Jules Delsart
Encyclopedia
Jules Delsart was a 19th-century French
cellist
and teacher. He is best known for his arrangement for cello and piano
of César Franck
's Violin Sonata in A major
. Musicologist Lynda MacGregor described Delsart as "one of the foremost French cellists of the period, with faultless technique, a precise bow and a sweet, though not large, tone." He was the owner of the 1689 'Archinto' Stradivari
.
in 1844, Delsart began his studies at the Académie de Musique in his native city before transferring to the Conservatoire de Paris
, where he earned a premiere prix in cello
performance in 1866. At the conservatoire his principal teacher was Auguste Franchomme
, whom he succeeded as professor of cello at the conservatoire upon Franchomme's death in 1884. He remained in that position for the rest of his life. His students included Paul Bazelaire
, Horace Britt, Marcel Casadesus, Louis Feuillard, Louis Fournier, Víctor Mirecki Larramat
, Henri Mulet
, and Georges Papin.
Following his graduation from the Paris Conservatoire, Delsart embarked on several successful tours throughout Europe. On 26 February 1881 he premiered in the Salle Pleyel
the cello sonata of Marie Jaëll
, with the composer playing the piano. In 1882 she dedicated her cello concerto to him. He made numerous appearances in London, including performing in the world premiere of David Popper
's Requiem for three cellos and orchestra alongside the composer and Edward Howell as his fellow cellists at St James's Hall
on 25 November 1891. In 1892, at La Trompette, accompanied by Louis Breitner, he premiered Chant saphique, Op. 91, a piece for cello and piano by Camille Saint-Saëns
, which was dedicated to him. Other works dedicated to Delsart included David Popper's Nocturne, Léon Boëllmann
's Cello Sonata, and Benjamin Godard
's On the Lake.
Delsart was also active as a chamber music
ian. From 1875, along with the founder Martin Pierre Marsick
, Louis van Waefelghem
and Guillaume Rémy, he was the cellist of the Quatuor Marsick, one of the best and most famous string quartet
s in Paris of the time. With André Messager
and Guillaume Rémy, he played in a piano trio
which premiered Ernest Chausson
's Trio in G minor, Op. 3, in 1882. He also played in a trio led by Pablo de Sarasate
.
In addition to the cello, Delsart occasionally performed on the viola da gamba
, which he began studying in 1887. His interest in this instrument led him to found the Société des Instruments Anciens (SIA) with Louis Diémer
(harpsichord
), van Waefelghem (viola d'amore
) and Grillet (vielle
) in 1889. The SIA performed successfully throughout Europe for a decade, although Delsart was only a member during its early years. He was succeeded in the Société by two of his pupils, Papin and Casadesus.
Delsart's arrangement for cello and piano of César Franck
's Violin Sonata in A major
was sanctioned by the composer, and has become a standard part of the cello repertoire. He also arranged for cello and piano the Méditation from Massenet
's Thaïs
(normally played by violin and orchestra); and Fauré
's Three Romances sans paroles, Op. 17, for piano.
Delsart died in Paris in 1900, aged 55, and was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery
. During his lifetime his portrait was painted by Jean-André Rixens
and Julien Decle; both paintings are in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Valenciennes. There is a Rue Jules Delsart in Valenciennes.
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
cellist
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
and teacher. He is best known for his arrangement for cello and piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
of 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....
's Violin Sonata in A major
Violin Sonata (Franck)
The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best known compositions, and considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written...
. Musicologist Lynda MacGregor described Delsart as "one of the foremost French cellists of the period, with faultless technique, a precise bow and a sweet, though not large, tone." He was the owner of the 1689 'Archinto' Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari
Antonio Stradivari was an Italian luthier and a crafter of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas, and harps. Stradivari is generally considered the most significant artisan in this field. The Latinized form of his surname, Stradivarius, as well as the colloquial, "Strad", is...
.
Life and career
Born in ValenciennesValenciennes
Valenciennes is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.It lies on the Scheldt river. Although the city and region had seen a steady decline between 1975 and 1990, it has since rebounded...
in 1844, Delsart began his studies at the Académie de Musique in his native city before transferring to 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...
