Charles Louis Hanssens was born into a family of Ghent musicians. His father was the director of the Ghent Opera and his uncle, a composer for many years. In 1828, Hanssens took an exam in composition, which was judged to Luigi Cherubini and Antonin Reicha. This led to his being appointed as a teacher of harmony and composition at the Brussels Royal School of Music. After the Belgian Revolution, Hanssens was suspected or "organgism" and left to work in Amsterdam and Paris. After the successful creation of the Requiem, he composed in 1837 to commemorate the victims of the Belgian Revolution, he was rehabilitated so that he was able to again settle in his native Ghent. Hanssens left an impressive body of work, including choral works, operas, cantatas, oratorios, masses, a Requiem, numerous works for chamber orchestra and much more.