Joseph-Ermend Bonnal

Joseph Ermend Bonnal ( born July 1, 1880 in Bordeaux, † August 14, 1944 ibid, also Ermend - Bonnal, pseudonym Guy Marylis ) was a French composer and organist.

Joseph Ermend Bonnal got his first musical education from his father, a violinist. He then studied at the Paris Conservatory piano with Charles- Wilfrid Bériot, harmony with Antoine Taudou, composition with Gabriel Fauré and organ with Alexandre Guilmant and Louis Vierne. He also assisted Charles -Marie Widor at Saint- Sulpice, Albert Périlhou at Saint- Séverin and Charles Tournemire at the Basilica of Ste- Clotilde.

1901 Ermend - Bonnard organist at the church of Saint- Médard, and later at the church of Notre Dame in Boulogne -sur -Seine. In 1920 he was offered a professor of organ at the University of Strasbourg a job, he decided, however, to take over as head of the Conservatory of Bayonne, which he headed until 1941. His most famous student was the composer Maurice Ohana. In 1942 he succeeded his teacher Tournemire at the Cavaillé -Coll organ of Sainte - Clotilde.

The focus of Ermend - Bonnard's musical creativity was on the organ music ( Paysage Euskariens, 1930; Mediavita, Organ Symphony, 1932), but also included all the other musical genres from piano pieces for children up to the symphony. Of his chamber works, two string quartets and a string trio are to be mentioned. He also composed under the pseudonym Guy Marylis Ragtimes, One Steps and Tango.