François-Joseph Gossec
François -Joseph Gossec (also: Gausse, Gossé, Gosset or Gossez; born January 17, 1734 Vergnies in Hainaut, Belgium, † February 16, 1829 in Passy, near Paris) was a Walloon - French composer.
Life
Born the son of a farmer, he came at the age of 6 years as a chorister at the Collegiate Church of Walcourt and later at St. Aldegonde Maubeuge. There he joined the chapel of St. Peter, whose music director Jean Vanderbelen was who gave him his first instruction in violin, piano, harmony and composition. From 1741 to 1751 he was a chorister at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp and was Director of Music at the André- Joseph Blavier further lessons. In this new environment, he felt comfortable, but lost all contact with his family. Also during his tour to the performance of his operas in 1792 and 1793 in the liberated Belgium, he had no contact with his parents or siblings. In 1751 he went with a letter to Jean -Philippe Rameau in Paris, who was director of the private orchestra Orchestra of the general tenant Alexandre Le Riche de La Pouplinière at the time.
1754, he joined the private chapel of General La Pouplinière tenant whose conductor was Rameau.
After Rameau 's death, Gossec became acquainted with his successor Johann Stamitz. He made Gossec familiar with the achievements of the Mannheim school: homophonic orchestral symphonies and impressive dynamic effects as well as for the valuable clarinets, Bassethörnern and other wind instruments.
In 1751 he became a member of the Masonic Lodge " La Réunion des Arts " in the Mehul and Cherubini were also. In 1758 he married the singer Marie -Elisabeth Georges. A son Alexandre- François -Joseph was born in 1760.
Gossec composed chamber music and symphonies. The first 6 symphonies he published in 1756 as opus 3 age of 25 he decided to compose a monumental work, a Requiem - Grand Messe des Morts. In May 1760, this 90 minute-long funeral Mass was first performed in the Eglise Jacobine, in the Rue St. Jacques, Paris and made Gossec famous overnight.
1762 to 1769 he took over the management of the Chapel of Louis V. Joseph de Bourbon, prince de Condé, Chantilly and from 1766 also the management of the chapel of the Prince of Conti Louis -François de Bourbon. With these orchestras he brought it to great prestige. With his stage works he did not have much luck, partly because of the poor libretti, on the other hand dominated his contemporaries André- Ernest- Modeste Grétry and Christoph Willibald Gluck this field.
From 1769 to 1773 he was director of the Orchestra Concert des Amateurs, which was dedicated to the performance of contemporary works and gained great fame throughout Europe quickly; Concertmaster Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint -Georges became his successor. Between 1773 and 1777 he was with Simon Leduc and Pierre Gaviniès director of the Concert Spirituel and thus took advantage of all opportunities to bring his own works and those of his friends heard. In 1775 he received the title of " maître de la musique ".
Since 1778, he worked at the Académie de Musique first as a choral conductor and since 1780 as the second director. Since 1784, he headed the newly founded École de chant. Another compositional milestone was the Te Deum of 1779, which was created on the occasion of the pregnancy of Marie Antoinette.
Gossec was enthusiastic despite his years of support from aristocratic patrons of the ideas of the French Revolution. 1790 Gossec composed another Te Deum for male choir and band for the Federation ceremony on the Champ de Mars on July 14.
When in 1795 the Conservatoire de Paris was founded, has been transferred to him, along with Jean -François Lesueur, Etienne- Nicolas Mehul, Cherubini and Grétry the inspection of the institution.
The prolific Gossec became the official composer of the French Republic and the author of numerous representative works for the festivities of the revolutionary period; be Marche lugubre to the death of Mirabeau from September 1790 was sort of the standard work for the revolution ceremonies.