Étienne Méhul
Etienne- Nicolas Mehul ( born June 22, 1763 in Givet, Ardennes Department, † October 18th 1817 in Paris) was a French composer.
Life
The father was the head servant of the Count of Montmorency and later founded a small wine shop. Etienne- Nicolas Mehul began his musical training as an organist, in the Franciscan monastery in his hometown. Later he studied with the organist William Hanser and 1778 whose assistant or auxiliary organist at the church of the Benedictine monastery of Lavaldieu in the Ardennes.
In 1779 he moved to Paris where he studied composition with the Strasbourg composer and harpsichordist Jean Frédéric Edelmann. Maybe he earned his living as an organist, but for which there is no evidence so far. In the 1780s he worked as a teacher and published in this period, two volumes of piano sonatas. The second volume was published with a so-called " deliberate " Violin, which doubles the theme in the piano.
In addition to François -Joseph Gossec he was known as the composer of the French Revolution. His Chant national du 14 Juillet 1800, who had been appointed by Napoleon after the battle of Marengo, almost got the status of a national anthem, and 1794 was his revolutionary opera Horatius Cocles. In 1795 he was inspector of the Conservatoire and a member of the Académie des beaux -arts.
Mehul was known primarily for his more than forty operas, of which Joseph is still listed also present in Egypt; Carl Maria von Weber conducted a performance of the work in 1817 at the founding of the German Court Opera in Dresden. The most famous melody from the opera, the romance of Joseph A peine au sortir de l' enfance (engl. I was a young man still in years ) was erroneously issued as a template for the Horst Wessel song, but this is probably due to the German Bänkellied I once lived back in the German fatherland.
In addition to the operas Méhul composed six great piano sonatas, three ballets, six symphonies, stage music and exhibitions.
Style
He has - made an exemplary contribution to the expansion of the substances in the opera - in addition to his contemporary and rival Jean -François Lesueur. Go to him some bold innovations in the orchestration back, and Mehul is a pioneer in the use of leitmotifs. Méhul mastery of symphonic forms and purely orchestral works is already in the overtures to his operas expressed. From Ludwig van Beethoven's letters, it is seen that he has the compositions Méhul become a major concern; the influence of the French on his opera Fidelio is unmistakable.
Works
Works for Orchestra
Works for wind and revolutionary anthems
Measuring
Stage Works
Choral works
- L' Infortunée Lyonnaise