Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens, known under the name Hanssens the elder (4 May 1777 – 6 May 1852), was a Belgian violinist, composer, conductor and

theatre director A theatre director or stage director is a professional in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production such as a play, opera, dance, drama, musical theatre performance, etc. by unifying various endeavors a ...

Life

Hanssens was born in

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

. After studying violin in his hometown, Hanssens went to Paris to study

harmony In music, harmony is the process by which individual sounds are joined together or composed into whole units or compositions. Often, the term harmony refers to simultaneously occurring frequencies, pitches ( tones, notes), or chords. However ...

with

Henri Montan Berton Henri-Montan Berton (17 September 1767 – 22 April 1844) was a French composer, teacher, and writer, mostly known as a composer of operas for the Opéra-Comique. Career Henri-Montan Berton was born the son of Pierre Montan Berton.Charlton ...

. Back in Ghent, he directed the Theatre of Rhetoric, then followed Mademoiselle Fleury's troupe to Holland. Called back to Ghent as conductor, he held this position until 1825, then succeeded

Charles Borremans Charles Borremans (5 April 1769 – 17 July 1827), was a composer of operas, and a violinist and conductor at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Belgium from 1804 to 1825. The composer Charles-Louis-Joseph Hanssens succeeded him as conduct ...

as conductor of the orchestra 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 ...

in Brussels. In 1826, he was one of the founders of the Société d'Apollon with his friend, the composer Joseph-François Snel. In 1827, King

William I of the Netherlands William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He was the son of the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who we ...

chose him to conduct the court music and appointed him inspector of the Royal Music School of Brussels the following year. After a few years of eclipse, he took over the direction of the Monnaie orchestra in 1835, was dismissed in 1838 and returned a third time in 1840. From 1840 to 1847, he shared the direction of La Monnaie theatre with

Louis Jansenne Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewis (d ...

, Charles Guillemin and Louis Van Caneghem. After he left the stage, he died from

apoplexy Apoplexy () is rupture of an internal organ and the accompanying symptoms. The term formerly referred to what is now called a stroke. Nowadays, health care professionals do not use the term, but instead specify the anatomic location of the bleedi ...

at age 75 in Brussels.

Work

Hanssens composed the operas ''Alcibiade'', ''La partie de trictrac ou la belle-mère'', ''Les dots'' and ''Le solitaire de Formentera'' ''Le solitaire dans l'isle de Formentera'' drame en prose et en trois actes
/ref> as well as a number of religious works such as masses,

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s and a

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning of ...

. He also wrote the occasional work ''Le vingt quatre août'' for Willem I's birthday. His ''Grande fantaisie no. 6'' on different motives was popular in The Hague in the 1850s and often conducted by .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hanssens, Charles-Louis-Joseph Belgian classical violinists Belgian conductors (music) Belgian male musicians Belgian theatre directors Flemish people Male classical violinists 19th-century classical violinists Belgian opera directors Musicians from Ghent 1777 births 1852 deaths Male conductors (music) 19th-century Belgian male musicians