Born in Bruges, Belgium, on August 24th 1937. Music studies ('cello, chamber music, theory) at the Bruges Conservatoire and at the Mozarteum Salzburg. During the sixties numerous first performances and recordings of contemporary solo and ensemble works (also electro-instrumental). Is the dedicatee of a dozen works.
University studies in Ghent: Law Doctorate (1960) and Ph. D. in Musicology (1975) with a dissertation on Musical Serialism, published Ghent 1977 as: "Het Muzikale Serialisme als Techniek en als Denkmethode".
Part-time professor of musicology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (1980-2002), and full-time professor at Ghent University (1984-2003); in that capacity author of several syllabi on music history and theory; also Director of the Institute of Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music (IPEM)(1986-94), chairman of the Arts Department (1995-2002), and 'ombudsman' of the Faculty of Philosophy (1995-98). Visiting Professor in, i. a. , Montreal, Sao Paulo, Lisboa, Alcala de Henares, Seoul, Aix-en-Provence.
Chairman of several international symposia in Ghent, Brussels, Amsterdam. Founder-editor of Documenta Musicae Novae, Ghent, 1968-80; Co-Founder (1972) and editor (-2004) of Journal of New Music Research (formerly INTERFACE); editor of several special issues, on New Music Notation (1975) (with Kurt Stone and Gerald Warfield), on Composer-Society/Komponist und Gesellschaft/Le Compositeur dans la Société, commissioned by the E. E. C. (1983); guest editor of special issues for the Revue Belge de Musicology, on Henri Pousseur, on Lucien Goethals (with Phillipe Sioen and Dirk Moelants); co-editor of Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift(1972-82); consulting editor of Musicae Scientiae (1999-). Music critic for Kunst-en Cultuuragenda (K & C), Brussels, 1968-82.
West-Flanders literary Prize for an essay on "Arnold Schoenberg - Revolutie of Evolutie?" (1961), published in De Vlaamse Gids (1962); Laureate of the Belgian Academy (1976), and a member since 1999; Winner of the Crescendo Prize of the Flemish Music Council (1990)
Co-Founder of the (new) Belgian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM); Vice-President of the Belgian National Music Council (1970-74).
Author of the multimedia spectacle "HE. . . !" (music by Karel Goeyvaerts and Lucien Goethals), performed at the Flanders Festival 1971, in Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp.
Published extensively on 19th and 20th c. Western 'classical' music (history, theory, aesthetics, sociology), with special emphasis on New Music in the second half of the 20th c., in Dutch, French, German and English, with translations in 7 other languages; monographies on Stockhausen: "Wie die Zeit verging", Musik-Konzepte 19 (eds. H. K. Metzger and R. Riehn), Munich 1981, and on Ligeti: "Studien zur kompositorischen Phänomenologie", Musik-Konzepte 53, id. ibid., 1987, also in Hungarian translation, Budapest 1993; author of illustrated handbooks on Romanticism ('Wereld in Beeld' 1), Brussels, 1977, and on Dadaism (Wereld in Beeld 3), Brussels-The Hague 1979; co-author of a book on Expressionism, and of De Nieuwe Muziek in Vlaanderen (with Mark Delaere and Yves Knockaert), Bruges, 1998; author of "All that Music" (a sociology of Western music culture), Louvain 1996, 2nd edition 1997, new extended version, titled "Stilte! Muziek!", 2003; and "La Musique et l'Occident - Démocratie et Capitalisme (post-)industriel : Incidences sur l'investissement esthétique et économique en musique", Sprimont 1998. Working currently on a 'Anthropomusicology' : 'HOMO MUSICUS - on the evolutionary sense of music'.
Libri Amicorum: a special issue of 'Yang', Ghent 1979 (ed. L. Goethals); and "Onder Hoogspanning-Muziekcultuur in de hedendaagse samenleving" (ed. M. Leman), Brussels 2003.

Chronological list of main publications (apart from those already mentioned in the biographical note)

• D'un Rapprochement-Contribution à l'Etude des langages nouveaux. Cinquième Saison (ed. Henri Chopin), 17, Paris 1963. Also in Berenice, 33, Rome 1991.
• On the Interpenetration of Poetry and Music in present-day Composition for Voice. BRT Brussels 1966. Also in Polish translation in Res Facta, 7, Krakow 1973.
• Design for a cybernetic Model of the History of Musical Communication. Yearbook IPEM, Ghent 1969.
• "Philosophie der neuesten Musik"-Ein Versuch zur Extrapolation von Adornos "Philosophie der neuen Musik". Philosophica Gandensia, 9, Ghent 1972. Also in French translation in Musique en Jeu, 7, Paris 1972. And in a revised version in H.-W. Heister, K. Heister-Grech and G. Scheit, eds.: Zwischen Aufklärung und Kulturindustrie, Hamburg 1993.
• Unificatie en Synthese in het hedendaagse Kunstleven (with Jan L. Broeckx)in L. Apostel, ed.: De Eenheid van de Cultuur, Meppel 1972.
• Das Musikdenken von Karel Goeyvaerts in bezug auf das Schaffen von Karlheinz Stockhausen. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der frühseriellen und elektronischen Musik 1950-1956. Interface, 2(1), Amsterdam 1973.
• Hedendaagse Muziek op zoek naar een Zijnsleer - De Esthetiek van het Contingente. Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift XXVIII(6), Antwerpen 1975. Literatuur en Muziek verenigd in Theorie en Praktijk - Het contemporain geval Michel Butor-Henri Pousseur. Nieuw Vlaams Tijdschrift, XXVIIII(5, 8, 9, 10), Antwerpen 1976. Also in German translation in H. K. Metzger and R. Riehn, eds.: Henri Pousseur - Musik-Konzepte 69, Munich 1990.
• Minimalism - A World Vision's World Versions. European Minimal Music Project. Goethe Institut, Munich 1982.
• Techniques Médiévales en Musique Contemporaine:Histoire de la Musique et Sens Culturel. Revue Belge de Musicologie, XXXIV, Brussels 1982.
• Libereté Créatrice et Mécanisation. Recueil Oui-Non, 5, Paris 1983.
• Vom Serialismus zum Minimalismus - Werdegang eines Manierismus, in H. Henck, ed.: Neuland Jahrbuch, Bergisch Gladbach 1982.
• Karel Goeyvaerts: Kruis en Kring. Muziekkrant 18, Leuven 1983. Also in German translation in MusikTexte 6, Cologne 1984.
• Henri Pousseur : Quelques Etapes d'une longue Marche. Bulletin de la Société Liégeoise de Musicologie, 46, Liège 1984. Also in Swedish translation in Nutida Musik XXVII(3), Stockholm 1984.
• Bilan et Perspectives de la Diffusion de la Musique Contemporaine (Report to the E. E. C. Commission). Brussels 1985.
• Music in Relation to a Unified Theory of Human Action and Understanding, in L. Apostel, H. Sabbe, and F. Vandamme, eds.: Reason, Emotion and Music, Ghent 1986.
• A Logic of Coherence and an Aesthetic of Contingency : European versus American 'Open Structure' Musics, in: H. Sabbe, ed.: Open Structure in 20th Century Music. Interface XVI(3), Lisse 1987.
• Der Psychobiologische Transzendenz-Begriff bei Stockhausen, in O. Kolleritsch, ed.: Studien zur Wertungsforschung, 18, Wien-Graz 1987.
• 'Clocky Clouds' und 'Cloudy Clocks' - Europäisches Erbe in beschmutzter Zeitlupe, in O. Kolleritsch: György Ligeti - Studien zur Wertungsforschung, 19, Wien-Graz 1987.
• Open Structure and the Problem of Criticism. Perspectives of New Music XXVII(1), New York 1989. Also in J. Rahn, ed.: Perspectives on Musical Aesthetics, New York-London 1994.
• Von der Mikro- zur Makropolychronie - Überlegungen zur Dimension der Zeit im Oeuvre Ligetis. Gentse Bijdragen tot de Kunstgeschiedenis en Oudheidkunde, XXVIII, Ghent 1989.
• Un Niveau 'Subsymbolique': Problèmes d'Analyse. Analyse Musicale, No hors série, Paris 1991.
• Vorausblick in neue Vergangenheit - Ligeti und die Tradition. Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 154(1), Mainz 1993.
