FRANCOIS

See also:

• JOSEPH
• JOSEPH, COMTE DE (1785-1870)
• JOSEPH, FATHER (FRANCOIS LECLERC DU TREMBLAY) (1577-1638)

JOSEPH

See also:

• FRANCOIS JOSEPH FETIS (1784–1871)

FETIS (1784–1871)  , Belgian composer and writer on music, was born at Mons in Belgium on the 25th of March 1784, and was trained as a musician by his father, who followed the same calling . His talent for composition manifested itself at the age of seven, and at nine years old he was an organist at Sainte-Waudru . In 'Soo he went to Paris and completed his studies at the conservatoire under such masters as Boieldieu, Rey and Pradher . In 1806 he undertook the revision of the Roman liturgical chants in the hope of discovering and establishing their original form . In this year he married the grand-daughter of the Chevalier de Keralio, and also began his Biographie universelle des musiciens, the most important of his works, which did not appear until 1834 . In '821 he was appointed professor at the conservatoire . In 1827 he founded the Revue musicale, the first serious paper in France devoted exclusively to musical matters . Fetis remained in the French capital till in 1833, at the request of Leopold I., he became director of the conservatoire of Brussels and the king's chapel-master . He also was the founder, and, till his death, the conductor of the celebrated concerts attached to the conservatoire of Brussels, and he inaugurated a free series of lectures on musical history and philosophy . He produced a large quantity of original compositions, from the opera and the oratorio down to the simple chanson .. But all these are doomed to oblivion . Although not without traces of scholarship and technical ability, they show total absence of genius .

More important are his writings on music . They are partly

historical, such as the Curiosites historiques de la musique (Paris, 1850), and the Histoire universelle de musique (Paris, 1869–1876); partly theoretical, such as the Methode des methodes de piano (Paris, 1837), written in conjunction with Moscheles . Fetis died at Brussels on the 26th of March 1871 . His valuable library was purchased by the Belgian government and presented to the Brussels Conservatoire . His work as a musical historian was prodigious in quantity, and, in spite of many inaccuracies and some prejudice revealed in it, there can be no question as to its value for the student .