Petrus Leonardus Leopoldus Benoit

1834-1901

Despite his French name (more on this later) Benoit was born in the Flemish speaking community of Harelbeke in the recently created Kingdom of Belgium in 1834. Given a rudimentary musical education by his father, Petrus entered the Brussels Conservatoire aged 17.

He stiudied under François-Joseph Fétis who frequently sand the praises of his young student. Winning a national music prize, Benoit used the money to travel through Germany, composing as he went.

Benoit yearned for the development of a Flemish sound, a Flemish school of music and in his mind, he knew what would differentiate that sound. He produced four religious pieces, including a requiem, Te Deum, mass and a Christmas Cantata. The pieces were extremely well received in Belgium.

His efforts to create a stylistically distinct Flemish sound were less successful. He even changed his name to Pieter to emphasise his Flemishness!

He gathered a group of acolytes around him but the definitive Flemish sound failed to materialise. His compositions dominated the group. He wrote several oratorios in Flemish but when two of them were scheduled for performance in London they were failures.

History has judged that while his works were distinct, they did not differ significantly in terms of identity from Dutch, German or French music.

Belgium honoured him in his lifetime, in 1881 he received the Commander of the Order of Leopold and the following year he was elected as a member of the Royal Academy of Science, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium.

He died in Antwerp in 1901.