Joseph Guy Marie Ropartz (June 15, 1864 – November 22, 1955) was a French composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and conductor

Conducting

Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

. His compositions included five symphonies

Symphony

A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...

, three violin sonata

Violin sonata

A violin sonata is a musical composition for violin, which is nearly always accompanied by a piano or other keyboard instrument, or by figured bass in the Baroque period.-A:*Ella Adayevskaya**Sonata Greca for Violin or Clarinet and Piano...

s, cello sonata

Cello sonata

A cello sonata is usually a sonata written for cello and piano, though other instrumentations are used, such as solo cello. The most famous Romantic-era cellos sonatas are those written by Johannes Brahms and Ludwig van Beethoven...

s, six string quartet

String quartet

A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...

s, a piano trio

Piano trio

A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...

 and string trio

String trio

A string trio is a group of three string instruments or a piece written for such a group. The term is generally used with reference to works of chamber music from the Classical period to the present.-History:...

 (both in A minor

A minor

A minor is a minor scale based on A, consisting of the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The harmonic minor scale raises the G to G...

), stage works, a number of choral

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 works and other music including a Prélude, Marine et Chansons for flute, harp and string trio. Ropartz also published poetry.

Life

Ropartz was born in Guingamp

Guingamp

Guingamp is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Guingamp are called guingampais.-Breton language:...

, Côtes-d'Armor

Côtes-d'Armor

Côtes-d'Armor is a department in the north of Brittany, in northwestern France.-History:Côtes-du-Nord was one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on 4 March 1790. It was created from part of the former province of Brittany. Its name was changed in 1990 to...

, Brittany

Brittany

Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

. He studied initially at Rennes

Rennes

Rennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...

. In 1885 he entered the Conservatoire de Paris

Conservatoire de Paris

The Conservatoire de Paris is a college of music and dance founded in 1795, now situated in the avenue Jean Jaurès in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, France...

, studying under Théodore Dubois

Théodore Dubois

François-Clément Théodore Dubois was a French composer, organist and music teacher.-Biography:Théodore Dubois was born in Rosnay in Marne. He studied first under Louis Fanart and later at the Paris Conservatoire under Ambroise Thomas. He won the Prix de Rome in 1861...

, then Jules Massenet

Jules Massenet

Jules Émile Frédéric Massenet was a French composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era. Soon after his death, Massenet's style went out of fashion, and many of his operas...

, where he became a close friend of the young Georges Enesco. He later studied the organ under César Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

.

He was appointed director of the Nancy Conservatory (at the time a National school branch of the Paris Conservatory) from 1894 to 1919, where he established classes in viola in 1894, trumpet in 1895, harp and organ in 1897, then trombone in 1900. He also founded the season of symphonic concerts with the newly created orchestra of the Conservatory, ancestor of the Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy

Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy

Orchestre symphonique et lyrique de Nancy is a French symphony orchestra based in the city of Nancy in the province of Lorraine....

.

Ropartz was associated with the Breton

Breton people

The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 cultural renaissance of the era, setting to music the words of Breton writers such as Anatole Le Braz

Anatole Le Braz

Anatole le Braz, the "Bard of Brittany" was a Breton folklore collector and translator. He was highly regarded amongst both European and American scholars, and known for his warmth and charm....

 and Charles Le Goffic

Charles Le Goffic

Charles Le Goffic was a French poet, novelist and historian whose influence was especially strong in his native Brittany. He was a member of the Académie française.-Biography:...

. He also supported Breton regional autonomy, joining the Breton Regionalist Union

Breton Regionalist Union

The Breton regionalist union , was a Breton cultural and political organisation created August 16 1898. It was a broadly conservative grouping dedicated to preserving Breton cultural identity and regional independence...

 in 1898.

