Jenneval, a Frenchman whose real name was Alexandre Dechet (sometimes known as Louis-Alexandre Dechet), wrote the Brabançonne. At the time, he was an actor at the theatre where, in August 1830, the revolution started, which led to independence from the Netherlands. Jenneval died in the war of independence. François van Campenhout composed the accompanying score, based on the tune of a French song called "L'Air des lanciers polonais" ("the tune of the Polish Lancers"), written by the French poet Eugène de Pradel, whose tune was itself an adaptation of the tune of a song, "L'Air du magistrat irréprochable", found in a popular collection of drinking songs called La Clé du caveau (The Key to the cellar)Francis Martens, La Belgique en chantant, pp. 19–40, in Antoine Pickels and Jacques Sojcher (eds.), Belgique: toujours grande et belle, issues 1–2, Éditions Complexe, Brussels, 1998 and it was first performed in September 1830.
Jenneval, a Frenchman whose real name was Alexandre Dechet (sometimes known as Louis-Alexandre Dechet), wrote the Brabançonne. At the time, he was an actor at the theat,re where, in August 1830, the revolution started which led to independence from the Netherlands. Jenneval died in the war of independence. François van Campenhout composed the accompanying score, based on the tune of a French song called "L'Air des lanciers polonais" ("the tune of the Polish Lancers"), written by the French poet Eugène de Pradel, whose tune was itself an adaptation of the tune of a song, "L'Air du magistrat irréprochable", found in a popular collection of drinking songs called La Clé du caveau (The Key to the cellar)Francis Martens, La Belgique en chantant, pp. 19–40, in Antoine Pickels and Jacques Sojcher (eds.), Belgique: toujours grande et belle, issues 1–2, Éditions Complexe, Brussels, 1998 and it was first performed in September 1830.