Goovaerts, Alphonse (Jean Marie André) (1847-1922)

Belgian composer and writer on music. He studied at the Jesuit College of Antwerp, and at the age of 15 was obliged by financial losses to take a commercial career; but he studied music thoroughly by himself and in 1866 obtained a post at the Antwerp town library. In 1869 his Messe solennelle was performed. In 1874 he was appointed music secretary to Antwerp Cathedral where he established a special choir, for which he copied a vast quantity of old motets of various schools. He began to write on the reform of church music, and in 1898 was appointed keeper of the royal archives in Brussels.

Works motets, Petite Messe, Messe solennelle and other church music; songs, part songs.