Albert Huybrechts (12 February 1899 in

Dinant Dinant () is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality of Wallonia located in the Namur Province, province of Namur, Belgium. On the shores of river Meuse, in the Ardennes, it lies south-east of Brussels, south ...

– 21 February 1938 in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

) was a Belgian composer.

Life

Albert Huybrechts was born into a musical family. His father, Joseph-Jacques Huybrechts, was the

double-bassist The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

with the Royal Theatre of

La Monnaie The Royal Theatre of La Monnaie (french: Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, italic=no, ; nl, Koninklijke Muntschouwburg, italic=no; both translating as the "Royal Theatre of the Mint") is an opera house in central Brussels, Belgium. The National O ...

, and his great grand-uncle was the renowned cellist

Adrien-François Servais Adrien-François Servais (6 June 180726 November 1866) was one of the most influential cellists of the nineteenth century. He was born and died in Halle, Belgium. He is one of the founders of the Modern Cellistic Schools of Paris and Madrid, whi ...

Albert entered the

Royal Conservatory of Brussels The Royal Conservatory of Brussels (french: Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles, nl, Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel) is a historic conservatory in Brussels, Belgium. Starting its activities in 1813, it received its official name in 1832. Provid ...

at age 11, studying under

Joseph Jongen Joseph Marie Alphonse Nicolas Jongen (14 December 1873 – 12 July 1953) was a Belgian organist, composer, and music educator. Biography Jongen was born in Liège, where his parents had moved from Flanders. On the strength of an amazing precocity ...

, P. Marchand and Léon Du Bois In 1915, age 16, he won an award for oboe at the Conservatory. In 1920 his father died, leaving the 21-year-old Albert a "small inheritance." He won a prize for fugue with Joseph Jongen in 1922, and in 1926 his First String Quartet (1924) took first prize at the Frost-Coolidge Music Festival in

Ojai, California Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

. A few days later his Sonata for violin and piano (1925) won the prestigious

Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge aka Liz Coolidge (30 October 1864 – 4 November 1953), born Elizabeth Penn Sprague, was an American pianist and patron of music, especially of chamber music. Biography Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's father was a we ...

award. Unfortunately, with his inheritance invested in the

stock market A stock market, equity market, or share market is the aggregation of buyers and sellers of stocks (also called shares), which represent ownership claims on businesses; these may include ''securities'' listed on a public stock exchange, as ...

, the

Wall Street crash of 1929 The Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as the Great Crash, was a major American stock market crash that occurred in the autumn of 1929. It started in September and ended late in October, when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange colla ...

wiped him out, and a thwarted love affair in the 1930s further diminished his strength. At professor

Jean Absil Jean Absil (23 October 1893 – 2 February 1974) was a Belgian composer, organist, and professor at the Brussels Conservatoire. Biography Absil was born in Bonsecours, Hainaut, Belgium. His teacher there was Alphonse Oeyen, organist at the basil ...

's recommendation, in January 1938 Huybrechts was appointed as a junior lecturer in harmony at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, but barely a month later, on 21 February 1938, he died unexpectedly of kidney failure aged 39.

Works

;Stage * ''Agamemnon'', Incidental Music after

Aeschylus Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek ...

for tenor, baritone, male chorus and orchestra (1932–1933) ;Orchestra * ''David'', Poème symphonique (1923) * ''Poème féerique'' (1923) * ''Sérénade en 3 mouvements'' (1929) * ''Chant d'angoisse'' (1930) * ''Nocturne'' (1931) ;Concertante * ''Chant funèbre'' for cello and orchestra (1926); also for cello and piano * Concertino for cello and orchestra (1932) ;Chamber music * String Quartet No. 1 (1924) * Sonata for violin and piano (1925) * ''Chant funèbre'' for cello and piano (1926); also orchestrated * Trio for flute, viola and piano (1926) * String Quartet No. 2 (1927) * ''Sextuor (Pastorale)'' for 2 flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1927) * Suite for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and piano (1929) * ''Divertissement'' for brass and percussion (1931) * ''Pastourelle'' for cello or

viola da gamba The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

and piano (1934) * ''Sonatine'' for flute and viola (1934) * Piano Trio (1935) * ''Quintette à vent'' (Woodwind Quintet) for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and bassoon (1936) * ''Aesope'' for string quartet ;Organ * ''Choral'' (1930) ;Piano * ''Sicilienne'' (1934) ;Vocal * ''Les roses de Saadi'' for soprano and piano (1919); words by

Marceline Desbordes-Valmore Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (20 June 1786 – 23 July 1859) was a French poet and novelist. She was born in Douai. Following the French Revolution, her father's business was ruined, and she traveled with her mother to Guadeloupe in search of fi ...

