Déodat de Séverac

Joseph -Marie de Déodat Séverac ( born July 20, 1872 in Saint- Félix- Lauragais, Haute -Garonne, † March 24, 1921 in Ceret, Pyrenees -Orientales ) was a French composer.

Life

Déodat de Séverac received his first music lessons from his father, a painter. After leaving school in Toulouse and study at the conservatory in 1896 he went to Paris to continue his studies at the Conservatoire. In 1897 he moved to the newly formed Schola Cantorum. There, Vincent d' Indy and Alberic Magnard were his composition teacher. He received the organ with Alexandre Guilmant. At times he worked as an assistant to Isaac Albéniz, then returned to the South of France and devoted himself exclusively to composition.

Work

Déodat de Séveracs music shows influences of Impressionism, but in particular it is of the musical traditions of his homeland, the Languedoc, embossed. It stands close to the folk music, without, however, to use direct borrowings from it. His song or choral compositions based partly on texts in Provençal and Catalan, partly on poems in French, about Verlaine or Baudelaire.

Outside of France, best known were his piano compositions, which bring many pictorial title. These include the suites En Languedoc, En Vacances and Cerdaña. In his catalog of works by, while two operas (Le Coeur du moulin, premiered in 1909 at the Paris Opéra -Comique, and Héliogabale, premiered in 1910 in Béziers ), three symphonic poems, works for organ and chamber music.

Discography

• Jordi Maso: Déodat de Séverac: Piano music. Naxos 8-572429, 2013.