Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens
1823 — 1881
Jacques-Nicolas (Jaak-Nicolaas) Lemmens, was an organist, music teacher, and composer for his instrument.
Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens.
From the period sources
The Belgian organist and composer Jacques-Nicolas Lemmens, born in Zoerle-Parwys in 1823, began his musical training early, studying with his father and then with Van der Broeck at Diest by age eleven (A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1880). He later entered the Brussels Conservatoire, where he was a pupil of Fétis in counterpoint and fugue, and also studied piano with Godineau and Michelot, and organ with Girschner (Cyclopedia of Music and Musicians, 1889). Lemmens distinguished himself, earning the second prize for composition in 1844, and first prizes for both composition and organ playing in 1845 (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900).
In 1846, with government support, Lemmens traveled to Breslau to study organ under Adolf Hesse, who, according to A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1880), sent him back a year later with a testimonial stating that “he played Bach as well as he himself did.” Returning to Brussels, he became professor of organ at the Conservatoire in 1849, an appointment that, as M. Fétis attested, brought “vast improvement” and “new spirit” to the country (A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1880). His influence extended through his teaching, with notable pupils including Joseph Callaerts and Alexandre-Felix Guilmant, the latter of whom Lemmens heard play in 1860 and offered “precious counsels” (Biographie universelle des musiciens, 1880). Lemmens married the vocalist Miss Sherrington in 1857 and subsequently resided much in England (A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 1880). His significant theoretical work, the École d’orgue, was adopted by conservatoires in Paris, Brussels, and Madrid, and he also spent two decades on a method for accompanying Gregorian chants, published posthumously in 1886 (Grove’s Dictionary, 2nd ed., 1906). In 1879, he founded a college at Malines, under the patronage of the Belgian clergy, dedicated to training Catholic organists and choirmasters (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900).