Froidebise, Pierre (Jean Marie)

Froidebise, Pierre (Jean Marie), eminent Belgian composer, musicologist, and organist; b. Ohey, May 15, 1914; d. Liège, Oct. 28, 1962. Following training in harmony and organ with Camille Jacquemin (1932–35), he studied with Barbier at the Namur Cons. He then was a student of Moulaert (composition), J. Jongen (fugue), Malengreau (premier prix in organ, 1939), and Absil (composition) at the Brussels Cons. He also studied composition with Gilson, and then went to Paris to complete his training in organ with Tournemire. Returning to Belgium, he won the 2nd Prix de Rome with his cantata La navigation d’Ulysse in 1943. In 1947 he became prof. of harmony at the Liège Cons. In 1949 he organized his so-called “Variation” group for young performers and composers, which sought to champion a broad expanse of music, ranging from the 13th to the 20th centuries. Froidebise was especially known for his championship of early organ music, and was ed. of the monumental Anthologie de la musique d’orgue des primitifs à la renaissance (Paris, 1958). In his pwn compositions, he favored an advanced idiom utilizing aleatoric and serial procedures.

Works

DRAMATIC R a d i o Opera : La lune amère (1956); L’aube (n.d.); La bergère et le ramoneur (n.d.). B a 1 1 e t : Le bal chez le voisin (c. 1953). I n c i d e n t a l M u s i c To : Sophocles’ Antigone (1936) and Oedipe roi (c. 1946); A. Curvers’ Ce vieil Oedipe (c. 1946); M. Lambilliotte’s Jan van Nude (1951); Aeschylus’ Les choephores (1954); Euripides’ Hippolyte (n.d.); Calderonós La maison a deux portes (n.d.); etc. F i l m S c o r e s : Visite à Picasso (1951; in collaboration withA. Souris); Lumière des hommes (1954). ORCH.: De I’aube à la nuit (1934–37); La légende de St. Julien I’Hospitalier (1941). CHAMBER: Violin Sonata (1938); Petite suite monodique for Flute or Clarinet (n.d.); Petite suite for Wind Quintet (n.d.). KEYBOARD : Piano : 7 croquis brefs (1934); Hommage à Chopin (1947). Organ : Suite brève (1935); Diptyque (1936); Prélude et Fugue (1936); Sonatine (1939); Prélude etfughetta (n.d.); Livre de noëls beiges (n.d.); 3 pièces (n.d.); Hommage à J.S. Bach (n.d.). VOCAL: La lumière endormie, cantata (1941); 3 poèmes japonais for Soprano or Tenor and Orch. (1942); La navigation d’Ulysse, cantata (1943); 5 comptines for Soprano or Tenor and 11 Instruments (1947); Amercoeur for Soprano and 7 Instruments (1948); La cloche engloutie, cantata (1956); Stèle pour sei Shonagon for Soprano and 19 Instruments (1958).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire