Marcel Michel, Baron Poot (7 May 1901 – 12 June 1988) was a Belgian composer, professor, and musician who was born in Vilvoorde and died in Brussels.
[3]Upon enrolling at the Brussels Conservatory, Poot studied composition and instrumentation with Arthur De Greef, José Sevenans, Martin Lunssens [nl], and Lodewijk Mortelmans.
[4] He later transferred to the Antwerp Conservatory, possibly as a result of the anti-Flemish atmosphere in Brussels after World War I.
[2] In Antwerp, Poot studied privately with Paul Gilson, with whom he subsequently founded La Revue musicale belge [fr] in 1925.
[4] Before its split in 1930, the group was championed by the conductor Arthur Prévost [fr] and pianist Charles Scharrès.
[1] Among the other influences which shaped Poot's music were the works of Richard Strauss, Maurice Ravel, and Igor Stravinsky.
A performance of Poot's Poeme de l'espace at the 1930 ISCM festival in Liège was harshly criticized by Edwin Evans and Henry Prunières.
The former described it as a "ride of Robot Valkyries" whose rhythms and sound were cover for "incredibly banal" music,[10] while the latter wrote: Can it really be possible that this young Flemish musician really think he is a modern because he sometimes dares to use clutches of dissonant chords?
Nothing could be more clichéd than this symphonic poem which evokes memories of works from around 1890 by composers influenced by Wagnerism and the Russians.
He also continued to work as a music critic for French language periodicals in Belgium, including Le Peuple and La Nation belge [fr].
During the occupation period, Belgian newspapers came under the control of the local Propagandabteilung, which required journalists to register for its approval.
[13] From 1963 to 1980, Poot chaired the jury of the international Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and wrote several commissioned works to mark the occasion, one of them being the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.