Louis Theodore Gouvy

Louis Theodore Gouvy is a Compositeur French, born in Goffontaine (currently a district of Saarbrucken in Germany) the July 3rd 1819 and died with Leipzig the April 21st 1898. It is buried with Hombourg-Haut in Lorraine.

Biography

Born in the Saar shortly after that it had become Prussian in 1815 following the Bataille of Waterloo and with the treated of Paris, Gouvy was Prussian of birth whereas two of his/her older brothers (born in Goffontaine before still in France) were French. It was provided education for with the college of Sarreguemines then to the college of Metz. He studied the Right then the music to Paris. The Academy of Paris remaining to him closed, because of its Prussian nationality, it followed courses deprived with Antoine Elwart and Carl Eckert. It improved then in contact with the musicians of Frankfurt, Leipzig, Berlin where it met inter alia Franz Liszt. It remained then with Rome. It could reach the French citizenship by naturalization only at 32 years.

Gouvy lived and wrote a long time with Hombourg-Haut in the Moselle in his/her main brother of the forging mills. He was a man of double culture, French and German, from where he drew his inspiration, his characteristic and his force, becoming finally an European before the hour. Although it known and was recognized there of alive sound, it fell somewhat into the lapse of memory after its death.

Hector Berlioz wrote in the Journal of DEBATEs of the April 13rd 1851 “That a musician of the importance of Mr. Gouvy either still if not very known in Paris, and that so many midges importunes the public of their stubborn person buzz, it is what to confuse and make indignant the naive spirits which still believe in the reason and the justice of our musical manners. ”

Alas, Berlioz changed there nothing and Gouvy remained largely been unaware of until the end of XX^e century. It is all the action undertaken in its area the Lorraine and the redécouverte of sound Requiem , with its vigorous Dies iræ , which made it leave again the shade in 1994.

Gouvy was member of the Académie of the Art schools in France and of.

Principal works

Although its work comprises more than two hundred compositions, including 90 opus published of alive sound, it remains ignored. He in particular wrote twenty-four compositions for large Orchestre, including nine Symphonie S, of the openings and the variations. The Chamber music occupies there a very great place and account in particular four Sonate S in Duo, five Trio S, eleven Quatuor S, seven Quintette S, an enormous repertory for Piano - to two and four hands - and for two pianos, several partitions for whole with winds, as well as very many melody and Lieder . One knows also five large Cantate S dramatic - Aslega, Oedipus with Colone, Iphigénie in Tauride, Electra and Polyxène -, two opera S - Cid and Mateo Falcone - as well as religious philosopher's stones, including one Requiem , a Stabat MATER , a short Messe and the cantata Golgotha .

To discover Gouvy

Among the currently available recordings, one can quote:

the Requiem by the Philharmonic society of Lorraine , under the direction of Jacques Houtmann.
N.B. : this recording combines the advantages of a recognized artistic quality, a technical good quality and one generous duration.

Electra (opus 85) by the symphony orchestra of Nancy direction Pierre CAD

Quintet (opus 24) and 5th string quartet (opus 68) by the quartet Denis Clavier

See too

Biography, analyzes '' Requiem '' on the site of the " Konzertchors" Coburg
Biographie analyzes '' Requiem '' on the page of Regio-Chors Binningen/Basel
Biographie, catalogs and bibliography the musical Gazette
bibliography and information on the institute Gouvy site of Hombourg-Haut
biography ''' extracted ''' the quattuor Nr.5 Edition Silvertrust

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