Unlike many French composers, Albert Roussel was not strictly speaking a Parisian composer, even though most of his works were premiered there. Vincent d'Indy, Roussel's teacher at the Schola Cantorum, strove to establish regional French voices in music, and in this regard at least Roussel followed his mentor's lead. In Roussel's case, this manifested itself in the special relationship that the composer maintained throughout his life with Belgium.

This affinity for Belgium (and indeed, for Flemish-speaking Flanders rather than the French-speaking part of that country, as one might expect) started at birth. Roussel was born in Tourcoing (toor kwang), a city that is just barely in France rather than Belgium; and although he wasn't a chauvinist, he liked to talk about the "red Flemish blood" that ran through his veins. His love for the sea, which led him to join the navy, was born during childhood visits to the Belgian seaside resort of Heyst, where his family would spend two months of the year.

Many of Roussel's friends and collaborators were Belgian. Arthur Hoeree, for example, arranged the Aria for various instruments and orchestrated the piano accompaniment, finished the partially complete third movement of the posthumous Trio des anches, wrote a definitive biography of the composer, and collected and edited many of Roussel's letters (published, appropriately enough, by the "Belgian Friends of Albert Roussel").

The composer always enjoyed a warm reception in the neighbor country. As I already mentioned, most of Roussel's works were given their first performance in Paris. However, several of his most important works were premiered in Brussels, including the following:

• Symphony No. 1, Le poeme de foret
• String Quartet in D
• Aeneas
• Rapsodie flamande

In addition to these premieres, Brussels heard the Third Symphony (one of Roussel's most monumental works) before Paris did. Psalm 80, another of his greatest works, was dedicated to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium.

In some ways, the ballet Aeneas is the climax of Roussel's steady relationship with Belgium. The libretto was written by the Belgian poet Joseph Weterings. At the time of his death, Roussel was working with Weterings on an ambitious folk play, half opera and half ballet, on the life of Charles the Bold; Roussel himself expected this work to be the climax of his career.

Weterings also wrote the libretto for the radio play Elpenor, Roussel's last opus number. Roussel had sent the music to Weterings, saying, "We shall thus collaborate once more. You will write me a play for this music." Although the war intervened Weterings did so, and on the tenth anniversary of Roussel's death, Elpenor heard its first performance on radio. Weterings also wrote (anonymously) the definitive Catalogue de l'oeuvre d'Albert Roussel, a document that was for a long time crucial for researchers.

Roussel's collaboration with a Belgian on Elpenor wasn't the only exclamation point on his relationship with Belgium. Roussel's last orchestral composition was Rapsodie flamande, using themes from 15th and 16th Century Flemish songs, thus bringing his relationship with Belgium full cycle — from birth to death.