Born in Paris, Aug 15, 1890
Died in Paris, Feb 5, 19621
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IBERT, Jacques
Nationality: French
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LAGOYA, Alexandre
Born in Alexandria, June 21, 1929
Died in Paris, Aug 24, 1999
- Lagoya was a Greek-born French guitarist. He was part of a guitar duo with his wife Ida Presti.
- Lagoya taught at the Paris Conservatory from the late 1960s to the mid-90s.2
Born in Lille, Jan 27, 1823
Paris, April 22, 1892
- Lalo worked throughout his life to achieve commercial success as a composer, enduring a series of rejections and failures until at last, four years before his death, his opera Le roi d’Ys became a hit in 1888.3
‘It’s hard enough doing my own kind of music and making sure that it’s good enough. If I started to do someone else’s I’m sure it would be appalling.’
Lalo, on originality 4
‘While I do not know exactly what I am, I do know what I am not. I am not a member of any school, and I do not adhere to any system. I agree with the poet Musset: ‘My glass is small, but I drink from my glass.’
Lalo on originality, again 5
Born in Paris, 1858
Died in 1945
- Lambert Jr. (or Lambert fils) was the son of Louisiana-born composer of Creole descent, Charles Lucien Lambert Sr. (c. 1828 – 1896).
- Lambert Jr. was a pianist as well as a composer. His teachers included his father, Theodore Dubois and Jules Massenet.
- Lambert Jr. Spent the first portion of his career in Paris, composing piano music, orchestral music and a Requiem, among other works. He spent the latter part of his career in Portugal, employed as a pianist for the Portugese royal court.6
- Lambert Jr. made several wax cylinder recordings in 1905; as such, he is thought to be the first classical musician of African descent to appear in music recordings.7
Born in London, Aug 7, 1818
Died in Bois-Colombes, Aug 5, 1891
- Litolff was a touring concert pianist, piano teacher and composer.
- Litolff was born in London, and was based in a series of European cities throughout his career, eventually ending up in Paris.
- At various times he worked as a conductor of the Warsaw National Theatre Orchestra; Kapellmeister of the court of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and owned a music publishing house.
- Fun (Weird?) Fact: his father, Martin Louis Litolff, was a dance violinist from Alsace who ended up in London because he was taken prisoner by the British during the Peninsular War in Spain. Martin married a Scottish lady in London, so Litolff was Alsatian-Scottish.8
Born in Florence, Nov 28, 1632
Died in Paris, March 22, 1687
- He was born Giovanni Battista Lulli in Florence, where he studied violin with a Franciscan friar. In 1646 he moved to Paris to tutor Louis XIV’s cousin Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans in Italian. He then studied both music and dance in France.
- In 1653 Lully entered the service of Louis XIV, appointed compositeur de la musique instrumentale. He was “discovered” when he appeared as a dancer in the Ballet Royal de la Nuit, an extravagant 13-hour ballet which starred Louis XIV as Apollo, the Sun King.9
- Fun fact: Lully was both a dancer and composer for the court of Louis XIV, and he was particularly favored for his talent at comic roles.
- Lully spent the rest of his career working for the royal court. When Louis XIV ascended the throne in 1661, Lully became a naturalized French citizen.
- Lully composed ballets, operas, and sacred music for the French court, as well as composing and producing operas for the public.
- The magnificence of the court at Versailles led to artistic imitation all over Europe: Lully’s use of the French overture, or ouverture, led to a particularly popular trend in Baroque music meant to illustrate power or royalty (for example, the overture to Handel’s Messiah is a French overture). 10
- Lully collaborated multiple times with Molière, including their comic ballet Le bourgeois gentilhomme(1670). The two were such a great team that they were known as the “deux Baptiste” (Molière’s birth name was Jean-Baptiste Poquelin).
- Fun (Weird? Sad?) Fact: Lully died in 1687 from a gangrenous foot wound. He had bashed his own foot three months earlier while conducting a performance of his Te Deum. Lully conducted by tapping a tall walking-stick type rod on the floor in time to the music.
Born in Paris, baptized May 31, 1656
Died in Paris, Aug 15, 1728
- Marais studied the viol at the choir school of the church of St. Germain-l’Auxerrois. Subsequently he studied with famous bass viol virtuoso Sainte-Colombe, and reportedly surpassed the skills of his teacher in 6 months.
- Marais played viol in the prestigious Opéra orchestra under the direction of Lully, who also taught him composition.
- Marais composed operas and instrumental music, and eventually became conductor of the Opéra orchestra. 12
Marais played the viol “Like an angel”
Marais’ contemporaries thought so, according to his Grove’s article
Born in Montaud, St Etienne, May 12, 1842
Died in Paris, Aug 13, 1912
- Massenet was the leading French opera composer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Fun fact: Early in his career Massenet played timpani at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris. In this position he got to know the operas of Gounod, Gluck, Mozart, Beethoven and Weber.
