Van Duyse, Florimond

Jan Dewilde (translation: Joris Duytschaever)

Florimond Van Duyse, son of the poet Prudens van Duyse, after attending secondary education at a catholic school in Veurne and at a nondenominational school in Ghent, studied law at the state university of Ghent (earning his doctorate in 1867). Concurrently he secured first prizes in harmony (1859) and counterpoint (1862) with Karel Miry at the Conservatory in Ghent. In 1873 he competed for the Prix de Rome, earning a second prize with his cantata Torquato Tasso’s dood (Torquato Tasso’s Death).

Van Duyse was a career magistrate: in 1869 he became a barrister at the Court of Appeal in Ghent and from 1876 on he was a military judge in Antwerp, Mons and Ghent. As a military judge he worked hard for the recognition of the Dutch mother tongue in military jurisdiction. Thus he delivered a first remarkable closing speech in Dutch for a military tribunal in 1888. In 1899 he supported MP Juliaan Van Der Linden, who during the discussion about the military lawbook successfully submitted amendments concerning the use of Dutch in the military administration of criminal justice.

Van Duyse’s main significance lies in the domain of musicology. In the tradition of Jan F. Willems and Ferdinand A. Snellaert he collected, studied and published early Dutch folksongs. In contrast to Edmond de Coussemaker or Jan Bols he did not collect those songs from the horse’s mouth, but consulted existing sources. In his transcriptions to modern notation Van Duyse allowed himself to be led in the first place by the text with a view to reconstructing the original rhythm. He published musicological standard works of international quality with De melodie van het Nederlandsche lied en hare rytmische vormen (The melody of the song in the Low Countries and its rhythmical forms, 1902) and especially with the three-volume Het oude Nederlandse lied (The early song in the Low Countries, 1903-1908), commenting on all known sources and variants. Even so, his monograph Het eenstemmig Fransch en Nederlandsch wereldlijk lied in de Belgische gewesten (The French and Dutch secular song for one voice in the Belgian regions) was criticized in 1896 by Peter Benoit in his report for the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium because of its lack of attention for the ‘Vlaamsche Muziekschool’ in Antwerp, Benoit’s own baby. Van Duyse in turn maligned Benoit for being a rather inadequate director of this Conservatory, and defended Jan Blockx in his conflict with Benoit.

Nevertheless Benoit and Van Duyse collaborated closely in the ‘Comiteit ter bevordering van den Nederlandschen zang’ (Committee for the advancement of the Dutch song), an initiative of the Willems Fund. It was in the framework of this nondenominational cultural organization that Van Duyse organized song evenings in Ghent from 1898 on, earning great success in the whole of Flanders (from 1903 on under the label “Song evenings for the people”). Furthermore he supported the song movement with practical editions such as Het Nederlandsch liederboek (Dutch book of songs, for the Willems Fund) and Dit is een suverlick boecksken (for the David Fund, a catholic cultural organisation).

Van Duyse also composed some of the earliest Flemish Singspiele, such as the operetta Teniers in Grimbergen (libretto Prudens van Duyse, 1860) and the comic opera Rosalinde (text by Karel Versnaeyen, 1864). Furthermore he wrote suites for orchestra, choruses, cantatas, songs and adaptations of folksongs.