"Composer in Belgium – that is setting off fireworks in your own cellar", is a statement in which Paul Gilson (1865 – 1942) would certainly have found himself reflected. Vilified by the French-speakers, thwarted by the Brusselers and smothered with affection by the Flemish – behold the battlefield on which the "father of Belgian brass band music" had to hold his own.
That is the message of the first scholarly study on Gilson that has just been published. The book, edited by saxophonist Kurt Bertels, is the opening of a series on the artistic history of the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels. It offers a vivid picture of the spirit of the times that defined the work of this composer.
Paul Gilson was born in 1865 in Brussels but spent his youth in the rural Ruisbroek. His first acquaintance with music was based on the most important pillar of musical life in many Flemish villages at that time: the brass band. He was still a teenager when he wrote his first composition. Back in Brussels (1882) he was almost immediately struck by the melancholic energy of the Russian National school and the romantic work of Richard Wagner. When he attended a performance of Russian composers at the Brussels Concerts Populaires in 1887, he was blown away. A period of intensive correspondence with César Cui, Milly Balakirev, Nikolaj Rimsky-Korsakov, Alexander Borodin and Modest Moussorgsky followed. He had much to thank to the mediation of Countess Louis de Mercy-Argenteau, mistress of Franz Liszt. It is thanks to Gilson that pianist/composer Alexander Scriabin gave a concert in Brussels, which put Belgium on the map as the country that brought Russian music to the West.
And the celebration was just beginning. As a largely self-taught composer, he unexpectedly received the Premier Grand Prix de Rome in 1889 for his cantata Sinaï. And three years later, with the symphonic cycle La Mer he launched a promising career with operas, ballets, orchestral works (including brass band and fanfare), musical theatre, cantatas and oratorios. He also wrote the first saxophone concerto in history.
But shortly after his launch, he came under fire from the French-language music press, which could not accept his choice of texts and felt that his work was too far removed from the "clarté et simplicité" dictated by musical Paris. Conversely, he was embraced by the Flemish press and with that the nationalist fires spread quickly. Composing shifted somewhat into the background and Gilson avoided public opinion by devoting more time to writing a handbook on harmony and teaching. He was also intermittently inspector of Flemish and Belgian music schools.
Saxophone
Interesting is the depiction of Gilson's influence on the recognition of the saxophone as a solo instrument in a classical orchestral setting. In Gilson's time, the saxophone was still a brutal and revolutionary instrument that only received official permission from French King Louis Philippe in 1845 to become part of military music bands. The permission came after the established woodwind and brass orchestra of the Gymnase musicale music academy and the orchestra equipped with saxophones under the direction of Adolphe Sax fought a real musical duel at the Parisian Champ de Mars. Hector Berlioz later wrote: "The difference in sound, in fullness and in evenness of all tones compared to the thin sound of the other band was immediately apparent." Sax had won.The use of the saxophone was later further emancipated thanks to the efforts of Elise Boyer Hall (1853-1924), who took up the saxophone on doctor's orders (against deafness) and grew into a celebrated soloist in the classical repertoire in the United States. Her career caused quite a stir in puritanical Europe because women there were hardly allowed to play instruments other than piano or harpsichord for reasons of propriety.
Gilson ultimately wrote 300 works for brass band, ranging from simple tunes to concertante symphonic works (10), of which three are for saxophone. The preference for brass band was no accident in 19th-century Belgium. Besides the Symphony Orchestra of De Munt (1772), which for a long time only played from April to October, there was only one other symphony orchestra, the Royal Military Band of the Guides (1832). By contrast, there were around 1,800 brass bands and fanfares active in Belgium. Moreover, new instruments became relevant such as the cornet, bass tuba and saxhorns. It was also striking that with the repertoire choices of the fanfares, there was a clear choice for music that could be called contemporary at the time. That could serve as inspiration for today's programmers.
WHAT: Paul Gilson, A Brussels Composer of the World
WHO: Kurt Bertels (ed.)
PUBLICATION: ASP Publishing, 2023 (ISBN: 9789461173973)
URL: www.aspeditions.be