- Massenet won the Prix de Rome in 1863, had his first opera produced at the Opéra-Comique in 1867. In 1877 he won success with his grand opera La roi de Lahore, and was also appointed a professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire13
Born in Givet, Ardennes, June 22, 1763
Died in Paris, Oct 18, 1817
- Méhul was one of France’s leading composers during the French Revolution and subsequent reign of Napoleon.
- Méhul composed operas, choral works and patriotic hymns.14
- During his lifetime Méhul was celebrated outside of France as well. When E.T.A. Hoffmann heard his Ariodant in Berlin in 1816, he called Méhul a “learned and versatile” composer.15
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MESSIAEN, Olivier
Born in Avignon, Dec 10, 1908
Died in Paris, April 27, 1992
- Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and educator whose music was highly influenced by his Roman Catholic faith and non-European cultures, mainly Indian and Japanese.16
- In the most basic terms, Messiaen’s musical voice was distinctive and highly personal, filled with unique harmonic language, complex rhythms, and overall richness.
- As a professor at the Paris Conservatory, he instructed many of the next generation’s prominent composers, such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen.17
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MILHAUD, Darius
Born in Marseilles, Sept 4, 1892
Died in Geneva, June 22, 1974
- Milhaud grew up in Provence, where his father was an almond dealer. He reported that the songs of the amandières (the women who sorted almonds for sale) were one of the first musical influences in his life.
- Milhaud’s Paris Conservatory teachers included Dukas and Widor.
- Influences on Milhaud’s style were many and eclectic, including jazz, polytonality, and the music of Brazil (unable to serve in the military in WWI, he instead served as an attaché to the French minister in Brazil during the war years).
- Milhaud was part of the Satie-inspired, Jean Cocteau-befriended group of six French avant-garde composers active in the 1920s, known as Les six.
- In the latter part of his life, Milhaud divided his time between teaching at Mills College, Oakland, California, and at the Paris Conservatory. His students included Dave Brubeck.18
Full name: Jean-Joseph Cassanéa de Mondonville
Born in Narbonne, baptized Dec 25, 1711
Died in Belleville, Oct 8, 1772
- Mondonville was a composer, violinist and conductor.
- He was a contemporary of Rameau, and the two of them were the pre-eminent French composers of 18th century.19
Born in Avignon, France, April 11, 1682
Died in Charenton, Dec. 22, 1738
- Mouret worked in court and opera positions throughout his life. For 20 years he was the composer-director of Comédie-Italienne in Paris.
- Mouret was a director of esteemed concert Paris concert series Concert Spirituel, 20 in which instrumental and sacred music was performed during Lent when theatres were closed.21
Born c. 1690
Died in Paris, Nov 26, 1762
- Naudot was a flute virtuoso, composer and teacher active in late Baroque France. Most of his works are for flute or similar wind instruments.
- Fun Fact: Naudot composed a good deal of fun or frivolous music, including his op.10, 6 babioles (which can be translated as “trifles” or “toys”)
- Fun fact: Naudot also composed virtuosic sonatas and concertos for the hurdy-gurdy and the musette.22
Born in Cologne, June 20, 1819
Died in Paris, Oct 5, 1880
- Though he was born in Germany, Offenbach’s father took him and his brother Jules to Paris as a child to study music, and Offenbach spent his career based in France.
- The widespread success of Offenbach’s operettas helped establish operetta as an internationally popular genre.
- In addition to composing operetta, Offenbach was also a cellist and a conductor of operetta.23
Born in (probably) Paris, c. 1652
Died in Dreux, Aug 11, 1730
Name somestime spelled Filidor
- Philidor was a member of a French family of musicians who worked for the royal family.
- André-Danican Philidor l’aîné [the eldest] (aka le père) was a woodwind player and percussionist, music librarian and composer who served the French court, starting under the directorship of Lully.
- Philidor l’aîné undertook a massive project to preserve the music in the royal collection, from the reign of Louis XIV all the way back to Henri IV (who ruled France from 1589-1610). He copied and hence preserved huge numbers of historic French works.24
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PIERNÉ, Gabriel
Born in Metz, Aug 16, 1863
Died in Ploujean, Finistère, July 17, 1937
- Pierné studied at the Paris Conservatoire with César Frank (organ) and Jules Massenet (composition).
- Pierné won the Prix de Rome when he was 19.
- Pierné was the conductor of the Concerts Colonne, in which capacity he directed premieres of works by Debussy and Ravel. He also directed the premiere of The Firebird for the Ballets Russes.25
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POULENC, Francis
Born in Paris, Jan 7, 1899
Died in Paris, Jan 30, 196326
Born in Dijon, bap. Sept 25, 1683
Died in Paris, Sept 12, 1764
- Rameau was the leading composer in 18th century France.
- Rameau is best known for his operas, motets, cantatas, and keyboard music. He was also an important music theorist.27
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RAVEL, Maurice
Born in Ciboure, Basses-Pyrénées, March 7, 1875
Died in Paris, Dec 28, 1937
Pieces
- Alborada del gracioso (Morning Song of the Jester)
- Bolero
- Daphnis et Chloé
- Gaspard de la Nuit
- La valse
- Le tombeau de Couperin
- Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite)
- Menuet antique
- Pavane pour une infante défunte
- Piano Concerto for the Left Hand
- Piano Trio in a minor
- Prélude in a minor
- Rapsodie espagnole
- Trois poèmes de Mallarmé (Three Poems of Mallarmé)
- Tzigane, rapsodie de concert
- Une barque sur l’ocean (A Boat on the Ocean)
Born in Paris, bap. April 18, 1666
Died in Paris, Jan 2, 1747
- Rebel was a member of a musical French family who worked in court and opera positions between 1661-1775. His father Jean Rebel was a court singer and dancer, and his sister Anne-Renée Rebel was an opera singer who appeared in works by Lully.
- Jean-Féry Rebel studied violin and composition with Lully, played in the 24 Violons du Roy, then took the post of Chamber Composer to the King.
- He is sometimes known as Jean-Féry Rebel le père because his son François took over most of his professional positions upon his retirement.28
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ROUSSEL, Albert
Born in Tourcoing, April 5, 1869
Died in Royan, Aug 23, 1937
- Albert Roussel had an unusual trajectory to music in that he didn’t pursue composition until his mid-twenties. Though he had music instruction as a child, he was more interested in mathematics. In 1887, Roussel passed the entrance exam for the French Navy and spent the next several years at sea.
- At age 25, Roussel decided to become a musician and subsequently resigned from the Navy. He moved to Paris and eventually entered the Schola Cantorum, where he studied under Vincent d’Indy.
- Roussel soon became a teacher at the institution himself and taught notable names such as Erik Satie and Edgard Varèse.
- While Roussel’s early works show the influence of impressionism and neoclassicism, both of which were popular styles of the time, the composer came to develop a unique independent musical voice, writing music “his music harmonically spiced and rhythmically vigorous.”29
- WWI broke out just as Roussel was gaining notoriety as a composer. He joined the cause as a transport officer on the front and only left in 1918 for health reasons.
- His experience in the war made Roussel all the more convinced of his destiny as a composer and significantly changed his aesthetic. From then on, he pursued “purer music: less cluttered, cleansed, and more personal.”30
- Food for thought – the reason why Roussel is not as well known as his French contemporaries, such as Debussy or Ravel, is because he created such a unique musical idiom that was not carried on by later generations – he developed a “unique personal language in which he was to have no followers.”31
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Born in Paris, Oct 9, 1835
Died in Algiers, Dec 16, 1921
- Saint-Saëns studied organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory. He also performed and toured as a concert pianist his nearly all his life.
- Saint-Saëns helped edit editions of many historical composers’ works, including Gluck, Beethoven and Mozart. His interest in historical music also extended to Bach, and to Handel, whose oratorios inspired Saint-Saëns’s own work in that genre.
- Saint-Saëns was organist at the Église de la Madeleine, which was (and remains) one of the most important organist positions in France.30
Pieces
- Algerian Suite
- Allegro appassionato for Cello and Orchestra in b minor, Op. 43
- Ascanio
- Bassoon Sonata in G Major, Op. 168
- Carnival of the Animals
- Cello Concerto No. 1 in a minor, Op. 33
- Danse macabre, Op. 40
- Le rouet d’Omphale, Op. 31
- Odelette for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 162
- Piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor, Op. 22
- Romance for Cello and Orchestra in F Major, Op. 36
- Romance for Flute and Orchestra, Op. 37
- Samson and Delilah
- Sonata for Clarinet and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 167
- Symphony No. 2 in a minor, Op. 55
- Symphony No. 3 in c minor, Op.78, “Organ”
- Tarantelle for Flute, Clarinet and Orchestra Op. 6
Flourished 1658–87
Died by 1701
- M. de Sainte-Colombe was a French viol player and composer who flourished during the second half of the 17th century.
- We are not sure when he was born; his approximate death is determined by the appearance of a memorial tribute composition by his former student Marin Marias.
- For a long time historians were unsure what his first name was (hence programming him as M. de Sainte-Colombe). However, his Grove article explains why, judging from contemporary sources such as notary signatures, they think his first name was Jean.
- That memorial piece by Marias is entitled Tombeau de M. Sainte-Colombe, with no first name.
- Sainte-Colombe was lauded in his time for being an excellent teacher and for various bass viol innovations, like adding a seventh string to the instrument and inventing new playing techniques.
- Sainte-Colombe composed over 180 solo pieces for the bass viol and 67 Concerts à deux violes esgales (pieces for two viols of equal range).
- Sainte-Colombe also a son who worked in London, known as “Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe le fils.”3
Article on Sainte-Colombe by Jonathan Dunford, the composer’s Grove entry author
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SATIE, Erik
Born in Honfleur, May 17, 1866
Died in Paris, July 1, 1925
Article on Satie from The Guardian
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SCHMITT, Florent
Born in Blâmont, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Sept 28, 1870
Died in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, Aug 17, 1958
“Throughout his life, Schmitt was valued for his independent spirit and refusal to be identified with any school or group. In a time when many composers embraced Impressionism, his music, albeit influenced by Debussy, was admired for its energy, dynamism, grandeur, and virility, for its union of French clarity and German strength… Schmitt was considered a pioneer during his lifetime, rejected by some and embraced by others for a style that influenced and helped prepare for later innovations by Stravinsky, Ravel, Honegger and Roussel.”
Grove Music Online32
- Florent Schmitt was encouraged by his parents to pursue music from an early age. In his late teens, he was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied under Massenet and Fauré.
- Historical context: The year that Schmitt joined the Conservatoire, 1889, was the same year that the Eiffel Tower was completed and the Moulin Rouge opened.
- Schmitt won the Prix de Rome in 1900 for his secular cantata, Sémiramis, and spent the next four years composing in the Italian city.
- Schmitt wrote an extensive catalog of works during his long life, which makes how little he is known today relative to his contemporaries (Debussy and Ravel) even more surprising.
- One of the distinctive features of Schmitt’s music was his love of unequal time signatures (5/8, 7/8, etc.). He is best known for his orchestral music.
- In addition to composing, Schmitt was also a music critic, which caused him to make many enemies through his reviews and articles.
- In everyday life, Schmitt didn’t shy away from making his presence or opinions known, for better or worse.
- “A story goes that some poor pianist, engaged in disentangling Schmitt’s counterpoint, had to cope with the composer’s voice from the back of the hall shouting, ‘It’s a C Sharp!'”33
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Biography of the composer (with many interesting images)
Biography from Hyperion Records
Pieces
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TAILLEFERRE, Germaine
Born in Parc-St-Maur, near Paris, April 19, 1892
Died in Paris, Nov 7, 1983
- Tailleferre was a piano prodigy as well as a composer. She studied at the Paris Conservatory, where she met future fellow-members of Les Six: Auric, Honegger and Milhaud.
- Erik Satie discovered Tailleferre’s Jeux de plein air in 1917, and he loved it so much that he called Tailleferre his “musical daughter” and promoted her career.
- Tailleferre was the only woman composer in the early 20th-century group of French composers known as Les Six. She appears in the lower left-hand corner of this famous group portrait of Les Six.
- Tailleferre’s works include comic operas, radio and film scores, incidental music, orchestral music, chamber music, songs, and a number of works for children.34
Born in Paris, July 18, 1821
Died in Paris, May 18, 1910
- Pauline Viardot-Garcìa was a mezzo soprano, pianist, and composer from the Garcìa family, a Spanish family of musicians and voice teachers.
- Her father was Manuel Garcìa, a voice teacher and tenor.
- Her mother was soprano María Joaquina Sitches.
- Her elder sister was mezzo soprano and composer Maria Malibran.
- Her brother was Manuel Garcìa II, a baritone and voice teacher.
- Viardot-Garcìa made her vocal concert debut in 1837, and her operatic debut in Rossini’s Barber of Seville in 1839. She was one of the greatest bel canto singers of her time.
- Composers who wrote for Viardot-Garcìa include Schumann (Liederkreis, Op. 24), Meyerbeer (the role of Fides in Le prophète) and Brahms (Alto Rhapsody).
- Her expertise as a singer led composers to turn to her for advice in writing vocal works, including Berlioz (Béatrice et Bénédict) and Gounod (Sapho).
- Viardot-Garcìa’s artistic circle also included Chopin (whose piano pieces she arranged as songs), George Sand (who wrote a novel inspired by her, Consuelo), and Ivan Turgenev, her close friend (possibly lover) who wrote the texts for many of Viardot-Garcìa’s songs and operas.
- Viardot-Garcìa composed over 100 songs, as well as salon operas, chamber music, piano music and choral music.36
Biography from Christin Heitmann, cataloger of Viardot’s works (Viardot Werkverzeichnis or VWV)
ACP Arts Blog post on Pauline Viardot-Garcìa
ACP Arts Blog post on Maria Malibran
Born in Strasbourg, Dec 9, 1837
Died in Paris, Feb 12, 191537