Herman Roelstraete was born in 1925 in Lauwe. In 1939 he attended the verger’s school in Torhout, where he acquired a love for Gregorian Chant, organ, and the “Flemish Question”, three subjects that would often find their expression in his music. In 1942 he began his studies at the Lemmens Institute with Henri Durieux (harmony), Marinus de Jong (piano and counterpoint), Flor Peeters (organ) and Jules Van Nuffel (choral conducting and aesthetics of music). After his final exam at the Lemmens Institute, he went to the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, where he earned first prizes in singing (Marice Weynand), counterpoint (Marcel Poot) and organ (Paul de Maleingrau). Several years later, Roelstraete continued his studies in orchestral direction, orchestration and composition at the Brussels conservatory. He played an important part in the cultural life of West Flanders, founding choirs, ensembles and orchestras, researching folksongs and assisting other conductors. Roelstraete and Karel Anneessens went to England together to look for instruments belonging to the Anneessens family; he later wrote a history of these instruments. He inspected more than 270 organs in Flanders, creating a register that includes the names of the builders. In 1950, Roelstraete became director of the music academy in Izegem, where he created new departments and courses, increased the number of students, founded a concert series and taught a number of different courses himself. He was also a singing teacher for a time and enjoyed a short career as a soloist. This came to a sudden end when he incurred a temporary paralysis of the vocal chords. The founding of the Musica Flandorum association represented the crowning achievement of his life’s work. This organisation had three departments which promoted fogotten Flemish music: a chamber choir, a music publisher and a department chiefly involved with the study of forgotten scores. In 1957, Roelstrate studied dodecaphony with Máttyás Seiber.