* ''Cétait un soir de féeries'' for soprano and piano (1920); words by Francis Viélé-Griffin * ''Chant d'automne'' for soprano and piano (1920); words by

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

* ''Deux poèmes'' for mezzo-soprano and string quartet (1923); words by

Emile Verhaeren Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *'' Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *'' Emil and the Detecti ...

* ''Horoscopes'' for soprano and piano (1926); words by

Francis James Alfred Francis James (21 April 191824 August 1992) was an Australian publisher known for being imprisoned in China as a spy. Early life James was born in Queenstown, Tasmania, the son of an Anglican priest. His early life was unsettled as his ...

* ''Trois poèmes'' for mezzo-soprano and piano (1928); words by

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. He is wide ...

in translation by

Stéphane Mallarmé Stéphane Mallarmé ( , ; 18 March 1842 – 9 September 1898), pen name of Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of ...

* ''Eldorado'' for soprano or mezzo-soprano and orchestra (1928); words by

in translation by

* ''Prière pour avoir une femme simple'' for tenor and piano or orchestra (1934); words by

* ''Mirliton'' for soprano and piano (1934); words by

Tristan Corbière Tristan Corbière (18 July 1845 – 1 March 1875), born Édouard-Joachim Corbière, was a French poet born in Coat-Congar, Ploujean (now part of Morlaix) in Brittany, where he lived most of his life before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 29 ...

Influence

Composer Daniel Denis, of the Belgian

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

band

Univers Zero Univers Zero (also known as Univers Zéro and Univers-Zero) are an instrumental Belgium, Belgian band formed in 1974 by drummer Daniel Denis. The band is known for its dark style of progressive rock, heavily influenced by 20th-century chamber musi ...

, cites Huybrechts as a major influence on his composing.

Discography

* ''David - Serenade for Orchestra'' - L'Orchestre National De Belgique/René Defossez. Decca BAT 133200, 1950s * ''Musique Belge Contemporaine'' - Gérard Ruymen, André Isselee, Quatuor Rondo, Pauline Marcelle, Raymonde Serverius. Alpha DBM-133 C, 1970s * ''Musique Belge Contemporaine'' - Quatuor Rondo: Raymond Corbeel, René Philippo, Marcel Ancion, Iwein d’Haese, Gisèle Demoulin. Alpha DBM-F182, 1970s * ''Sonate Pour Violon Et Piano / Deuxième Quatuor'' - Clemens Quatacker, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden, Le Quatuor Quatacker. Deutsche Grammophon 0100 125, 1979 * ''Sonatas for Violin And Piano'' - André Gousseau, Mary Elizabeth Sadun. Pavane ADW 7047, 1981 * ''Sonatas For Violin And Piano'' - Edith Volckaert, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden. Queen Elisabeth Competition 1980 038, 1983 * ''Musique de Chambre'' - Quatour de l'Opera National de Belgique. Koch Schwann Musica Mundi CD 310 030 H1, 1988 * ''Shostakovich - Huybrechts'' - Edith Volckaert, Eugene De Canck. René Gailly CD86 003, 1993 * ''Chamber Music for Wind Instruments'' - Wind Ensemble Quintessens. René Gailly CD92 020, 1994 * ''Sonatine - Sonate - Trio'' - Marc Grauwels, Jacques Dupriez, Dominique Cornil, Véronique Bogaerts. Syrinx CRS98101, 2000 * ''Musique de Chambre I'' - Pierre Amoyal, Marie Hallynck, David Lively, Yuko Shimizu-Amoyal. Cypres CYP4630, 2009 * ''Musique de Chambre II'' - Laure Delcampe, Marie Lenormand, Martial Defontaine, Lionel Bams, Quator MP4. Cypres CYP4635, 2011 * ''Musique de Chambre III'' - Solistes de l'Orchestre Symphonique de la Monnaie/De Munt. Cypres CYP4639, 2013 * ''Sonatas for Violin And Piano'' - Guido De Neve, Jan Michiels. Pavane ADW 7509, 2013 * ''Huybrechts Chamber Music'' - Aldo Baerton, Diederick Suys, Frauke Suys, Maiko Inoué. UT3 Records 026, 2016 * ''Early 20th Century Jewels'' - Nozomi Kanda, Daniel Rubenstein. DUX CD 1340, 2017

References

External links