Belgium, Bonanzas, & Beck

In the world of violin playing, there’s only one king, one Tsar: It is Eugène Ysaÿe.

Born into a musical family in Belgium, he had a prosperous life as a performer, teacher, and even composer. He wasn’t trained properly as composer, but his contributions to works for strings were noteable and he even had an opera come to production in his late years.

I’ve been taken with Ysaÿe’s work for the better part of my life at this point. He wrote a demanding set of six solo sonatas for solo violin, and there’s always an obscure work of his that’s constantly making its way onto my music stand.

Needless to say, I am fanatical for his compositions.

An excerpt from his fine Op. 25.

Tangled in musical vines

The other day, I noticed a transcription of one of his posthumous works to bear the name, Jacques Ysaÿe, and I got confused. I knew that Eugène’s son, Antoine, was active in bringing his father’s more obscure works to see the light of day, but had never heard of Jacques.

Some Internet searches didn’t turn much up, no thanks to false positives from AI answers. ‘Who was this guy…’ I wondered.

Well, Antoine had some children, and one of them was Jacques, and this son changed his name to Jack Say (which is a bit of a nod to how one should actully pronounce the name Ysaÿe, in fact).

It turns out that Jack Say was an active composer, though perhaps in a different universe as grandpa. The NHL Hartford Whalers have an intimate relationship with Jack, as Jack was the man behind their battle song: Brass Bonanza.

Objectively, this little tune has touched more lives than the entirety of Eugène’s output. It even made its way into video games, like the one for Sega that came out in the mid-90s.

Now, Eugène would have been proud of little Jack, I think. The musical roots of their family go far back, and of course couldn’t stay planted in the classical music tradition. But it is a drôle finding, and an interesting one, as Brass Bonanza was such a strong ditty, that it can be heard to influence scads of music to come. Perhaps most popular, with Beck in his hit: Sexx Laws.

It’s amazing how the lifeblood of music spread from the 1850s Belgium, to modern popular culture in pretty short order.

But perhaps with enough examination, that’s how it is with all things music. It’s just a hall of echos, and no artist is isolated from those who came before them, or after.