In the early stages of World War I his friend and fellow composer Albéric Magnard

Albéric Magnard

Lucien Denis Gabriel Albéric Magnard was a French composer, sometimes referred to as the "French Bruckner", though there are significant differences between the two composers...

 was killed defending his house from German invaders. His house was destroyed, along with several musical manuscripts. Ropartz reconstituted from memory the orchestration of Magnard's opera Guercoeur

Guercoeur

Guercoeur is an opera in three acts by the French composer Albéric Magnard to his own libretto. It was first performed posthumously at the Paris Opéra on 24 April 1931, though it had mostly been written between 1897 and 1901...

, which had been lost in the fire.

From 1919 to 1929 Ropartz was director of the Strasbourg

Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in eastern France and is the official seat of the European Parliament. Located close to the border with Germany, it is the capital of the Bas-Rhin département. The city and the region of Alsace are historically German-speaking,...

 Conservatory. At the same time he undertook the direction of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Strasbourg, influencing young students like Charles Munch. Elected in 1949 as a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts

Académie des beaux-arts

The Académie des Beaux-Arts is a French learned society. It is one of the five academies of the Institut de France.It was created in 1795 as the merger of the:* Académie de peinture et de sculpture...

, (5th section; musical composition), he succeeded Georges Hüe

Georges Hüe

Georges Adolphe Hüe was a French composer of classical music.-Biography:Hüe was born in Versailles into a noted family of architects. His musical education included studies with Charles Gounod and César Franck. In 1879, he won the Prix de Rome with his cantata Médée...

.

Ropartz also served as a juror with Florence Meyer Blumenthal

Florence Meyer Blumenthal

Florence Meyer Blumenthal was a philanthropist who founded the Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal , which awarded the Prix Blumenthal from 1919-1954 to painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians — to promote Franco- American relations.For their altruism,...

 in awarding the Prix Blumenthal

Prix Blumenthal

The Prix Blumenthal was a grant or stipend awarded through the philanthropy of Florence Meyer Blumenthal — and the foundation she created, Fondation franco-américaine Florence Blumenthal — to discover young French artists, aid them financially, and in the process draw the United States...

, a grant given between 1919-1954 to young French painters, sculptors, decorators, engravers, writers, and musicians.

He retired in 1929 and withdrew to his manor in Lanloup

Lanloup

Lanloup is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department in Bretagne in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Lanloup are called lanloupais.-External links:*...

, Brittany. In 1953, he became blind.

Style

His musical style was influenced by Claude Debussy

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...

 and César Franck

César Franck

César-Auguste-Jean-Guillaume-Hubert Franck was a composer, pianist, organist, and music teacher who worked in Paris during his adult life....

. However he self-identified as a Celtic

Celtic nations

The Celtic nations are territories in North-West Europe in which that area's own Celtic languages and some cultural traits have survived.The term "nation" is used in its original sense to mean a people who share a common traditional identity and culture and are identified with a traditional...

 Breton, writing that he was the son of a country "where the goblins populate the moor and dance by the moony nights around the menhir

Menhir

A menhir is a large upright standing stone. Menhirs may be found singly as monoliths, or as part of a group of similar stones. Their size can vary considerably; but their shape is generally uneven and squared, often tapering towards the top...

s; where the fairies and the enchanters - Viviane and Merlin - have as a field the forest of Brocéliande

Brocéliande

Brocéliande is the name of a legendary forest that first appears in literature in 1160, in the Roman de Rou, a verse chronicle written by Wace....

; where the spirits of the unburied dead appear all white above the waters of the Bay of the Departed."

Shortly after Ropartz died, Rene Dumesnil wrote in Le Monde

Le Monde

Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...

: "There is with Ropartz a science of folklore and its proper use, which one admires; but more often than the direct use of popular motifs it is an inspiration drawn from the same soil which nourishes the work, like sap in trees."

Orchestral

Five symphonies, composed between 1894 and 1945, including the Third, a choral symphony with soloists (1905).

