SAMUEL-HOLEMAN, Eugène

Eugène SAMUEL-HOLEMAN (Brussels, 3rd November 1863 - Brussels, 25th January 1942)

Eugène SAMUEL-HOLEMAN studied philosophy and literature; took music lessons with his father Adolphe Samuel, who was professor and director of the Royal Conservatory of Ghent. He dedicated his whole life to music and lived as a free artist without any official support or function.

In 1896 he published a study concerning scales with whole notes, called for a long time “gammes de Samuel”. He was also the inventor of a technique of superposed overtones called “Mutation en diaphonie moderne”.

As a composer, he searched for a simple style as reaction to the orchestral verbalism of the late romantic period in which he lived. The catalogue of his works shows mostly lyric pieces. Amongst them “La jeune fille à la fenêtre” which was successfully performed in Paris in 1914.

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