Albert Roussel Explained

Albert Charles Paul Marie Roussel (in French pronounced as /albɛʁ ʃaʁl pɔl maʁi ʁusɛl/; 5 April 1869 – 23 August 1937) was a French composer. He spent seven years as a midshipman, turned to music as an adult, and became one of the most prominent French composers of the interwar period. His early works were strongly influenced by the Impressionism of Debussy and Ravel, while he later turned toward neoclassicism.

Biography

Born in Tourcoing (Nord), Roussel's earliest interest was not in music but mathematics. He spent time in the French Navy, and in 1889 and 1890, he served on the crew of the frigate Iphigénie and spent several years in southern Vietnam. These travels affected him artistically, as many of his musical works would reflect his interest in far-off, exotic places.

After resigning from the Navy in 1894, he began to study harmony in Roubaix, first with Julien Koszul (grandfather of composer Henri Dutilleux), who encouraged him to pursue his formation in Paris with Eugène Gigout; Roussel then continued his studies until 1908 at the Schola Cantorum de Paris, where one of his teachers was Vincent d'Indy. While studying, Roussel also taught. His students included Erik Satie and Edgard Varèse. (

See also: Albert and Roussel.)

During World War I, Roussel served as an ambulance driver on the Western Front. Following the war, he bought a summer house in Normandy and devoted most of his time there to composition.

Starting in 1923, another of Roussel's students was Bohuslav Martinů, who dedicated his Serenade for Chamber Orchestra (1930) to Roussel.[1] French composer and musicologist Yvonne Rokseth also studied with Roussel.[2]

His sixtieth birthday was marked by a series of three concerts of his works in Paris; the concerts also included the performance of a collection of piano pieces, Homage to Albert Roussel, written by several composers, including Ibert, Poulenc, and Honegger.

Roussel died in Royan, in 1937, and was buried in the churchyard of Saint Valery in Varengeville-sur-Mer.

Compositions

By temperament Roussel was predominantly a classicist. While his early work was strongly influenced by Impressionism, he eventually arrived at a personal style which was more formal in design, with a strong rhythmic drive, and with a more distinct affinity for functional tonality than is found in the work of his more famous contemporaries Debussy, Ravel, Satie, and Stravinsky.

Roussel's training at the Schola Cantorum, with its emphasis on rigorous academic models such as Palestrina and Bach, left its mark on his mature style, which is characterized by contrapuntal textures. On the whole Roussel's orchestration is rather heavy compared to the subtle and nuanced style of other French composers like Debussy or, indeed, Gabriel Fauré. He preserved something of the romantic aesthetic in his orchestral works, and this sets him apart from Stravinsky and Les Six.

He was also interested in jazz. This interest led to his writing a piano-vocal composition entitled Jazz dans la nuit, which was similar in its inspiration to other jazz-inspired works such as the second movement of Ravel's Violin Sonata, or Milhaud's La création du monde.

Roussel's most important works were the ballets Le festin de l'araignée, Bacchus et Ariane, and Aeneas and the four symphonies, of which the Third in G minor, and the Fourth in A major, are highly regarded and epitomize his mature neoclassical style. His other works include numerous ballets, orchestral suites, a piano concerto, a concertino for cello and orchestra, a psalm setting for chorus and orchestra, incidental music for the theatre, and much chamber music, solo piano music, and songs.

Critical reception

In 1929, one French critic, Henry Prunières, described Roussel's search for his own voice:

Arturo Toscanini included the suite from the ballet Le festin de l'araignée in one of his broadcast concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Rene Leibowitz recorded that suite in 1952 with the Paris Philharmonic, and Georges Prêtre recorded it with the Orchestre National de France for EMI in 1984.

One brief assessment of his career says:[3]

One 21st-century critic, in the course of discussing the Third Symphony, wrote:[4]

The Albert Roussel Collection

The association Les Amis belges d'Albert Roussel (The Belgian Friends of Albert Roussel) was founded in 1979 by André Peeters. In 1986 the association donated a collection of Roussel-linked documents to the Music Division of the Royal Library of Belgium, thus creating the most important collection of archival sources on the composer outside of France. The collection contains many unique documents including a dozen musical manuscripts, autographs, around 250 letters (100 of them unpublished), a travel diary, recordings (including most of the early recordings of his compositions), iconography, a large collection of press clippings, programs and other documents linked to Roussel's works and life.[5]

Works

Stage

Orchestral

Concertante

Choral

Solo vocal works

Chamber/instrumental

Piano solo

Recordings

See also

References and further reading

Notes and References

  1. New York Times: Bernard Holland, "What Do You Play in the Evening? Serenades. Moonlight Becomes Them," 8 February 2007, accessed 23 March 2011
  2. Book: Wier, Albert E. . The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Music and Musicians . The Macmillan Company . 1938 . New York . 1938 . 1568.
  3. David Dubal, The Essential Canon of Classical Music (NY: North Point Press, 2001), 442
  4. New York Times: Bernard Holland, "The Boston Symphony Reunites With Friends at Tanglewood," 11 July 2006, accessed 23 March 2011
  5. Web site: Home • KBR . Kbr.be . 2023-02-12.

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