Sheet music to the Belgian artist's "Marche des Rotariens ostendais" for piano solo, featuring Ensor's own cover design. The striking cover shows flowing female figures dancing around a coat of arms with three keys, the heraldic crest of his hometown, Ostend. [PN] 5084. 2 pp. Large split to the fold; light toning and edge wear; folding creases; overall in good condition. Scarce. WorldCat records only two copies, both held in Belgium. 10.25 x 13.25 inches (26 x 34 cm).
The Belgian painter and printmaker James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor, was an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend, Belgium for almost his entire life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX. Besides his activity as a painter, draughtsman, and graphic artist, he was also a (rather eccentric) pianist and composer. According to Ensor scholar Herwig Todts, he "could not score his own compositions- as he played by memory-, and he played in an unorthodox way, with outstretched fingers, primarily the black keys of the keyboard. His music was scored and revised for symphonic orchestra by other musicians such as Michel Brusselmans and Georges Vriamont. Ensor took his musical work very seriously. Without success, he undertook a few attempts to have the ballet La Gamme d'amour performed in the Théâtre des Champs Elysées or by La compagnie des Ballets Russes, both in Paris." Several of his compositions were published in 1929 for the grand retrospective at the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts. (See: http://jamesensor.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/biography/james-ensor-as-musician.)
Sheet music to the Belgian artist's "Marche des Rotariens ostendais" for piano solo, featuring Ensor's own cover design. The striking cover shows flowing female figures dancing around a coat of arms with three keys, the heraldic crest of his hometown, Ostend. [PN] 5084. 2 pp. Large split to the fold; light toning and edge wear; folding creases; overall in good condition. Scarce. WorldCat records only two copies, both held in Belgium. 10.25 x 13.25 inches (26 x 34 cm).
The Belgian painter and printmaker James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor, was an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend, Belgium for almost his entire life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX. Besides his activity as a painter, draughtsman, and graphic artist, he was also a (rather eccentric) pianist and composer. According to Ensor scholar Herwig Todts, he "could not score his own compositions- as he played by memory-, and he played in an unorthodox way, with outstretched fingers, primarily the black keys of the keyboard. His music was scored and revised for symphonic orchestra by other musicians such as Michel Brusselmans and Georges Vriamont. Ensor took his musical work very seriously. Without success, he undertook a few attempts to have the ballet La Gamme d'amour performed in the Théâtre des Champs Elysées or by La compagnie des Ballets Russes, both in Paris." Several of his compositions were published in 1929 for the grand retrospective at the Brussels Palace of Fine Arts. (See: http://jamesensor.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/biography/james-ensor-as-musician.)