2025.01

The Third Man of a distinguished dynasty of Gent organ-builders:
Ægidius-Franciscus van Peteghem (1737-1797)
During the 18th and 19th centuries there were 4 generations of the Van Peteghem family.
Much has been written and recorded about the founding-father Pieter Van Peteghem and his second son Lambert-Benoit, their instruments and the history of their workshop. … Although Aegidius-Franciscus was Pieter Van Peteghem’s eldest son, he did not play a leading part in the family business, but was nevertheless a significant “third man”. He was the subject of an article in Orgelkunst in 1986. After almost 40 years this is now due for an update. There is practically no difference between the work of Pieter and Lambert-Benoit on the one hand, and Aegidius-Franciscus on the other, as will be seen in this article. A brief section is devoted to Pierre-François.
A separate part concerns the destiny of the organ in Malines cathedral, as far as is known the largest instrument built by the Gent organ-builders.
Aegidius-Franciscus’ worklist has been extended and illustrated with a few examples, including the organ-builder’s house, with an interesting colored planning application, and recent photographs.

In this article Annelies Focquaert presents an overview of the organ works of composer Luc De Winter (b. 1966). In recent years she has premiered many of his new compositions. This experience provoked her curiosity into the why and how of these pieces, which are often perceived as meditative both by the performer and by listeners. De Winter studied at the Lemmens-Institute: organ with Luk Bastiaens, improvisation with Reitze Smits, and composition and analysis with Luc Van Hove. Since 1996 he has been thoroughly immersing himself in zen Buddhism. He became a monk in 2003 and has taught in Antwerp since 2010. He emphasises the agreements between spiritual movements within Buddhist, Hindu, Christian, and Islamic mysticism, which focus on connecting with the essence of existence. The latter is inseparably connected with De Winter’s work as a composer. Over the years, in relation to it, he has developed his principle of sandokai, where san stands for the many, do for the one, and kai for the integration of both. Between 1994 and 2019 he taught organ and composition at various music-schools. Since 2019 he has withdrawn from active life because of chronic health problems.
His most important organ works are Flowers of Emptiness (2014), Ten Millennium Future (2018), El Castillo Interior (2019-2024), Phoenix Diptych (2020-2024), and Sleepless Dreams of the Phoenix (2023), which still awaits its premiere. A large work, entitled Pelican Psalm and based on a cantus firmus from the Souterliedekens, is currently in production. In addition, he has composed music that is strongly rooted in older styles, such as Tiento (2005), Passamezzo Antico (2007), and Scarborough Fair (2015).
A substantial part of his organ output, for organ and soprano, fall beyond the scope of the present article: see www.orgelkunst.be for discussions of, among others, the song-cycles Cold Mountain (2019) and Mystère de l'Instant Présent (2021). His website www.lucdewinter.com presents, among other things, an overview of commissions, performances, and recordings.