• Cage: Waar is de Tijd? De Vlaamse Gids, 77(1), Antwerp 1993.
• Karel Goeyvaerts 1923-1993 - Ästhetische Radikalität und Ideologie. Positionen-Beiträge zur neuen Musik XV, Berlin 1993. In English in: M. Delaere, H. de la Motte and H. Sabbe, eds.: New Music, Aesthetics and Ideology, Wilhelmshaven 1995.
• Fragment als esthetisch model in de muziek van Beethoven en de Romantici, in J. De Vos, ed.: Brokstukken of Bouwstenen?Ghent 1993.
• Project : Een Alternatief Humanisme, in: R. Commers, ed.: De Mens is Dood-Leve de Mens. Brussels 1993.
• Maeterlinck, Schoenberg et Debussy, ou la Littérature au Carrefour de l'Histoire musicale, in: C. Angelet, ed.Pelléas et Mélisande - Annales de la Fondation Maurice Maeterlinck XXIX, Ghent 1994.
• Qu'est-ce qui constitue une 'Tradition'? Liszt-Ligeti: Une Lignée? In: L. Somfai, ed.: Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae XXXV(1-3), Budapest 1994.
• Der Serialismus als 'Musica Absoluta' - Kompositionstechnik und gesellschaftliche Bedeutung, in: H.-W. Heister, ed.: Musik/Revolution, Hamburg 1997.
• The Feldman Paradoxes - A Deconstructionist View of Musical Aesthetics, in: T. DeLio, ed.: The Music of Morton Feldman. Westport CT-London, 1996. Also in The Excelsior Profile Series of American Composers, New York 1996.
• De Nieuwe Muziek in de 20ste Eeuw - Een aantal sleutelbegrippen bij een Interpretatie, in: P. Dejans, ed.: Inter Disciplinas Ars (with M. Butor, H. Pousseur and S. Senn), Louvain 1998. Also in English, id. , ibid.
• Muziek en andere Kunsten in de negentiende eeuw, in: Thema's en Genres in de Muziekgeschiedenis, Open Universiteit, Heerlen 1998.
• Pour en finir avec la Fin de l'Histoire. Revue Belge de Musicologie LII, Brussels 1999 (Liber Amicorum C. Deliège, P. Decroupet and F. Nicolas, eds. ).
• Auf dem Weg zum Klangkontinuum - Versuch über die Bedeutung des elektro-instrumentalen Mischwerls, in: W. Fähndrich, ed.: Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart der elektronischen Musik, Luzern 1999.
• Call for rectifications of current musicological practice. Musicae Scientiae, Liège 2001.
• Une Philosophie du Tout, in: I. Deliège and M. Paddison, eds.: Musique Contemporaine - Perspectives théoriques et philosophiques, Sprimont 2001.
• Pertinenze della Vocalità di Ligeti, in: A. Arbo, ed.: Kadmos, Gorizia 2001. Also in French in Revue Belge de Musicologie, Brussels 2005. Also in French : Musique de la Voix chez Ligeti: Sens et Signifiance , in Revue Belge de Musicologie LVIII, Brussels 2004.
• Elektronische Muziek in België en Nederland, in L. P. Grijp, ed.: Een Muziekgeschiedenis der Nederlanden, Amsterdam 2001.
• Musikalisches Sammelsurium - Gedankliche Entropie an der Schwelle zum neuen Jahrtausend, in: R. Frisius, ed.: Neue Musik 1999: Bilanz und Perspektiven, Mainz 2001.
• "Musique Nouvelle" : plus c'est structuré, moins c'eszt structural, in: G. Borio, ed.: ...The Philosophical Horizon of Composition in the twentieth Century, Bologna 2003.
• Muziekcultuur en Natuur - Muziek tussen Geest en Beest, tussen Spel en Appèl, in: M. Leman, ed.: Muziekcultuur in de hedendaagse Samenleving, Brussel 2003.
• L'Electronique, Outil d'une Pensée musicale, in: V. Tiffon, ed.: La Musique Electroacoustique: Un Bilan, Lille 2004.
• Musiques Savantes, Musiques Populaires. International Review of the Aesthetics and Sociology of Music 34(2), Zagreb 2003.