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Joseph Jongen
December 14, 1873 - July 12, 1953
born in Liège, Belgium, composed during the Modern period
Biography
Joseph Jongen owes his fame almost entirely to the audiophile market; every innovation in recording technology brings a handful of releases of his extravagantly scored and generously melodic Symphonie concertante for organ and orchestra (1926). Little do audiophiles suspect that Jongen was a prolific and able composer in many genres, particularly but not exclusively in the field of organ music.

At age 7, Jongen entered the Liège Conservatory; it wasn't until he was 19 that he joined a locally important organ class, but within four years he was winning the highest honors for his playing. Simultaneously, he was making a name for himself as a composer; a string quartet of his won first prize in the 1894 Royal Academy of Belgium competition, and his cantata Comala brought him the Prix de Rome in 1897.

During the 1890s Jongen served as organist at churches in Liège, but at the turn of the century he also found time to embark on a four-year tour of Europe. During this period he took composition lessons from Richard Strauss, and met Gabriel Fauré and Vincent d'Indy, becoming thoroughly familiar with the Schola Cantorum's educational setup in Paris.

Jongen settled in Brussels in 1905, teaching at the Scola Musicae, the Belgian equivalent of the Schola Cantorum, while commuting to the Liège Conservatory.
Selected Discography