Paul Gilson

Paul Gilson (Brussels, 1865 – Brussels, 1942) was a Belgian composer and teacher whose career straddles the late Romantic period and the first steps towards modernism in his country.

Although he received some basic grounding in music theory from the organist of Ruisbroek, a village near Brussels where he spent his youth, and from C. Duyck, director of the music school in Anderlecht, his training was largely self-taught. He began composing at the age of sixteen, and two experiences before he turned twenty-one shaped his aesthetic: in 1883 he attended a performance of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, given by Angelo Neumann's company, and three years later the Brussels Popular Concerts introduced him to the music of the so-called Russian Five.

He studied at the Brussels Conservatory with Gevaert (1887–1889), although he learned his craft above all by reading scores. In 1889 he won the Prix de Rome with the cantata Sinaï. As was customary, the prize included study trips to Bayreuth (1892), Paris (1893–1894) and Italy (1895). His symphonic poem La mer, premiered in Brussels on 20 March 1892, was a great success and established him as the most representative Belgian composer of his time; the work also pleased audiences outside the country, except in Paris. Between 1899 and 1904 he taught harmony at the conservatories of Brussels and Antwerp, leaving them when he was appointed inspector of music education (1909–1930).

His most important works are concentrated between 1890 and 1905. La mer, conceived to illustrate a poem of little merit by Eddy Levis, is regarded as his masterpiece: an impressionist work built on a single theme. Gilson respected the traditional rules of harmony, but his orchestration was remarkably original. Later compositions, such as the oratorio Francesca da Rimini or the Variations symphoniques, showed formal clarity and inventiveness, although none achieved the success of La mer. After 1905 he wrote few extended works and devoted himself mainly to music for band, chamber music and vocal music, as well as rewriting some earlier scores.

His legacy rests largely on his teaching. His Traité d'harmonie, published in 1919, and his study of orchestration Le tutti orchestral reveal broad erudition, although his judgement was essentially conservative. In 1925 several of his pupils formed the group of the Synthétistes, and that same year they founded the Revue musicale belge, of which Gilson was artistic director. His writings on Le Sacre du printemps reveal a more tolerant attitude than his compositional practice. A generation of Belgian composers was trained under him, although, it seems, his view of tradition led him to retain certain prejudices in his teaching.