Vandermeulen, Jozef

Jan Dewilde (translation: Joris Duytschaever)

Vandermeulen studied at he Royal Conservatory of Ghent, where Karel Miry and Adolphe Samuel were prominent among his teachers. He earned first prizes for viola (1887), harmony and counterpoint (1888) and fugue (1889), and studied composition with Samuel to boot. Three times he competed for the Prix de Rome and each time he was successful: in 1891 with an honourable mention for Andromède, in 1893 with a second prize for Lady Macbeth, and in 1897 again with a second prize for Comala. During these years he was in touch with Peter Benoit, who encouraged him. In 1896 he was appointed at the Conservatory of Ghent, first as assistant for solfège, in 1919 as adjunct teacher and in 1921 as full teacher of harmony.

Vandermeulen, whose roots were proletarian, was going to remain active in the socialist movement throughout his career. He became conductor of several socialist music societies, such as the brass band ‘Vooruit’ in 1892. He supported the socialist movement with many occasional works, among them marches, choral works, songs, cantatas and lyrical dramas such as Voor ’t volk geofferd (Sacrificed for the People), about the life of Emiel Moyson, on a text by Johan Lefèvre, a socialist and a Flemish militant as well.

Together with Florimond Van Duyse he started in Ghent a series of evenings with songs for the people. Furthermore he enabled workers to familiarize themselves with music by Ludwig van Beethoven and Richard Wagner. He devoted several articles to Wagner: Biography of Richard Wagner and Analysis of “Tannhäuser” (1897) and Richard Wagner as a Revolutionary (1913). For the newspaper Vooruit he also wrote music reviews to boot.

He combined his socialist commitment with a radical Flemish conviction. Commissioned by the Belgian Workers’ Party in 1902 he composed a cantata Op de Groeninghekouter (about the Battle of the Golden Spurs of 1302). The text by Léonce du Castillon linked the victory of the medieval guilds over feudalism with the workers’ struggle.

Vandermeulen was also active in the field of music theatre. He composed several lyrical dramas and operas, among them Liva (1902), Le dolmen and De Vlasgaard. The latter opera, based on a libretto by René de Clercq and Alfons Stevens, was premiered on 8 October 1905 in Ghent under the baton of Oscar Roels.