François VAN CAMPENHOUT (1779-1848)
La Brabançonne, 1830
Presumed autograph score
22 x 20 x 1.5 cm
Coll. Royal Conservatories Brussels, B - Bc P-4-0025
François van Campenhout was an opera singer in Ghent and later moved to Brussels as a conductor and composer. In September 1830, he composed the melody of the Brabançonne to lyrics by Alexandre Dechet, better known as Jenneval (1801–1830). Although the song dates from the time of the Belgian Revolution, it was not intended as a call for independence, yet within a short time it became the musical symbol of Belgium.
The manuscript presented here, discovered in 2024 in the collections of the Brussels Conservatories Library and exhibited for the first time, was dedicated by Van Campenhout to the printer Jean-Joseph Jorez, who played an essential role in the initial dissemination of the Brabançonne. This unpublished document bears witness to the origins of the Belgian national anthem, an important musical symbol of Belgium.
Dedication by the composer: “Campenhout à son ami Jorez” (“Campenhout to his friend Jorez”), namely Jean-Joseph Jorez (1796–1878), a Brussels printer who published the first version of the lyrics of La Brabançonne.
