March 2011 - World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles

FOCUS ON HISTORY
Jean Absil and the Wind Band
by Francis Pieters
No doubt, Jean Absil (1893–1974) was
one of the great characters of the Belgian
music scene in the twentieth century. Unfortunately,
Belgium is a small country and
Absil did not really break through on the
international scene. Yet his output was
rather vast, including five symphonies, three
piano concertos, two violin concertos, an
opera and a lot of orchestral and chamber
music. He also set his stamp on the Belgian
Wind Band music and certainly deserves to
be brought to your notice.
Jean Absil was born on October 23, 1893
at Bonsecours, a hamlet of the municipality
of Péruwelz in the Province of Hainaut in
Belgium, close to the French border. At the
age of seven, he
got his first music
lessons from his
father, sexton at
the local basilica
church 1 . Sometime
later, he studied
with the organist
of the basilica and
conductor of the
local Wind Band
“Royale Fanfare
Communale”,
Absil as a young man.
Alphonse Van
Oeyen, a pupil of Edgar Tinel 2 . While
studying harmony and learning to play the
piano with Van Oeyen, young Absil also
learned to play the flugelhorn and soon
joined the local Fanfare Band at the desk of
the third flugelhorn players 3 . As a compensation
for the lessons he got from Van
Oeyen, Jean Absil, aged 15 at that time, had
to teach solfeggio to the members of the
Wind Band. At the band rehearsals, he never
hesitated to replace absent musicians, as he
also managed to play the trumpet, the
French horn or the baritone horn reasonably
well. All his life, Absil remained proud of
those capacities and when, twelve years later
in 1920, he submitted his first symphonic
endeavors to his teacher Paul Gilson, the
latter remarked: “You have played in a
Wind Band as I immediately noticed when I
read the brass parts.” When he was 20 years
old, Jean Absil applied to be admitted at the
Royal Brussels Conservatory of Music and
though the director Léon Dubois judged him
too young, he was luckily admitted by intercession.
He studied the organ with Alphonse
Desmet, the piano with Raymond Moulaert
and harmony with Edouard Samuel and
Martin Lunssens. In 1915, during World War
I, he went weekly on foot to Brussels,
walking 50 kilometers (33 miles) spread over
three days. In the end, he was obliged to
settle in the capital. In the meantime, he had
obtained first prizes for organ and harmony.
In order to earn a living, Absil played the
piano and the harmonium in several caférestaurants
and cinemas at Brussels and
continued to study. Still during the war, he
obtained first prizes for counterpoint and
fugue. After the war he went to study
composition and orchestration with the
composer Paul Gilson, commonly called
“The Father of Belgian Wind Band Music” 4 .
No wonder that, through his contacts with
Gilson, Absil also got a real weakness for
Wind Bands. Though, whereas Gilson clearly
preferred the Fanfare Band, Jean Absil
resolutely opted for the Symphonic Band
(orchestre d’harmonie). In 1921, Jean Absil
was awarded the Second ‘Grand Prix de
Rome’ for his cantata La Guerre (The War),
based on a text by Valère Gilles. This prize
allowed him to become director of the
music academy of Etterbeek (Brussels), one
year later. In 1930 he was appointed
professor of practical harmony at the Royal
Brussels Conservatory of Music and for
many years he educated numerous gifted
pupils, including several talented composers
such as Jacques Leduc 5 and Victor Legley
(cf. footnote 12). In late 1934, Absil was
awarded the ‘Rubens Prize’ for his entire
musical production. With the prize money
Absil went to Paris in early 1935 and met,
among others, the French composer Florent
Schmitt with whom he became friends. This
meeting deeply influenced Absil’s future and
gave him more self confidence. Back in his
home country, Absil brought together
several young composers (René Bernier,
Raymond Chevreuille, Charles Hens, Albert
Huybrechts, Marcel Poot, Maurice Schoemaker,
André Souris and Jef Van Durme) and
established an association called “La Sirène”
which aimed at the promotion of contemporary
music and tried to organize concerts
both in Belgium and abroad. This association
subsisted until 1938 and its periodical
“Syrinx” until one year later. In 1937 Absil
published “Postulats de la Musique
Contemporaine” (Postulates of contemporary
music), prefaced by Darius Milhaud,
and one year later, in 1938, he created the
“Revue Internationale de Musique” which
was published until 1940. It was his first
“Piano Concerto” opus 30, written for the
Ysaÿe competition 6 that helped Absil to gain
some international notice in 1938 7 . In 1939
he was invited to teach fugue at the Royal
Brussels Conservatory of Music and, that
very same year, Queen (mother) Elisabeth
asked him to teach counterpoint and fugue
at the newly founded “Chapelle Reine
Elisabeth” 8 . In 1945, Jean Absil became the
very first manager and president of SABAM,
the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers
and Publishers. His major concern was to get
affiliated all French speaking authors and
composers of the country, as up to that time
they had been members of the SACEM, the
French Society of Authors, Composers and
Publishers. The job was rather fastidious and
finally Absil resigned in May 1948. He had
done a great job and, in the end, Belgium
got a fine composer back. Indeed, Absil
developed a quite personal style and his
enormous creative power resulted in a huge
output. He denied several of his early works
though many turned out to be very interesting.
He composed five symphonies,
numerous orchestral pieces, concertos, piano
music, chamber music and also a lot of vocal
music. For over 40 years he was director of
the Etterbeek Music Academy which was
named after him “Jean Absil Music
Academy” in 1963. He was awarded the
20 WASBE World