Franciscus Florentinus Peeters, Baron Peeters (4 July 1903 – 4 July 1986) was a Belgian composer, organist and academic teacher. He was director of the Conservatorium in Antwerp, Belgium, and organist at Mechelen Cathedral from 1923 to his death in 1986.

Biography

Born and raised in the village of Tielen (in the Kempen region, just on the Belgian side of the Belgian-Dutch border), Peeters was the youngest child in a family of eleven. When sixteen years old, he began his studies at the Lemmens Institute in

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

(since moved to

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

), which was named after the nineteenth-century organist Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens. At this college, Peeters's teachers were Lodewijk Mortelmans, Jules Van Nuffel and Oscar Depuydt. Depuydt was well known at the time for his collaboration with the Desmet brothers on the first set of Gregorian accompaniments produced by the Lemmens Institute. Peeters would later collaborate with Van Nuffel and the institute's other professors, to produce the ''Nova Organi Harmonia''. In 1923 he became an organ teacher at the institute; simultaneously he acquired the position of chief

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

at the St. Rumbold's Cathedral in Mechelen, which he held for most of the rest of his life; Van Nuffel had already been choirmaster there for many years. St_Rombout_Organ

As an organist and pedagogue, Peeters enjoyed great renown, giving concerts and

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

masterclasses all over the world. He also made recordings of sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century organ music; some of these have been reissued in recent years on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

. Most of his own pieces (he wrote well over 100) were for his own instrument, for choir, or for both. Among his many compositions is the well-known ''Entrata Festiva'' (opus 93) for choir, brass, timpani, and organ. Other works include ''Aria'' (opus 51) and ''Toccata, fugue and hymn on "Ave Maris Stella"'' (opus 28), Peeters studied

Renaissance music Renaissance music is traditionally understood to cover European music of the 15th and 16th centuries, later than the Renaissance era as it is understood in other disciplines. Rather than starting from the early 14th-century ''ars nova'', the mus ...

, particularly of the school of Flemish polyphony. This style was also absorbed into his music. In addition, he showed an interest in twentieth-century techniques such as polyrhythms and polytonality. He died on his eighty-third birthday; fifteen years before, he had been made a baron by King Baudouin of Belgium. Pupils of Peeters include the American organist and composer Kathleen Thomerson.Kathleen A. Thomerson.
The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press. Web. 15 Nov. 2018.

Selected recordings

*Flor-Peeters-Edition, Motette

Honours

* Knight Commander in the Order of Saint Gregory the Great.KBR, Brussel ref. Mu006 / Mus-Obj-390

References

External links

Flor Peeters
on Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek

Nova Organi Harmonia

Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel
now houses most works and manuscripts of Peeters, after the bankruptcy of CeBeDeM in 2015.

Recordings

Giuseppe Galante - Flor Peeters: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, Op.51: I. AllegroGiuseppe Galante - Flor Peeters: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, Op.51: II. AriaGiuseppe Galante - Flor Peeters: Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, Op.51: III. Finale (Toccata)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Peeters, Flor 1903 births 1986 deaths 20th-century classical composers Belgian classical composers Belgian classical organists Belgian male classical composers Cathedral organists Composers for carillon Composers for pipe organ Knights Commander of the Order of St Gregory the Great Male classical organists Organ improvisers Musicians from Antwerp Province 20th-century Belgian male musicians