Francois Joseph Fetis, a Belgian composer and writer on music, born in Mons, March 25, 1784, died in Brussels, March 27, 1871. His father was an organist, and at the age of ten he was engaged as organist in his native town. Subsequently, after taking lessons from the most eminent teachers in Paris, he travelled in Germany and Italy, and made himself familiar with the works of the great masters of those countries. He returned to Paris in 1806, married a rich woman, and devoted himself to the study of the history of music, especially of that of the middle ages. In 1813, a reverse of fortune obliging him to return to the practice of his profession, he became organist and teacher of music at Douai, and in 1818 was appointed professor in the conservatory of Paris, and soon after published his Traite du contrepoint et de la fugue. In 1827 he founded the first journal devoted to musical criticism that had appeared in France, the Revue musicale, which he edited till 1835. At the same time he was pursuing his researches upon the theory of harmony, writing articles for various periodicals, and volumes upon the history and curiosities of music, and composing operas and pieces of sacred music.

In 1832 he began his historical concerts, which have since found imitators in Germany and England. In 1833 the king of Belgium appointed him chapel master and director of the royal conservatory of Brussels. In 1864 he superintended the production of Meyerbeer's opera L' Africaine, in accordance with a direction in the will of the composer. His own most successful opera was La vieille, which was performed for 100 nights. As a writer on musical history he is unrivalled, and his works on almost every topic connected with music are numerous. His principal writings are: Biographie universelle des musiciens, et hibliographie generate de la mu-sique, preceded by an epitome of the history of music (8 vols., Brussels, 1835-44); Traite complet de la theorie et de la pratique de Vhar-monie, contenant la doctrine de la science et de Vart (Paris, 1853); and a sketch of Meyerbeer in the Revue contemporaine (Paris, 1850).-His son E\douard Francois Louis, born at Bou-vines, May 12, 1816, was appointed in 1838 conservator of the royal library of Brussels, and is the author of Les musiciens beiges (2 vols., 1848), Les artistes beiges d Vetranger (vols. i. and ii., 1858), etc.