has not yet delivered what we can reasonably expect from him, not even a tenth of it. He only has to will, and Flanders will be stunned by him, listen to him with fascination, acclaim him widely. What Loockx needs first and foremost, is time and encouragement. If the first prerequisite can perhaps be partially fulfilled in free vacation days, the second one is very rare in Belgium indeed, particularly in backward Flanders. What is needed now as an enabling condition is the appearance of a publisher with basic trust in Loockx’s Muse (…), while concurrently commissioning him with a series of new compositions (…).”

This optimism turned out to be unwarranted, as Loockx failed to galvanize himself into action. Likewise no publisher materialized. And after the Second World War Flemish music took another turn, losing interest in playing the works of Loockx and of so many other composers that were considered passé.