Armand Limnander

Baron Armand-Marie Ghislain Limnander van Nieuwenhove (born 22 May 1814 in Ghent – d. 15 August 1892 at the Château de Moignanville, a village in the department of Seine-et-Oise, France) was a Belgian composer of choral and orchestral works and church music. Knight of the Order of Leopold, he was the founder and conductor of the choral chamber ensembles Société Symphonique and Réunion Lyrique in Belgium.

Biography Delphine Ugalde as Béatrix in Armand Limnander van Nieuwenhovens opera The Montenegrins.

Born to a family who formerly belonged to the bar of the late Council of Flanders, ennobled in 1683, Armand Limnander van Nieuwenhoven was raised in the village of Malines. He studied in Freiburg with Louis Lambillotte and in Paris with François-Joseph Fétis, director of the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. From 1838 to 1847 he conducted with great distinction the direction of an amateur choral society entitled Réunion Lyrique composed of 25 members, which premiered there on 31 March the following year, was very well received along with his Le Château de la Barbe-Bleue (1851). In the course of 1853 the composer was working on two books, one for the Opera House and the other to the Opéra-Comique of Paris. His opera Yvonne (1859), set to a libretto by Eugène Scribe, premiered at the Theatre de l'Opéra-Comique on 29 November 1859 and was also well received.

His religious music is composed of a Te Deum, performed in 1845 on the anniversary of the avencement to the throne of King Leopold, a Requiem, written in honor of the citizens killed in the upheaval of 1830 and performed in Brussels in September 1852, the Stabat Mater La Messe de minuit, performed by the choir Harmonie à Bruxelles in April 1853, during the political majority of Prince Leopold, Duke of Brabant, and a national song for full orchestra with text by André Henri Constant van Hasselt, written for the celebration of the national festivities in Brussels in 1855. married on 30 September 1835 at the chateau de Ramsdonck Éléonore-Euphémie-Antoinette-Ghislain (21 August 1808 – 13 October 1848), née de Meester, daughter of François-Théodore and Ignace-Julie de Giey. His first daughter was Elmire-Philomème-Celine Marie-Ghislain (17 January 1837). His first son was Louis-Armand-Victor-Marie-Ghislain Limnander de Nieuwenhover (7 December 1850 – 7 August 1853), Fernand Louis Marie Ghislain Limnander de Nieuwenhover (20 December 1854) and Gaston Eugène Marie Ghislain Limnander de Nieuwenhover (20 March 1856).