A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wilder, Jérôme van
WILDER, Jérôme Albert Victor van, lyric poet and musical critic, born Aug. 21, 1835, at Welteren, between Alost and Ghent. While studying for his doctor's degree in law and philosophy at the University of Ghent, he also frequented the Conservatoire, and thus acquired a thorough knowledge of harmony. Having written for a time for the 'Journal de Gand,' he came to the conclusion that there was no field in Belgium for a writer on music, and determined, like his countrymen Vaez and Gevaert, to push his way in Paris. He began by translating songs, and ended with adapting Wagner's works for the French stage. Being not only a clever versifier, but having a fine musical instinct, his work of this kind is excellent. His printed volumes include '40 Melodies' by Abt; Schumann's 'Myrthen' and an Album; 'Echos d'Allemagne'; Rubinstein's 'Mélodies Persanes' and duets; Mendelssohn's Lieder and duets; Chopin's songs; Weber's songs; 'Les Gloires d'Italie,' etc.; French versions of Handel's 'Messiah,' 'Judas Maccabeus,' and 'Alexander's Feast'; Schumann's 'Paradise and the Peri,' 'Manfred,' 'Mignon,' 'Pilgrimage of the Rose,' 'Sängers Fluch,' and 'Adventlied'; Rubinstein's 'Tower of Babel,' and A. Goldschmidt's 'Seven Deadly Sins.' He has adapted for the French stage Abert's 'Astorga'; Mozart's 'Oca di Cairo'; Schubert's 'Häusliche Krieg'; Paisiello's 'Barbiere di Siviglia'; F. Ricci's 'Une Folie a Rome,' and L. Ricci's 'Festa di Piedigrotta'; Weber's 'Sylvana'; J. Strauss's 'La Reine Indigo' and 'Tsigane'; Suppé's 'Fatinitza'; and Wagner's 'Meistersinger,' 'Tristan und Isolde,' and 'Walküre.'
His critiques and feuilletons in 'L'Evénement,' 'L'Opinione Nationale,' 'Le Parlement,' and 'Le Gil Blas' have not yet been collected. He wrote for the 'Ménestrel' from June 1871 to 1884, and has republished 'Mozart: l'homme et l'artiste' (Paris 1880, 8vo. and 1881, 12mo.), and 'Beethoven: sa vie et son œuvre' (Paris 1883, 12mo.). To him also we owe the publication of Mozart's ballet 'Les petits Riens,' produced in Paris June 11, 1778, with a success represented by a French epigram of the day as but indifferent, but by Mozart himself in a letter to his father (July 9, 1778) as very great.