Verheyden, Edward

Preface

Edward Verheyden – Memory of London (version for cello with piano)

(Antwerp, 8 October 1878 – Antwerp, 10 April 1959)

Edward Verheyden studied violin with Antoine Bacot at the Flemish Music School of Antwerp and with Eugène Ysaÿe at the Conservatoire Royal in Brussels. He then went on to study counterpoint and fugue with Lodewijk Mortelmans at the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Antwerp. Meanwhile, he also played the violin in the opera orchestras of Antwerp and later Ghent. As a teacher of solfège and harmony, he was attached to the Royal Flemish Conservatoire in Antwerp from 1906 to 1944. He mainly composed songs and choral works, but also wrote for symphonic orchestra and harmony orchestra and composed two operas, Heibieke and De geest, created in 1913 and 1928, respectively, at the Royal Flemish Opera in Antwerp.

Verheyden, like several conservatoire colleagues, probably fled to England for a brief period at the outbreak of the First World War. (All the same, he was back at the Conservatoire from February 1915). This would explain the title of Memory of London, the work for cello and orchestra he presumably composed during or shortly after the war. He dedicated the work to the sisters Rosamund (1902-1995) and Joan (1904-2006) Fremantle. Perhaps as a war refugee he taught these children of a wealthy family?
The first performance was given in Antwerp on 15 February 1922 by Henri Ceulemans, accompanied by the Orchestra of the Society for Zoology conducted by Flor Alpaerts. Ceulemans was a solo cellist with the Berliner Philharmoniker for several years at the beginning of the century, he played in several Antwerp orchestras and from 1909 he led the cello class at the Royal Conservatoire of Ghent.
The orchestral version is still lost.

Jan Dewilde (translation Jasmien Dewilde)

Reprint of a copy from the library of the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp (KCA 74016/1-2). This score was published in cooperation with the Centre for the Study of Flemish Music (Studiecentrum voor Vlaamse Muziek www.svm.be)

read German and Flemish preface  … > HERE