, where he earned a premiere prix in cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
performance in 1866. At the conservatoire his principal teacher was Auguste Franchomme
Auguste Franchomme
Auguste-Joseph Franchomme was a French cellist and composer.Born in Lille, Franchomme studied at the local conservatoire with M...
, whom he succeeded as professor of cello at the conservatoire upon Franchomme's death in 1884. He remained in that position for the rest of his life. His students included Paul Bazelaire
Paul Bazelaire
Paul Bazelaire was a French cellist and composer.Bazelaire was born in Sedan, Ardennes. He studied under Jules Delsart.He won many prizes for literature and poetry in France and Belgium.-External links:...
, Horace Britt, Marcel Casadesus, Louis Feuillard, Louis Fournier, Víctor Mirecki Larramat
Víctor Mirecki Larramat
Víctor Alexander Marie Mirecki Larramat was a Spanish cellist and music teacher of Franco-Polish origin. He was born in Tarbes, France and died in Madrid, Spain.-Introduction:...
, Henri Mulet
Henri Mulet
Henri Mulet was a French organist and composer. He was born on 17 October 1878 in Paris, France, and died on 20 September 1967 in Draguignan, France....
, and Georges Papin.
Following his graduation from the Paris Conservatoire, Delsart embarked on several successful tours throughout Europe. On 26 February 1881 he premiered in the Salle Pleyel
Salle Pleyel
The Salle Pleyel is a concert hall in Paris, France. The resident ensembles are the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.-History and Design:...
the cello sonata of Marie Jaëll
Marie Jaëll
Marie Jaëll was a French pianist, composer, and music teacher.She was born Marie Trautmann in Steinseltz, Bas-Rhin, and studied under Camille Saint-Saëns and César Franck. In 1862 she won first prize at the Paris Conservatory, where she was a student...
, with the composer playing the piano. In 1882 she dedicated her cello concerto to him. He made numerous appearances in London, including performing in the world premiere of David Popper
David Popper
David Popper was a Bohemian cellist and composer.-Life:He was born in Prague, and studied music at the Prague Conservatory. He studied the cello under Julius Goltermann , and soon attracted attention...
's Requiem for three cellos and orchestra alongside the composer and Edward Howell as his fellow cellists at St James's Hall
St James's Hall
St. James's Hall was a concert hall in London that opened on 25 March 1858, designed by architect and artist Owen Jones, who had decorated the interior of the Crystal Palace. It was situated between the Quadrant in Regent Street and Piccadilly, and Vine Street and George Court. There was a...
on 25 November 1891. In 1892, at La Trompette, accompanied by Louis Breitner, he premiered Chant saphique, Op. 91, a piece for cello and piano by Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
, which was dedicated to him. Other works dedicated to Delsart included David Popper's Nocturne, Léon Boëllmann
Léon Boëllmann
Léon Boëllmann was a French composer of Alsatian origin, known for a small number of compositions for organ. His best-known composition is Suite Gothique , still very much a staple of the organ repertoire, especially its dramatic concluding Toccata.-Biography:The son of a pharmacist, Boëllmann was...
's Cello Sonata, and Benjamin Godard
Benjamin Godard
Benjamin Louis Paul Godard was a French violinist and Romantic composer.-Biography:Born in Paris, Godard was a student of Henri Vieuxtemps. He entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1863 where he studied under Vieuxtemps and Napoléon Henri Reber and accompanied Vieuxtemps twice to Germany...
's On the Lake.
Delsart was also active as a chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
ian. From 1875, along with the founder Martin Pierre Marsick
Martin Pierre Marsick
Martin Pierre Joseph Marsick , was a Belgian violin player and teacher.In 1854, seven-year old Marsick was admitted to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Liège, to study violin with Désiré Heynberg...
