Jan Blockx

Jan Blockx was a Belgian composer, pianist and teacher. He was a leader of the Flemish nationalist school in music.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Jan Blockx.

From the period sources

Jan Blockx, a distinguished Belgian pianist and composer, was a prominent figure in the “mouvement flamingant,” a group of musicians endeavoring to give Flemish art a national character, and was considered “the most brilliant of them all” by Grove’s Dictionary (1922). He was an early pupil of Benoit, a pioneer of this movement, at the Flemish Music School, and also studied with L. Brassin before completing his education at the Leipzig Conservatorium, according to the Dictionary of Music (1896). Blockx gained popularity in his native Antwerp from a young age with his numerous Flemish lieder and cantatas, and later succeeded Benoit as director of the Antwerp Conservatorium in 1902 (Grove’s Dictionary, 1904).

His fame was cemented by the production of his ballet Milenka in Brussels in 1886, followed by several successful operas. His lyric drama Princesse d’Auberge (also known as De Herbergprinses), premiered in Antwerp in 1896, achieved “very great success” (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900) and was later introduced to America by Cleofonte Campanini at the Manhattan Opera House in 1909 (Grove’s Dictionary: American Supplement, 1920). Blockx’s compositions, which include works for double chorus and orchestra like Vredezang, and an orchestral overture “Rubens,” manifest an interesting personality that, while embracing newer tendencies in harmony and orchestration, avoided imitation of Wagner, as noted by Grove’s Dictionary (1904). He also taught Albert de Vleeshower, a composer of two operas and a symphonic poem (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900).