Michel Brusselmans (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, 12 Februari 1886 –

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 ...

, 20 September 1960) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Biography

Michel Brusselmans was born in a Belgian family that had settled in Paris and was the younger brother of the painter

Jean Brusselmans Jean Brusselmans (1884-1953) was a Belgian painter. He developed his own style and, whereas he is often considered a representative of Flemish Expressionism, he refused to associate himself with any art movement. He was not very well known during h ...

. He studied at 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 ...

with

Gustave Huberti Gustave Huberti (14 April 1843 in City of Brussels, Brussels – 28 June 1910 in Schaerbeek) was a Flanders, Flemish composer. He studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels where he won prizes for piano, organ, harmony and chamber music in 1858 ...

and

Edgar Tinel Edgar Pierre Joseph Tinel (27 March 185428 October 1912) was a Belgian composer and pianist. He was born in Sinaai, today part of Sint-Niklaas in East Flanders, Belgium, and died in Brussels. After studies at the Brussels Conservatory with Lou ...

, and completed his studies with Vincent d’Indy and

Paul Gilson Paul Gilson (Brussels, 15 June 1865 – Brussels, 3 April 1942) was a Belgian musician and composer. Biography Paul Gilson was born in Brussels. In 1866, his family moved to Ruisbroek in the Belgian province of Brabant. There he studied the ...

. In 1911 Brusselmans won the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

. He wished to have a career as a violinist and a conductor, but had to give up this dream because of an eye defect. In 1921, Brusselmans moved to Paris where he worked for Édouard Salabert, a music publisher who agreed to publish Brusselmans’ compositions in exchange for doing household chores. Later on, Brusselmans also composed music for

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

s for Salabert, of which his best known piece was written for ''

The Mummy A mummy is an unusually well preserved corpse. Mummy or The Mummy may also refer to: Places *Mummy Range, a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States *Mummy Cave, a rock shelter and archeological site in Par ...

'' in 1932. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the composer was forced to return to Brussels, where he had to work for Sender Brüssel, the broadcast of the German occupier. After the war, he returned to France and later moved to Spain, where he settled in

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

. Michel Brusselmans composed orchestral music, chamber music, songs, choir music, theater scores, radio works and movie scores. His oeuvre is

impressionistic Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

; the majority consists of

program music Program music or programatic music is a type of instrumental art music that attempts to musically render an extramusical narrative. The narrative itself might be offered to the audience through the piece's title, or in the form of program note ...

Sources

Biography of Michel Brusselmans at SVM

List of works of Michel Brusselmans at CeBeDeM
1886 births 1960 deaths 20th-century classical composers 20th-century Belgian male musicians Belgian classical composers Belgian male classical composers Prix de Rome (Belgium) winners Royal Conservatory of Brussels alumni {{Belgium-composer-stub