Mortelmans, Ivo

Jan Dewilde (translation: Jo Sneppe)

As the second son of the composer Lodewijk Mortelmans, right from childhood he showed great interest in the arts in general and music in particular. His first music education was given to him not by his father but by Karel Weymans. It was also against his father's liking that it was only at the age of eighteen, after World War One, that he started systematic music training. He studied at the Antwerp Royal Flemish Conservatory with Deschacht (solfège), Edward Verheyden (harmony) and Arthur De Hovre (organ). He completed the counterpoint course at the Brussels Conservatory with Paulin Marchand and Raymond Moulaert. Furthermore he took private lessons from Paul Gilson for fugue, theory of musical forms and orchestration.

His professional career was mostly oriented towards the pedagogics of music. He was a teacher in secondary schools, at the music schools of Berchem, Mortsel and Deurne and at the Antwerp Conservatory (solfège and the higher harmony course). During the first half of the 1930s he had also for some time been acting director of the Eindhoven municipal music school, where he conducted the local operetta and opera society as well. In addition, as a conductor he led various companies such as the choir of the Antwerp Saint-George's church and the choir of the Royal Flemish Opera, but also fanfares and brass bands.

Mortelmans was affiliated with the Flemish National Choral Society (from 1937 on) and the Greater Antwerp Singing Evenings. Because during the war he continued to co-operate with these organisations, he was consequently suspended from his office for fifteen months. One of his first great compositions after the war, the cantata Antwerpens Glorie (Glory of Antwerp) on a text by Anton Van de Velde, was taken off the bill after heavy protest from the United Antwerp War Veterans.

Ivo Mortelmans's first compositions were piano pieces, showing the influence of Debussy and Ravel, as well as motets and songs. This was the beginning of a vast oeuvre that for the greater part remained unpublished and unperformed. He mainly composed vocal music, among which some remarkable choral music for female choirs (with accompaniment) on texts by the mystic Hadewijch, the fairy opera De krekel en de mier (The cricket and the ant) and children's cantatas, as well as numerous songs and liturgical music. The NIR orchestra recorded some of his symphonic works, such as Lentehymne (Spring Hymn), Paasnocturne (Easter Nocturne), Kerstballade (Christmas Ballad) and the symphonic suite Het dorp (The Village), which was created in 1939 with Franz André conducting. His idiom is late romantic with some impressionistic influences.

From 1934 to 1944 Ivo Mortelmans also wrote concert reviews for the daily newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen.