- François Joseph Gossec
François-Joseph Gossec (
January 17 ,1734 —February 16 ,1829 ) was a Belgian composer of operas, string quartets, symphonies, and choral works who worked inFrance .Life and Work
The son of a small farmer, Gossec was born at the village of
Vergnies , in Hainaut, then French, now Belgian. Showing an early taste for music, he became a choir-boy in Antwerp. He went to Paris in 1751 and was taken on by the great composer,Jean-Philippe Rameau . He followed Rameau as the conductor of a private orchestra kept by the "fermier général" Le Riche de La Poupelinière, a wealthy amateur and great patron of music, and became gradually determined to do something to revive the study of instrumental music in France.Gossec's own first
symphony was performed in 1754, and as conductor to thePrince de Condé ’s orchestra he produced severalopera s and other compositions of his own. He imposed his influence on French music with remarkable success. He premiered his "Requiem" in 1760, a piece ninety minutes in length, which made him famous overnight. The piece was later admired byWolfgang Amadeus Mozart , who visited Gossec during a rather unsuccessful trip to Paris in 1778, and described him in a letter to his father as "a very good friend and a very dry man".Gossec founded the "Concert des Amateurs" in 1770 and in 1773 he reorganised the "
Concert Spirituel " together withSimon Leduc andPierre Gaviniès . In this concert series he presented and conducted his own symphonies as well as those by his contemporaries, especially works byJoseph Haydn , whose music became more and more popular in Paris, and finally even superseded Gossec's symphonic work. In the 1780s, Gossec's symphonic output decreased and he concentrated on operas. He organized the "École de Chant" in 1784, together withEtienne Méhul , was conductor of the band of the "Garde Nationale" at theFrench Revolution , and was appointed (again with Méhul andLuigi Cherubini ) inspector of the "Conservatoire de Musique" on its creation in 1795. He was an original member of the "Institut" and a "chevalier " of theLegion of Honour . In 1815, after the defeat ofNapoleon at Waterloo, the Conservatoire was closed for some time by Louis XVIII, and the eighty-one year-old Gossec had to retire. Until 1817 he worked on his last composition, a third "Te Deum ", and was supported by a pension granted by the Conservatoire.He died in the Parisian suburb of
Passy . The funeral service was attended by former colleagues, includingCherubini , at thePère Lachaise cemetery in Paris. His grave is near those of Méhul andGrétry .Some of his techniques seem to have anticipated the innovations of the Romantic era: he wrote a "Te Deum" for 1200 singers and 300 wind instruments; several oratorios include instructions for physical separation of multiple choirs, including invisible ones behind the stage. He wrote several works in honor of the
French revolution , including "Le Triomphe de la République", and "L'Offrande à la Liberté".Although most people would have difficulty recognizing Gossec's "
Gavotte " by its title, the melody itself remains familiar in the United States and elsewhere becauseCarl Stalling used an arrangement of it in severalWarner Brothers cartoons.He was little known outside France, and his own numerous compositions, sacred and secular, were overshadowed by those of more famous composers; but he was an inspiration to many, and powerfully stimulated the revival of instrumental music.
Works
For Orchestra
*Sei sinfonie a più strumenti op.4 (1759)
*Sei sinfonie a più strumenti op.5 (1761)
*Six Symphonies op.6 (1762)
*Six Symphonies à grand orchestre op. 12 (1769)
*Deux symphonies (1773)
*Symphonie n° 1 (c.1771-1774)
*Symphonie n° 2 (c.1771-1774)
*Symphonie en fa majeur (1774)
*Symphonie de chasse (1776)
*Symphonie en ré (1776)
*Symphonie en ré (1777)
*Symphonie concertante en fa majeur n° 2, à plusieurs instruments (1778)
*Symphonie en do majeur for wind orchestra (1794)
*Symphonie à 17 parties en fa majeur (1809)Chamber Music
*Sei sonate a due violini e basso op.1 (c.1753)
*Sei quartetti per flauto e violino o sia per due violini, alto e basso op. 14 (1769)
*Six Quatuors à deux violons, alto et basse op. 15 (1772)Vocal and Choral Works
*Messe des morts (Requiem) (1760)
*"La Nativité", oratorio (1774)
*Te Deum (1779)
*"Te Deum à la Fête de la Fédération" for three voices, men's chourus and wind orchestra (1790)
*"Hymne sur la translation du corps deVoltaire auPanthéon " for three voices, men's chourus and wind orchestra (1791)
*"Le Chant du 14 juillet" (Marie-Joseph Chénier ) for three voices, men's chourus and wind orchestra (1791)
*Dernière messe des vivants, for four voices, chorus and orchestra (1813)Operas
*"Les pêcheurs", opéra comique en 1 act (1766)
*"Le triomphe de la République, ou Le camp de Grandpré", divertissement-lyrique en 1 acte, (Chénier) (1794)References
*1911
External links
* [http://www.musicologie.org/Biographies/g/gossec.htm Life and detailed work list, in french]
* [http://members.klosterneuburg.net/handerle/GOSSEC.HTM François-Joseph Gossec: "Le Tyrtée de la Révolution" - the official composer of the French Revolution]
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