FETIS, FRANCOIS JOSEPH (1784-1871), Belgian com poser and Writer on music, was born in Mons on March and died in Brussels on March 26, 1871. He was trained as a musician by his father, who followed the same calling. His talent for composition manifested itself at the age of seven, and at nine years old he was an organist at Sainte-Waudru. In 1800 he went to Paris and completed his studies at the conservatoire under Boieldieu, Rey and Pradher. In 1806 he undertook the revision of the Roman liturgical chants in _the hope of discovering and establishing their original form. In this year he married the granddaughter of the Chevalier de Keralio, and also began his Biographie universelle des musiciens, the most important of his works, which did not appear until 1834. In 1821 he was ap pointed professor of counterpoint and fugue at the Paris con servatoire. In i827 he founded the Revue musicale, the first serious paper in France devoted exclusively to musical matters. In 1833, at the request of Leopold I., he became director of the Conservatoire of Brussels and the king's maitre de Chapelle. Fetis was a prolific composer, but his real service to music lies not in his compositions but in his historical and theoretical work. The Biographie universelle is not without errors, but many of these were corrected in the 2nd ed. (Paris 186o-65), and the work is still one of great value. It was completed by Pougin (2 vols. 1878-80). His other works included : Histoire generale de la musique (5 vols. 1869-76), in which he comes down to the i5th century; La Musique anise a la portee de tout le monde (Paris, 1830) ; Traite de l'accompagneinent de la partition (1829) ; Traite complet de la theorie et de la pratique de l'harmonie (1844) ; and the important, indeed classical, Traite du contrepoint et de la fugue (1824).
See L. Alvin, Notice sur J. J. Fetis (1874).