Matthias van den Gheyn
1721 — 1785
Matthias Vanden Gheyn was a Flemish musician from the Baroque/Classical transition period. He is a descendant of the famous bell founding family of the same name. During his life, Vanden Gheyn was considered an outstanding virtuoso of the carillon and organ. He is most famous for composing eleven preludes for carillon, which have become standard repertoire among carillonneurs worldwide since the early 1900s. His spot in history was earned in large part due to the tireless research of his biographer Xavier-Victor-Fidèle van Elewyck, a law and music scholar who considered Vanden Gheyn to be the greatest musician of the Southern Netherlands in the 18th century.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Matthias Vanden Gheyn.
From the period sources
Matthias van den Gheyn, born in Tirlemont, Brabant, in 1721, was a prominent figure in Belgian music of the 18th century, celebrated both as an organist and a carillonneur. He received his musical education in Louvain, where he succeeded the Abbé Raick as organist of St. Peter’s Church in 1741, according to the Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians (1890). Four years later, in 1745, he won the position of town carillonneur by public competition, holding both posts until his death in 1785.
As town carillonneur, Van den Gheyn’s duties were extensive, including playing on market days, fête days, and other public occasions, maintaining the chimes, and setting new tunes for the carillon’s mechanical drum, as detailed in A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1879). He also made a habit of extemporizing on the carillon for half an hour every Sunday. The Dictionary of Music (1896) notes that many of his works remained in manuscript, though he published “Fondements de la basse continue” (lessons and sonatinas for organ or clavier with violin) and “Six Divertissements pour clavecin” around 1760. His fame was such that Xavier Victor van Elewyck later authored a monograph, “Mathias van den Gheyn, le plus grand organiste et carilloneur belge du XVIIIe siècle” (1862), which Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1906) condensed for its own account.