Blockx, Jan

Preface

Jan Blockx – Children’s games. Two pieces for piano

(Antwerp, 25 January 1851 – Kapellenbos, 26 May 1912)

On the swing
Catch ball

The children’s world, op. 36 (1894?)
Intermezzo
Playing soldiers
A little dance
Chorale
Christmas song
Drinking song

Jan Blockx studied at the Flemish Music School of Antwerp, where he took lessons with Frans Aerts (piano), Joseph Callaerts (organ) and Peter Benoit (counterpoint, fugue and composition). He then went to Leipzig, where he studied with Carl Reinecke and had contacts with Edvard Grieg. After his return, he taught himself at the Antwerp Music School, which was granted the status of Royal Conservatoire in 1897. In 1901, he succeeded Benoit as director of the Royal Flemish Conservatoire.

As a composer, he enjoyed particular success with his extremely popular Vlaamse dansen (Flemish dances) (1884) and with his operas Herbergprinses (The princess of the inn) (1896) and Bruid der zee (Bride of the sea) (1901), which saw many performances both in Belgium and abroad.
For aspiring pianists, probably around 1894, Blockx wrote a number of little works which he collected in Children’s games and The children’s world. Intermezzo and Drinkliedeke from The children’s world are reworked fragments from the cantata Antwerpens schutgeest (Antwerp’s protective spirit) and the pantomime Saint Nicholas, respectively. Blockx dedicated The children’s world to his four children, two boys and two girls, born between 1885 and 1891.
His eldest son, Frank (1885), became a well-known architect and published a biography of his father in 1943. His eldest daughter, Nelly, lost her life in 1911 in a collision between a car, driven by her uncle, and a tram.

Jan Dewilde
(translation: Jasmien Dewilde)

Facsimile of copies of the library of the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp. This publication is part of a heritage project subsidized by the Flemish Community and was realized in collaboration with the Study Centre for Flemish Music (www.svm.be).

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