, Louis van Waefelghem
Louis van Waefelghem
Louis van Waefelghem was a Belgian violinist, violist and one of the greatest viola d'amore players of the 19th century...
and Guillaume Rémy, he was the cellist of the Quatuor Marsick, one of the best and most famous 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 in Paris of the time. With André Messager
André Messager
André Charles Prosper Messager , was a French composer, organist, pianist, conductor and administrator. His stage compositions included ballets and 30 opéra comiques and operettas, among which Véronique, had lasting success, with Les p'tites Michu and Monsieur Beaucaire also enjoying international...
and Guillaume Rémy, he played in 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...
which premiered Ernest Chausson
Ernest Chausson
Amédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...
's Trio in G minor, Op. 3, in 1882. He also played in a trio led by Pablo de Sarasate
Pablo de Sarasate
Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.-Career:Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster...
.
In addition to the cello, Delsart occasionally performed on the viola da gamba
Viol
The viol is any one of a family of bowed, fretted and stringed musical instruments developed in the mid-late 15th century and used primarily in the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The family is related to and descends primarily from the Renaissance vihuela, a plucked instrument that preceded the...
, which he began studying in 1887. His interest in this instrument led him to found the Société des Instruments Anciens (SIA) with Louis Diémer
Louis Diémer
Louis-Joseph Diémer was a French pianist and composer.- Life :Diémer studied at the Paris Conservatoire, winning premiers prix in piano, harmony and accompaniment, counterpoint and fugue, and solfège, and a second prix in organ...
(harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
), van Waefelghem (viola d'amore
Viola d'amore
The viola d'amore is a 7- or 6-stringed musical instrument with sympathetic strings used chiefly in the baroque period. It is played under the chin in the same manner as the violin.- Structure and sound :...
) and Grillet (vielle
Vielle
The vielle is a European bowed stringed instrument used in the Medieval period, similar to a modern violin but with a somewhat longer and deeper body, five gut strings, and a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal tuning pegs. The instrument was also known as a fidel or a viuola, although the French...
) in 1889. The SIA performed successfully throughout Europe for a decade, although Delsart was only a member during its early years. He was succeeded in the Société by two of his pupils, Papin and Casadesus.
Delsart's arrangement for cello and piano of 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....
's Violin Sonata in A major
Violin Sonata (Franck)
The Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano by César Franck is one of his best known compositions, and considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written...
was sanctioned by the composer, and has become a standard part of the cello repertoire. He also arranged for cello and piano the Méditation from 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...
's Thaïs
Thaïs (opera)
Thaïs is an opera in three acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by Louis Gallet based on the novel Thaïs by Anatole France. It was first performed at the Opéra Garnier in Paris on 16 March 1894, starring the American soprano Sybil Sanderson, for whom Massenet had written the title role...
(normally played by violin and orchestra); and Fauré
Gabriel Fauré
Gabriel Urbain Fauré was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th century composers...
's Three Romances sans paroles, Op. 17, for piano.
Delsart died in Paris in 1900, aged 55, and was buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery
Père Lachaise Cemetery is the largest cemetery in the city of Paris, France , though there are larger cemeteries in the city's suburbs.Père Lachaise is in the 20th arrondissement, and is reputed to be the world's most-visited cemetery, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to the...
. During his lifetime his portrait was painted by Jean-André Rixens
Jean-André Rixens
Jean-André Rixens was a French painter and muralist, notable for his part in the decoration of the Capitole de Toulouse and of the Hôtel de ville de Paris .-Works:...
and Julien Decle; both paintings are in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Valenciennes. There is a Rue Jules Delsart in Valenciennes.
Sources
- Samuel Applebaum and Sada Applebaum. The Way They Play, Volume 4, Paganiniana Publications, 1972
- Walter Willson CobbettWalter Willson CobbettWalter Willson Cobbett CBE was a British businessman and amateur violinist, and editor/author of Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music. He also endowed the Cobbett Medal for services to Chamber Music....
. Cobbett's Encyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, Volume 1, Oxford University PressOxford University PressOxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, 1929 - Lynda MacGregor, ed. Stanley Sadie, "Jules Delsart," The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Second Edition, 29 vols. (London: MacMillian, 2001). ISBN 1-56159-239-0.
- Edmund Sebastian Joseph van der Straeten. History of the violoncello, the viol da gamba, their precursors and collateral instruments: with biographies of all the most eminent players of every country, Volume 2, AMS Press, 1976