• La Cloche des morts (initialement Le Convoi du Fermier) (1887)
• Lamento pour hautbois et orchestre (1887)
• Les Landes (1888)
• Marche de fête (1888)
• Cinq pièces brèves (1889)
• Carnaval (1889) (1893)
• Fantaisie en ré majeur (1897)
• A Marie endormie (1911–12)
• La Chasse du prince Arthur (1911–12)
• Sons de cloches (1913)
• Soir sur les chaumes (1913)
• Rhapsodie pour violoncelle et orchestre (1928)
• Sérénade champêtre (1932)
• Bourrées bourbonnaises (1939)
• Petite symphonie en mi bémol majeur (1943)
• Pastorales (1950)

Chamber music

• Six string quartets (1893 to 1947-9)
• Two cello sonatas (1904/1918-19)
• Three violin sonatas (1907/1917/1927)
• Pièce in E minor for trombone and piano (1908) IMSLP link to the piece in PDF format
• "Fantaisie brève sur le nom de Magnard" for string quartet (1892)
• Piano Trio in A minor (1918)
• Two pieces for wind quintet (1924)
• Prélude, Marine et Chanson pour flute, violin, viola, violoncello and harp (1928)
• Trio in A minor for Strings (1934–35)
• Entratta and Scherzetto for wind trio (1936)
• Andante and Allegro for trumpet and piano

Sacred music

• Kyrie solennel, pour 4 voix soli, chœur et orgue (1886)
• Offertoire pascal, pour orgue seul (1889)
• Psaume 136 "Super flumina Babylonis", pour chœur et orchestre (1897)
• Cinq motets pour 4 voix mixtes a cappella (1900)
• Messe brève en l'honneur de Sainte Anne, pour trois voix égales et orgue (1921)
• Messe en l'honneur de Sainte Odile, pour chœur mixte et orgue (1923)
• Messe "Te Deum Laudamus", pour 3 voix mixtes et orgue (1925–26)
• Requiem, pour soli, chœur et orchestre (1937–38)
• Salve Regina pour chœur mixte et orgue (1941)
• Psaume 129 "De profondis", pour solo, chœur et orchestre (1942)

Voice and piano

• Berceuse (1894)
• 4 poèmes de l'intermezzo (1899)
• Veilles de départ (1902)
• Odelettes (1914)
• Les heures propices (1927)
• La Mer
• Amour d'hiver
• Lied
• Le Petit Enfant
• Sous-bois
• Rondel pour Jeanne
• Rondel de miséricorde
• Rondeau pour un délaissé de s'amye

Choir

• Les Fileuses de Bretagne, chœur pour voix de femmes
• Kyrie
• Les Vepres sonnent
• Nocturne
• Dimanche
• Le Miracle de Saint Nicolas

Piano music

• Ouverture, variations et final (1904)
• Choral varié (1904)
• Nocturne n°1 (1911)
• Dans l'ombre de la montagne (1913)
• Nocturne n°2 (1916)
• Nocturne n°3 (1916)
• Scherzo (1916)
• Musiques au jardin (1916–17)
• Croquis d'été (1918)
• Croquis d'automne (1929)
• Jeunes filles (1929)
• À la mémoire de Paul Dukas (1936)

Organ Music

• Trois pièces: Sur un thème breton, Intermède, Fugue en mi mineur (1894)
• Vêpres du commun des saints (1896)
• Pièces (6) pour grand orgue: Prélude funèbre, Prière, Sortie, Thème varié, Prière pour les trépasses, Fantasie (1896/1901)
• Introduction et allegro moderato (1917)
• Rhapsodie sur deux Noëls populaires (1919)
• Trois Méditations (1919)
• Au pied de l'autel (100 pieces for harmonium) (1919)

Literary works

Ropartz was also a writer of literary works, notably poetry. In his youth he published three collections of verse influenced by the Symbolist movement. In 1889 he published with Louis Tiercelin

Louis Tiercelin

Louis Tiercelin , was a French writer, poet and playwright associated with the Breton cultural renaissance of the early 20th century....

 Le Parnasse Breton contemporain, an anthology of Breton poetry of the second half of the 19th century. He also participated in la Revue L’Hermine, which Tiercelin founded a short while later, in 1890.

External links and references

• Association Guy Ropartz
• Joseph-Guy Ropartz (compositeursbretons.com)
• J G Ropartz ("Classical archives")