David van de Woestijne was born on 18 February 1915 in Llandinam (Wales), the son of Gustave van de Woestijne who had moved there for a short time. His father’s fame as an expressionist painter was and still is eclipsed by his uncle, the poet Karel van de Woestijne. David chose music at an early age and began studying piano and solfège at the Royal Conservatory in Brussels (1925-1929). He subsequently studied harmony, organ and counterpoint at the Lemmens Institute (1929-1932) and later, at the conservatory in Mechelen, harmony and chamber music (with Godfried Devreese), fugue and orchestration (with Paul Gilson) and piano and music history (1932-1937). Although he continued studying with Désiré Defauw and the Spaniard Oscar Esplà, David van de Woestijne would always consider himself to be self-taught. When referring to Devreese as his most important teacher, he meant more the latter’s lessons in life than in harmony.

In 1938 he was hired as a musician/modulator at the N.I.R. (Nationaal Instituut voor Radio-omroep, predecessor of the B.R.T. radio network). After 1946 he was head musician/modulator and was made head of the division in 1966. Van de Woestijne also developed a career as a concert pianist, giving performances of his own compositions abroad (including in France, Denmark and Sweden), but it was brought to an abrupt end by a finger injury in 1957. From 1968 onwards Van de Woestijne also gave seminars in film and theatre music in Brussels. He kept composing until a few years before his death, on 18 May 1979 in Brussels. He was awarded the Prize for Film Music in Antwerp in 1954 and the next year, his entire oeuvre was awarded the Picard Prize by the Free Academy of Belgium.