Dominique II Berger (1 January 1780 in

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

– 23 March 1845) was a Flemish organist and the official city

carillonneur A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

of Bruges between 1807 and 1838.

Levensloop

Dominique or Dominiek II Berger was the eldest son of Dominique I Berger (1747–1797), who was an organ builder, and of Francisca van de Voorde. The Bergers were a family from Bruges that were part of a long dynasty of organ builders. During the French Revolutionary era, Dominique II travelled to Paris where he received music lessons from

Luigi Boccherini Ridolfo Luigi Boccherini (, also , ; 19 February 1743 – 28 May 1805) was an Italian composer and cellist of the Classical era whose music retained a courtly and '' galante'' style even while he matured somewhat apart from the major classi ...

. At his return to Bruges in 1807, he was appointed as organist at the Saint-Salvatore church and succeeded Henderyck Fromont as the official

of Bruges. In December 1808, he married Maria Hubené. The marriage remained childless. The couple took care of Louis Hubené instead, an orphaned nephew who ended up succeeding Berger as the city carillonneur of Bruges in 1838. Berger gained some renown as a composer. His oeuvre, which mostly consisted of church music, was never published and has therefore disappeared.

Sources

* A. MAELFAIT, ''Het Muziekconservatorium te Brugge'', Bruges, 1922. * Luc LANNOO, ''De Brugse orgelmakers Berger en hun familie'', Brussels – Bruges, 1982. * Noël GEIRNAERT, ''De beiaardiers te Brugge in het verleden'', in: H. Daquin & M. Formesyn (ed.), Brugge, Belfort en Beiaard, Bruges, 1984. * Antoon DEFOORT, ''Lexicon van de muziek in West-Vlaanderen'', Part 2, Bruges, 2001. 1780 births 1845 deaths Carillonneurs Flemish composers {{Belgium-composer-stub