François-Auguste Gevaert

François-Auguste Gevaert (31 July 1828 – 24 December 1908) was a Belgian musicologist and composer.

Life Gevaert kept a journal while travelling through different countries. This is an excerpt from the manuscript "Journey to Spain", 1850–1852. Gevaert was born in Huise, near Oudenaarde, to an upper class family. His father was a bakery owner, and he was intended for the same profession, but better counsels prevailed and he was permitted to study music. He was sent in 1841 to the Ghent Conservatory, where he studied under Édouard de Sommere and Martin-Joseph Mengal. Then he was appointed organist of the Jesuit church in that city.

Soon Gevaert's compositions attracted attention, and he won the Belgian Prix de Rome which entitled him to two years' travel. The journey was postponed during the production of his first opera and other works. He finally embarked on it in 1849. After a short stay in Paris he went to Spain, 1896: Grand Cordon in the Order of Leopold.

Selected works Te Deum (1843) Ouverture Flandre au lion (1848) Fantasia sobre motivos españoles (1850) Requiem (1853) "Vers l'avenir" (1905) Grand' Messe de Noël Puer Natus est Nobis (1907) Quartet for clarinet, horn, bassoon and piano

Operas Georgette, ou le moulin de Fontenoy (1853) Le billet de Marguerite (1854) Les lavandières de Santarem (1855) Quentin Durward (1858, libretto by Michel Carré and Eugène Cormon after Walter Scott Le diable au moulin (1859) La Château Trompette (1860) Le Capitaine Henriot (1864)

Secular cantatas België (1847) Le roi Léar (1847) Évocation patriotique (1856) De nationale verjaerdag (1857) Le retour de l'armée (1859) Jacob van Artevelde (1864) (about Jacob van Artevelde)