Jan Decadt
The Flemish composer Jan Decadt died at the age of eighty. He was born June 21, 1914 in ypres and studied orchestration and composition with Jean Absil.
He had great influence since 1945 as director of the Music Academy ‘Peter Benoit’ in Harelbeke, and was also teaching composition at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent and teacher of fugue at the Antwerp Conservatory.
Decadt was also active at ‘Youth and Music’, SABAM (from which he received an award in 1986), the Union of Belgian composers, the Cultural Council for Flanders and numerous commissions for musical life in Belgium.
As a composer he enjoys European fame with a series of symphonic works including ‘Sire Halewijn’ and especially the ‘Musical monograph Octave Landuyt’. Also his chamber works are known, such as ‘The small planet’ on a text by Karel Jonckheere. Other important works are the ‘Permeke Suite’, in which nong-musical data take the lead and the ‘Suite for Trumpet: Market Noise’.