PETER LEONARD

See also:

• LEOPOLD (M.H. Ger. Liupolt; O.H. Ger. Liupald, from hut, Mod. Ger. Leute, " people," and paid, " bold," i.e. " bold for the people ")

LEOPOLD

See also:

• PETER LEONARD LEOPOLD BENOIT (1834—1901)

BENOIT (1834—1901)  , Flemish composer, was born on the 17th of August 1834 at Harlebeke in Flanders . His father and a local village organist were his first teachers . In 1851 Benoit entered the Brussels Conservatoire, where he remained till 1855, studying chiefly under F . J . Fetis, During this period he composed music to many melodramas, and to an opera Le Village dans les montagnes for the Park theatre, of which in 1856 he became conductor . He wona government prize and a money grant in 1857 by his cantata Le Meurtre d'Abel, and this enabled him to travel through Germany . In course of his journeyings he found time to write a considerable amount of music, as well as an essay L'Ecole de musique flamande et son avenir . Fetis loudly praised his Hesse solennelle, which Benoit produced at Brussels on his return from Germany . In 1861 he visited Paris for the production of his opera Le Roi des Aulnes (" Erlkonig "), which, though accepted by the Theatre Lyrique, was never mounted; while there he conducted at the Bouffes-Parisiens . Again returning home, he astonished a section of the musical world by the production at Antwerp of a sacred tetralogy, consisting of his Cantate de Noel, the above-mentioned Mass, a Te Deum and a Requiem, in which were embodied to a large extent his theories of Flemish music . It was in consequence of his passion for the founding of an entirely separate Flemish school that Benoit changed his name from Pierre to Peter . By prodigious efforts he succeeded in gathering round him a small band of enthusiasts, who affected to see with him possibilities in the foundation of a school whose music should differ completely from that of the French and German schools .

In its

main features this school failed, for its faith was pinned to Benoit's music, which is hardly more Flemish than French or German . Benoit's more important compositions include the Flemish oratorios De Schelde and Lucifer, the latter of which met with complete failure on its production in London in 1888; the operas Het Dorp int Gebirgte and Isa, the Drama Christi; an enormous mass of songs, choruses, small cantatas and motets . Benoit also wrote a great number of essays on musical matters . He died at Antwerp on the 8th of March 1901 .